When Jones Lang LaSalle released its Beige Book business survey this month, parts of the report were rosy with optimism.

Twin Development L.L.C. has found a way around the chilly lending market. Having successfully attained the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services’ “Regional Center” status for the City of Federal Way in Washington, Twin Development can now rely on funds from the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program to finance the bulk of the $235 million Sky Hotel & Residences.

Real estate finance and investment REIT Starwood Property Trust announced on Friday that it will acquire a $503 million portfolio of performing commercial loans from TIAA-CREF.

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, mortgage delinquencies–those borrowers one payment late–dropped slightly between the third and fourth quarters of 2009, from 9.64 percent to 9.47 percent.

Las Vegas—Master servicers are seeing more borrowers trying to force the transfer of their loans to special servicing, according to Kevin Donahue, senior vice president of PNC Real Estate/Midland Loan Services Inc. “Borrowers are becoming a little savvier” in pursuing their alternatives, said Donahue. They understand that the master servicer cannot perform “material modifications” on the loan, he said.

The firm’s January Global Market Perspective contends that we have reached or are near the bottom — but that a slow recovery is at hand.

While commercial banks and life companies continue to dominate the limited volume of commercial real estate lending currently taking place, new lending sources are beginning to emerge to replace a portion of the liquidity formerly supplied by the now dormant CMBS market. The three vehicles most often used to raise this new capital are (i) private/non-traded REITs, (ii) publicly traded mortgage REITs and (iii) private equity debt funds.