In commercial real estate, deals don’t fail because of pricing or paperwork — they fail because the risk isn’t financeable.

In this episode of The Alkaline Reaction, Spencer Correnti breaks down how lenders actually underwrite commercial real estate deals. From sponsor strength and property durability to leverage, reserves, guarantees, and exit metrics, we walk through the exact framework most institutional lenders use to decide whether a deal gets approved — or dies quietly in credit committee.

You’ll learn:

• Why lenders underwrite 1) sponsor, 2) property, and 3) debt terms as a single risk equation

• How experience, liquidity, and communication shape sponsor credit

• What lenders really look for in stabilized, transitional, and development deals

• Why leverage, reserves, and covenants matter more than interest rate

• The exit metrics that decide most loan approvals

Lenders don’t finance upside. They finance risk.
And the best sponsors know how to present a deal like a credit.

This episode is educational and does not constitute tax advice. Always consult your CPA, tax counsel, and qualified intermediary.

A 1031 exchange can help commercial real estate investors defer taxes and keep more equity working for the next deal, but only if it’s executed with planning and discipline.

In this episode of The Alkaline Reaction, Spencer Correnti breaks down the mechanics of a 1031 exchange, including the 45-day identification window, the 180-day closing deadline, the role of the qualified intermediary, and how investors get forced into bad replacement deals when they don’t properly prepare.

We close with a rapid-fire checklist designed to help you avoid the most common execution mistakes.

Note: This episode is educational and does not constitute tax advice.

Depreciation is one of the most important drivers of after-tax returns in commercial real estate, but it’s often misunderstood.

In this episode of The Alkaline Reaction, Spencer Correnti breaks down what depreciation is, how it works, and why it matters in real deals.

We cover the land vs. building rule, standard depreciation schedules, how cost segregation accelerates deductions, where bonus depreciation can create year-one expensing depending on “placed-in-service” timing, and how depreciation recapture impacts full-cycle outcomes at exit.

The episode includes practical examples and case studies designed to help investors and operators understand depreciation as a strategic part of deal underwriting.

In commercial real estate, most deals don’t collapse overnight. Rather, they quietly deteriorate as timelines converge.

In this episode of The Alkaline Reaction, Spencer Correnti walks through a single hypothetical deal to show how timing, more than bad assets or aggressive assumptions, often determines the outcome. From lease rollover concentration to debt maturity, refinancing constraints, and lender controls, we break down how risk accelerates as time runs out... even in deals that look conservative on paper.

The lesson isn’t to avoid risk, but to understand where it truly lives: in the alignment (or misalignment) between leases, debt, liquidity, and control.

Because the deals that survive aren’t the ones with perfect underwriting, they’re the ones that left themselves more time than they thought they’d need.

Most commercial real estate deals don’t fail because the property stops working, they fail when the financing structure quietly removes flexibility.

In this episode, we examine four under appreciated drivers of downside outcomes: 1) Intercreditor Agreements, 2) Cash Management & Springing Cash Traps, 3) Recourse Carveouts, and 4) Loan Extension conditions.

We explain how control, liquidity, and recourse shift when performance softens, and why risks that don’t show up in underwriting models often determine real-world results.

A technical, practitioner-focused discussion for investors, sponsors, and lenders.

We hope you enjoy!

Financing credits can be the difference between a deal that stalls and a deal that's built.

In this episode of The Alkaline Reaction, we break down five of the most important financing credits used in commercial real estate development. These tools go beyond traditional debt and equity and can materially improve project feasibility, returns, and capital stack efficiency.

We'll cover:

1) Tax Increment Financing,

2) New Markets Tax Credits,

3) Historic Tax Credits,

4) Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, and

5) Energy and sustainability-related incentives

You’ll hear about how these incentives actually work, when they apply, and how developers use them to reduce costs, lower equity requirements, and unlock challenging projects.

In this episode of The Alkaline Reaction, Spencer breaks down the key players of commercial real estate.

While commercial real estate is often discussed as a single profession, successful deals rely on a network of specialized roles working together. We explore seven essential participants: developers, operators, asset managers, investors, capital brokers, investment sales brokers, and lenders, explaining how each contributes to deal execution, risk management, and long-term outcomes.

Whether you’re new to commercial real estate or looking to deepen your understanding of how deals actually get done, this episode provides a clear framework for how capital, operations, and structure intersect.

In this episode of The Alkaline Reaction, we break down preferred equity, what it is, who uses it, and how it works inside real estate capital stacks.

We explore how preferred equity sits between senior debt and common equity, why investors and operators rely on it in different market environments, and how structure shapes risk and outcomes.

The episode walks through two detailed real-world scenarios 1) a stabilized multifamily acquisition and 2) a higher-risk transitional redevelopment, showing how preferred equity performs under different conditions, and why alignment matters.