The quiet power shift in commercial real estate (CRE) isn’t just about interest rates, cap rates, or vacancy. It’s about who now controls the debt dial. As bank lending standards tightened after 2020, private credit stopped being the “ alternative ” and moved directly into the center of the capital stack. What started as gap-filling mezzanine and bridge capital has scaled into senior and whole-loan territory—redrawing pricing, covenants, and execution speed across the market
