Commercial Title Insights — CRE Edition | October 2026
A monthly briefing for Michigan commercial real estate attorneys, lenders, brokers, and investors.
CRE Market and Deal Pulse
CRE Investment Is Rising Anyway — Despite Inflation and Rates
Investment activity has picked up even with inflation and rates staying elevated, as capital repositions rather than waits for a cut that keeps not arriving. The practical read for deal teams is that competition is back on decent assets, and the binding constraint is execution speed rather than appetite.
Source: Commercial Observer, Sept. 21, 2026
TRIA Reauthorization Clears Senate Banking — And the Clock Runs Dec. 31
The Senate Banking Committee unanimously advanced reauthorization of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act through 2034, and the House passed its own seven-year version in June; the current program expires December 31. TRIA backstops the property coverage lenders require on larger commercial assets, so a lapse shows up on your deal as an insurance condition nobody can satisfy.
Source: CIAT coalition letter to Senate Banking, via ALTA, Sept. 2026
Underwriting Has Moved From Cost of Debt to Cost of Carry
After three years of rate conversation, buyers are underwriting holding costs — insurance and property taxes above all — while sellers stay anchored to 2022 pricing and the bid-ask stays wide. Entitlement and moratorium risk now belongs in the underwriting on any large industrial or data center site, not in a footnote.
Transaction Spotlight
Details anonymized to protect client confidentiality.
A light industrial sale this month reached closing with two separate ways onto the road: a curb cut, and a second point of access by way of an easement. The file carried two access endorsements rather than one — ALTA 17 and ALTA 17.1.
That distinction is worth knowing because it decides what is actually covered. One endorsement speaks to access from the street the property fronts, including the right to keep using the curb cut. The other speaks to the access that runs by way of the easement. They are not interchangeable, so taking only one leaves the second route uninsured — which matters the day somebody takes a position about that route. When a property is served two ways, ask for coverage on both, and ask at commitment rather than at closing.
CRE Title and Closing Insight
Construction Lender Title Requirements Through Draw — What to Plan For
A construction loan does not close once. It closes at every draw, and the title requirements are built that way even when the commitment does not say so plainly. Expect a pending-disbursement policy rather than a single policy issued at closing, with a date-down endorsement at each advance confirming nothing new has hit the record since the last one. Michigan lien priority is the reason. Under the Construction Lien Act (MCL 570.1101 et seq.) priority runs from the first actual physical improvement to the property, not from the date the mortgage is recorded, so a lender funding after a bulldozer has already been on site is funding behind liens that have not been recorded yet and may not be for months. That is why the file wants the notice of commencement, sworn statements and full unconditional waivers before the first dollar moves, and why the survey requirement on these deals does not get waived the way it sometimes does on a stabilized acquisition.
What that means for your schedule is unglamorous but cheap to fix. Order title and survey at the LOI rather than after the PSA is signed, because a survey that turns up an encroachment eight days before closing costs the closing date and possibly the rate lock. Treat every draw as a miniature closing with its own document list and a named owner on your side of the deal — the draw that slips is almost always the one nobody was assigned. Collect the entity authority documents, including a certificate of authority for any out-of-state party, when the PSA is signed, since they cost nothing in week one and a week of delay in week nine. And when a commitment comes back with requirements you have not seen before, send it over early.
From Dave's Desk
Most of October is retail work. I am on the ICSC + US Law symposium planning committee for the Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan and Pennsylvania region, and that group is building the panel slate now — we are pushing hard to get a Next Gen voice on a panel rather than the same five people. The committee meets again during ICSC + US Law in Orlando on the 21st.
Closer to home, the Real Estate Outlook program is at the Iroquois Club in Bloomfield Hills on October 29. If you are going, come find me.
-- Dave
Work With Our Commercial Desk
When you need title and closing services for a Michigan commercial transaction — acquisition, refinance, development, or workout — we handle the complexity from commitment through closing. Reach out for a quote, a pre-deal title walk-through, or a second set of eyes on a commitment you've already received.
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About Midwest Title and Dave Nykanen
Midwest Title's Commercial Division handles Michigan's most complex commercial closings — acquisitions, refinances, construction loans, multi-parcel assemblages, 1031 replacement legs, distressed asset sales, and large-scale development deals. Founded and led by Dave Nykanen, a licensed Michigan real estate attorney with three decades of commercial real estate experience as both a practicing attorney and a title agent, the division gives CRE attorneys, lenders, brokers, and investors a Michigan title partner who reads commitments the way you read them — as deal documents, not paperwork.
Contact: commercial@mwtmi.com | Midwest Title | Commercial Division | Michigan-Licensed Title Insurance Agent
This newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
