Receiverships grow amid foreclosures

Receiverships, seldom seen in the past two decades, are on the rise again.

"There aren't a tremendous amount - yet," said Craig Henig, senior managing director of commercial real-estate services firm CB Richard Ellis in Phoenix.

"It's the trend everybody is waiting for."

Receivership is a process courts can initiate when a commercial real-estate owner is in jeopardy of losing one or more properties, usually because of an outstanding debt. The court appoints a neutral third party, known as a receiver, to manage each property while the lender and borrower resolve their mutual money problem.