The mortgage crisis and economic slowdown that has battered the housing market hasn't spared commercial real estate, either.

But 200,000 new residents are still projected for the Coachella Valley by 2015, and they'll need goods and services.

With that in mind - and with the hope that the bottom of the market may be reached sometime soon - real estate professionals at the sixth annual Commercial Real Estate Investors Forum on Friday talked about making concessions to weather the current storm, finding opportunities and bargains where possible, and being prepared for the eventual market turnaround.

"The truth is, the market is still declining," said Peggy Sue Lane, vice president of Stewart Title Insurance in Palm Desert.

"We're not quite at ground zero, but many economists and appraisers are suggesting that we're close."

Prices are expected to begin to stabilize in the last half of the year and first half of 2009, Lane said. And the Coachella Valley could be at the leading edge of a bounce-back.

"Economists expect the Coachella Valley to recover before the rest of the Inland Empire," Lane said.

"We're going to recover first. We have too much to offer."

The problem in the current real estate market isn't demand, said John Soulliere, president and CEO of the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership.

"The problem is access to capital - it's too hard to get loans," he said.

"But when that loosens up, that pent-up demand is going to blast off. And the freight train of development - I think at some point in the very near future - is going to pick up again."

Despite current market conditions, commercial developments abound in every valley city, from hotel renovations and the Smoketree Commons big-box retail plaza in Palm Springs to the Jackson Square commercial center in Coachella, and every city in-between.

Just as the struggling housing market is empowering home-buyers to work better deals, commercial buyers are also seeking lower prices and more amenities. Renters of retail spaces are looking for better terms as well.

"There's a bit of an oversupply in certain areas," said Curtis Barlow, executive vice president and broker of Coldwell Banker Commercial/Lyle & Associates in Palm Desert.

"That is causing some pressure on landlords to bring those rates down because those tenants have more choices on where they can go. And they're using that leverage to the maximum to get the very best deal they can."

During the first six years of this decade, owners of office buildings enjoyed low vacancy and dropping capitalization rates that pushed values to $400 per square foot and more, said valley commercial real estate broker Dick Baxley.

But the valley added 600,000 square feet of new office space since January 2006, increasing the valley-wide base of office space to 4 million square feet and pushing vacancy rates up to about 20 percent.

"More than half of that vacancy rate is in first-generation, never-before-occupied new space," he said.

The apparent glut, however, has created "great opportunities," Baxley said, and demand remains high for the right kinds of office space in the right locations.

"We have plenty of well-capitalized buyers, interest rates are low and we have nothing to sell," he said.

Office sales have not experienced significant price reductions, even in light of the increased available space, Baxley said.

Lenders when necessary are renegotiating terms before foreclosing, he said.

"I do not expect to see significant foreclosures against developers," he said.

When real estate prices stabilize, many who are waiting to buy now will jump back into the market, Lane said.

"The very thing that brought us to this market was the lack of affordability," she said. "And the very thing that's going to help us recover is the fact that we now have affordability."