U.S. called new emerging market for real estate

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Brazil, Russia, India and China move over. There's another emerging market for commercial real estate opportunities.

"Now that the meltdown has happened, the new emerging market is the United States," Tom Shapiro, president of real estate investment firm GoldenTree InSite Partners, said on Tuesday at the Reuters Global Real Estate Summit in New York.

The U.S. commercial real estate crash, in which prices are down more than 20 percent and are expected to fall 40 percent to 50 percent, has created a landscape of what is expected to be a land of vast opportunity for those with cash.

"I think there's going to be the best opportunity to make money in the last 20 years in real estate in the U.S.," Shapiro said.

GoldenTree InSite stopped investing in U.S. real estate in early 2006 and has focused most of its attention and cash on Brazil, where it has invested in residential and office properties.

But with about a $1 billion to use, it is poised to return to the U.S. market and take advantage of the right projects that need or will need money when they come up short.

"We are just at the point now where we are seeing some very interesting entry points on certain transactions," he said.

New York-based GoldenTree InSite is an opportunistic real estate company that invests funds raised from pension funds and other institutional investors.

Shapiro said his firm not only considers location but places more weight on the merits of an individual project.