Profiles of local brokers and other dealmakers in commercial real estate still making a go of it despite the down market:

JOHN LONG

, 61

Chief Executive

Highridge Partners Inc., El Segundo

Long founded Highridge in 1978 and the company has built a portfolio worth more than $7 billion. In the last year, Long has put together a $500 million fund and used it to purchase several residential subdivisions in California.

Biggest Challenge: The bid-ask spread is extremely wide and creative solutions to bridge the gap must be developed in almost every instance. In most cases, the relationship between debt, equity and the operating sponsor must be restructured and fresh capital committed.

Notable Recent Deal: Buying over 600 finished single-family lots at a fraction of infrastructure costs with the land thrown in for free on occasion.

Secret to Success: Patience; from being on the sidelines since 2002, the itch to jump in too early was tempting. However, solid grounding in research, analytics and rational thinking reined me in.

Waiting Game: Thus far, while we have invested a lot of time and money in due diligence, none of the commercial deals we have been interested in have penciled out. Sellers are still hanging on and the lenders are helping them do so.

Recession’s Silver Lining: Common sense has been rewarded. And we have been reminded of what’s really of value our families, our partners and our true friends things that can’t be lost.

Stress Release: Travel, ski, philanthrophy.

Sacrifice: Bought a new hybrid. Given up the desire to drive a gas guzzler.