On Feb. 13, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) will kick off its annual Commercial Real Estate Finance (CREF) conference, one of the most important trade events within the commercial property industry. Ahead of the event, Benzinga spoke with Mike Flood, MBA’s senior vice president of commercial/multifamily policy and member engagement, about the trends and issues shaping the commercial real estate industry. Benzinga: What is the overall state of the commercial real estate market today? Mike Flood: I would say the overall status is very positive—there is plenty of liquidity in the marketplace and, outside of trying to work through obvious challenges with retail and hotel, marketplaces are good. You have lenders with good liquidity who managed their portfolios well throughout the crisis. Multifamily is clearly doing well, and so is industrial. Projections for the year continue to increase in nearly every space. This is looking to be one of the leaders coming …