Centerline forms venture for commercial real estate

NEW YORK, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Centerline Capital Group on Tuesday said it will collaborate with money manager ZAIS Group to boost investments in commercial mortgage-backed securities.

Centerline Capital, a unit of New York-based Centerline Holding Co CHC.N, and ZAIS Group of Red Bank, New Jersey, have about $14 billion and $11 billion in assets under management, respectively, Centerline said in a statement.

Yield spread premiums on CMBS have soared this year as the credit crunch shut off funds for financing commercial real estate amid investor concern that slowing economic growth will boost defaults. Some investors have argued that the quality of much CMBS outstanding is better than current prices suggest.

"We believe attractive opportunities can be found in the commercial real estate debt markets," Mark Brown, senior managing director at Centerline, said in the statement. (Reporting by Al Yoon; Editing by Dan Grebler)