CB Richard Ellis Diversified -- at a Debt-Heavy Cost

But the Trammell Crow deal also raised CB's debt load from about $800 million in 2005 to $2.2 billion a year later. That is becoming a burden as the company's revenue from its brokerage and leasing businesses declines. Analysts have grown concerned that CB could breach the covenants on some of its loans, forcing it into technical default and putting it at the mercy of lenders. Last week, credit-ratings firm Moody's Investors Service downgraded CB debt.

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Unlike real-estate-owning companies, brokerage firms don't have a bedrock of leasing revenue they can rely on when market activity slows. Before 2008, their biggest sources of revenue were fees from brokering leases and sales of buildings. In the fourth quarter, CB saw the revenue from those two activities drop 28% and 65%, respectively, from the same period in 2007. Total revenue was off 30%.

But the property-management business is growing. That business, which lets other companies cut costs by outsourcing the management of the buildings they own to CB, jumped from being the third-biggest revenue generator for the company in 2007 to the top of the list last year, bringing in $1.7 billion in 2008.