The purpose right here is that Fish not solely is aware of Boston, he’s additionally seeing enterprise situations on the bottom in components of the nation removed from our parochial bubble. Furthermore, as chair of the nationwide Actual Property Roundtable, he’s getting first-hand expertise selling the business’s coverage priorities in Washington.

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A enterprise e-newsletter from Globe Columnist Larry Edelman protecting the developments shaping enterprise and the economic system in Boston and past.

I spoke with Fish on Wednesday, and whereas we lined a spread of subjects, listed here are his views on three points he considers urgent.

The looming industrial actual property debt disaster may derail the economic system

Greater than $900 billion in loans backing industrial actual property and multifamily housing is about to return due this yr and subsequent. However excessive rates of interest — and low occupancy in downtown workplace buildings and retail places — have left many homeowners underwater, owing extra to lenders than the worth of their property.

This has raised severe considerations about how the debt might be refinanced with out forcing banks to take large writedowns and enhance their capital cushions, which might immediate them to curb lending, throttling again the economic system within the course of.

“We’re in a really precarious state of affairs,” Fish mentioned.

The Actual Property Roundtable has requested federal banking regulators to provide lenders and debtors extra time — as they did following the 2008-2009 monetary disaster and the onset of COVID-19 — to restructure the debt whereas property valuations stabilize and house owners increase extra fairness to again their loans.

If regulators agree, “there’s little doubt in my thoughts. . . the debt might be preserved and [bank lending] gained’t be interrupted,” Fish mentioned.

On the identical time, Fish mentioned, it’s essential to get extra employees again within the workplace, and the federal authorities ought to lead by instance. About half of the federal government’s 2 million civilian staff started working remotely in March 2020; many have but to return. Final month, the Biden administration instructed federal companies it needs to “considerably enhance” in-person work, however Fish believes it must be extra aggressive.

“The federal authorities is the entity that requested individuals to go dwelling. And the federal authorities has not reversed that course and requested individuals to return again,” Fish mentioned.

Fish mentioned working collectively in the identical place “is a vital factor to the tradition of American enterprise,” and extra workplace employees in America’s downtowns would strengthen surrounding companies.

The development business is being constrained by a labor scarcity

“Unemployment in building at this time in America is zero,” Fish mentioned.

That has despatched wages — and constructing prices — sharply increased.

He cited three elements for the dearth of employees: an ageing workforce, the lack of employees in the course of the pandemic, and immigration limits. And he lamented the failure of the Home to go together with a bipartisan Senate invoice in 2013 that might have offered a pathway to citizenship for tens of millions of undocumented immigrants, provided non permanent work visas for lower-skilled employees, and considerably strengthened border safety.

Fish mentioned an immigration overhaul alongside the identical traces because the one which failed in 2013 is crucial to maintain the economic system rising.

“If we don’t resolve the immigration disaster we’re going to proceed to expertise excessive wages, excessive building prices, and a scarcity of housing,” he mentioned.

Massachusetts is sending out an anti-business vibe

Fish was an energetic behind-the-scenes opponent of the Truthful Share Modification, the union-backed poll proposal for a 4 percentage-point surtax on incomes above $1 million.

Voters’ approval of the so-called millionaires tax, he mentioned, despatched a loud message to the remainder of the world that Massachusetts wasn’t notably desirous about supporting companies.

Fish mentioned that it’s time for a “extra vital dialog” in regards to the rising anti-business sentiment within the state. He didn’t name out Governor Maura Healey or any Democrats within the Legislature, as a substitute saying Massachusetts has a whole lot of younger individuals, and “the youthful individuals are, the tendency is to have a look at enterprise with a jaundiced eye.”

However Fish made clear that, in his view, issues had modified since Charlie Baker left the nook workplace.

“The final administration throughout the board actually put emphasis on the significance of enterprise” in driving financial and social prosperity, he mentioned.

“What’s vital is that we respect extra of what we’ve got to supply” to draw and retain companies “and to construct a consensus with each the political institution and the enterprise neighborhood in a manner that our price proposition doesn’t get diluted or impaired.”

In contrast with placing up a skyscraper in the course of Downtown Crossing, constructing a consensus on how you can make Massachusetts extra aggressive looks as if the more durable job.

Larry Edelman might be reached at larry.edelman@globe.com. Observe him on Twitter @GlobeNewsEd.