The number of troubled commercial real estate loans is headed up again.

Unfortunately, Boston-based Beacon Capital is playing a big part in the latest increase.

Beacon Capital’s recent struggles making payments on a Seattle office tower contributed to a $1 billion jump in office loan delinquencies in May.

Beacon’s $380 million loan on Seattle’s Columbia Center skyscraper represented the largest single piece of May’s $1 billion jump in troubled commercial property mortgages, as calculated by Fitch Ratings. The tower, in imminent danger of default, was transferred to special servicing by its lender earlier this year.

Overall, commercial mortgage-backed loan delinquencies have shot up to nearly 8 percent, according to Fitch, and are likely to continue rising into next year.

The Great Recession slammed builders across the Bay State, forcing them to put an array of projects on hold, from new subdivisions to office parks.

Now local builders and developers face a double-whammy. The economy is slowing brightening, but many of the town and state permits builders need to move ahead these long-delayed projects are now in danger of expiring.

So the Home Builders Association of Massachusetts has launched an 11^th hour legislative blitz in hopes of convincing Beacon Hill to ride to the rescue.

The trade group is urging its members to call their local lawmakers and urge them to pass a three-year extension of all residential and construction permits doled out between Jan. 1, 2008 and this coming January.

Without this bill, hundreds of projects could see their permits expire, requiring builders and developers to start the often torturous approval process all over again.

And, as we all know, getting a new project approved, especially in Greater Boston, can take months if not years.

NAIOP Massachusetts, which represents developers across the state, has been pushing for a permit extension for a couple years now.

But the clock is now running out, with the Legislature getting ready to pack it up come July 31^st.

Own some commercial land and trying hard to drum up some interest in a down economy?

Take heart – you may just get a chance to hit the jackpot.

The Massachusetts Senate is on track to vote on - and likely pass – casino legislation this coming week. That follows a big House vote earlier this spring in favor of expanded gambling.

And sensing an opportunity to make a killing, a number of gambling tycoons are now circling our fair state, looking for a place to land.

Sheldon Adelson and Las Vegas Sands Empire, billionaire casino tycoon Steve Wynn and slot hall king Penn National have all begun scouting out the Bay State in anticipation of a vote to legalize expanded gambling, a State House insider tells me. Add to that group Harrah’s Entertainment, one of the largest casino concerns in the world and headed by none other than Gary Loveman, a former Harvard professor whose maintains a house in the western suburbs.

All these big players are relatively late to the dance, with casino developer Richard Fields having already staked out Suffolk Downs as a casino location and Mohegan Sun having committed to a site in Palmer.

That means they will all be looking for the same thing – at least 100 acres of commercially zoned land near a major highway.

It’s pretty clear that Robert Kraft has gotten a raw deal in the media smack down of his bid to get federal stimulus funds for a pedestrian bridge over Rt. 1.

As I noted in my B&T column, Kraft’s request for $9 million in federal money comes after years in which he has pumped nearly $800 million in private investment money into Foxborough, from a new football stadium to the Patriot Place mall.

Nor was the money to be used to open a luxury hotel – rather it is for a bridge over dangerous and traffic clogged Rt. 1. Along with solving a safety problem, it would also help spur development of a major corporate office and research center across from the stadium on the other side of Rt. 1, now just a surface parking lot.

So if Kraft has been getting a raw deal, is the media guilty of going too easy on the Red Sox when it comes to similar issues?

Maybe, maybe not, but it’s an issue worth chewing on.

To their credit, hedge fund magnate John Henry and his deep-pocketed ownership team have also put a lot of their own money into restoring Fenway Park. About $200 million, to be exact.

Yet the Sox have also gotten back more than $15 million in state historic tax credits for their work on restoring Fenway, which, with the highest ticket prices in baseball, has become a cash cow for the team.

The team is also expected to benefit from the development of a new Yawkey rail and bus station near the ballpark – millions in state funds are being spent on it. Don’t think it won’t come in handy on game days.

Yet where’s the outcry over the team’s billionaire owners tapping into the public till?

It does make you wonder a bit whether there is a media double standard when it comes to these two sports ownership groups.

The battered construction industry may finally be moving closer to recovery, and not a moment too soon.

An American Institute of Architects index that tracks business activity at architectural firms has posted the third increase in as many months.

The Northeast is leading the country, with a score of 51 – anything over 50 represents a move into expansion territory, according to the AIA. Under 50 and it’s a sign that demand for architectural services – and beyond that for new construction – is on the decline.

Possibly the brightest finding is a significant shift upward in new project inquiries. That category is now almost up to 60.

Why is this index significant? Well architects are usually the first hired when developers and real estate firms are putting together project plans.

So an uptick in business at architectural firms – especially in new project inquiries – may mean better days are ahead for the construction industry as a whole.

Certainly, our hard hats could use the work – unemployment in the trades is believed to be north of 30 percent right now.