In an economy where distressed real estate assets are piling up, Americans are looking for ways to recover from the downturn. Tapping into this need, Capstone Advisors expanded its real estate investment, advisory and development platform to include receivership and asset management services for distressed residential and commercial real estate. The company says it will concentrate on stabilizing and adding value (a challenging feat, to say the least) to problem real estate assets, including residential developments and land, condominiums and condominium conversions and commercial developments. It’s focus will be on the western United States with an emphasis on California, Nevada and Arizona, according to a press release Tuesday. “Our sophisticated, institutional quality operating platform allows us to quickly take control of an asset and execute a wide variety of business plans designed to not only stabilize it, but to add value,” says Alex Zikakis, CEO of Capstone Advisors. The company didn’t offer any details as to how it planned to add value to distressed assets. Typically, the worth of an asset increases when market conditions cause property values to rise. In other instances, the condition of a home can be re-vamped through home improvements and such, which in turn, ups the value of the property. Write to Kelly Curran.