- Holiday Shoppers Flock to Malls Amid Coronavirus Surge “Americans visited malls this weekend saying they wanted to do Christmas shopping before potential lockdown restrictions are implemented or to avoid Black Friday crowds, as the spreading coronavirus looms over the holiday season. Tiffany Lambert and her 15-year-old son hunted for an Xbox Series X, a new hard-to-find videogame console, inside the Best Buy Co. store at Crossgates Mall in Albany, N.Y., on Saturday.” (Wall Street Journal)
- Regal Cinemas Owners Lands Financial Lifeline, Averting Bankruptcy “Regal Entertainment Group owner Cineworld Group PLC said Monday it secured a financial lifeline after creditors supplied the struggling movie-theater operator with a rescue loan and other debt relief. Under the deal, lenders will provide a $450 million loan to Cineworld to help keep it afloat through the Covid-19 pandemic as infections surge throughout the U.S. Other lenders will provide additional flexibility on the company’s revolving loan and other senior debt, with the various measures providing over $750 million of extra liquidity, Cineworld said.” (Wall Street Journal)
- Life Company Commercial Mortgage Results Stabilize: Trepp “Commercial mortgage investments held by life insurance companies saw a 1.71 percent total return in the third quarter, according to the latest LifeComps Report from Trepp. The change (1.00 percent from income and 0.71 percent from appreciation) marks a noteworthy fall from the 4.58 percent return seen in the second quarter. Still, the total return in the third quarter was higher than in the first quarter (-1.00 percent), or the fourth quarter of 2019 (0.55 percent).” (Commercial Property Executive)
- Amazon Pushes Shoppers to Pick Up Packages at Stores Amid Delivery Crunch “Amazon is pushing holiday shoppers to retrieve their own packages from brick-and-mortar retail locations and neighborhood ‘hubs,’ as it braces for a surge in online orders. The company said in a statement Monday that Amazon shoppers nationwide can now get their gifts delivered to one of its physical bookstores, called Amazon Books, or an Amazon 4-star location.” (CNBC)
- Landlords Could Hand These Malls Back to CMBS Lenders “As shopping centers across the country continue to struggle with a new surge in infections and lockdowns, the expiry of forbearance agreements, and secular headwinds that predated the pandemic, a growing number of mall owners are ready to hand back the keys to their lenders. This trend has been particularly notable in the commercial mortgage-backed securities sector, where non-recourse loans are the norm and the costs of letting lenders clean up a mess are less severe.” (The Real Deal)
- Gateway City Office Sales Versus the Suburbs “While there is a lot of talk about people moving to the suburbs, a look at office transactions over the last ten months suggests investors are still married to the assets in gateway markets.” (GlobeSt.com)
- L.A. County Restaurant Owners Fear They Won’t Survive Another COVID-19 Shutdown “For Jacob Shaw and other restaurant owners in Los Angeles, the holiday season was going to be a welcome boost to business. And even amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which restricted in-person dining to outdoor seating, there was hope that the next few weeks would help recoup some of the massive losses they’ve experienced. Then coronavirus cases started surging, prompting L.A. County officials to announce that starting Wednesday night, restaurants and other eateries must once again stop in-person dining outdoors and instead provide only takeout and delivery.” (Los Angeles Times)
- Nail Salons, Lifeline for Immigrants, Have Lost Half Their Business “On most days, Juyoung Lee is the only person inside Beverly Nail Studio, the salon that she owns in Flushing, Queens. It is often eerily quiet, and when no customers come by, Ms. Lee at times sits at her work station and weeps. ‘Maybe, just maybe, tomorrow will be busy,’ she said. ‘I’m waiting.’ Like nail salons across New York City, her business had to close when the pandemic hit in March. There was a brief surge in demand after the lockdown was lifted in July, but then appointments started dwindling. Often, customers requested cheaper services. Now, they hardly come at all.” (The New York Times)
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