April marked the third straight month in which more than $2 billion of loans were transferred to special servicers, in a sign of continued market weakness. Loans get shifted when they become delinquent or are at great risk of becoming delinquent. With lending markets remaining muted, an increasing number of loans are being shifted because they're unable to refinance before they mature.Not surprisingly, the bulk of weakness continues to be in the 2005-2007 vintage (the very vintage that, to CMSA's chagrin, was excluded from the most recent amendment of TALF - but fear not Bernanke has got a few more aces up his sleeve).
The number of loans in special servicing has also breached a milestone, hitting 2,062 loans last month, up 237 loans from the previous month.
Most frighteningly, the special servicer total excludes the impact from bankrupt GGP, which as Zero Hedge previously noted, put 164 properties in bankruptcy, and according to BofA, $14.8 billion of CMBS loans are backed by GGP properties. Assuming at least half of these loans become "special serviced" the CRE landscape is about to get a much more bloody shade of burgundy.
The roll of loans added to special servicing in April only includes one substantial General Growth loan, a $165 million mortgage on the 939,085-square-foot Jordan Creek mall in West Des Moines, Iowa. The loan, securitized through JPMorgan Chase Commercial Mortgage Trust, 2005-LDP5, matured in March. According to servicer data compiled by Realpoint, the property generated $19.6 million of net cash flow last year. That's 1.8 times the cash flow needed to fully service its amortizing debt.Also notable in the Real Point data is the increasing weakness in hotel-based special servicing:
Among [the hotel special servicers] is a $100 million mortgage, securitized through Credit Suisse Commercial Mortgage Trust, 2006-C4, on the Dream Hotel, a 220-unit boutique property on West 55th Street in Manhattan. The hotel, like the hospitality industry in general, has suffered a sharp decline in business. Net cash flow, for instance, fell to $7.8 million last year from $10.7 million in 2006. Evidently, cash flow has fallen further as the loan, which doesn't mature until 2016, was transferred because of imminent default.Nonetheless, one should ignore all the facts and listen to Obama and Bernanke who said this morning that the CRE problem is contained.
Also added was the $65.6 million mortgage on the Ritz-Carlton New Orleans, which matured April 4. The loan cannot be further extended and is senior to $57 million of subordinate and mezzanine debt. It was securitized through Wachovia Bank Commercial Mortgage Trust, 2004-WHALE4.
hat tip Jon Sphere: Related Content
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