CREFC Forum Spotlight: CMBS B-Piece Investors Forum
February 6, 2023
Together, Lyndsay, Zach, and Jason form the “Leadership Working Group” for CREFC’s B-Piece Investors Forum. Importantly, this group — taking their cues from B-Piece Investor Forum members — sets the agendas and priorities for the Forum, as well as represents their constituencies on CREFC’s Policy Committee.
Key B-Piece Investors Focus Areas
- Ensuring that newly originated retail and office loans have adequate upfront capital reserves, hard lockboxes, and/or set deposits as lower DSCRs make it more challenging to collect significant TI/LC dollars monthly and for loans to withstand declines in tenancy.
- Watching upcoming maturities closely, as higher interest rates and wide bid/asks on the underlying assets are impacting exit strategies on refinances and sales, respectively.
- Evaluating potential five-year CMBS transactions cautiously, as these transactions require sterling credit characteristics, and are more sensitive to losses or extensions.
Looking ahead, leaders are hopeful that stabilizing rates will increase CMBS issuance relative to 2022. The Forum would like to continue the push toward better use of technology to improve the speed of reporting from borrowers to servicers and trustees to investors. In 2023, B-Piece investors see key challenges as:
- Today’s higher interest rates and their impact on borrower demand and refinancings,
- Enforcing rights in loan documents, such as springing lockboxes and “go-dark” sweeps, and
- Underwriting office loans as the sector continues to evolve.
What's next: Forum leaders are seeking nominations for the next Chair Elect to join their leadership slate and look forward to presenting CREFC members with an update on their forum at the Annual June Conference in New York City.
To join the B-Piece Investors Forum, please register here. For any forum related questions, please contact either the Forum Chairs or CREFC’s Kathleen Olin at kolin@crefc.org.