Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Can Technology Freshen Up Stale CMBS Ratings?

Sears' recent bankruptcy filing underscored the challenges confronting shopping malls in the late 2010s. Because mortgages on these facilities often account for the lion’s share of CMBS asset pools, shopping mall performance needs to be top of mind for those analyzing (or rating) CMBS tranches.

New technology – originally targeted at investors analyzing retail sector stocks – might also be applicable to CMBS analysts.

Foot Traffic

Consider, for example, Advan Research. The company processes billions of daily foot traffic measurements from cellphone applications, and computes foot traffic data pertaining to 1,800 companies including both retailers and Real Estate Investment Trusts. Since many REITs own shopping malls, the company collects foot traffic data for these retail centers.

I asked Advan for data on a mall discussed in a previous post. A mortgage on The Mall at Stonecrest in Lithonia, Georgia accounts for almost all of the remaining collateral supporting Banc of America Commercial Mortgage Series 2005-1. Fitch rates the most senior remaining tranche, Class B, at Single-B. S&P assigns the same tranche a low investment grade rating of BBB-

Who’s right? The data from Advan suggests a downward trend in foot traffic at Stonecrest, as shown in the accompanying chart. Average estimated visitors for the five Saturdays in July 2017 were 19,816; for the five Saturdays falling 52 weeks later, the average fell to just 12,659. On the other hand, a similar comparison between October 2017 and October 2018 shows only a slight drop, suggesting that perhaps the decline in visits has been arrested. 


To the extent that Advan’s data can be relied upon, it seems to give us a more recently refreshed gauge on the shopping mall’s health than other data sources. Certainly, the trustee report is not giving us up-to-date guidance. The November report includes the following special servicer comments: 
Modification closed and funded 8/5/2017. The loan is currently paying as agreed. The loan matures in 8/2018 and the Borrower advises that the proposed adjacent 100 acre sports project has been put on hold due to lack of funding. Although the collateral is 97% occupied, the dark Kohl's and Sears may trigger some co-tenancy issues. The Borrower advises it is in the market seeking refinancing, but due to the current situation with the sports project and 2 dark anchors, refinancing may not be sufficient to pay off the loan in full at maturity. The Borrower has engaged CREMAC to aid it in its workout negotiations with the Lender/Special Servicer. A new appraisal has been ordered and received. Valuation is under review. Maturity Date extend to 8/1/18; principal reduction in the amount of $1,233,073.95 for a balance of $92,066,680.26; no change in rate of 5.603%. 
These comments do not appear to have been revised since the most recent term extension for the Stonecrest mortgage which was through August 1, 2018.

Social Media and Other Sources

In addition to reviewing foot traffic, analysts can monitor the web and social media for news about relevant shopping malls. For example, a local newspaper, the Springfield News-Sun, reported that nearly 100 cars in the mall’s parking lot were broken into on October 5, 2018. A nail salon employee at Stonecrest argued that the mall does not provide video surveillance of the parking lot, making it harder to identify and apprehend any wrongdoers. A search for #stonecrestmall on Twitter reveals that a shooting occurred at the center – but it took place three years ago.

While it is possible to use free tools like Google Alerts to monitor individual shopping centers, that approach might not scale well to a large portfolio. Specialized search services like Bitvore (for which I used to consult) enable analysts to track news on large numbers of positions, even allowing news searches by CUSIP number.

Cell phone activity, web content and social media posts offer new ways for rating agencies and other analysts to track CMBS mall collateral real time. Finding or compiling the nuggets of useful data from these information streams is a challenge that new technology firms can help solve.


--------------------------------------------

This piece was written by Marc Joffe, who consults for PF2.  Marc Joffe is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Reason Foundation and a researcher in the credit assessment field. 

No comments: