June is Hottest month on record in human historyscorching parts of the US and Mexico.
Hot weather is an apt metaphor for investors, who too have been affected, only because of market conditions, not the effects of climate change.
Tides Equities, which acquired a $7 billion multifamily portfolio by securing floating-rate loans at extremely low rates, is really feeling the pinch. Co-founder Ryan Andrade told investors in a letter that when the Federal Reserve raised interest rates, the company’s debt service surged and 20% of its portfolio is now in distress. Andrade warned that without capital infusions, real estate would not have “sufficient holding power”.
The company has at least $1.5 billion in floating-rate loans due in the next two and a half years.
Other investors also affected by the current market include GVA Investments, Rise 48, ZMR Capital and Nitya Capital.
Meanwhile, State Street Corporation defaulted on an $81 million loan tied to an office building in Irvine and failed to pay back the full amount when it was due in March.
The Boston-based investment manager holds two loans, one for $45 million and the other for $36 million, on the 893,000-square-foot complex at 18101 Von Karman Boulevard, according to Trepp. Loans are in default.
In Manhattan, commercial office investors were also feeling the pinch as the weather turned colder.
In fact, available office space reached an all-time high in the second quarter, with 70.3 million square feet available for lease. That left nearly 20 per cent of office space remaining, the highest level since the pandemic hit, according to a report from Savills.
It’s another sign of the troubled office market and the extent to which tenants have the upper hand in lease negotiations. Leasing activity fell 12% in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2022, and growth in the second quarter was 25% below the pre-pandemic April-June average.
In Florida, some politicians find themselves or their policies in trouble.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez’s annual financial disclosure form failed to disclose his dealings with Coral Gables-based developer Rishi Kapoor & Co.
Every year in early July, Florida law requires city, county and state elected officials to file so-called “financial interest statements” listing their assets and sources of income for the previous year. Suarez submitted his form for 2022 on July 1, this year’s deadline.
Compared with 2021, Suarez’s net worth has more than doubled to $3.4 million, according to the disclosure.
The mayor, who is also the Republican nominee for president, was paid $10,000 a month as a consultant by a subsidiary of Kapoor’s development firm Location Ventures, it emerged earlier this week. Suarez earned at least $170,000 over a two-year period beginning in late 2021, according to the Miami Herald.
Finally, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ongoing war with nearly everyone in the state has caught the attention of the Justice Department, which filed a statement of interest in federal court last week, saying Senate Bill 264 Violations of the Fair Housing Act and the Fair Housing Act. The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. DeSantis signed the bill, which limits foreign ownership of real estate in the state, especially Chinese nationals, into law in May and took effect July 1.
DeSantis, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, touted the law earlier this year as a way to put Florida at the forefront of U.S. national security because China poses a huge risk to the state.
