As businesses in the Bay Area continue to face unprecedented challenges as a result of the pandemic, Nixon Peabody is here to help you move forward.
In a recent NP San Francisco virtual event, we discussed "what's new" with bankruptcy workouts and foreclosures. Some takeaways from our conversation:
- The pandemic is continuing to impact real property assets across numerous sectors including retail, restaurants, hotels, offices, and apartments. Loans that are secured by real property are continuing to experience distress, which presents both challenges and opportunities.
- Certain trends are being accelerated by the pandemic such as the shift toward online shopping. This is causing a decrease in demand for certain retail properties, but an increase in demand for industrial properties with warehouse and storage space. There are plentiful opportunities for savvy developers and investors to repurpose and reposition retail properties.
- Many distressed loans are currently in the workout stage as borrowers and lenders try to find a reasonable path forward given the impact of the pandemic. As the pandemic conditions persist into 2021 there will likely be an increase in foreclosures as short term forbearance periods begin to expire. This will present opportunities for strategic investors looking to acquire real property assets.