Mall landlords face a reckoning. The Covid-19 crisis has pushed the credit quality of the average U.S. general retailer from just inside investment grade a year ago into junk territory today, according to Credit Benchmark. One U.S. owner of shopping malls, Tanger Factory Outlet Centers, said it won’t be able to collect rent that was due in April and May until early 2021. Intu, a U.K. department-store landlord, filed for the local equivalent of bankruptcy last week after tenants couldn’t make the rent.
The Wall Street Journal, June 29, 2020.
