Mall investing in 2022 isn't necessarily the landscape of widespread distress many predicted when billions were raised in opportunistic funds in the hopes of buying assets out of foreclosure for pennies on the dollar. The outlook for retail is more positive than it has been in years, but a large swath of the national mall inventory is still in financial stagnancy, with owners unable to make full payments or refinance maturing loans and their lenders still playing wait-and-see. “A lot have become distressed and remain kind of in what we call CMBS purgatory, which is defaulted but not seized yet. The foreclosure hasn’t finished,” Trepp Senior Managing Director Manus Clancy told Bisnow. “But these things have had really long tails, and they just kind of sit out there.” 
As fundamentals like foot traffic — down just 0.3% at indoor malls last month compared to April 2019, according to Placer.ai — and sales recover to pre-pandemic levels, retailers and landlords alike have been better able to meet their obligations. Retail delinquency during…  Read the full story here. | 
