CMBS

The securitization market is weathering risk retention and rising interest rates, though Fitch Ratings is keeping its eye on some consumer asset classes as the credit cycle lengthens.

A total of 191 properties, or 11.4% of the 1,598 in the pool, were previously securitized in transactions completed in 2014 and 2015 and repaid using a portion of the proceeds from a 2016 transaction.

The largest loan is for the first phase of State Farm’s two-year-old Park Center Phase 1 office tower complex that the firm constructed in Dunwoody, Ga.

The $785 million transaction, 2017-C41, is backed by a pool of 52 loans with an average balance of just $15.1 million, according to Kroll Bond Rating Agency; retail, hotel and office properties dominate the mix.

A mortgage on the marquee Caesars Palace Las Vegas is being used as collateral for $1.6 billion of mortgage bonds; proceeds will be used to repay existing indebtedness.

The delinquency rate for U.S. commercial real estate loans in CMBS is now 5.21%, a decrease of 19 basis points from the September level, according to Trepp. That is the second-largest rate drop measured in the last 19 months.

The two investment firms recently obtained $1.1 billion in loans from Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank to purchase a 48.7% stake in the property from New York REIT, which previously owned 98.8%.

The second liens, which accompany CMBS first mortgages, range in size from $500,000 to $5 million, a segment of the market that is not well served by either banks or debt funds.

With online retailers beginning to challenge the dominance of brick-and-mortar grocery stores, CRE loans to strip mails anchored by them look riskier.

The investment firm recently obtained an $800 million mortgage from Goldman Sachs that was used to refinance $753.1 million of debt on 138 Marriott and Hilton-branded hotels acquired between 2007 and 2015.