Colony Capital

Colony has sold offices in Europe, industrial properties and grocery-anchored shopping centers in the U.S. In May, it announced plans to restructure seven portfolios of hotels with $3.5 billion of debt.

While cutting losers to buy winners is an age-old investment proposition, the Covid-19 pandemic may create even more openings than the past crises that became bonanzas for real estate investors.

Tom Barrack, who a week ago warned that commercial real estate financing was on the brink of collapse because of the coronavirus pandemic, is now calling for a moratorium on margin calls and intervention by the Federal Reserve to keep values of mortgage debt from plummeting further.

The publicly traded real estate investment firm is backing the securitization via Citi with 156 properties in 28 states.

The private equity firm recently obtained a $415 million first mortgage from Barclays and Morgan Stanley; proceeds, along with $125 million of mezzanine loans, will be used to repay existing debt of $512 million that was securitized in two prior deals.