PREIT, a real estate firm which owns the Willow Grove Park Mall, had a loss of almost $64 million in the third quarter, adding to its negative $1.1 billion balance, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported.
The PBJ noted that the firm is negotiating a potential debt restructuring with a lender group, and a financial analyst said a possible solution may be selling its assets for more than its liabilities, though “the current high interest rates make large-scale purchases less likely.”
Another potential bankruptcy filing in December looks more likely, the PBJ reported.
According to its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, “There is substantial doubt about the company’s ability to operate as a going concern.”
PREIT said in its earnings statement that “there can be no assurance that the parties will reach a binding agreement regarding terms of a restructuring in a timely manner, on terms that are attractive to the company, or at all.”
“As we noted last quarter, our plan is to spend the coming months exploring all possible outcomes available to the company as our credit facility matures, including refinancing, merger, sale, joint ventures, and selling high-quality assets and more,” PREIT Chairman and CEO Joseph Coradino said in March, according to CoStar.com. “We have demonstrated, through our disposition history, that we are open to selling assets and we continue to work towards finalizing the sale of our multifamily land. And again, we are exploring all possible options with our investment adviser.”
PREIT also owns the Plymouth Meeting Mall, Exton Square Mall, and the Cherry Hill Mall, among others.
In June, seven of the firm’s nine board members tendered unofficial resignations due to a lack of shareholder votes.
The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2020, and in December 2022, the company was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. In February 2023, the company announced that it plans to convert many of its properties to make way for the development of 7,000 apartments.
For the full story, you can read The Philadelphia Business Journal’s coverage here.
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Photo: PREIT