Retail rentdeferral and rent relief plans have targeted smaller tenants firstover larger tenants that have access to outside capital and thecapital markets. This has been true for many landlords,particularly in large anchored shopping centers.

NewMark Merrill Co. is one example. The retailinvestor, which owns more than $2 billion in assets in California,Colorado and Illinois, split his tenants into three categories:small tenants fully shuttered, small and regional tenants withlimited operations and large tenants with access to the capitalmarkets. "Our general attitude with the small tenants was to helpthem get through the pandemic," Sandy Sigal,President and CEO of NewMark Merrill Co., tells GlobeSt.com. "Weworked with them so that we could buy them time to apply forprograms like the PPP. Often the solution was some form of deferralor late payments until they could get their PPP funding. Theyneeded triage now."

Larger tenants did request rent relief, but preference was givenfirst to smaller tenants. Those tenants were the most impacted andhad limited resources to cope with the crisis. "We got calls fromlarger tenants for help with rent," says Sigal. "My answer was, Ihave to worry about the people dying today not three or four monthsfrom now. For every bit of assistance I give a larger tenant thathas access to other markets is assistance that I cannot give to mysmaller tenants. Most big tenants were understanding of thatapproach."