Since the onset of the pandemic in March, real estate investmentcompany KIMC has pivoted to weather the economicdislocation and uncertainty to come by repositioning the debt onits portfolio. The firm was able to make the strategic move largelybecause rent collections have surpassed expectations. Formultifamily, the bulk of KIMC's assets, rent collections haveaveraged 95% nationwide and even higher in select markets.

"We got over $100 million in financing done atan average rate of 2.94% with 9 years of interest onlyand 11 years of maturity," Jonathan Needell,president and chief investment officer at KIMC, tells GlobeSt.com."We basically cleared the deck on most of our maturities for theyear until July of next year. We were able to do that becausecollections have been good and better than expected. We wereplaying it by ear month-to-month—and we are still playing it by eardepending on what kind of fiscal stimulus comesat the end of July—but our collections have been 95% across ourportfolio and generally higher than the NMHC. We have been happilysurprised by collections."

The strong rent collections have been a surprise for a lot ofreal estate owners, particularly because some data outlets areshowing declines of 30% in rent payments. Needell says the acrimonyaround rent payments and the inability to make those payments iscoming from more expensive coastal markets. "There is no doubt thatwithin the portfolio, our California and Washington properties—wedon't have any in New York—are lower collections," he says. "Theydrag it down dramatically. There is a fundamental reason for that,besides politics. The unemployment benefit is much more meaningfulin Oklahoma, for example, than in California. The $600 wasmeaningful to my tenants in Oklahoma, and while it was helpful inCalifornia, it wasn't as helpful."