Company hires and sector developments

Europe

Prytania Asset Management has appointed Eric Felton as independent director. Most recently, Felton spent 13 years as cfo of GCM Grosvenor and before that, he was an audit partner at Ernst & Young and Arthur Andersen in the financial services sector. Concurrently, Joseph MacHale is retiring from the Prytania board, after 16 years of service since the firm’s inception in 2003. However, he remains a shareholder of the management company and an investor in the firm’s products.

Retail resolution

The resolution of the US$200m Independence Mall loan, securitised in WBCMT 2007-C33 and transferred to special servicing in May 2017 (see SCI’s CMBS loan events database), has become the highest realised loss recorded on any US retail property tracked by Trepp since 2010. March remittance data indicates that the REO asset in suburban Kansas City, Missouri accounted for 66% of the total losses for the month, with a write-off of US$149.7m. The one million square-foot superregional mall was sold to International Growth Properties with reported net proceeds of US$63.3m, equating to a significant discount from its most recent valuation of US$104.5m. The latest servicer comments reveal that increased competition and economic challenges made it difficult for tenants to increase sales at the property.