COVID-19 Pandemic

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2020

Unusual or Infrequent Items, or Both [Abstract]

COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 Pandemic

In December 2019, a novel strain of coronavirus (“COVID-19”) was identified in Wuhan, China and by March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization had declared it a global pandemic. Many states in the U.S., including New York and New Jersey, implemented stay-at-home orders for all “non-essential” business and activity in an aggressive effort to curb the spread of the virus. In June 2020, the New York City metropolitan area began a phased re-opening of the businesses that were previously ordered to close, with limitations on occupancy and certain other restrictions. It is uncertain as to how long these restrictions will continue or if additional restrictions or closures will be imposed. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. economy has suffered and there has been significant volatility in the financial markets. Many U.S. industries and businesses have been negatively affected and millions of people have filed for unemployment.

Our properties, which are all located in the greater New York City metropolitan area, have been adversely affected as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the preventive measures taken to help curb the spread of the virus. Other than grocery stores and other “essential” businesses, all of our retail tenants closed their stores in March 2020 and although substantially all have re-opened in the latter part of June 2020, when the phased re-opening began, there are limitations on occupancy and other restrictions that limit their ability to resume full operations. Because certain of our redevelopment projects are deemed “non-essential,” they were temporarily paused in March 2020 due to New York State executive orders and resumed under updated safety guidelines once the orders were lifted in June 2020.

In limited circumstances, we have agreed to and may continue to agree to rent deferrals and abatements for certain of our tenants. We have made the policy election available to us based on the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (“FASB”) guidance for leases during the COVID-19 pandemic, which allows us to continue recognizing rental revenue for rent deferral agreements and to recognize rent abatements as a reduction to rental revenue in the period granted. See Note 4 - Recently Issued Accounting Literature for additional information.

Overall, we have collected approximately 89% of rent billed for the quarter ended June 30, 2020 (92% including rent deferrals under agreements which generally require repayment in monthly installments over a period of time not to exceed twelve months), including 100% for our office tenant, approximately 76% for our retail tenants (83% including rent deferrals) and approximately 96% for our residential tenants.

Based on our assessment of the probability of collecting the rent for certain tenants, we have written off as uncollectible $1,022,000 resulting in a reduction of rental revenues during the three and six months ended June 30, 2020. In addition, we have written off receivables arising from the straight-lining of rents of $4,247,000 related to these tenants resulting in a reduction of rental revenues during the three and six months ended June 30, 2020. Prospectively, revenue recognition for these tenants will be based on actual amounts received.