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COVID-19 Pandemic
9 Months Ended
Jul. 31, 2020
Operating expenses  
COVID-19 Pandemic

Note 17 – COVID-19 Pandemic:

The international spread of COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020. The extent to which this pandemic could continue to affect our financial condition, liquidity, and results of operations is difficult to predict and depends on evolving factors, including: duration, scope, government actions, and other social responses. Many states in the U.S., including New Jersey, New York and Maryland, where our properties are located, implemented stay-at-home orders for all "non-essential" business and activity in an aggressive effort to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. While some of these orders have been fully or partially lifted, many of our commercial tenants have not been able to open or resume operations at full capacity due to continued restrictions imposed upon them. As the impact of the pandemic has been evolving, it continues to cause uncertainty and volatility in the financial markets. The COVID-19 pandemic and the actions taken by individuals, businesses and government authorities to reduce its spread have caused substantial lost business revenue, changes in consumer behavior and large reductions in liquidity and fair value of many assets. These and other adverse conditions that may unfold in the future are expected to continue until such time as shutdown orders are fully lifted, and all business operations and commercial activity can fully resume. The lifting of shutdown orders cannot be predicted with any certainty. Further, even after such orders are fully lifted, the resumption of business operations and commercial activity will depend on several factors, including prevailing sentiments among workers and consumers regarding the safety of resuming public activity, and cannot be predicted with any certainty.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and preventive measures taken to mitigate the spread, our residential properties continue to generate cash flow. At our commercial properties, with the exception of grocery stores and other "essential" businesses, many of our retail tenants have been and continue to be adversely affected by the mandated shutdowns or imposed restrictions. The overall average cash realization for the commercial properties, based on monthly billings as compared to monthly cash collections from April through July 2020, was approximately 68%. As such, FREIT incurred an increase in expense for the reserve of uncollectible rents of approximately $0.6 million (with a consolidated impact of approximately $0.4 million) and approximately $0.1 million (with a consolidated impact of approximately $0.1 million), respectively, for the nine and three months ended July 31, 2020. Additionally, as of July 31, 2020, FREIT has applied approximately $462,000 of security deposits from its commercial tenants to outstanding receivables due. FREIT has offered some commercial tenants deferrals of rent over a specified time period as well as rent abatements for a certain period of time, both of which were immaterial to FREIT for the nine and three months ended July 31, 2020. FREIT does not expect these deferrals or rent abatements to have a material impact on future operating results. FREIT currently remains in active discussions and negotiations with these impacted retail tenants. Additionally, Cobb Theatre, an anchor tenant movie theatre at the Rotunda retail property filed for bankruptcy and rejected its lease at the Rotunda property as of June 30, 2020. As a result of the rejection of this lease, uncollected rents in the amount of approximately $0.3 million and a straight-line rent receivable of approximately $0.4 million were reversed against revenue, and unamortized leasing commissions in the amount of approximately $0.2 million were written off and fully expensed in the third quarter of Fiscal 2020 resulting in a net impact of approximately $0.9 million (with a consolidated impact of approximately $0.5 million) to net income (loss) for the nine and three months ended July 31, 2020. The Company is currently exploring all possible options for the re-leasing of this space, which includes renting to another movie theatre.

As a result of the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic at our commercial properties, we were granted debt payment relief from certain of our lenders on the retail properties in the form of deferral of principal and/or interest payments for a three-month period which ended June 30, 2020, resulting in total deferred payments of approximately $722,000 being due at maturity of the loans.

Through the end of the fiscal quarter ended July 31, 2020, we have experienced a positive cash flow from operations, excluding corporate expenses such as Special Committee advisory, legal and other expenses paid of approximately $5.1 million and deferred compensation in the amount of $5 million paid to two retired trustees. This could change based on the duration of the pandemic, which is uncertain. We believe that our cash balance as of July 31, 2020 of approximately $31 million coupled with a $13 million available line of credit (available through October 27, 2020, see Note 9) will provide us with sufficient liquidity for at least the next twelve months from the filing of this Form 10-Q. Additionally, in an effort to further preserve cash flow, effective May 1, 2020, our Board of Trustees reduced all fees, salaries and retainers payable to our executive officers and members of the Board of Trustees by up to 30% through the end of Fiscal 2020.

The extent of the effects of COVID-19 on our business, results of operations, cash flows, value of our real estate assets and growth prospects is highly uncertain and will ultimately depend on future developments, none of which can be predicted with any certainty.