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COVID-19 Pandemic
12 Months Ended
Oct. 31, 2020
Covid 19Pandemic Abstract  
COVID-19 Pandemic

Note 16 – 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

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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 and shutdown orders for all "non-essential" business and activity in an aggressive effort to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. While some of these orders had been fully or partially lifted from earlier this year, the U.S. is experiencing a second wave of this pandemic. 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 all government 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 continued imposed restrictions. The overall average cash realization for the commercial properties, based on monthly billings as compared to monthly cash collections from April through October 2020, was approximately 74%. The Company is closely monitoring changes in the collectability assessment of its tenant receivables as a result of certain tenants suffering adverse financial consequences related to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the fiscal year ended October 31, 2020, rental revenue deemed uncollectible of approximately $1.4 million (with a consolidated impact to FREIT of approximately $0.9 million) was classified as a reduction in rental revenue based on our assessment of the probability of collecting substantially all of the remaining rents for certain tenants. Additionally, FREIT incurred an increase in expense for the reserve of uncollectible rents of approximately $0.3 million (with a consolidated impact to FREIT of approximately $0.2 million) for the year ended October 31, 2020. As of October 31, 2020, FREIT has applied approximately $387,000 of security deposits from its commercial tenants to outstanding receivables due. On a case by case basis, FREIT has offered some commercial tenants deferrals of rent and rent abatements over a specified time period totaling approximately $206,000 and $238,000, respectively, (with a consolidated impact to FREIT of approximately $192,000 and $156,000, respectively) through fiscal year ended October 31, 2020. 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 Fiscal 2020 resulting in a net impact of approximately $0.9 million (with a consolidated impact to FREIT of approximately $0.5 million) to net income for the year ended October 31, 2020. Tenant improvements related to the Cobb Theatre with a net book value of approximately $7.3 million (with a consolidated impact to FREIT of approximately $4.4 million) as of October 31, 2020 were deemed to be impaired, written off and charged to operations in the consolidated statement of income for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2020. Until this space is re-leased, FREIT’s operating results will be adversely impacted from loss of base rent and additional rent of approximately $1.1 million (with a consolidated impact to FREIT of approximately $0.7 million) on an annualized basis.

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, resulting in total deferred payments of approximately $1,013,000 which will become due at the maturity of the loans. As of October 31, 2020, approximately $162,000 of this amount has been repaid. There will be no further deferrals of principal and/or interest payments on these loans and the balance due has been included in mortgages payable on the consolidated balance sheet as of October 31, 2020. (See Note 5 for additional details.)

During Fiscal 2020, we have experienced a positive cash flow from operations, excluding corporate expenses such as Special Committee third party 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 October 31, 2020 of approximately $36.9 million coupled with a $13 million available line of credit (available through October 31, 2023, see Note 5) will provide us with sufficient liquidity for at least the next twelve months from the filing of this Form 10-K. In an effort to further preserve cash flow, the 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% from May 1, 2020 through the end of Fiscal 2020. Additionally, in an effort to keep costs lower while the Company has experienced a loss of revenues at the

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commercial properties and to adjust to the difficulty in hiring contractors due to these imposed COVID-19 restrictions and mandates, the Company has deferred non-essential maintenance projects across all properties during Fiscal 2020. This has resulted in a cost savings of approximately $1.1 million (with a consolidated impact to FREIT of approximately $0.8 million) across the entire FREIT portfolio as compared to Fiscal 2019.

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.