Creative Media & Community Trust to accelerate transition to multifamily assets

CMCT announced actions to accelerate the transition of its focus towards multifamily assets from traditional office assets. The company has previously targeted a capital structure consisting of approximately 40% common equity, 30% preferred equity and 30% debt. The recent decline in real estate values, particularly in the Bay Area and the office market in general, has resulted in a lower than targeted common equity ratio. CMCT recently explored the sale of several assets to improve its common equity ratio. The offer CMCT received reflected what the company believed to be the fair value of these assets, but the buyer was unable to close. As a result of this and the recent decline in interest rates, CMCT has decided to shift its focus to refinancing rather than a sale of these assets. The company intends to place property-level financing on several assets and use part of the proceeds to fully repay its recourse corporate-level credit facility. The company plans to invest any remaining proceeds, along with proceeds from any future potential asset sales, principally in premier multifamily properties. As part of its program to improve its common equity ratio, the company is suspending its Series A1 Preferred Stock offering and announcing the redemption of approximately 2.2M shares of Series A Preferred Stock and approximately 2.6M shares of Series A1 Preferred Stock, with the redemption price to be paid in shares of common stock in accordance with the terms of the Series A Preferred Stock and Series A1 Preferred Stock, respectively. The company is also shifting the payment schedule of its quarterly dividend from monthly to quarterly for all its series of outstanding preferred stock. The company’s previously declared dividends on its preferred stock for the third quarter of 2024 will continue to be paid out monthly in September and October as previously announced. The company believes these actions will strengthen its balance sheet, improve liquidity and accelerate the transition towards premier multifamily properties. These actions should also better position the company to take advantage of opportunities that are expected to arise in a recovering real estate market.