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Starwood Capital Group missed two monthly payments on securitized debt tied to five shopping malls anchored by bankrupt department stores including Sears and J.C. Penney.

But deal sponsors are primarily restricting property assets to the lower risk multifamily and office buildings that lenders are more confident will weather the economic strains brought by the coronavirus pandemic.

As brick-and-mortar shopping centers steadily lost market share to online competitors, the family behind three of the four biggest malls in North America built a thriving business by infusing their properties with heavy doses of entertainment.

Cited the current capital markets and economic environment as the reasons for pulling out of the transaction.

Sellers are currently willing to concede discounts of around 5%, while bidders are hoping for about 20% off pre-pandemic prices. That estimated gap, which is likely wider in specific cases, has put a freeze on deals.

The global hospitality industry is facing the worst downturn in its history, and New York, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., is poised for a painful recovery.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are backing the first commercial mortgage-backed securities activity in two months, through two deals that exclude hotel or department store retail assets that are most exposed to pandemic-related stresses.

Lenders implemented stricter underwriting across all loan types in the first quarter as the pandemic upended the economy, the Federal Reserve said in its survey of loan officers.

Delinquencies in U.S. commercial mortgage-backed securities jumped in April, with the economy battered by the coronavirus pandemic.

Mounting economic fallout from the pandemic is fueling apartment landlords' concerns that more tenants will struggle to make their rent payments, even after most managed to come up with the money for April.