The Hampshire Mall in Hadley is on the brink of default since the mall’s owner is unable to obtain replacement financing for a $24 million securitized mortgage that matures in April, according to Fitch Ratings.
The 460,000-square-foot mall is owned by Syracuse, N.Y.-based Pyramid Cos. It is anchored by Target, Trader Joe’s and JC Penny.
Last month, another mall owned by Pyramid — Berkshire Mall in Lanesborough — went to special servicing ahead of an impending maturity. That $37.5 million mortgage matures Tuesday, according to CMBS.com.
Pyramid was also unable to refinance securitized mortgages at two of its trophy properties in New York when the debt on those properties matured in February. Pyramid is wrestling with a $550 million maturity at its 2.2 million-square-foot Palisades Center in West Nyack, N.Y., and a $140 million maturity at the 1.1 million-square-foot Galleria at Crystal Run in Middletown, N.Y. Those two loans are also in special servicing.
The Massachusetts and New York mortgages were packaged into the same commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) offering. That has left the mall operator more exposed to the commercial credit crunch than most borrowers.
According to the debt tracking firm Realpoint, CMBS delinquencies increased by $4.3 billion in January, hitting a total volume of $45.9 billion. More than $71.8 billion in CMBS debt is now in special servicing, according to Realpoint.





