In this week's Ativore Talks, Renan Barros, CEO & Co-Founder of Ativore, spoke with Marc Brutten, Chairman & Founder of Brixton, who oversees several properties in the multifamily and retail residential sectors in the U.S. Marc commented on the performance of the managed properties, on negotiations with creditors and on his outlook for the assets in which Ativore's clients invested.
Watch an excerpt of the conversation below.
Video transcript
Renan: Hello everyone. My name is Renan Barros, CEO and co-founder of Ativore, and I am here today on Ativore Talks speaking with Marc. Marc is the founder and CEO of Brixton Capital, so Marc, thank you very much for talking with us and being available again.
Marc: Thank you, the pleasure is mine.
Renan: Let's start by talking about how things are going, specifically on the multifamily and retail side, since our last conversation 2 or 3 weeks ago.
Marc: Yes, the workforce multifamily apartments that we own and operate – we own 7,000 and operate 33,000 – so we have good exposure to the market in 6 states in the Southwest. Surprisingly, Class B workforce residences performed very well in the post-virus downturn. Our statistics show 87% rent collection for the month of April, which surprised me because I thought we would be close to 70%, since many of our tenants are part of the general workforce that has been laid off. But the government assistance program acted quickly and, in fact, many of these people are earning more while unemployed than at their jobs, so they paid the rent and we only saw 13% unpaid.
Renan: That's good. I believe the most challenging part of your business right now is the retail sector, with strip malls and everything else, right?
Marc: Yes, I think that's true. On the apartment side, we view the problem as a 90-day window, not a long-term hardship or a systemic problem. Our tenants are concerned with keeping “a roof over their heads” and with paying for their housing, and most of the states where we operate have temporarily paused evictions, so we are not allowed to evict tenants, but that is probably just for 30 days in most cases – California with another month or two, perhaps.
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