Kite Realty, national REIT landlord with a footprint of 18 million square feet has created its own small business loan program for its tenants.
The industry first program will offer low-interest, direct loans to tenants of their portfolio. This program is designed to supplement the SBA's PPP, which initially ran out of the $349 billion in a few weeks but has recently released an additional $484 billion.
“Many small businesses in our shopping centers have done everything they can to make it through this period,” said John Kite, chairman and CEO of Kite, a publicly traded REIT. “However, they still need capital to cover expenses until they are fully operational. We recognized our unique ability to help our small businesses in an expedited manner by providing supplemental resources.”
Kite will begin accepting applications on April 24th, the caveat is that tenants applying must have fewer than 5 locations nationally. Tenants may request loans up to three months of operating expenses and will be required to personally guarantee the loans. the loan program will provide up to $5 million is assistance.
The loan program is an unprecedented move by a REIT and should be praised for its efforts to keep small businesses afloat during this economic crisis. The sooner tenants recover from this crisis, the quicker landlords will recover.
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