Loans

By Kathleen Tarbox Munoz, partner, Hunton Andrews Kurth LP The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic cultivated an economic downturn that differed significantly from financial crises like the Great Recession or even the Great Depression. Worldwide stay-at-home orders and mass business closures meant that industries across the board were hit simultaneously, as opposed to experiencing the domino effect reminiscent of past crises. At the onset of the pandemic, the lending industry ground to a halt; few lenders were advancing funds for several months as the world waited to see how long this period would last. The commercial real estate industry as a whole has suffered as much as any industry, with retail and hospitality being hit fast and hard at the beginning of the pandemic. A future second wave of commercial foreclosures and defaults within these asset classes looms as a near certainty. But the response to these defaults from lenders has followed a unique trajectory — one that is as much a response to the pandemic as a product of it. Increased Flexibility Perhaps the result of empathy born of a shared experience, or perhaps due to the introduction of highly effective vaccines that support the notion of a swift …