Fitch downgrades loans on 1500 Broadway and Lincoln Square retail properties

Fitch Ratings said it downgraded 12 classes of a $2.75 billion Morgan Stanley
commercial mortgage loan pool, led by expected losses at 1500 Broadway, Lincoln
Square retail center and a retail mall near Orlando, Fla.

The largest contributor to the expected loss is Oviedo Marketplace, which
includes 435,000 square feet of a 953,000-square-foot regional mall in Oviedo,
Fla., located 15 miles northeast of Orlando. Fitch said the loan was transferred to
special servicing when General Growth Properties, one of the nation’s largest mall
operators, included the property in its bankruptcy filing.

The property was later taken over by CW Capital.

The second largest contributor to the expected loss is the Lincoln Square retail loan,
representing 12.4 percent of the pool balance. The property, which spans Broadway
from 66th to 68th streets, is comprised of four retail spaces totaling 503,178 square
feet.

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In one of the four spaces, at 1972 Broadway, department store Century 21 will be leasing 61,000 square feet, replacing bookseller Barnes & Noble,
which shuttered in January.

Century 21 is scheduled to open there in the fall.

The third largest contributor is 1500 Broadway, representing 11.9 percent of the
pool balance. That loan is backed by a 33-story, 514,000-square-foot office building
in Times Square
.
Fitch said the building was 72 percent full as of June 2010, after losing a large tenant
in 2009.

American Appraisal recently signed a seven-year, 6,600-square-foot lease at 1500
Broadway for $56 a square foot.