Open-air retail REITs, whose supermarket anchors are considered essential businesses during COVID-19, have collected April rents from a majority of tenants. As May rolls around, executives said they expect rent rolls to strengthen further as more tenants reopen.

About 62 percent of Weingarten Realty’s tenants are deemed essential businesses by government regulators. The REIT, which owns 167 shopping centers, has collected about 64 percent of its April rent by dollar volume. Several Weingarten tenants that paid in April have negotiated rent deferrals going forward, which likely will reduce cash collections over the next couple of months, said executive vice president and COO Johnny Hendrix. “As to rents still outstanding, our associates are working very hard to obtain commitments from our tenants. Primarily, we are negotiating deferrals only that will generally be payable in the latter half of 2020 and in some cases into 2021.”

Federal Realty Investment Trust had collected 53 percent of recurring April rent dollar volume as of May 1. All 104 of the company’s properties are open and operating, and 47 percent of the tenants are open and trying to do some level of business, said Don Wood, president and CEO. “About a quarter of our rent comes from essential services: grocery, drug, banks, etc., and that was largely paid in April,” he said. Restaurants make up 15 percent of Federal’s rental base. “About a quarter of that rent was paid in April,” Wood said. “Fitness and experiential tenants like theaters and bowling concepts comprise another 6 percent, and very little April rent was collected in that category.”

The company takes a deliberate approach to negotiating rent deferrals. “We don't have a blanket policy for handling these negotiations,” Wood said. “This is a really important point. We’re small enough to have senior-level, experienced executives handle each of these conversations on a one-off, individual basis.”

Meanwhile, Kimco Realty collected 60 percent of its base rent dollar volume for April. It collected 78 percent of the rent owed by the 50 tenants with the highest rent roll and 40 percent of rent roll owed by tenants whose stores are shuttered temporarily, CEO Conor Flynn told analysts on an earnings call. At the end of April, all Kimco's shopping centers were operating, and about 56 percent of tenants were operating, whether on a full or limited basis.

Kimco received rent deferral requests for 35 percent of its April rent roll and Kimco granted deferral for 14 percent of its rent roll. The landlord continues to negotiate for the payment of April rent not yet collected, Flynn said.

Regency Centers has not closed any of its 416 properties during the crisis, though 40 percent of tenants were closed temporarily as of the end of April. The landlord had collected 62 percent of April rent roll as of May 5. And Kite Realty has collected 67 percent of April rent roll at its 117 properties.