Indicating a growing trend of troubled commercial real estate tenants, a mall in the Bronx has sued its tenants to try and get $2.3 million in rent that it says they owe, said Crain's New York Business. The mall owner, Prestige Properties and Development, plays landlord to over 100 retailers and alleges that some of them, including those from venerable companies such as the Gap and Old Navy, have not paying their full rent. The Gap, through a spokesperson, said that it stopped paying rent when the store closed and resumed payments when it opened again. The company said that the owner should understand the profound impact the pandemic has had on retailers in general.

It is but the latest example of commercial tenants having difficulty paying rent in the wake of the pandemic, which is once again ramping up. With business activity down in general, and with what life there is being concentrated mainly online, small businesses have been reporting major difficulties paying their rent. Nationally, 34 percent of small businesses  had trouble paying their October rent; when considering just minority-owned businesses, the rate climbs to 44 percent. New York is having a particularly hard time of it, as 40 percent there said that they could not pay their full rents, and within Brooklyn specifically, that number is close to 50 percent. With so many businesses struggling to pay rent, landlords in turn are struggling to pay property taxes, with New York City delinquencies alone rising by 50 percent compared to last year.

To learn more about how the pandemic is affecting the real estate industry, register for the Foundation for Accounting Education's Real Estate and Construction Contractors Conference Part 1, Part 2 (construction contractors' track), and Part 2 (real estate track) on Dec. 1,