Matt Mason of Conway MacKenzie – Store Closures, Distressed Retail Real Estate, and Receiverships

On today’s episode, Phil is joined by Matthew (Matt) Mason, a Managing Director at Conway MacKenzie, to talk store closures in 2019, challenges in retail real estate, and receiverships. Matt leads the Conway MacKenzie real estate vertical, has been a Court Appointed Receiver for over 200 properties, managed over 31.5 million square feet, and over $1 billion portfolio of retail, office, and industrial properties. With that experience, Matt provides strategic insight to large distressed retail and office assets for borrowers and lenders. Matt and Phil discuss current challenges in the commercial retail market, the headwinds of massive store closures in 2019, why those challenges are taking place and how to navigate them. Matt explains lessons learned from the 2008 crash, what is different about the current challenges in the market, and how to move forward. He goes on to discuss that many retailers are either struggling or gaining success, with very few in-between. Some discount retailers such as Target have gained success post market-crash, because they are now appealing to a market of buyers by producing a better quality discounted product. Phil and Matt go on to discuss that on the flip side, consumers are now buying products largely online, a method of consumerism that is greatly affecting the commercial retail market, leading to more disruption, store closures, and more experience driven retail.