Joey Agree, president and CEO of Agree Realty Corp., participated in a video interview at Nareit’s REITworld: 2022 Annual Conference held in San Francisco on Nov. 15-17.
Agree commented on how the REIT has positioned its balance sheet to respond to longer term challenges in the debt markets. As of Sept. 30, Agree Realty had over $1.5 billion of liquidity with $250 million-plus cash on hand.
“With the dysfunction and dislocation we’re seeing in the long-term debt markets today…our assumption is that they won’t return too quickly…but we’re prepared for all types of events and circumstances in the macroeconomic environment,” Agree said.
Agree also commented on potential opportunity coming from distressed assets across the REIT’s core markets. “Distress will come in many forms,” he said, with transaction volume likely to shrink dramatically and institutional owners looking to potentially monetize assets.
As for some of the attributes that retailers will need to navigate the year ahead, Agree pointed to the importance of a non-discretionary element, a defensible market position, and an extremely flexible balance sheet. Without that necessity retail element, it could be a “potentially very challenging environment,” he said.