DBRS Morningstar Assigns Ratings to Hawaii Hotel Trust 2019-MAUI, Places Certain Ratings Under Review with Negative Implications

DBRS Limited (DBRS Morningstar) assigned ratings to the Commercial Mortgage Pass-Through Certificates, Series 2019-MAUI (the Certificates) issued by Hawaii Hotel Trust 2019-MAUI as follows:

-- Class A at AAA (sf)
-- Class B at AA (high) (sf)
-- Class C at AA (low) (sf)
-- Class D at A (sf)
-- Class E at BBB (low) (sf)
-- Class F at B (high) (sf)
-- Class G at B (low) (sf)
-- Class HRR at CCC (sf)

DBRS Morningstar placed the ratings on Classes A, B, C, D, E, F, and G Under Review with Negative Implications, given the negative impact of the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) on the underlying collateral.

These certificates are currently also rated by DBRS Morningstar’s affiliated rating agency, Morningstar Credit Ratings, LLC (MCR). In connection with the ongoing consolidation of DBRS Morningstar and MCR, MCR previously announced that it had placed its outstanding ratings of these certificates Under Review–Analytical Integration Review and that MCR intended to withdraw its outstanding ratings; such withdrawal will occur on or about October 8, 2020. In accordance with MCR’s engagement letter covering these certificates, upon withdrawal of MCR’s outstanding ratings, the DBRS Morningstar ratings will become the successor ratings to the withdrawn MCR ratings. Information about the MCR ratings, including the history of the MCR ratings, can be found at www.morningstarcreditratings.com.

On March 1, 2020, DBRS Morningstar finalized its “North American Single-Asset/Single-Borrower Ratings Methodology” (the NA SASB Methodology), which presents the criteria for which ratings are assigned to and/or monitored for North American single-asset/single-borrower (NA SASB) transactions, large concentrated pools, rake certificates, ground lease transactions, and credit tenant lease transactions. For further information on the NA SASB Methodology, please see the press release dated March 1, 2020, at www.dbrsmorningstar.com. On March 27, 2020, DBRS Morningstar placed the ratings on its outstanding SASB transactions secured by hospitality properties Under Review with Negative Implications while MCR placed the ratings on its outstanding SASB transactions secured by hospitality properties Under Review Negative as the global shelter-in-place and travel restrictions related to the coronavirus have had an extreme impact on the short-term performance of this asset class. For further information on these rating actions, please see the DBRS Morningstar press release dated March 27, 2020, at www.dbrsmorningstar.com and the MCR press release dated March 27, 2020, at www.morningstarcreditratings.com.

To assign ratings to this transaction, DBRS Morningstar considered both the impact of the updated NA SASB Methodology and its scenarios attributable to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic on the ratings.

Because of the coronavirus’ significant impact on hospitality performance, DBRS Morningstar first considered the application of the updated NA SASB Methodology in conjunction with the “North American CMBS Surveillance Methodology” to arrive at a baseline result, which incorporated qualitative assumptions, capitalization rates, and loan-to-value (LTV) ratio sizing benchmark quality/volatility adjustments and excluded any potential changes in current or future expected asset performance resulting from the coronavirus.

DBRS Morningstar then overlaid scenarios incorporating market value declines (MVDs) consistent with the projections in its “Global Macroeconomic Scenarios: September Update” published on September 10, 2020, on top of the baseline result to determine the impact of coronavirus-related changes in asset performance on the subject transaction on a tranche-by-tranche basis. For more information on these scenarios, please refer to the Coronavirus Impact Analysis section of this document. The global macroeconomic scenarios include a moderate decline of 15% for all commercial real estate (CRE), which acts as an average for all CRE property types. However, DBRS Morningstar expects a higher stress for hospitality properties, ranging from 25% to 45% based on the type of demand segmentation and asset location, and expects corporate demand and remote fly-to locations to be at the higher end of the value decline.

LOAN/PROPERTY OVERVIEW
The collateral for the Certificates is a $650.0 million mortgage loan on a Four Seasons-branded luxury, five-star resort hotel in Wailea, Hawaii. The hotel features 383 guest rooms, four food and beverage offerings, specialty retail shops, and 38,000 square feet of meeting space. A wide range of amenities include a spa, three outdoor pools, tennis courts, a game room and fitness centre, and preferred access to the 54-hole Wailea Golf Club directly across Wailea Alanui Drive from the hotel. The hotel offers direct access to Wailea Beach as well as stunning views of the island’s volcanic mountains and westward to the bay and Pacific Ocean. As of September 2020, the loan is currently on the servicer’s watchlist for an increased level of risk stemming from the ongoing restrictions and setbacks related to the pandemic.

Wailea has one of the highest barriers to entry of any resort market in the world. Available sites are extremely rare or nonexistent, and zoning is complex and protective. The hotel is owned fee simple, which is highly unusual for any site on the island. Since 2006, the sponsor has invested approximately $161.0 million, or $420,400 per room, including more than $56.0 million in renovations and upgrades in 2016.

The interest-only (IO), floating-rate loan has a two-year initial maturity with five one-year extension options. Interest is set at Libor plus 203 basis points (bps), and the spread is subject to an increase of 25 bps upon the fourth extension. The borrower purchased a Libor interest rate cap with a strike price of 3.0%. The financing transaction repaid $602.6 million of existing debt on the hotel and returned $36.1 million of cash equity to the sponsor.

The sponsor is MSD Capital L.P. (MSD), an experienced owner and operator of luxury hotels in resort locations such as the main island of Hawaii and Santa Monica, California. The company is an investment firm that exclusively manages capital on behalf of the Dell family. The sponsor provides a guaranty for nonrecourse carveouts with limits on certain provisions. The hotel has been branded as and managed by Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts since its construction in 1990 as the brand’s first destination resort. The management agreement is in the first of three 15-year renewal terms, which can extend through 2052.

Historic hotel performance were steady with 2017 and 2018 occupancies in the high-80% range and average daily rates (ADRs) approaching $1,190 per room per night in 2018. Other competitive hotels on the islands operate at similarly high occupancies, but the hotel’s ADR is double the average of other competitive hotels.

Operating results in 2019 showed net operating income (NOI) increasing by 6.8% from the lender’s underwritten level at issuance. NOI in the trailing 12-month period ended March 31, 2020, closely approximated the underwritten level; however, the coronavirus pandemic and economic slowdown in mid-March 2020 crushed the local economy. The governor responded to the virus by closing the island’s tourism-related industry and has now further delayed the reopening date for this industry to October 2020 from September 2020.

At this time, the hotel is closed but accepting reservations for stays from November 20, 2020, onward. Upon reopening, the hotel will institute health and safety procedures for all employees and hotel guests. The borrower has informed the servicer about potential cash flow issues caused by the pandemic and the collapse of the travel industry. Nevertheless, the servicer reports no delinquent debt payments for the hotel.

DBRS Morningstar reanalyzed the net cash flow (NCF) derived at issuance for the subject rating action to confirm its consistency with the “DBRS Morningstar North American Commercial Real Estate Property Analysis Criteria.” The resulting NCF figure was $44.0 million and DBRS Morningstar applied a cap rate of 7.5%, which resulted in a DBRS Morningstar Value of $587.2 million, a variance of 39.0% from the appraised value of $963.0 million at issuance. The DBRS Morningstar Value implies an LTV of 110.7% compared with the LTV of 67.5% on the appraised value at issuance.

The cap rate DBRS Morningstar applied is at the lower end of the range of DBRS Morningstar Cap Rate Ranges for lodging properties, reflecting the overall luxury quality of the collateral, outstanding location with very high barriers to entry, substantial capital expenditures that have been implemented at the collateral since 2004, and strong sponsorship from MSD.

DBRS Morningstar made positive qualitative adjustments to the final LTV sizing benchmarks used for this rating analysis, totalling 8.5% to account for cash flow volatility, property quality, and market fundamentals.

CORONAVIRUS IMPACT ANALYSIS
DBRS Morningstar overlaid various scenarios incorporating MVDs consistent with the projections in the “Global Macroeconomic Scenarios: September Update” (https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/366542) to estimate the impact of coronavirus-related changes in asset performance on a tranche-by-tranche basis for the subject transaction. The scenarios included subjecting the most recent appraised collateral value to generalized CRE asset value decline projections with an assumption of approximately 45.0% under the moderate scenario. In cases where the rated debt exceeded the scenario value, DBRS Morningstar assumed that a principal writedown had occurred to account for the difference. Because of the reverse-sequential allocation of losses in commercial mortgage-backed security (CMBS) transactions, DBRS Morningstar’s analysis considered the most subordinate certificate first and, if a complete principal writedown of the certificate had occurred during the scenario, DBRS Morningstar repeated the analysis for the second-most subordinate certificate and so on until the rated debt no longer exceeded the scenario value.

Under the moderate scenario, the cumulative rated debt through Class F exceeded the value under the Coronavirus Impact Analysis and therefore DBRS Morningstar presumes that the economic stress from the coronavirus had affected the class.

The DBRS Morningstar ratings assigned to Classes A, B, C, D, E, F, and G vary by three of more notches from the results implied by the LTV sizing benchmarks when MVDs are assumed under the Coronavirus Impact Analysis. These classes are Under Review with Negative Implications as DBRS Morningstar continues to monitor the evolving economic impact of the coronavirus-induced stress on the transaction.

A description of how DBRS Morningstar considers ESG factors within the DBRS Morningstar analytical framework and its methodologies can be found at: https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/357792.

All ratings are subject to surveillance, which could result in ratings being upgraded, downgraded, placed under review, confirmed, or discontinued by DBRS Morningstar.

DBRS Morningstar provides updated analysis and in-depth commentary in the DBRS Viewpoint platform for this transaction.

For complimentary access to this content, please register for the DBRS Viewpoint platform at www.viewpoint.dbrsmorningstar.com. The platform includes loan-level data for most outstanding CMBS transactions (including non-DBRS Morningstar-rated), as well as loan-level and transaction-level commentary for most DBRS Morningstar-rated and -monitored transactions.

Notes:
All figures are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted.

The principal methodologies are the North American Single-Asset/Single-Borrower Ratings Methodology (March 1, 2020) and North American CMBS Surveillance Methodology (March 6, 2020), which can be found on www.dbrsmorningstar.com under Methodologies & Criteria. For a list of the structured-finance-related methodologies that may be used during the rating process, please see the DBRS Morningstar Global Structured Finance Related Methodologies document, which can be found on www.dbrsmorningstar.com in the Commentary tab under Regulatory Affairs. Please note that not every related methodology listed under a principal structured finance asset class methodology may be used to rate or monitor an individual structured finance or debt obligation.

For more information regarding rating methodologies and Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), please see the following DBRS Morningstar press release: https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/357883.

For more information regarding structured finance rating methodologies and Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), please see the following DBRS Morningstar press release: https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/358308.

For more information regarding the structured finance rating approach and Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), please see the following DBRS Morningstar press release: https://www.dbrsmorningstar.com/research/359905.

The related regulatory disclosures pursuant to the National Instrument 25-101 Designated Rating Organizations are hereby incorporated by reference and can be found by clicking on the link under Related Documents or by contacting us at info@dbrsmorningstar.com.

The rated entity or its related entities did participate in the rating process for this rating action. DBRS Morningstar had access to the accounts and other relevant internal documents of the rated entity or its related entities in connection with this rating action.

Please see the related appendix for additional information regarding the sensitivity of assumptions used in the rating process. Please note a sensitivity analysis is not performed for CMBS bonds rated CCC or lower. The DBRS Morningstar long-term rating scale definition indicates that ratings of CCC or lower are assigned when the bond is highly likely to default or default is imminent, thereby prevailing over a sensitivity analysis.

Generally, the conditions that lead to the assignment of a Negative or Positive trend are generally resolved within a 12-month period. DBRS Morningstar’s outlooks and ratings are monitored.

DBRS Morningstar’s North American CMBS analytical team will continue to monitor the transaction to evaluate the increased risk factors related to the coronavirus pandemic. As information (e.g., updated property-level financials, Smith Travel Research Reports, new valuations for specially serviced loans, and workout and/or modification specifics, if applicable) becomes available, DBRS Morningstar will address the Under Review with Negative Implications rating actions over the near to moderate term. DBRS Morningstar typically endeavors to resolve an Under Review rating action within 90 days, but the circumstances surrounding these rating actions (i.e., the unknown length of the pandemic-related downturn) may result in a prolonged resolution period.

For more information on this credit or on this industry, visit www.dbrsmorningstar.com or contact us at info@dbrsmorningstar.com.

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