Two REITs with a year of debt coming due. Only one still lets you out.

Two non-traded REITs filed their June 10-Qs with the same problem: a wall of debt maturing within a year. What each one does with the exit door is the opposite, and if you hold either, that difference tells you which date to watch.

Cottonwood Communities: still paying everyone

Cottonwood, an apartment REIT based in Utah, paid every repurchase request from July 2025 to June 2026: 1,823,569 shares for $20.8 million in the first half alone. Its NAV is $11.33, down 45.3% from its 2022 peak.

The same 10-Q says $452.9 million of debt matures within twelve months, and, in its own words: "Our cash on hand and other liquidity sources are less than these maturities." Only 3.5% of first-half distributions came from operating cash flow. 39.7% came from borrowing.

KBS REIT III: paying no one

KBS REIT III, an office REIT, terminated redemptions on March 15, 2024 and has paid no distribution since June 2023. The board values it at $2.70 a share, 77.5% below 2018, and its 10-Q carries going-concern doubt with $918.9 million of principal scheduled for July to December 2026. That is 73.7% of all its debt.

The part nobody puts side by side

A redemption paid today is cash that is not there when a loan comes due. Cottonwood's first-half repurchases ($20.8 million) were about two-thirds of what its credit line still allowed it to draw at June 30 ($31.4 million, my arithmetic). KBS made the other choice two years ago.

Neither is a verdict. Each tells you what to read next:

• Cottonwood: the November 10-Q, for whether the $452.9 million is refinanced, extended or sold down.
• KBS REIT III: four dated steps. A property sale by September 30, The Almaden loan on October 1, two loans on November 2, one on December 15.

Cottonwood, every number traced to its filing →

KBS REIT III, with the full loan calendar →

P.S. If you hold Highlands REIT, its offer to buy back shares at $0.20 expires September 29. Its own estimated value is $0.29. Ten years of its filings, in one page.

If you hold either of the two, reply and tell me which date you are watching. I read every reply.

Jorge