Nearly $5.1 billion in office property became distressed during April, the third highest monthly figure thus far this cycle, bringing the total amount of outstanding distress to $39.6 billion and the cumulative amount of office distress to $55.8 billion. However, more than half of April’s new distress total can be traced back to the $2.7 billion CMBS loan encumbering a 17-property portfolio in DC and Seattle that Beacon Capital Partners purchased from Blackstone out of the Equity Office Properties (EOP) portfolio. This is an important move by Beacon not only because the loans are not in default, but also because their transfer represents a broader trend of loans being transferred to special servicing in order to facilitate restructuring discussions. Properties that back CMBS loans accounted for over $4.0 billion of the $4.8 billion in office property to become distressed during April. Many of these were also not in default at the time of transfer. May points to more of the same, most notably the $4.9 billion transfer to special servicing of a loan backed by part of the former EOP portfolio still owned by Blackstone.