Jerry Sweeney
Analyst · Craig Mailman with KeyBanc Capital Markets
Yes, sure, happy to. I think when we take a look at across the markets in the Philadelphia suburbs, in Philadelphia proper, both the CBD and University City, we’re talking to a couple of prospects about the build-to-suit opportunities on both land we’ve held but also some new land holdings. The other market where we’re seeing a very significant number of build-to-suit opportunities is in our Austin market, both in the southwest and the northwest. So, we’re pretty encouraged by the pace of those. But we were very happy, Craig, last quarter, when we were able to take a tenant who was paying below market rents in Radnor who needed to more than double in size, move them to a piece of ground we owned in King of Prussia to do a fully leased $29 million build-to-suit on 110,000 square feet at a 9.5% free and clear return, and then create that vacancy that we desperately needed in Radnor to accommodate both, existing tenant expansions and also move that tenant from a below -- that tenant space from a below market return to a market return that’s much higher. We certainly see that same opportunity with some of the build-to-suit candidates we’re talking to now who -- a couple of whom are in our existing portfolio, some are new which we’re certainly excited about that as well. But, I think it does reflect what we’re seeing across the board, which is really a driver of a lot of our investment strategy that a lot of our tenants are recognizing that now and for the foreseeable future, labor markets will be tight, access to labor will be very important and that the ability to have a physical space that is a cultural builder and brand builder for their companies is very, very important. So, we do think that -- continued work with some of our existing customers to new customers to work with them to design and build brand new office product is a great business strategy for us over the next couple of years. And certainly from a numbers perspective, the extent we can achieve 8% to 10% free and clear returns on long-term leases is very consistent with our strategic objective narrowing that line between or that gap between FFO and cash flow, because we sign these longer term leases, it’s NOI equals cash flow say for some minor capital repairs over the term of their lease. So, we’re excited about seeing that opportunity continue to play itself out in our markets.