Peter Baccile
Analyst · KeyBanc Capital Markets
Thank you, Art, and good morning, everyone. Continued strong performance by our team, our portfolio and the industrial real estate market overall drove another excellent quarter. We grew occupancy 70 basis points to finish the quarter at 97.6%. Cash same-store NOI grew at 6.8% and cash rental rates were up 9%. These metrics and others provide a firm foundation for a continued strong rental rate growth in 2019. As we’ve done in the past, let me give you a snapshot of our 2019 rollovers signed to date. We’ve already inked approximately 40% of next year’s role at a cash increase of 10.7%. We know that this is only a portion of leases to roll, but directionally, it’s a useful data point for you on 2019 rents at this point in time. We were in the early phases of our budgeting process and we’ll be able to give you an updated picture for the full year on our fourth quarter call in February. Moving on to the bigger picture. Fluctuations in the stock market, concerns over trade and tariffs, and the increase in interest rates rightly have many wondering about the direction of the economy. However, the U.S. economy is strong with solid GDP growth, high consumer confidence, and record or near record unemployment that is driving a strong labor market and some real wage growth. From our viewpoint, we continue to see tenants investing in their supply chain to accommodate future growth and consumption. CBRE, our clinometric advisors, preliminary, third quarter report is consistent with this view. New additions to supply are not keeping up with tenant demand in most markets. Third quarter net absorption was 63 million square feet compared to completions of 50 million and year-to-date net absorption was 166 million square feet with completions at 141 million square feet. So, for the first nine months of this year, we’ve seen tenants continue to grow their businesses while facing limited alternatives for their industrial space needs. We are taking advantage of this dynamic to drive strong cash flow and NAV growth. Let’s turn to development leasing. During the third quarter, we were successful in leasing our 644,000 square footer at First Park @ PV-303 in Phoenix on a long-term basis to XPO Logistics. Our total investment was $41.1 million and our cash yield was 7.8%. The lease will commence during the fourth quarter and the building will also be placed in service at that time. As discussed on our last call, during the third quarter, we leased three additional buildings totaling 422,000 square feet at The Ranch by First Industrial in the Inland Empire to bring that project to 62% occupied. We placed in service the 301,000 square footer and the 50,000 square footer during the third quarter. The least at the 71,000 square footer will commence during the fourth quarter and it will be placed in service then as well. At September 30, we had completed development in Southern California, Phoenix and Chicago totaling 1.4 million square feet. Total investment for this group is $103 million with an expected cash yield of 7.5%. These projects are currently 50% leased. As we discussed on our last call, we had four new starts during the third quarter totaling 1.2 million square feet. These were comprised of our First Aurora Commerce Center in Denver, First Park 121 in Dallas, First Perry Logistics Center in the Inland Empire East, and First Glacier Logistics Center in Seattle. Total investment for these buildings is estimated at $96.5 million and our targeted stabilized cash yield is 6.7%. We have three projects totaling 2.5 million square feet for which we’re wrapping up construction in the fourth quarter namely our First Nandina project in Southern California, our two building development First Logistics Center @ I-78/81 in Pennsylvania and First 290 @ Guhn Road in Houston. In total, we had 3.7 million square feet of speculative investments under construction at September 30th with a total investment of $261 million and a targeted stabilized cash yield of 7%. In the third quarter, we continued to build our development pipeline by closing on two adjacent five acres sites for a total of $3.9 million in the Inland Empire right near First Nandina and several of our other successful developments in Moreno Valley. The combined site will support a 231,000 square footer for which we are working on entitlements. In the fourth quarter to-date, we closed on the acquisition of 121,000 square foot building with an adjacent development site in New Jersey at Exit 7 of the Turnpike for a total purchase price of $16.6 million. The purchase price allocation to the building was $12.9 million and the building is 100% leased to three tenants with an in-place cash yield of 6.3%. We intend to build a similar 120,000 square footer on the land parcel. We’re finishing some permitting and design work and expect to start that development in the early part of 2019. Moving on to sales. We had a successful quarter with dispositions totaling $22.5 million, which included four buildings and three land parcels. In the fourth quarter to-date, we’d have – we’ve had one additional sale in 84,000 square foot building in Southern New Jersey for $4.2 million. Including this fourth quarter sale, we’ve completed $125 million of sales year-to-date. As noted in our last call, our original guidance for the year was $100 million to $150 million and we now expect to be at or above the top end of that range. While the overall demand picture is good, we would be remiss by not acknowledging the recent and well documented challenges faced by some retailers. The most visible being Sears and its Kmart subsidiary. And I note that we do not have any exposure with them. We do have leases with both Mattress Firm and American Tire Distribution, which both filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this month. We leased 170,000 square feet to Mattress Firm in Phoenix and we leased two spaces to American Tire Distribution, mainly 119,000 square feet at our only building in Salt Lake City and 126,000 square feet in Orlando. In total leases to these firms represents 72 basis points of our third quarter net rent. We’ve received October rent for both of these tenants and as of this call; we have not received any formal notice of lease rejection. We’re closely monitoring both situations, but feel good about the long-term positioning of these buildings and our ability to re-tenant them if necessary at similar or higher rental rates. So, thanks to all my teammates around the country for an excellent quarter. I know you share my enthusiasm for our growth opportunities and putting the finishing touches on a successful 2018. And with that, Scott will walk you through some additional details on the quarter and our guidance.