James M. Taylor
Analyst · Wells Fargo
Thanks, Don, and good post-Halloween morning, everyone. As Don mentioned, I'm going to cover our results in a bit more detail, review the balance sheet and provide details on our guidance for the remainder of 2013, as well as 2014. Turning to the quarter, we reported $111.6 million of property operating income, an increase of $7.2 million or 6.9% over the prior year quarter, excluding a $6 million Genuardi's term fee. Our same-center growth of 5.7%, or 4.9% including redevelopment, drove most of this increase, which was achieved, importantly, despite relatively stable occupancy around 95%. Again, as we discussed at our Investor Day at Assembly Row, our portfolio continues to drive growth from rollover and contractual rent increases, not just occupancy. Year-to-date, our average rollover on a cash basis has been 18%. That level rivals the growth that this portfolio generated during the pre-recession peak in the mid-2000s. Importantly, this well-located real estate outperforms not only during the downturn, but with hard work from the leasing team and our operations team, it continues to surprise even us, as we achieve higher and higher rents per foot, with leases this quarter, in fact, signed at $39.12 per square foot. As you consider the growth that remains embedded in this portfolio, consider that the average rent signed over the almost 4-year period since 2010, in other words, post-recovery, of $30.60, significantly exceeds the in-place average rent today of $24.39. Compare that performance, as we did at our Investor Day, to any other shopping center portfolio and you'll see that it is without peer. Another comment I'd like to make on same-store NOI is that it includes 97% of our portfolio, 97%. In other words, it's truly predictive of what's happening in the portfolio and the company, overall. Green Street recently wrote in its [indiscernible] piece, if you exclude 10% or 15% or 25%, the comparability of a same-store NOI metric truly is neutered. Additionally, as we've said in the past, our rollover growth statistics represent 100% of our leasing activity on comparable space. That's important to consider. Another contributor to our overall POI growth were our acquisitions, of course, of East Bay Bridge and Darien. And we can report that we are pleased with the overall performance of both assets relative to our initial underwriting. Looking at marketing expenses, they increased during the quarter by about $300,000 as we ramp up for the openings of Assembly and Pike & Rose, and we also had about $300,000 less in POI from the sales, Forest Hills. G&A expense declined year-over-year associated, as Don mentioned, mostly with the CFO transition, offset by other personnel costs. We expect G&A for the year to be approximately $30 million, before considering the impact of any acquisitions that we may complete. Interest expense declined by $2.5 million in the quarter due to reduced rates, as we continue to benefit from our attractive refinancing earlier in the year, offset by a slightly higher balance, as we've carried excess proceeds of cash during the quarter. Even with this incremental drag of cash and marketing, we generated a record quarter in terms of FFO at $1.16 per share, an increase of 9.4% over the prior year, when you exclude the Genuardi's term fee and the impact of the CFO transition. Now, turning to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter with $128 million of cash and nothing drawn under our $600 million line of credit. Overall, our leverage remains low at 24% net debt-to-market cap, 5.2x net debt-to-EBITDA and 3.4x fixed-charge coverage. Importantly, as some of you have noted, we have no floating-rate debt and our maturities over the next 2 years, from a coupon standpoint, average close to 7%, which presents an opportunity, even in this volatile interest rate environment, for continued accretion. Again, this balance sheet strength and flexibility is important, as we will deliver approximately $315 million of mixed-use value creation at Santana, Assembly and Pike & Rose over the next 4 quarters. During the quarter, we also realized $34 million in asset sale proceeds at an average cap rate below 5%, and raised approximately $35 million of sales -- in sales of our shares under our ATM program. Turning to our outlook for the balance of 2013. We have increased our guidance range to $4.60 to $4.61 to reflect the continued operating strength of the core portfolio. We expect our full year same-store growth to be in the 4.5% range, and also expect some offset from increased marketing and other expenses as we ramp up our efforts at Assembly and Pike & Rose. In addition, we will continue to have a bit of drag, as we talked about in prior quarters, as mid-Pike comes offline, and we'll also have some drag in the quarter as Building 8B grand opens in November. We are quite pleased with our leasing progress at 8B, with the initial leasing of 48 of 78 available units in that building, and rents per foot that meet or exceed our pro forma rent originally underwritten. Let me pause for a moment here, and again, emphasize the point Don made, that in that asset alone exists $75 million or so of value creation, given that we're delivering it at an 8 and a market cap rate environment in the 4s. For those of you attending NAREIT in 2 weeks, I invite you to swing by Santana and check out just how well Jeff Berkes and the West Coast team has executed this apartment project. It surely would be the envy of any of our multifamily peers. Finally, on 2013 guidance, I should note that it does not include the impact of any potential costs associated with acquisitions that may be completed in the balance or any prepayment premiums associated with early refinance of any upcoming maturities, should the debt markets prove opportunistic. Again, the weighted average interest rate for our 2014 maturities is 6.7%, which in and of itself, is an opportunity. Now, looking forward to 2014, we are delivering a lot of value creation. In addition to the $75 million of Misora apartments at Santana Row, which we'll be destabilizing during 2014, we will grand open the retail space in Buildings 11 and 12 at Pike & Rose in the third quarter, with office coming on in 2015, for a total delivery of $150 million. And we expect to grand open Assembly Row in the summer of 2014 with an approximate cost of $150 million, with the office in Building 2 delivering in 2015. That's $375 million of deliveries over the next 4 quarters. And important for everyone to consider, the significant amount of POI that will be delivered by these assets as they stabilize. In addition, our pipeline continues to grow, as we emphasized at our Investor Day at Assembly. We've added an additional $94 million of new redevelopments this quarter, including The Pointe, at a weighted-average expected return of 9%. Again, all of this value creation activity will be supported by the continued strength in our core portfolio, which we expect will produce same-store growth, including redevelopment, in the 4% to 4.5% range for 2014. We expect occupancy, again, to remain relatively stable during the year, with some rollovers, and expect continued strength in tenant performance. Let me talk a little bit about our FFO guidance. As disclosed in our supplement, we expect FFO in 2014 to be in the range of $4.84 to $4.92, or an increase of over 6% at the midpoint. As discussed with some of you, what's particularly impressive is that this range reflects almost $0.15 of onetime drag associated with the delivery of all that development, including $0.04 to $0.05 per share of upfront marketing costs, as we grand open Assembly and Pike & Rose and build upon existing shopping practices and consumer awareness; 5% to 6% (sic) [$0.05 to $0.06] per share of drag related to the multi-family lease up of Misora at Santana and Building 12 at Pike & Rose. Again, this reflects that we'll be incurring full interest and operating costs as we open these apartments and move towards stabilized NOI. But make no doubt, that value creation is there upon opening. $0.01 to $0.02 will be incurred next year as we finish demolition of Mid-Pike Plaza. We also will not have $0.01 to $0.02 of percentage rent that we fully expect to realize at Assembly Row after a year of operation. And finally, we'll be losing almost $2 million of POI as we take the rest of Mid-Pike Plaza out of service in the first quarter of '14. As you think about that drag, let me pause to make a very important point. If we were not investing in this value creation, that upon stabilization will contribute $35 million to $40 million of POI, our year-over-year FFO growth would approach 10%. Looking forward, we, again, expect G&A to remain consistent with 2013 in the $30 million range, importantly, as we've already made the investments in our platform over the last few years to effectively execute the delivery of all this value creation. From a sources and uses standpoint, we expect to invest approximately $250 million to $300 million in development and redevelopment capital in 2014, and have approximately $300 million in debt maturities, again, at a weighted average rate of 6.7%. As has been the case this year, we expect to match fund these activities with a mix of cash-on-hand, cash from operations, senior note issuances and moderate issuance of equity under our ATM. As always, we will focus on maintaining maximum flexibility, even at the cost of near-term accretion, ensuring our credit metrics remain strong and our flexibility preserved. Finally, as always, our guidance for 2014 does not include the impact any acquisitions or prepayment of premium associated with opportunistic early refinancing. In closing, allow me to comment that our current plan provides us unparalleled visibility on growth, not just for next year, but for the next several years, as we overcome the drag associated with the early ramp and the deliveries of our development. Again, as we outlined in our Assembly Row event, our current pipeline will deliver between $35 million to $40 million of NOI as it stabilizes, almost 8% of our existing total POI. And there's much more opportunity to come from these assets that we own and control today, and as we demonstrated at the Assembly. In an environment, where most shopping center portfolios are now hitting peak occupancy, the performance of our core, the growth that is embedded in existing rents, the continued strong rollover and the value creation from our development and redevelopment pipeline is truly without peer. All pistons are firing on our strategic plans and more than double the NOI of this company with very little external growth over the next 10 years, supported by one of the strongest balance sheets in this sector. With that, operator, we'd like to turn the call over for questions.