Robert G. Cutlip
Analyst · Hilliard Lyons
Thanks, Michael. Good morning, everyone. During the second quarter, we acquired 4 properties, assuming debt on one, issuing new debt on 2, and funded the fourth property with equity. We sold one of our properties at a nice profit, issued additional common equity through an overnight offering, and extended the leases of 2 properties that are set to expire in 2015. Subsequent to the end of the quarter, we also acquired an additional property using equity proceeds, extended another one of our leases that was set to expire in 2015, and funded the loan for a build-to-suit project that is pre-leased upon construction completion to a tenant with its 15-year lease. We had a great quarter, as we continue to increase our asset base by acquiring new properties. This was our 11th consecutive quarter of closing new acquisitions. We are extremely pleased with our activity and consistency over the last several months, and we continue to have a strong pipeline of acquisitions. Now for some details. During the quarter ended June 30, we acquired 4 additional properties. The first property is a 62,000 square foot office building located in a Sacramento, California, submarket. The purchase price was $8.2 million, with an average cap rate of 8.5% over the life of the lease. We've funded this acquisition with cash on hand and the issuance of $4.9 million of new mortgage debt at a 4.9% interest rate. Barco is the tenant in this property and has a leased the property for 10 years. Barco is a global technology company that designs, develops and manufactures visualization solutions, including video projectors, LED displays, digital lighting and lighting controls. This was our first acquisition in California, and it's in line with our strategic expansion into the Western United States. The second property was a 22,000 square foot daycare facility located in Coppell, Texas, a northern suburb of Dallas. This was the third daycare facility we acquired in this transaction. The other 2 were acquired during the first quarter, as you may recall. All 3 properties are occupied by Crème de la Crème, which is a nationally recognized daycare and education provider that operates at 24 locations in 8 states. The purchase price for the property acquired this quarter was $5.8 million, which equates to an average cap rate of 10.3% over the life of the lease. We funded this acquisition with cash on hand and the assumption of $3.8 million of mortgage debt. Crème has 12 years remaining on the leases and also has several renewal options. The third property is a 115,000 square foot anchored multi-tenant office building, located in Columbus, Ohio, for $11.8 million. There are 2 tenants in this property, the largest of which is Quantum Health, a care coordination and navigation firm that works for employers with self-funded health insurance plans. Quantum occupies 92% of the space and has 9.5 years remaining on the lease. The tenants, in total, have an average cap rate of 10.8% over the life of the leases. We funded this acquisition with cash on hand. The fourth property is a 955,000 square foot bulk distribution warehouse located near Scranton, Pennsylvania, along the I-81 distribution corridor. The purchase price was $39 million; the average cap rate, 8.7% over the life of the lease. We funded this acquisition with cash on hand and the issuance of $22.6 million of new mortgage debt at a 4.2% interest rate. The tenant in this property has leased the building for 10 years, and they've been in the building since 2001. After the end of the quarter, we acquired another facility. This property is a 125,000 square foot industrial building located in a suburb of Denver, Colorado, for $8.3 million. The average cap rate over the 15-year lease term is 9.3%. We funded this acquisition with cash on hand. The tenant in this sale-leaseback transaction is Barton Supply, which specializes in fabricating steel reinforcement and structural and miscellaneous steel construction accessories for both commercial and residential markets. This facility is going to be both their headquarters and their major manufacturing location. We funded this acquisition with cash on hand. Separately, we issued a $5.6 million loan for a build-to-suit project in Phoenix, Arizona, that will be occupied by Kindred Healthcare under a 15-year triple net lease. We receive 9% interest on a current basis during construction, with no construction liability. And we have an option to purchase the facility upon construction completion. Now if the developer prefers to sell the facility, upon completion, to a third party, then we'll receive a success fee equal to a 22% return on our invested capital during the hold period, prior to any proceeds distributed to the developer. We also sold our property in Sterling Heights, Michigan, during the quarter for a gain on sale of $1.2 million. This was a great way for us to dispose of a non-core 550,000 square foot asset at a realized gain and redeploy the proceeds into real estate transactions that are really more in line with our current strategy. Now shifting to our overall portfolio. As of today, all but 3 of our buildings continue to be fully occupied, and all of the occupied buildings' tenants continue to pay as agreed. Two of these properties are 100% vacant, and the third is the partially vacant property we recorded an impairment loss on during the first quarter. The leases on the 2 vacant buildings comprise less than 1% of our total square footage as of June 30. One of the vacant properties is located in Richmond, Virginia. And we have one active prospect for this property, which requires the entire building. We're currently negotiating a lease agreement with this tenant and expect them to occupy the premises during the fall of this year. The other vacant property is located in a Houston, Texas, submarket and is a 12,000 square foot medical facility in close proximity to a regional hospital. At this time, we have 3 active prospects at the building. Two of them are for the entire facility, and one for is about 50% of the building. Our building located in Roseville, Minnesota, remains partially vacant, and we are in negotiations with the lender at this property to return it through a deed in lieu transaction. And we are anticipating that this is going to happen during the third quarter. This is the first property we have returned to a lender. However, on a positive note, this decision is going to favorably impact FFO on a going-forward basis, and therefore, we believe it really benefits our shareholders. Turning to our tenants. We continue to improve the value of our existing portfolio of properties by reviewing and renegotiating existing leases and performing improvements at our properties. We continue to work diligently on the remainder of our leases that come due in 2014 and in 2015. And to this end, we've renewed 5 of the 6 leases that were originally set to expire in 2014. The remaining 2014 lease does expire in December. And this building is located in a industrial submarket of Chicago, 55,000 square foot reload [ph] facility. The existing tenant in this properly has already vacated, as they needed to double in space and we just couldn't accommodate them in the building. However, they did pre-pay their rent through the end of the term in December of 2014. We are actively marketing this property now and have 2 prospects, one of which we are in final lease negotiations for about 40% of the space. The other prospect also requires 40% of the building. In 2015, we have 11 leases expiring, and we have successfully extended the leases for 3 of these tenants at this time. And we're now in negotiations with 2 of the remaining tenants and have been notified that one tenant will leave. The tenant that's leaving is relocating to Rhode Island. We're aggressively pursuing new tenants for this property as we've hired a broker, recognizing that we do have several months before the lease does expire for this tenant who is vacating. While we have 11 leases rolling in 2015, we only have 3 leases expiring in 2016, 2 in 2017 and 1 in 2018. So after next year, our lease rollovers slow down dramatically, and our existing portfolio will have stable and growing rental income. Locating new tenants and signing leases with the existing tenants, as we've said in the past, usually requires some capital outlays for tenant improvements and leasing commissions. So in summary, at quarter end, all of our existing tenants are paying as agreed, and our portfolio was 97% leased. We acquired 4 properties during the quarter and an additional property in July. With this latest property, our acquisition volume totals $83 million. We have consistently increased our acquisition volume over the past 3 years, and we currently have approximately $37 million of potential acquisitions in due diligence, inclusive on the expansion of an existing tenant's facility that's scheduled for completion in August. All of these properties may not close. But this reflects our continued efforts to increase the number of properties we are investigating and closing them, as we move them through the acquisition process. Our current list of possible acquisitions also includes 2 properties, totaling $31 million, that are in letter of intent stage and $280 million under initial review. Our objective is to have, as you may recall, $250 million to $350 million in our pipeline of possible acquisitions, with properties at each phase, including the initial review, indication of interest, letters of intent and due diligence. Our team continues to exceed this objective and has prospects in each phase of the acquisition process, which we really hope is going to lead to continuing, consistent closings in the months ahead. Now let's turn to our Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Danielle Jones, for a report on the financial results.