Robert Cutlip
Analyst · Hilliard Lyons. Your line is now open
Thanks, Michael. Good morning everyone. During the first quarter we received repayment of $5.9 million development loan plus a 22% return on this investment, executed a lease with a new tenant for 14,000 square feet in our partially vacant Chicago property, refinance $21.2 million of a maturing debt on four properties with $18.5 million of new debt and expanded our common stock ATM program to $160 million and entered into it a preferred stock ATM program for $40 million. Subsequent to the end of the quarter we also negotiated the terms for another 13,000 square foot lease in our partially vacant office building in Minneapolis, refinanced $3.7 million of maturing mortgage debt, received an Energy Star Award for our 350,000 square foot office building in Austin, Texas, that's occupied by GM, and finalized the major upgrade to our website which we plan to rollout in May. We had another excellent quarter as we executed leases to increase the occupancy of our portfolio while also placing a non-core asset under contract for sale as part of our capital recycling program. We have slowed our acquisitions pace by design starting with our fourth quarter activity as a result of uncertain market conditions and a lower stock price. We continue to be pleased with our activity and have a healthy pipeline of acquisition candidates. Our acquisitions team has spent considerable time over the past six months connecting with our peers to determine the direction of the market. Interest rate volatility, global economic slowdown perceptions, and an energy glut raise our concerns. Our findings reflect that the largest net lease peers have noted that they may be reducing our acquisition volume this year or even parting, if you could believe that valuations appear to maybe be too high. These thoughts, as well as reduced investment volumes during the first quarter as reported by market research firms could be indicating that cap rates may rise in the months ahead. Our team will monitor market conditions while continue to actively investigate opportunities, and we'll acquire properties when the tenant credit, location and asset returns are accretive and promote our measured growth strategy. Now for some details. We successfully exited our $5.9 million development loan and achieved a 22% return on our invested capital during the whole period on exit. This was the first and a new program we created to participate with developers on builder suit projects nationwide. And this investment provided very good risk-adjusted returns to our shareholders. Our acquisitions team has been placing significant focus on acquiring properties in secondary growth markets. As I've noted in the past, the hallmark of our continuing high occupancy remains is going to continue to remain thorough tenant credit underwriting and a mission critical nature of the property. We believe that our ability to assess correctly a company's financial condition has in large part been responsible for our occupancy remaining at 96% or higher since our IPO in 2003. However, location is also important and closing transactions in growth markets we believe leads to properties that will increase in value overtime and hopefully, provide additional benefit for our shareholders. Over the past two years to promote this strategy, we've invested in Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Denver three times, Dallas four times, Austin, Atlanta twice, Indianapolis Columbus Ohio twice in Minneapolis. The last three acquisitions have been in Atlanta and Salt Lake City, two markets in which we wish to increase our concentration. And at this time we have a $17 million multi-story office building under contract in a Salt Lake City sub-market which will add to our presence there upon closing. Our asset management team continues to be busy leasing our available space and selling non-core assets. As noted, we increased our occupancy in our Chicago industrial property by leasing 14,000 square feet for a 7-year term during the first quarter. And we also have a 20,000 square foot prospect showing interest in the balance of the building. We've also negotiated the terms for another 13,000 square feet in our Minneapolis office property bringing the occupancy to about 80%. We only have two fully vacant properties remaining today. We have a purchase agreement in place for our Dayton, Ohio 60,000 square foot office property and anticipated sale to close next month. The second property in Eastern Massachusetts is an 86,000 square foot freezer cooler industrial property, and we have three full building prospects for that property at this time. We successfully extended all of our leases that were originally set to expire in 2016 with the exception of a 2,900 square foot office space in our multi-centered office property in Indianapolis. And our portfolio is currently 97.5% occupied. In total, for 2015 and 2016 we successfully concluded 15 of 18 lease expirations and in so doing in our opinion transitioned to a full service real estate operating company reflecting an ability to execute successfully in every phase of the lifecycle for a real estate property. And the better news is that only 4% of forecast rental income is expiring over the next four years through 2019. During a period that David and I anticipate, the industry is going to experience headwinds at some point. So our cash rents are going to be stable and growing, and our occupancy should remain high even if economic conditions deteriorate. This is an important fact for our shareholders as the majority of our peers have a minimum of 15% and as high as nearly 60% of their leases expiring during the same period. The majority of our capital availability is going to be used to pursue growth opportunities and not for vacant space operating expenses or tenant improvements and leasing commissions to retain tenants or to release vacant space. Danielle is going to expand upon our refinancing activities but it is important to note that our refinancing continue to lower our loan-to-value, lower our annual interest costs, and the amount of debt maturing reduces through 2017. So in summary, we successfully exited our first development loan leased vacant square footage, refinanced maturing mortgage debt at lower interest rates and implemented a new preferred ATM program and an expanded common ATM program to set us up for long-term growth. And organizationally, we completed the redesign of our website with an expected launch date in May. And the objective of this design or redesign really is to provide greater information for our investors, analysts, investment sales and leasing professionals. And our team continues to have a strong pipeline of acquisition candidates, and will adhere to our strategy of only acquiring in growth markets that are accretive to our operations. Now let's turn to Danielle Jones, our Chief Financial Officer for a report on the financial results.