Bob Cutlip
Analyst · National Securities. Your line is now open
Thanks Michael. Good morning everyone. During the first quarter, we acquired 65,000 square foot industrial property in Indianapolis; acquired a 321,000 square foot three-building industrial portfolio in Houston, St. Louis, and Charlotte; acquired a 504,000 square foot industrial building in Chatsworth, Georgia; executed a lease amendment to extend a 100,000 square foot tenant in Denver Colorado; extended the lease for a 78,000 square foot tenant in Springfield Missouri; extended the lease for a 54,000 square foot tenant in Delaware, Ohio and sold a non-core office property in North Carolina.As noted on our fourth quarter call, our investment strategy is emphasizing an increase in our portfolio's industrial allocation, which we believe will improve our property operating efficiencies, reduce capital expenditure levels, and potentially result in improved valuation over time. To that end, our industrial allocation was 33% on January 1, 2019 and has increased to 41% as of March 31, 2020.From January 2019 through March 2020, our investment volume was $201 million all of which were industrial properties providing further evidence of this commitment and our intent is to continue to overweight industrial acquisitions, market conditions permitting, of course, in the developed submarkets of our targeted locations. Our primary focus has been and will be acquisition candidates ranging in size from 50,000 to 300,000 square feet.During the quarter, our investment in asset management activities continue to generate positive momentum for our operations. We acquired five properties, all industrial equating to $72 million in investment volume. The transactions included a 65,000 square foot property in Indianapolis for $5.2 million with an average remaining lease term of approximately 7 years and a GAAP cap rate of 7.2%; a 321,000 square foot three-building portfolio in Houston, St. Louis, and Charlotte for $34.6 million with a lease expiration date of January 31. 2040 and a GAAP cap rate of 7.6%; and 504,000 square foot cross-dock facility in Chatsworth, Georgia for $31.9 million with a lease expiration date of August 31, 2030 and a GAAP cap rate of 6.9%.The first quarter investment volume is consistent with our strategy to continue to increase our industrial allocation, and the 65,000 square foot property also adds to our Indianapolis concentration. The three-building 20-year sale lease back transaction are in markets we wish to increase our presence and the Chatsworth property is at an Inland Port location in Northwest Georgia, which coincides with our desire to acquire industrial properties at these Class I rail road terminal locations in the eastern half of the United States.Our asset management team continues to deliver on improving our same store operations. Our South Central team extended the lease for our Springfield, Missouri 78,000 square foot office tenant through May of 2026. The tenant improvement package was $5 per square foot. Our Mountain West team extended the lease for our 100,000 square foot Denver office tenant through December of 2026.The tenant improvement allowance is $15 per square foot. And our mid-west team extended the lease for our 54,000 square foot Delaware, Ohio industrial tenant through February 2028 and no tenant improvement allowance was required. These combined efforts serve to increase the weighted average lease term on our entire portfolio.And from an operational standpoint, our team is implementing energy savings improvements at three office locations in Ohio and Indiana. These programs required no capital expenditures by Gladstone, lower energy consumption in the states, upgrade building equipment and lower going forward operating cost for our tenants. We plan to implement these energy savings projects at other locations as appropriate.The onset of the COVID-19 virus has required increased emphasis on portfolio management. The company has successfully implemented a work-from-home arrangement for employees. However, our active tenant engagement program continues and is delivering positive results. With an emphasis on tenant credit, we have always engaged our tenants quarterly to discuss their recent financial performance and this strategy has established [strong ties] with each of them.During this pandemic, we have appropriately increased our connections with our tenants. Some interesting and favorable characteristics of our tenant profile were included on our business update press releases. First, [84%] of tenant revenue is from tenants on average contribute 1% or less of company revenue; and the hospitality, oil and gas, and airline industries comprise just 2.4% of annual revenue.The challenges arising as a result of the virus prompted us to immediately connect with all of our tenants, which we have completed. There have been and we expect there will be request from tenants for rent deferral and we will address them as we are notified by the respective tenant. Our strategy is to offer rent deferral not rent abatement to limit the deferral to a one-month to three-month period if at all possible and to require repayment of the deferred rent over a 6 month to 12 month period.We will also attempt to include lease extensions and rental rate increases in the agreements. Now there is no doubt that each agreement will have unique business terms. However, the key objectives are to maintain or increase core FFO per share and to return cash flow to the proper previous level, as soon as possible. Specific noteworthy highlights of our teams rent collection performance through April are as follows.All cash-based rent from March was paid as scheduled and approximately 98% of April schedule based rent has been paid. The company granted rent deferrals to three tenants in April representing approximately 2% of total monthly rental income. These tenants continue to pay partial rent, the deferrals ranged from 1.5 to 3 months and the payback period ranges from 6 months to 9 months.We continue to be in conversation with other tenants requesting short-term concessions and we will report the results of those conversations as they evolve. And a number of tenants are taking advantage of the federal programs available to them and we're hopeful of positive outcomes on their applications. Anticipating that many on the call are interested in lease expirations through the beginning of 2021, I wanted to summarize the team's thoughts in our current activities.At lease expiration on March 31, 2020 a tenant vacated a 74,000 square foot multi-storey office building in Fridley, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. We have leased 50% of that building for a 10-year lease term with occupancy that commenced on April 1. We also have two 10,000 square foot prospects for the balance of the vacant space.We have lease amendments out for signature with our Raleigh, North Carolina tenant who occupies two adjacent properties: 100% of a 58,000 square foot office building; and 20% of a 115,000 square foot industrial building. The balance of the industrial building is occupied by a single tenant under a long term lease. The office lease will be extended for five years and the industrial lease for one year. No tenant improvements are required for the lease extensions.As noted last quarter, GM is expected to vacate our Austin, Texas property at the end of August. Our active marketing of the property with the assistance from the local chamber of commerce has resulted in two prospects for the entire building and two additional prospects each for approximately one-third of the building. It’s interesting to note that our GAAP rent at the property of $14.50 per square foot compares very favorably in the submarket with current space offerings in the low-to-mid $20 per square foot on a triple net basis.And for the balance of the expiring tenants for the first quarter of 2021, we are in active conversations and are hopeful of positive outcomes. Market conditions are worthy of comment, particularly with the adverse effects from the onset of the COVID-19 virus. Economic forecasters are estimating that second quarter GDP may drop by double-digit numbers. This slowdown in economic activity will certainly impact our industry.Real capital analytics and noted national research firm stated that the buyer pool is shrinking for commercial properties during the first quarter. From 2016 to 2019, the U.S. market saw on average 2,100 unique buyers each month. This number reduced during the first quarter and is estimated at 790 buyers in March. This will almost certainly have a dampening effect short-term on investment sales volume as we enter the second quarter.In addition, conversation with investment sales professionals indicate that cap rates for industrial and office properties appear to be expanding in a number of markets, which could be positive long-term for everyone. [East coast ports] have reported that they are expecting import volumes for the first half of 2020 to be as much as 10% below the levels for the same period in 2019. They are expecting import volumes to expand in the third and the fourth quarter.We will continue to monitor the evolving market conditions and will adjust our strategy accordingly. And as it relates to growth opportunities, investment sales listings have moderated driven primarily by the effects of the virus. Our current pipeline of acquisition candidates approximately $255 million in volume representing 18 properties, 16 of which are industrial.Because of the stay-at-home directives in many states a number of these properties are currently in a whole position, but with some of the states opening up soon we believe that that whole position will move to more positive conditions soon. Our team is staying actively engaged in the markets as we do believe acquisition opportunities will arise and we can and will pursue.So in summary, as one may conclude, our entire team across all our disciplines are contributing to our success in overall stability. Our first quarter activities reflected strong acquisition results and leasing success, refinanced maturing mortgages, issued common equity through our ATM program, and collectively positions us well to pursue growth opportunities.Now, let’s turn it over to Mike for a report on the financial results.