Bob Cutlip
Analyst · National Securities. Your line is now open
Thanks you, Michael. Good morning, everyone. During the second quarter, we executed a lease amendment to extend a 59,000 square foot office tenant in Raleigh, North Carolina through 2025, we extended a 22,000 square foot industrial tenant in Raleigh through 2021, we extended a 5,000 square foot office tenant in Minneapolis through 2023, executed a lease to expand a tenant by 17,000 square feet in Columbus, Ohio with a lease expiration date of December 2025, extended a 26,000 square foot office in Green Tree Pennsylvania through 2031, and collected 98% of scheduled rental income for the months of April, May and June. Subsequent to quarter end, we executed a lease amendment to extend a 42,000 square foot office tenant in Richmond through 2026, sold our 347,000 square foot industrial property in Maple Heights, Ohio for $11.4 million resulting in a net capital gain of $1.2 million and collected 99% of scheduled rental income in July. As noted on our first quarter call, our investment strategy is emphasizing an increase in our portfolio of industrial allocation, which we believe will improve our property operating efficiencies, reduce capital expenditure levels, and potentially result in improved valuation over time. From January 2019, through June of 2020, our investment volume was $201 million, all of which were industrial properties providing further evidence of this commitment. Our industrial allocation has increased from 33% in January 2019 to 43% today with an objective of achieving a 60% allocation within the next 18 to 24 months. During the second quarter, our investment opportunities were limited due to the effects of COVID-19. We didn’t acquire any properties during the quarter. However sales listings have in fact increased in numbers recently and at this time, we have a 153,000 square foot industrial property in the I-70 Corridor of Indianapolis that’s in the due diligence process. The total cost is approximately $10.6 million with a 10 year remaining lease term and a GAAP cap rate of 8%. The expected closing date is September 1st. Our asset management team continued to deliver on improving our same-store operations. During the second quarter, the team executed four lease extensions, three office properties and one industrial property totaling approximately 113,000 square feet. These extensions required no tenant improvements. The team also expanded our anchored tenant by 17,000 square feet in a Columbus Ohio office property and they now occupy the entire building reconfirming the objective of our anchored multi-tenant program. And subsequent to the end of the quarter, our 42,000 square foot office tenant in Richmond Virginia extended their lease through 2026 with no tenant improvement requirements. In combination, all of these transactions increased the straight-line rent associated with these properties by approximately 14% over the extended lease terms. In reflecting on the first six months of the year, the team completed eight leasing transactions, seven of which were office properties totaling 362,000 square feet with a weighted average lease term of 6.6 years. The weighted average straight-line rent increased by 5% and the overall tenant improvement allowance was approximately $6 per square foot, which in our opinion is a very favorable number with the larger percentage office versus industrial transactions that were completed. 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 our 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 in our business update press releases, 84% of tenant revenue is from tenants who on average contribute 1% or less of company revenue. In the hospitality, oil and gas and airline industries only comprise 2.5% of annual revenue. The challenges arising as a result of the virus prompted us to immediately connect with all of our tenants at the onset which we have completed and we’ll continue to do. There has been and we expect there will be requests 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 to three month period if at all possible, to have tenants continue to pay a portion of their rent during the deferral period and to require repayment of the deferred rent over a six to twelve month period. There is no doubt that each agreement will have unique business terms. However, the key objectives are to maintain our increased core FFO per share and to return cash flow to the proper previous level as soon as possible. The company granted rent deferrals to three tenants in April representing approximately 2% of total monthly rental income throughout the second quarter. These tenants continued to pay partial rent. The deferrals ranged from 1.5 months to 3 months and the payback period ranges from 6 months to 9 months currently scheduled to end in March 2021. We expect to continue to have conversations with other tenants requesting short-term concessions and we will report the results of those conversations as they take place. And a number of our tenants are taking advantage of the federal programs available to them and we are hopeful of positive outcomes on their applications. Anticipating that many on the call are interested in lease expirations through 2020 and beyond, I wanted to summarize the teams’ thoughts and our current activities. We have one lease expiring between now and year-end that has not been negotiated, that lease is with GM and as I indicated in our first quarter call, they will vacate our Austin, Texas property at the end of August. Our active marketing of the property with assistance from the local Chamber of Commerce has resulted in eleven current prospects for the building ranging from 65,000 square feet to 320,000 square feet, which of course is the entire building. It continues to be interesting to note and report that our GAAP rent at the property of $14.50 per square foot triple net compares favorably in the sub-market with current space offerings in the low to mid-$20 per square foot on a triple net basis. Unfortunately, COVID-19 has nearly eliminated property tours in Austin unless they are virtual. We have in fact, created a virtual tour for our property and are using it through our connection with the chamber and with our brokers’ prospects. With considerable interest from the West Coast and Chicago, as well as that large Austin prospect, and Tesla’s recent decision to build a gigafactory there, we expect a positive outcome, but must remain patient and persistent with the ongoing virus impacts. Long-term, we are positive about our same-store performance as lease expirations for 2021 and 2022 average approximately 5% based on projected rental income. Therefore, overall cash flow should be stable with limited risk enabling the team to focus on growth. Market conditions are worthy of comment, particularly with the adverse effects from the onset of the COVID-19 virus. Economic forecasters are estimating that both second and third quarter GDP maybe negative, and of course their estimates do vary. This slowdown in economic activity will certainly impact our industry and has had a dampening effect on investment sales volume as April and May and I believe June volumes were down compared to 2019. And port authorities reported drops in container volume ranging from 10% to 30%, compared to the same periods last year. However, the continued interest in industrial properties, particularly those related to e-commerce has resulted in no increase in cap rates for this product type in several markets. There is however, some expansion of cap rates for smaller properties that are more manufacturing in nature and particularly for sale leaseback transactions in select markets and the sizes here are anywhere from 50,000 to 200,000 square feet. And this is a product type that matches our interest in our underwriting strength, particularly for middle market non-rated companies seeking capital to reinvest in their business. We will continue to monitor the evolving conditions and adjust our strategy accordingly. And as it relates to growth opportunities, investment sales listing have moderated driven primarily by the effect of the virus. Our current pipeline of acquisition candidates is approximately $255 million in volume representing 16 properties, all of which are industrial. Of the 16 properties, one property is in due diligence, two are in the letter of intent stage and the balance are under initial review. Because of the stay-at-home directives in many states, several of the properties in the pipeline are what I would call, a home position. Our team is staying actively engaged however in these markets as we believe acquisition opportunities will arise that we can and we will pursue. So in summary, our second quarter activities reflected strong leasing and rental collection success, continued active engagement to identify industrial acquisition opportunities and collectively positions us well to pursue growth opportunities. Now let’s turn over to my partner Mike for a report on the financial results, including our capital markets activities.