Art Suazo
Analyst · Robert W. Baird. Please proceed with your question
Thanks, Victor. In Silicon Valley, large deals are supplementing small deal activity and driving absorption, even with the 3.9 million square feet of new deliveries Class A vacancy of 11.7% and asking rents of $66 per square foot, remained unchanged in the quarter. The unit volume was up 63% quarter-over-quarter and a 145% year-over-year at 2.4 million square feet. We've got late activity in campus center. Last call, we referenced six proposals representing 1.4 million square feet of net new requirements. This was before we even completed improvements to adequately show the asset. Those deals went elsewhere but they were all signed in Milpitas, all adjacent to Silicon Valley market. Outside of those proposals, we've seen another 6 million square feet where 22 large block deals in the market, all met new demand and mostly targeting Santa Clara or North or Downtown San Jose, about 2 million of that site which takes even more product off the market. So, right now we're looking -- we're working with 15 requirements representing an aggregate of 4 million square feet. Those range from about 50,000 square feet to 4 billion users truly our sweets spot. We are well positioned as we get ready to formally launch Campus Center into the market with a huge broker event in mid-March. The asset has been transformed and shows exceptionally well. I've a couple of other comments about the valley. Over the last several quarters, we've consistently seen lots of demand for smaller sub-10,000 square foot users. We have completed 29 deals at those assets this quarter and the average deal size was about 4,000 square feet, but now we are also seeing resurgence in demand for medium size blocks. We have 12 10,000 to 25,000 square feet spaces for lease with about 82% of those in proposals at arrive or leases. In San Jose, we are working with large tenants on renewals and expansions and into a great activity over it gateway. So we're activated on all fronts and we feel good about addressing our 354,000 square feet of explorations in the valley this year. Those were about 20% below market. As Victor noted, we also have good activity furthermore along with Peninsula. This was the fourth consecutive quarter of occupancy gains with the 162,000 square feet of positive net absorption net absorption. Class A vacancy fell 80 basis points quarter-over-quarter to 6.9% and 210 basis points year-over-year. Class A asking rates were flat in the quarter, but still up 11% year-over-year and at $84 per square foot. Palo Alto square is a great success story for us. We’ve now completed our significant and capital improvement and we really modernized the facility both in terms of design and amenities. Historically as you know, this property appeal to professional service firms but our improvement has allowed us to tap into tech demand. Post Q4, we signed a 40,000 square foot lease with tech company Orbital Insight and we brought in specialties café and bakery for about 500,000 square feet and the property is now 89% leased. We still have significant wood to chop this year in the Peninsula as we have 496,000 square feet of expirations, but those leases are 26% below market. So we’ve got room to get deals done. The strength of the tech industry is very evident in downtown, San Francisco. Expanding tech companies were responsible for 14 of 30 large lease transactions in 2017. That’s a record 3.9 million square feet of deals contributing to 762,000 square feet of positive net absorption. Class A vacancy ended the year down 90 basis points at 5.1% and asking rents stayed flat at $76 per square foot. Clearly with 2018 construction delivers already 84% pre-leased, the city is going to continue to be a landlord-favorable market. Our stabilized portfolio was 98% leased in San Francisco and we have about 113,000 square feet of expirations, which are about 10% below market. In Los Angeles, Q4 occupancy gains were driven by seven large deals north of 100,000 square feet. Several of those were tech and media related. In Hollywood, vacancy stayed flat at 13.4% while Class A asking rents were up 2% in the quarter and 5% year-over-year at $55 per square foot. For EPIC, our demand pipeline now exceeds 3 million square feet, including multiple full building requirement. At full contraction, we have about 100,000 square feet in proposals, LOIs, order leases ranging from 5,000 to 75,000 square-foot requirement. And we had another 500,000 square feet of tours and inquiries to-date. We're feeling a comparable amount of activity from Maxwell, and we're still targeting large users for that project. Our stabilized portfolio of Los Angeles is 98% leased, we have about 133,000 square feet expirations this year and those leases were approximately 15% below market. That’s a great spread, particularly for Los Angeles. Downtown Seattle is still driving the overall Seattle office market. Vacancy nudged up 80 basis points to 8.9% in the quarter due to new projects delivered. The rents were up 3% to $45 per square foot and the market had positive absorption of 351,000 square feet as supply remains in check. Projects delivered in the last 12 months are largely spoken for and under construction projects are 65% preleased. Although the lease commenced on November 30th, our anchored tenant Saltchuk moved into 450 Alaskan in January. It's really a stunning custom build-out and that project is currently about70% leased. We have two full office floors remaining to lease. Right now, the views on these floors are obstructed by a viaduct, which will come down early next year, but we’re seeing interest pick up as that date approaches. Obviously, there were advantages to holding for rate, but we still have over 130,000 square feet tours and enquiries from high quality tech and non-tech tenants. Our stabilized Seattle portfolio is 96.8% leased, was very little in the way of exploration this year. We're already in negotiations with tenants to backfill a significant portion of our 133,000 square feet capital one lease, which expires in 2019 at 83 King. Those deals are at a blended 54% mark to market. With that, I'll turn the call over to Mark for financial highlights.