Conor C. Flynn
Analyst · Wells Fargo Securities
Good morning, everyone. Today, I will begin by outlining our progress on acquisitions and dispositions, and then cover the progress on our redevelopments. Finally, I will recap the leasing and operations activity for the quarter. We continue to simplify the business model by acquiring JV interests, and most recently announced that we acquired the remaining 60.9% interest in the high-quality KIF portfolio. These assets are predominantly grocery-anchored with strong sales located in our key markets. The 12 properties totaling 1.5 million square feet for a gross price of $408 million translates to a blended implied cap rate of 5.9%. However, when considering the KIF promote we received, the effective cap rate is 6.4%. It's also worth noting that 9 out of the 12 assets are unencumbered. 2 of the 12 assets do not meet our quality and growth criteria and will be sold individually as we continue to stick to our knitting of transforming and simplifying. In the first quarter, we acquired 5 high-quality shopping centers totaling 900,000 square feet, amounting to a gross purchase price of $216 million, including $113 million of mortgage debt at an implied cap rate of 6.1%. These include the acquisition of 3 grocery-anchored properties from the LaSalle joint venture, where we purchased the remaining 89% interest. The 3 properties totaling 316,000 square feet are located in the Greater Baltimore area and have an occupancy level of 97.6% at an average base rent of $19.49 a foot. Included in this package is York Road Plaza, a Giant-anchored shopping center doing over $800 of per foot sales. In one-off transactions, we acquired 2 large well-positioned properties in North Carolina. Crossroads Plaza is the dominant power center, located in the affluent and highly educated Research Triangle of Cary. The approximately 490,000 square foot site is anchored by Ross, HomeGoods, Marshalls, Stein Mart, Michaels, Best Buy, PETCO, Old Navy and ULTA. Combined with our adjacent properties, we now own over 900,000 square feet at this dominant intersection. With the acquisition of Crossroads, Kimco now has 9 shopping centers comprising 2 million square feet in the Raleigh MSA, which is ranked as 1 of the fastest-growing MSAs by Forbes. Quail Corners, located in Charlotte, is a 110,000 square foot Harris Teeter-anchored shopping center. Quail Corners' surrounding area boasts an average household income of over $100,000. And the acquisition offers an additional value creation opportunity with a fully entitled undeveloped outparcel. Turning to dispositions. As mentioned in our recent press release, Kimco sold ownership interest in 11 U.S. properties during the first quarter, including 7 wholly-owned and 4 unconsolidated properties held in joint ventures, for a gross sales price of $63.7 million, including $14 million of mortgage debt and a blended implied cap rate of 9.1%. Our share of the proceeds was $42.1 million. Subsequently after the quarter, 4 additional assets were sold for $18.5 million with $11.3 million in Kimco proceeds. One of the properties that were sold include a few stay alive [ph] assets, the demographics and long-term growth profile were not commensurate with our future portfolio goals. As we outlined at our Investor Day in December, a key driver of our strategy is a more aggressive approach to selling low-growth and noncore assets and reinvesting in our key territories, focusing on above-average growth and redevelopment potential. We are accelerating the company's planned level of dispositions. Currently, we are negotiating contracts for sale of 40 U.S. properties for a gross sales price of approximately $344 million and we are planning to market an additional 60 properties for sale. Redevelopments continue to enhance the portfolio in numerous ways. And 2014 will be a big year for Kimco as we look to add projects to the pipeline in addition to completing and activating numerous projects this year. In the first quarter alone, we completed $24 million in redevelopment projects, providing an incremental yield of 10.4%. Tri-City Plaza, located in the Tampa MSA, is one of the larger redevelopment projects to become active this quarter. The $31 million redevelopment is undergoing a massive repositioning, where we will be demolishing 90% of the square footage and creating a vibrant new offering that includes new buildings for LA Fitness, Sports Authority, Ross as well as numerous restaurants. This exciting makeover will add over $2.8 million of incremental NOI. We are cautiously optimistic that the demand from best-in-class retailers will continue to fuel growth at our top performing assets and increase future redevelopment opportunities. Currently, our redevelopment pipeline totals $792 million, including $260 million of active redevelopment projects, $278 million under design review and $254 million in the evaluation phase. This report is fluid and projects take time to ramp up. Still I am encouraged by our progress over the past year and believe we can continue to deliver projects that will improve Kimco's net asset value while providing a strong incremental return to our shareholders. Moving on to leasing metrics. U.S. same-site NOI growth of 2% was fueled primarily by rent commencements that added $5.2 million in base rent and an improved overall credit loss across the portfolio. The effective snow removal cost impacted our recoveries by a negative 40 basis points. Redevelopments contributed 5 basis points to same-site NOI. We expect same-site NOI to strengthen during the remainder of the year as numerous redevelopments come online, previously executed leases begin to start paying rent and renewals and options are executed at positive rates, a trend that's continued for 15 straight quarters. In the U.S., we signed 153 new leases for a total of 777,000 square feet. Overall occupancy, while remaining flat in 94.5% quarter-over-quarter, reverses a 4-year trend of a postholiday dip. Drilling down, pro rata U.S. occupancy increased 100 basis points year-over-year, down 20 basis points from prior quarter due to anticipated fallout from a few anchor spaces. Anchor occupancy dipped 30 basis points pro rata versus prior quarter. Small shop occupancy increased 40 basis points to 85.6% compared to prior quarter. Year-over-year, it is up 160 basis points. This quarter, small shop occupancy increase is an encouraging sign and was primarily driven by positive net absorption. Activity in the small shops comes predominantly from national small shop operators, regional players and franchisees. But we are starting to see numerous hair and nail salons as well as other local service units come back into our centers. An area that showed strong positive net absorption in our small shop space was medical use, such as physician offices and urgent care facilities. In total, we have 14 new medical deals, which accounted for over 46,000 square feet, paying an average base rent of $21.62 a foot. Medical service use, along with restaurants and personal care services, increase the strength of our small shop population. They're Internet-resistant and drive traffic to the center on a recurring basis. A notable new international retailer we welcomed to our portfolio this quarter in California is Aki-Home, part of the 300-store Japanese Nitori furniture group. Our outstanding new leases of 50% was driven by across-the-board double-digit positive spreads on junior anchors, mid-sized shops and small shops. Some highlights include the recapture of an expired pad ground lease was paying less than $1 a foot and we execute a new lease with the National Optometry at nearly $30 a foot at Evergreen Square. Other highlights include new leases with TJ Maxx, HomeGoods, Sports Authority, PetSmart, CVS and Shoe Carnival, all paying significantly higher rents than the previous tenants. The average base rent of new deals was $16.50 a foot, which illustrates the mark-to-market growth we have embedded in our portfolio that will continue to create future upside for Kimco shareholders. Renewals and option leasing spreads posted a 4.6% pro rata increase. And overall leasing spread in the U.S. increased 8.8% and have now been positive for 13 straight quarters. Overall, we continue to improve the portfolio by consistently executing on our three-pronged strategy of transformation, simplification and redevelopment. Further proof of the strengthening of the portfolio is the steady increase in average base rent per square foot. We reported a pro rata ABR this quarter of $13.18 a foot, a $0.19 increase quarter-over-quarter and a $0.52 increase year-over-year, evidence that transformation is taking shape as we work tirelessly to unlock the value for our shareholders. And with that, I will turn it over to Milton.