LXP Industrial Trust (LXP) Q1 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Good morning, and thank you for standing by. My name is John, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the LXP Industrial Trust First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Heather Gentry, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Welcome to LXP Industrial Trust First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. The earnings release was distributed this morning and both the release and quarterly supplemental are available on our website in the Investors Section and will be furnished to the SEC on a Form 8-K. Certain statements made during this conference call regarding future events and expected results may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. LXP believes that these statements are based on reasonable assumptions. However, certain factors and risks, including those included in today's earnings press release and those described in reports that LXP files with the SEC from time to time could cause LXP's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Except as required by law, LXP does not undertake a duty to update any forward-looking statements. In the earnings press release and quarterly supplemental disclosure package, LXP has reconciled all non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. Any references in these documents to adjusted company FFO refer to adjusted company funds from operations available to all equity holders and unitholders on a fully diluted basis. Operating performance measures of an individual investment are not intended to be viewed as presenting a numerical measure of LXP's historical or future financial performance, financial position or cash flows. On today's call, Will Eglin, Chairman and CEO; and Nathan Brunner, CFO, will provide a recent business update and commentary on first quarter results. Brendan Mullinix, CIO; and James Dudley, Executive Vice President and Director of Asset Management, will be available for the Q&A portion of this call. I will now turn the call over to Will.

Thank you, Heather, and good morning, everyone. Following the successful execution of our key strategic initiatives in 2025, including strengthening our balance sheet, increasing occupancy and resolving our big box vacancy. This year, we are focused primarily on creating value in our land bank and addressing our near-term expirations and existing vacancy. We've executed 3.2 million square feet of new leases and lease renewals year-to-date, highlighted by the successful outcome at our 1.1 million square foot facility in the Greenville-Spartanburg market. Additionally, we leased over 300,000 square feet of vacancy and extended the lease on an 850,000 square foot facility in San Antonio for 10 years. Industrial fundamentals continue to trend in the right direction with first quarter U.S. net absorption of approximately 40 million square feet, representing the strongest first quarter in 3 years. Our target markets made up approximately 29 million square feet or 72% of U.S. net absorption, demonstrating continued strength in our markets, particularly in Phoenix, Indianapolis, Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Atlanta and Columbus. These positive trends are reflected in our strong leasing momentum year-to-date as well as our forward pipeline in which we are in active discussions on 7.4 million square feet of development and redevelopment leasing vacancy and expirations through 2027. Leasing activity continues to be the strongest for large-format facilities, especially for those of 1 million square feet or more. We are also seeing increased demand from data center-related tenancy and manufacturing suppliers and industries in our markets. Leasing volume of 1.8 million square feet during the quarter included the extension at our 1.1 million square foot facility in Greenville-Spartanburg, which added considerable value. We renewed this lease for an additional 4 years to 2031, following the initial 2-year lease signed in May 2025. This extension enhanced the 8% initial cash stabilized yield on the development project with the new cash rent representing a 5% increase over the prior rent and 3% annual rental bumps. On the remaining 700,000 square feet we leased during the quarter, we achieved base and cash-based rental increases of 34% and 24%, respectively. Construction is underway at our 1.2 million square foot Phoenix development project that we announced on our last quarterly call. Since then, the remaining 2 million square feet in the West Valley has been leased, leaving no million square foot buildings currently available in the market. We are in discussions with a prospective tenant, and we are well positioned if they proceed with a lease in the West Valley market given the limited supply of million square foot buildings. We are evaluating other development opportunities in our land bank, including in Columbus, where we have 69 acres at our Aetna land sites, which can support 3 facilities totaling roughly 1.25 million square feet. In the last 12 months, net absorption in the Columbus market was 10 million square feet, resulting in a decline in vacancy of over 300 basis points. Columbus continues to be a strong distribution market with increasing demand across product sizes, particularly in the large format space and has seen an influx of tenant activity that supports data center and advanced manufacturing facilities. To the extent we move forward with future development projects, we intend to fund them through opportunistic asset sales in our nontarget markets. As we have noted previously, acquisition activity will be selective and will be funded via 1031 exchange transactions to defer gains on dispositions. I'll now turn the call over to Nathan, who will provide a more detailed overview of our financials, leasing activity and balance sheet.

Thanks, Will. Our adjusted company FFO in the first quarter was approximately $47 million or $0.80 per diluted common share, representing 2.6% growth over the first quarter 2025. Same-store NOI growth was 2% for the quarter, which was in line with our expectations. Our stabilized portfolio was 96.6% leased at quarter end and 97.1% leased proforma for new leases signed in April, in line with year-end 2025. We are maintaining both our 2026 adjusted company FFO guidance range of $3.22 to $3.37 per common share and 2026 same-store NOI growth guidance range of 1.5% to 2.5% with regard to the cadence of same-store growth for the remainder of the year, we anticipate that second quarter same-store NOI growth will be lower than the first quarter, reflecting the impact of first quarter move-outs and timing of lease commencement for new leases signed year-to-date. These new leases are expected to contribute to higher same-store NOI growth in the second half of the year. G&A in the first quarter was approximately $10.3 million, with full year 2026 G&A expected to be within a range of $39 million to $41 million. Turning to leasing. We continue to make good progress on 2026 expirations and have addressed approximately 3.7 million square feet or 57% of our total 2026 lease roll with an average cash rental increase of approximately 25%, excluding 2 fixed rate renewals. Will highlighted some of the larger leases that we executed year-to-date, and I'll touch on a handful of other notable leasing outcomes. During the quarter, we renewed 352,000 square feet at our 640,000 square foot facility in Charlotte, North Carolina for a 3-year term with 3.5% annual escalators, representing a 42% cash rental increase. We are actively marketing the remaining 288,000 square feet of the property, which expires in October 2026. Subsequent to quarter end, we extended the lease with the tenant that occupies 270,000 square feet at our multi-tenant facility in the Savannah market, which was a July 30 expiration. The 10-year lease extension with 3% annual escalators represents a cash rental increase of 19% over the prior rent. With respect to 2027 expiration, post quarter, we extended the lease at our 850,000 square foot facility in San Antonio for a 10-year lease term with 2.75% annual escalators. The lease extension commences in May 2027 with a 25% cash rental increase. We're encouraged by the active discussions underway on 4.6 million square feet of the 2026 and 2027 lease roll, including several of our larger facilities. We've leased 330,000 square feet of vacancy year-to-date. During the quarter, we leased 85,000 square feet in Indianapolis to a tenant involved in data center development, achieving a 34% cash rental increase. Post quarter, we leased our 250,000 square foot facility in the Houston market for a 7-year term with 3.75% annual escalators. The new Houston lease commences in June and represents a 25% cash rental increase. LXP's balance sheet remains in great shape with net debt to annualized adjusted EBITDA of 5.1x at quarter end. We had $1.3 billion of cash on the balance sheet at quarter end, and our $600 million revolving credit facility was undrawn and fully available. As we highlighted on our last call, the recast of our $600 million revolving credit facility and $250 million term loan in January extended the company's debt maturity profile and reduced interest costs, further strengthening the balance sheet and providing financial flexibility. Finally, we repurchased 325,000 shares in the quarter at an average price of $48.70 per share. With that, I'll turn the call back over to Will.

Thanks, Nathan. In summary, we're pleased with first quarter results and our strong leasing outcomes year-to-date. As we move through the year, we will remain focused on executing our strategic priorities, including disciplined capital deployment, pursuing value-enhancing growth opportunities, leasing our Phoenix spec project and remaining vacancies and driving mark-to-market rent growth. As the leasing market continues to improve, we're confident that our forward leasing pipeline of over 7 million square feet will result in numerous attractive leasing outcomes that produce strong mark-to-market results. With that, I'll turn the call back over to the operator.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Todd Thomas with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

A couple of questions. One, on the -- you talked Will, about the lack of big box space in some of your major markets, including Phoenix, where you broke ground. Can you talk about how that's impacting the market? Are you seeing that translate into pricing power, better discussions around prospective rent growth or urgency from tenants? And then would you look to sort of derisk and pre-lease that development project? Or do you think it probably affords better return opportunities to hold off until it's closer to completion and delivery?

Yes, sure. Thanks, Todd. I think as we expected in Phoenix since our last call, the last 2 million-foot competitive buildings have leased. So we're essentially in a great position on that facility that we've started. We do have a prospect that we're working fairly closely with, but nothing to report today. I think we would prefer to pre-lease and derisk the investment and lock in a profit and then move on because there are other good opportunities in the land bank. You mentioned Columbus, that's another one that we think sets up pretty well for us. The big box demand is doing very well. And at the moment, we're quite optimistic about the outcome on Phoenix for sure.

Okay. And then, Nathan, you indicated 57% of the 26 expirations have been addressed. I think that included some of the activity that occurred in April. Can you just provide an update on the remaining 26 expirations in terms of your expectations there, if there's any known move-outs?

Todd, this is James. I'll take it. We've got really good activity on the remaining 2026 and the majority of which we're expecting to renew. We do have a few small known move-outs that are remaining. We've got a 97,000 square foot space in our multi-tenant building in Columbus, where we're expecting the tenant to move out. We're marking that to lease. We've got good activity on that one. And then I guess touching on a couple of the new vacancies that we had, too. We had the Tampa move out, the 230 that we've got some decent activity on recently and also the 120 that just moved out in the first quarter as well in Greenville-Spartanburg that we've got really good activity on. And then we've also got a very small lease in Greenville-Spartanburg of 70,000 square feet that we expect the tenant to potentially move out of and another one for 163,000 square feet in Greenville-Spartanburg that move out. So small move-outs, good activity in a strong market and the Greenville-Spartanburg stuff is concentrated mostly around the park that we own. So we've got a lot of different things we can do there from a size perspective and moving tenants around, we're talking to the tenants that are in or around in that space in the park currently trying to figure out if some want to expand. So again, good activity on that upcoming vacancy and the vacancy that we had in the first quarter.

Okay. That's helpful. And just lastly, I guess, the 1.8 million square feet of vacancy, that opportunity in the portfolio, you estimate it to be about $0.32 a share. Is there anything embedded in guidance related to the lease-up of that vacant space that would hit or that's included in the guidance this year?

Yes. Todd, maybe the way I'd frame that is back to kind of the underlying drivers of the guidance. And they're pretty much unchanged versus our Q4 earnings call. That is average occupancy for the portfolio at the midpoint is about 96.5% which is essentially in line with where we finished Q1 or a little above that with some of the activity we had in April. At the high end of guidance, average occupancy be 97% and at the low end, average occupancy would be 96%.

Our next question comes from the line of Anthony Paolone with JPMorgan.

Given the comments on Columbus, what's the likelihood that you start a project or two this year?

It's Brendan. Nothing to announce today, but as has been noted, the fundamentals in Columbus are very positive today. We've been seeing a lot of demand from both data center-related uses and manufacturing as well as the demand drivers that have existed in that [indiscernible] market for some time. At the moment, we can -- we're -- in order to position ourselves with the most flexibility, we're doing predevelopment work, including design work on 3 different sized buildings there. We can build a total of 1.25 million. And that will just allow us the maximum flexibility to respond to where we see the most favorable supply and demand.

Okay. And is the pipeline outside of what you have on your balance sheet right now for things like build-to-suits and development? Has that changed much? Is there much activity there with any other developers that you might be working with right now?

Well, I should have also added too, just with respect to the existing land bank, we are additionally responding to build-to-suit interest at both our Columbus sites and our Phoenix sites. So there's that build-to-suit opportunity in the land bank as well as considering speculative development if the fundamentals are there and remain there. With respect to other opportunities, yes, we do have conversations with the merchant builder relationships that we have from time to time about build-to-suit opportunities outside of our land bank as well. But nothing imminent to report on today on that front.

Okay. And then just last one, the stock buyback, just you've done a little bit there. What's the appetite at current levels? And just how does it fit into the capital allocation right now?

Development is a better investment from our standpoint with respect to creating shareholder value. So we have some liquidity that we can use for buyback opportunistically. But what's happening in the development there, especially in Phoenix is a much larger driver of value creation.

Our next question comes from the line of Vince Tibone with Green Street.

A question for Nathan. I'm curious within guidance, how much new leasing is kind of baked into the low end, high end? Because it sounds like you have a pretty good pulse on known move-outs and retention rates. So just trying to get a sense of do you need to lease another 300,000 square feet of existing vacancies or move-outs to hit the midpoint? Or is it lower? Just trying to get a sense of the kind of different outcomes besides just move-outs on the new leasing side that could move the numbers within guidance, whether it be same-store or FFO.

Yes, Vince. So going back to James' answer a little earlier in the Q&A here. We have 3 known move-outs essentially in the second half, which is roughly 550,000 square feet. So in the context of our earnings guidance at the midpoint, we're essentially saying that on average during the year, including Q1, occupancy will be 96.5%, which is in line with Q1. So the guidance at the midpoint essentially assumes that we have new leasing activity with regard to all of that move-out activity. And then so if you look to the high end of guidance where average occupancy is 97%, there's obviously incremental new leasing beyond the 550 of move-outs.

No, that's helpful. And just a follow-up. It looks like just some quick math. It looks like the retention rate is going to be higher than we previously projected. Is that fair? I think on the last call, you indicated it would be about 70% and it looks like just given the first quarter move-outs and the 500 you mentioned there, it looks like retention will be yes, closer to 90%, if my math is right, in the 80s. Is that -- is my logic correct there?

We're building in some buffer for unknown situations that they come up. There's always something that comes up in the back half of the year that you're expecting. So there's some buffer. Our guidance is still based on 70% to 80% retention.

Got it. And then just last one from me. Just on the -- you mentioned if you're going to proceed with any new developments, you would likely fund it with dispositions -- is there any chance you look to sell out of the cold JV or the remaining net lease office JVs? Or kind of what's the strategic rationale to hold on to those joint venture assets that are now very different from the rest of the portfolio?

Well, yes, there's not much left in the office JV, Vince, and we have been sort of liquidating that as quickly as the market will bear. In the other industrial joint venture, we're a 20% partner there. So it's -- with the majority partners entirely up to us. We do have some opportunities to make some good sales in that portfolio. So we do expect that it will shrink modestly over time. But it's an investment that produces a pretty high return on equity for us, and it keeps us with a modest exposure to the manufacturing business, which gives us some insights into the logistics demand in some of those manufacturing hubs that we're invested in.

Our next question comes from the line of Jim Kammert with Evercore.

I think, Nathan, you mentioned 4.6 million square feet or so of lease renegotiations for new lease expirations. How much or does any of that encompass you guys two big Nissan deals in early '27 and then 1 million square footer in Jackson, Tennessee. Any color or updates on those would be appreciated. I didn't know if that was in your 4.6 million square feet.

Jim, it's James again. I guess I'll touch on the 2027. Yes, we've got a number of chunky leases in 2027, and we're in advanced negotiations in some cases and definitely talking to all the tenants for these large boxes and expect a very high rate, if not 100% renewal on the big boxes that we have that includes Nissan.

Our next question is from the line of Mitch Germain with Citizens Bank.

I think, Will, you mentioned any new development would be matched with -- or new potential development would be matched with asset sales. Is that -- are you going to sell ahead of the project commencement and kind of sit on those proceeds like you've done at the end of 4Q with Phoenix? Or how should we think about the cadence regarding how that process could play out?

No, I think it's preferable to match fund sales with stabilized outcomes for development. So we had some disposition activity last year that left us in a very strong cash position to fund the project in Phoenix. But I think we would prefer to hold on to the income from the assets that we might sell to fund development and try to match things better.

Got you. And then last one for me. Obviously, a significant amount of demand acceleration happening in the industrial sector. You mentioned a 7-plus million square foot pipeline. Any sort of themes, industries that you're seeing that are driving more demand versus others?

Brendan touched on it a little bit. We've seen a big uptick in data center adjacent demand in a number of our markets, and we're fortunate to be placed well for those potential tenants as well. You've seen a couple of big leases get done for Meta and for AWS in Phoenix that took down a couple of the big boxes there. There's been a lot of new activity in Columbus that's data center related as well. And then we've got our Richmond redevelopment where there's a big Google data center campus going in next door. So I think that's one of the things I would point out. There's also continue to be growth in supplier demand for advanced manufacturers that we're seeing continue to grow and develop their different opportunities. I'll bring Phoenix up again with TSMC moving along and some of the ancillary demand that's popped up there. So we're starting to see a pickup there. So manufacturing and data center adjacent, I think, has definitely been the recent theme and a big pickup in the demand.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Jon Petersen with Jefferies.

Just one quick question for me. The senior notes that are due in '28, the $160 million with a 6.75% interest rate. Can you remind us, are those callable early? Like should we think about you taking those all the way to maturity? Or should we assume you're able to refinance those early?

They have a make call structure. So they're technically callable, but it requires the payment of premium.

Thank you. And at this time, we have no further questions. I will now turn the call back over to Will Eglin for closing remarks.

We appreciate everyone joining our call this morning, and we look forward to updating you on our progress over the balance of the year. Thanks again for joining us today.

This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect your lines. Have a pleasant day.