Don Miller
Analyst · Michael Lewis with SunTrust. Please proceed with your question
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's call. Before I begin my quarterly comments, I want to thank those of you who are able to attend our Orlando Investor Day event on January 17 and 18 before the weather was perfect for us to showcase our premier position in the Orlando CBD market and a great opportunity for the attendees to get a first-hand view of what is materializing in Lake Mary's TownPark mixed-use development. Our 500 TownPark build a suite project was completed on budget and a month ahead of schedule and the 88% occupancy began moving in on January 1. One of the intent to take away from the event was not just about our Orlando operations however, but also the success overall of our concentrated ownership strategy and how that same approach is being employed in other major markets such as in Boston and Burlington, Dallas submarket and in Washington DC along the RB corridor. I hope you take the time to watch the presentation we made during our Investor Day. It's available on the website for your review. Now as we review our quarterly and annual 2016 financial and operational results, you may have seen in our filings last night that the fourth quarter was an active period for us from both the leasing and transactional perspective. Regarding leasing, the amount of executed lease agreements for the fourth quarter totaled approximately 400,000 square feet, which pushed our annual total to over $2 million square feet 2 million square feet for the year. With low expirations in 2016, these completed leases allowed us to end the year at 94.2%, well above our original goal of 93%. To delve into some specific fourth quarter leasing highlights the largest two transactions for the quarter were an approximately 100,000 square foot renewal and expansion of Children's Hospital of Los Angeles' lease through 2026 at 800 North Brand Blvd. in Glendale California and 8560 Upland Dr. near Denver Colorado, a leading cable and broadband communications company signing approximately 65,000 square foot 10-year new lease. A more complete list of the larger leases signed during the quarter is detailed in the supplemental information filed last night. Overall, we're very pleased with the breath of activity that we saw all in almost all of our markets during the fourth quarter, especially late in the quarter after results of the election were known. Looking forward we want to remind you that our reported lease percentage was revived to 91.6% on January 1, 2017, primarily due to approximately 700,000 square feet being transferred from the development and lease-up classification into our in-service portfolio. The additional square footage includes enclave place in Enclave Place in Houston, 3100 Clarendon Blvd in Arlington, Virginia as well as the additional 500 TownPark in Orlando, Florida. With low lease expirations in 2017 and 2018, these development projects along with other properties such as One Independence Square, and 1201 Eye Street in Washington, DC and our recently acquired property in Las Colinas all provide us with great opportunities for further organic occupancy growth in 2017. Regarding capital transactions, we had provided guidance throughout 2016 that we had intended to be a net seller of assets. Must of that forecast hinged upon our success in closing on the sale of one of two large deals, either the 606,000 square foot two independence square property in Southwest submarket of Washington DC, that a 100% occupied by NASA or the 800 North Brand property in Glendale, California, which is anchored by Nestlé. Many of you read speculation about the Washington DC sale on the real estate trade publications over the past few months. The property is under contract with limited contingencies and is expected to close during the first half of 2017. The potential sale to two independents will allow us to decrease our ownership concentration in the Southwest Washington DC submarket. If the sale closes, we plan to use the proceeds from the disposition to pay down debt and free up capacity on our line of credit for strategic acquisitions. Given Nestlé's recent corporate headquarters move announcement, we plan on re-tenanting the 800 North Brand building over the course of the remaining term of the Nestlé lease, which runs through 2021. During the fourth quarter of 2016, we did close on two dispositions and two acquisitions. First, we completed the sale of Braker Pointe III in Austin Texas for approximately $50 million. We're particularly pleased with this sale to an owner occupant, which garnered a stabilized valuation and allowed us to exit this Austin Texas market and also allowed us to accretively recycle this capital into a value-added Dallas acquisition at 750 West John Carpenter Freeway. The Las Colinas building is approximately 315,000 square feet constructed in 1999 and 78% leased primarily to two tenants CVS Health and IBM. The acquisition also entail the purchase of a 3.5 acre adjoining developable land parcel for approximately $1 million. A strategic capital deployment presentation with more details regarding this capital recycling project is available on our website in the Investor Relations section. Additional capital transactions during the quarter, included the purchase of the 89% leased 432,000 square foot Galleria 200 property, a sister building to our 300 Gallery asset in the Northwest perimeter submarket of Atlanta. Also, we completed the sale of our four-story 100,000 square foot corporate headquarters building here in Atlanta for $14 million late in the quarter. I will now turn the call over to Bobby to review some financial and balance sheet highlights for the quarter and the year. Bobby?