Thomas Bardenett
Analyst · KeyBanc Capital Markets.
Yes, great question. When we look at CBD, and you're right, how the market works, and I'll talk a little bit about Silicon Valley differently. But when I look at CBD, Austin, this is back-to-back quarters of 19% growth in our CBD assets. And you know we have our Marriott and our Courtyard there. What we're encouraged in third quarter is that's in the fact that Salesforce moved from September to October, and we still had that growth. So, we were pleased to see that the convention center is the hub, and that really was the beginning stages of where CBD had its growth year-over-year. In addition to that, though, we're seeing a lot of things happen in the AI space. And even the conventions that are coming in for that are increasing in regards to the amount of attendance that's happening. So back to office, office demand was up about 102%. We were just on the phone with SF Travel. They talked specifically about the leasing and additional space that's coming in under the AI. I guess there's about 5 million square feet today that's AI, and they're predicting about 30 million square feet by 2030. So that's encouraging that CBD will continue to grow. And the convention calendar is in good shape next year, not only because of Super Bowl and FIFA, but just they're getting more corporate accounts to come back based on the political environment. It's just a safe and clean place. And I think people are encouraged. Their whole campaign about Believe in San Francisco, I think, is drawing more international travel as well. And then when I think about Silicon Valley, it's about back-to-office tech companies. You see the demand coming from NVIDIA, Tesla, all the different companies that are out in that section. We continue to see BT grow Santa Clara, San Jose, Palo Alto, which is where most of our assets are. And so, we're encouraged that San Francisco is not just CBD, but it's also happening in Silicon Valley.