Don Wood
Analyst · Bank of America. Your line is now open
Well, thank you, Britney, and good morning, everyone. So we had a big important quarter for the company here with FFO per share of $1.36, a result higher than we ever reported before with 10.6% higher than last year's third quarter. Starts on the top line with overall revenue growth of 8.4%, which flows nicely down overall property level operating income growth of 8.7%. Somewhat higher G&A from additional personnel and down below the operating line, the strength of our balance sheet paid huge dividends in the form of lower interest costs. If you sit back and you pause for a minute and really reflect on the components of that third quarter P&L, you'll start to recognize that the 5 million sources of our growth all contribute here, creating what we think is the most balanced and durable set of financial results in the business. Consider that in this third quarter, there are contributions from; Number 1, the big developments that Assembly and Pike & Rose, which added nearly $4 million more rent than last year's quarter. 2, Active redevelopments especially in Mercer Shopping Center in New Jersey, Westgate Center in San Jose, the Peterson Building in Hollywood which along with others resulted in overall same-store growth including redevelopment of 4.2%. Third, same-store growth from the core excluding redevelopment which were only 2% with the results of a purposeful and aggressive towards to get back space for redevelopment along with a tough year-over-year comp caused by lower termination and other fees this year. Four, acquisitions like CocoWalk and San Antonio Center which contributed an incremental $2.4 million in rent over last year and most importantly number 5, our balance sheet and track record that results in one of the lowest cost of debt and equity capital among REITs that really provides a level of P&L flexibility that's enviable. As an aside our entire debt portfolio with an average maturity over 10 years from now. As a weighted average interest rate of 4.07%. So excuse my baseball analogy, I know I'm going to be made fun for this, but it really fits here. If Federal were a baseball player, it would be referred to as a five tool player. Five tool players are baseball scouts lingo for a complete baseball player. One with superior arm strength, speed, defensive abilities and those who can hit for average and hit for power. Lee May's is considered one of the best five tool players of all time. And that's what we are humbly trying to mimic. Complete players. It's the completeness of the business plan. We're not dependent on anyone tool that were most proud of and that was so evident during the third quarter. Think about that. Event with 2% same-store growth FFO per share grew over 10% in the quarter and is expected to be over 7% for the year. Again, running this entity with so many arrows in our quiver, it gives us great flexibility to be able to take the longer view, a view required to maximize real estate value. I'll talk a little bit more about this because I think it's really important to any investors' decision to own Federal. When we broke the company up between core and mixed use earlier in the year and brought an additional real estate talent to lead the core, Jeff Mooallem, Michael Linson, Jarett Parker, Liz Ryan and others which caused higher level of G&A the way. We did so in order to ensure that the all-important core portfolio got the attention and aggressive asset management that it deserves to create more value and to continue to act as the strongest possible foundation to the development and acquisition pipeline. In part, that means getting control of space that has long hindered value creation in certain shopping centers. The A&P bankruptcy led a strike. We had four. One, A&P, one, Pathmark, and two, Walmarts between New Jersey and Long Island. All four leases had significant value not just to us, but to multiple parties. And if we chose to not participate in the bankruptcy process, I'm quite confident that all four leases would've been bought by someone which would have resulted in zero down time and zero lost rent in any of those spaces. And if our business plan were one-dimensional we might have let that happen. But we didn't. Nearly 185,000 feet of space and over $3 million of same-store occupancy and rent went out the door and by the way we had to pay millions of dollars to get the right to lose all that income beginning this month. We've taken an educated and calculated gamble that $6 million plus investment plus a year or more of downtime would pay back many times over not only in terms of the four walls of these grocery stores, which is how a lot of people look at the leases value, but for us a by unlocking more significant redevelopment that improve the entire shopping centers. While same-store growth and occupancy will be negatively impacted in the fourth quarter and certainly for next year, the future value of Brick Plaza in [Wilde] [ph] Township, New Jersey, Troy Shopping Center in Parsippany, New Jersey and Melville Mall on Long Island will be far higher when we're done releasing and re-developing. I don't know if we could have made that decision if same-store growth and year end occupancy were the only considerations. And yet, we could because our FFO per share growth is still expected to be 7% plus in 2015 and we strive to hit FFO per share growth of 7% in 2016. Okay. Let's back up and talk about leasing for a moment. 478,000 feet of comparable deals executed in the quarter at an average rent of 2698, 19% higher than the 2269 per foot prior tenant was paying; the leasing strength was broad with both new deals and renewals registering double-digit growth as did both anchor and small shop leases. In addition, 19 non-comparable deals done largely on the new developments representing an additional 82,000 square feet of space. So over 560,000 square feet of deals in a three-month period. There is plenty of productive leasing being done these days in virtually all markets that we do business in. That's an important point to focus on at this particular time as we assess the sustainability of the strong retail leasing market. We're betting that demand for solid retail real estate remains that way due primarily to the limited amount of great real estate locations that are available. Most good stuff is pretty well leased out. You can see it of the occupancies of most high-quality portfolios. Here is why that represents a particularly good opportunity. We're going to consciously take it the other way for a while. As I mentioned earlier, we're aggressively tasking our core team to go hard after space farming retailers and part because we want to use these favorable economic conditions to release them now. We expect to have more anchor vacancies to attack in the next few quarters than we've had in years. The A&P supermarket, I discussed our only one example. LA Fitness is former Valley's location and our Grant Park Shopping Center in Arlington, Virginia, it's another example. We're getting pretty close to our redevelopment plan that makes financial sense at that center that requires us to get that and adjacent space back in order to control enough of the shopping center to be able to execute the redevelopment. Of course, it's downtime and lost rent in the meantime. The Hudson Trail closure resulting from that company's bankruptcy at Montrose Crossing that many of you remembered from the Investor Day is another that could give us just the flexibility we've been looking for at that end of the shopping center. Of course, it's downtime and lost rent in the meantime. But basically, because of our big developments beginning to contribute, our redevelopments already in process acquisitions like CocoWalk and Sunset Place and a low leverage of balance sheet with a favorable cost of capital, we believe that the inherent balance of the plan will continue to allow us to grow earnings at roughly 7% annually which is necessary for us to double earnings over 10 years of foundational goals of our company. So far so good. And when it comes to those acquisitions and of elements, man, we have a lot going on. From continued advancement of the construction and leasing at both Pike & Rose and Assembly to the opening of the Point Development in El Segundo to critical acclaim this quarter, to the largest office deal that we've ever done with data mining technology powerhouse Splunk at 500 Santana Row, which by the way will create an immediate $75 million or so of value. So that closing on October 1 of previously referenced Sunset Place in South Miami, we have got more going on to keep our five growth buckets fully productive than ever before. Let me give you a few more updates on those big projects and then I will turn it over to Jim. At Pike & Rose, we had a strong quarter in terms of residential leasing, and by the way, I want to thank many of you for joining us there for the Investor Day about a month ago. As we reported in the past per se which is this 174 unit first residential building of the project is and remains 95% leased up and you remember that leasing began on the high-rise building we call Pallas over the summer. We currently already have 100 of the 319 units in that building leased that's faster than we anticipated and rent in line with our pro formas. The update isn't is positive on the construction site as cost overruns largely on and around the façade and the skin of the high-rise building both material cost and labors will overrun by approximately $10 million. Accordingly, we reflected that in the 8-K but still expect to complete Pallas lease up as scheduled throughout 2016. Construction is underway on the second phase. At Assembly, construction on the Partners Healthcare Complex is proceeding very well and we're hopeful that many of the 4000 plus employees expected at that location will begin occupying the space by midyear 2016. The balance of the second phase of Assembly Row is now underway. Turning to 500 Santana Row, in addition to the strong financial return from this Splunk deal that return brace of trust we're really excited to have the incremental daytime office traffic and the added in complementary parking that it adds surrounding out Santana Row. With Apple's new headquarters being built just 4 miles down the road and the Splunk deal signed at Santana, the rest of the build-out at the balance of Santana Row as well as the 12 acres across the street that we call Santana West will be lower risk and more valuable. Construction remains on time and on schedule for 2017 rent start in Splunk building. And finally in South Miami, the deal that we have been referring to all year, finally closed on October 1, and I trust you've all seen the detail in the acquisition press release. The demographics surrounding this 10 acres that make up Sunset Place are among the strongest in our portfolio and we're actively looking at redevelopment and re-merchandising plans and schemes. I'm going to resist talking about those redevelopment plans and schemes in those possibilities until we're confident in what it is that we can do, but in the meantime, we should yield above 6% on our nearly $100 million investment for 85% before our interest costs. That is it for my prepared remarks, I will turn it over to Jim, and I look forward to your questions afterwards.