Highwoods Properties, Inc. Q1 FY2021 Earnings Call

Good morning, and welcome to the Highwoods Properties Earnings Call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded, Wednesday, April 28. I would now like to turn the conference over to Brendan Maiorana, Executive Vice President, Finance. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and good morning. Joining me on the call this morning are Ted Klinck, our Chief Executive Officer; Brian Leary, our Chief Operating Officer; and Mark Mulhern, our Chief Financial Officer. As is our custom, today's prepared remarks have been posted on the Web. If any of you have not received yesterday's earnings release or supplemental, they're both available on the Investors section of our website at highwoods.com. On today's call, our review will include non-GAAP measures such as FFO, NOI, and EBITDAre. Also, the release and supplemental include a reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures. Forward-looking statements made during today's call are subject to risks and uncertainties, which are discussed at length in our press releases as well as our SEC filings. As you know, actual events and results can differ materially from these forward-looking statements, and the company does not undertake a duty to update any forward-looking statements. One of the most significant factors that could cause actual outcomes to differ materially from our forward-looking statements is the ongoing adverse effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on our financial condition, operating results, and cash flows, our customers, the real estate market in which we operate, the global economy, and the financial markets. The extent to which the pandemic impacts us and our customers will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted with confidence, including the scope, severity, and duration of the pandemic and its ongoing impact on the U.S. economy and potential changes in customer behavior, among others. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Ted.

Thanks, Brendan, and good morning. Let me start by saying our buildings, which have remained open since the start of the pandemic, are starting to see utilization rates rise, albeit modestly. We estimate portfolio utilization is around 30%, up about 5% from three months ago. Generally, small and medium-sized customers are returning to their offices faster than larger users, though we are now hearing customers of all sizes planning to return to their offices over the next few months. As I mentioned last quarter, it remains difficult to predict the duration and the severity of the current recession and when leasing will return to pre-pandemic levels, but activity has definitely picked up compared to one quarter ago. During the first quarter, we signed 553,000 square feet of second-generation leases, including 247,000 square feet of new deals, roughly in line with our long-term average for new leases. The count of new deals signed was a healthy 42, also around our long-term average. In addition, we continue to see increased requests for proposals, showings, and space planning from prospects, and there are several existing customers requesting renewals far in advance of their expirations. With the improving macro environment, particularly in our markets, we're optimistic going forward. Part of our optimism stems from the numerous companies that have announced job growth plans in our markets. Companies such as Oracle, Google, Fidelity, Microsoft, Robinhood, NTT, ServiceMaster, Adecco, Airbnb, and BioGen have all announced hiring plans in our markets in just the past three months. Some are migrating from other locations, and others are expanding. Plus, just this week, Apple announced plans to build out what will become its largest campus on the East Coast, right here in Raleigh, where we'll hire over 3,000 people with average salaries of $187,000 and invest over $1 billion. Importantly, these employers are not planning major work-from-home initiatives in our markets. Rather, their major investments represent new workplaces that will bring employees together versus working from home. Rents on signed leases are naturally a little softer than they were pre-pandemic, but we believe they are holding up reasonably well, considering the challenges over the past year. For the 553,000 square feet of second-generation leases signed during the quarter, rents were modestly positive with 0.5% cash rent growth and 8.1% GAAP rent growth. On average, the movement in market rents is consistent with what we have anticipated, with net effective rents down 5% to 10% as a result of higher concessions. What we are seeing is a migration to higher-quality buildings, particularly small to medium-sized users that are seeking space in the best buildings in the BBDs across our markets. Turning to our results, we delivered FFO of $0.91 per share in the first quarter. Our same-property cash NOI growth was also strong at 5.7% and 4.8% when excluding temporary rent deferral repayments. As expected, occupancy dipped in the first quarter to 89.6%, where we expect it to remain before improving late in the year. Our first quarter results and outlook for the remainder of the year give us confidence to increase our FFO outlook to $3.54 to $3.66 per share, up $0.02 per share at the midpoint. This outlook does not include any impact from the planned investment activities we announced last week; our agreement to acquire the portfolio of office assets from Preferred Apartment Communities and ultimately fund the acquisition by accelerating the sale of non-core assets. We will update our outlook when the acquisition closes. In addition to the increase in our FFO outlook, we also raised our same-property cash NOI growth outlook to 3.5% to 5.25%, up nearly 40 basis points at the midpoint. Turning to investments, obviously, the biggest investment news for our company is the agreement to acquire a portfolio of office assets from PAC for a total investment of $769 million and the corresponding acceleration of $500 million to $600 million of non-core dispositions. We expect to close the PAC acquisition in the third quarter. As you know from our call last week, we're upbeat about this acquisition as it improves our portfolio quality, increases our long-term growth rate, and provides immediate and ongoing financial benefits. The important component of our strategy is to fund the acquisition primarily by selling non-core assets across several markets. Our plan is to sell $500 million to $600 million by mid-2022, roughly half of which we expect to close by year-end 2021. Most of the buildings teed up for sale in 2021 are fully occupied, single-tenant properties with long weighted average lease terms, which we believe will garner a strong reception from prospective buyers. These properties are already in the market and will be launched soon. We're not seeing any significant change in asset prices compared to pre-pandemic values for high-quality assets with limited near-term lease roll in the BBDs of our markets. Job and population growth that regularly exceed national averages, combined with the maturation of our cities, continues to fuel interest in Sunbelt markets. In fact, institutional investors who have historically focused only on gateway markets are now focusing on our markets, validating what we've been saying for many years. Turning to development, we placed in service two 100% leased developments that have a combined value of $108 million and encompass 345,000 square feet. Our remaining pipeline is now $394 million and is 75% pre-leased. Our $285 million Asurion project in Nashville is on time and on budget and will deliver in the fourth quarter. At Virginia Springs II, our best-in-class project in the Brentwood BBD of Nashville, we signed a 30,000 square foot lease during the quarter, which brings pre-leasing to 32%, six quarters before projected stabilization. Finally, at our office project in Midtown Tampa, prospect activity is increasing as the overall mixed-use development is nearing completion. The Element and Aloft hotels opened before the Super Bowl, the REI co-op opened in March, the Whole Foods, Shake Shack, and numerous other restaurants and retailers are scheduled to open in the coming months, and the apartments have begun leasing to new residents. Before I turn the call over to Brian, I'd like to reiterate our strong performance so far this year. To recap, in the first quarter, we collected over 99% of rents, signed 247,000 square feet of new leases, delivered two 100% leased development projects representing an investment of $108 million, and we maintained a strong balance sheet with leverage of 37% and net debt to EBITDA ratio of 5.1x. Given this performance, we have updated our 2021 per share FFO outlook with a $0.02 increase at the midpoint and raised our same-property cash NOI outlook nearly 40 basis points at the midpoint. We have limited lease rollover risk during the next few years, built-in growth from the delivery of our development pipeline, recovering momentum in our markets, and improving activity within our own leasing pipeline, and we're excited to once again deploy our proven playbook of opportunistically using our balance sheet for attractive investments, such as a planned acquisition of a desirable and resilient portfolio of office assets from PAC and then subsequently selling non-core assets with less upside to return our balance sheet to pre-acquisition metrics to reload our dry powder. In summary, we're confident that we have the ingredients in place to drive sustainable growth over the long term. Brian?

Thanks, Ted, and good morning, everyone. A resilient and diversified portfolio in markets benefiting from an acceleration of the great migration to the Southeast and a dedicated team of professionals who maintain, manage, and lease, all under one Highwoods roof enabled us to weather the unprecedented challenges of 2020. With the first quarter being the initial barometer of what the business looks like, moving from triage to recovery, we believe 2021 is off to a solid start. First, with regard to those customers who had proven needs-based rent relief earlier in the pandemic, 73% of this consideration has been repaid, and the balance is on schedule. Further, all markets where we operate are open concerning office occupancy and municipal mandates. We are seeing utilization rates rise across the portfolio and expect this trend to continue over the coming months. Our Sunbelt markets have been recognized lately for what we believe has been compelling for quite some time. The number, magnitude, and quality of inbound job creation announcements highlight the evolution of these cities into dynamic 18-hour national talent attractors. Last week, we announced the planned portfolio acquisition from PAC. This transaction will add two high barrier-to-entry Sunbelt BBDs to our portfolio, establish a bulwark in SouthPark, Charlotte with five of the eight best buildings in the submarket, and reinforce our leading position in Downtown Raleigh. We believe the PAC properties fit perfectly with our BBD strategy, high-quality assets with excellent growth prospects that will improve our near-term and longer-term cash flows. Our markets turned the page on a new year in January and have had a noted increase in activity, inbounds, tours, and RFPs. This activity translated into 553,000 square feet of second-generation leasing with GAAP rent growth of 8.1% and cash rent growth of 0.5%. As Ted mentioned, what's most encouraging is the 247,000 square feet of new leases signed in the quarter, consistent with our long-term average. Given our limited lease roll in the next few years, we expect renewal leasing volume will be lower than our historical average. As a result, we think new lease volume is an important barometer of the return of healthy activity across our markets. Occupancy did drop 70 basis points sequentially to 89.6%, but this was expected based on our expiration schedule and is a normal seasonal pattern for our portfolio. We expect occupancy to remain around current levels in the second and third quarters before rebounding late in the year. Now to our markets. Starting here in Raleigh, where on Monday, Apple announced their plans to invest over $1 billion for a new campus and engineering hub. Our 5.8 million square foot portfolio was over 91% occupied at quarter end. Our team signed 97,000 square feet of leases, and we put into service two 100% leased office buildings. We don't have any remaining development projects in our pipeline in Raleigh, but we have land that can support over 1.2 million square feet of future development and the strongest urban and suburban BBDs in the market. While clearly the plum reward of a competitive exercise, Apple's announcement this week joins Google, Fidelity, Fujifilm, Eli Lilly, and Xerox, as the latest in a string of notable announcements to create or grow offices in Raleigh. As you know, Charlotte has long been a priority for us, and expansion at the right time and in the right location has been on our radar since our reentry in the fall of 2019. Our acquisitions from PAC will double our presence in the Queen City, which, similar to Raleigh, saw over 10,000 new jobs announced over the past few years. While new supply increased across the city during the past several years, there are no projects currently under construction in SouthPark, and rents increased at or near 6% CAGR from 2013 through 2020. Moving West to Music City, Amazon's previous headline-grabbing 5,000 job announcement in Nashville was recently surpassed by Oracle's commitment to invest $1.2 billion in the city with its planned 1.2 million square foot campus for 8,500 new employees downtown along the East Bank of the Cumberland River. By the end of the first quarter, our 4.6 million square foot portfolio in Nashville was 93% occupied. Our team had signed over 130,000 square feet of leases in the quarter, and we've started to see some increased usage of our parking garages. We continue to pay close attention to supply in Nashville, but we're comforted by the limited amount of supply outside of the CBD and Gulch, where we have no meaningful lease expirations until 2025. At our 111,000 square foot Virginia Springs II development in Brentwood, we used our omni-channel marketing platform to secure a 30,000 square foot customer, bringing the building to 32% pre-leased in advance of its estimated stabilization date of the third quarter of 2022. We remain on budget and on schedule with Asurion's 553,000 square foot global headquarters, which will be placed into service in the fourth quarter this year. This will anchor our development in the Gulch, where we have a fantastic mixed-use land assemblage and where we can develop an additional 1 million square feet. Plus, we can develop another 1 million square feet in Cool Springs at our Ovation mixed-use development. Not to be outdone by its Tennessee neighbor, Atlanta, where we signed 117,000 square feet in the quarter with solid GAAP rent growth is further solidifying its status as a major tech hub, ranking third nationally in startups. Cushman & Wakefield is predicting Atlanta will add more than 20,000 new tech jobs by 2030, a number already threatened by Microsoft's 15,000 job announcement in February, which in its own words, puts Atlanta on the path toward becoming one of Microsoft's largest hubs in the United States in the coming decade after the Puget Sound and the Silicon Valley. In closing, our markets and portfolio have proven resilient, and we believe will grow stronger as the nation emerges from the pandemic and recession. Highwoods is in the workplace-making business and it’s through the workplaces we create that our customers can achieve together what they cannot apart. By doing this, we believe our buildings will remain locations of choice and combined with strong demographic trends across our footprint, provide a strong tailwind for our fundamentals. Mark?

Thanks, Brian. In the first quarter, we delivered a net income of $54.5 million or $0.52 per share and FFO of $97.5 million or $0.91 per share. The quarter included the $31 million sale of the FAA building in Atlanta and the acquisition of our partner's 75% interest in the Forum office portfolio in Raleigh for a $138 million incremental investment. Both of these transactions closed in January. And in March, we delivered GlenLake Seven, our $44 million, 125,000 square foot development in Raleigh that is 100% leased. Other than these investment activities, there were no other significant items in the first quarter that impacted our financial results. FFO accelerated sequentially from the fourth quarter, primarily driven by lower operating expenses, lower G&A, and the acquisition of the Forum using cash on hand. In addition to our solid FFO, our cash flows continue to strengthen, something that we have often highlighted, but where it's clearly materializing in our reported results. The improvement in cash flow is driven by the delivery of our development projects over the past few years and continuously recycling out of older, more CapEx-intensive properties into newer, more capital-efficient assets. Our balance sheet is in excellent shape. We recast our revolving line of credit and increased our borrowing capacity from $600 million to $750 million, reduced the borrowing spread 10 basis points to LIBOR plus 90 basis points and extended the maturity to March 2025 plus two six-month extension options. We ended the quarter with $49 million of cash on hand. In April, we used cash on hand plus borrowings on our revolver to repay the remaining $150 million of June 2021 bonds at par and funded the $50 million earnest money deposit for the planned acquisition of office assets from PAC. As of now, we have nearly $600 million of remaining capacity on our revolver, only $66 million left to fund of our $394 million development pipeline, and no debt maturities until November 2022. The total investment of $769 million for the PAC transaction includes the assumption of secured loans relating to the core assets estimated to be recorded at fair value of $403 million, plus $28 million of planned near-term building improvements. This leaves approximately $250 million of cash required to initially fund the remainder of the purchase price. And as I mentioned, we have already deposited $50 million of earnest money using the revolver. The remaining $200 million will be funded through a six-month unsecured bridge facility that we expect to obtain from JPMorgan. This bridge facility, which can be extended for an additional six months, will have terms comparable to our revolving credit facility. As Ted mentioned, with the planned PAC acquisition, we are deploying the playbook we've successfully used two other times over the past five years of flexing our balance sheet strength for opportunities as they arise and subsequently returning to pre-deal metrics by selling non-core properties. The combination of a high-quality pool of liquid disposition properties, expected growth in NOI, primarily from our development pipeline, and meaningful retained cash flow gives us confidence that we'll return our balance sheet metrics to pre-acquisition levels by the middle of next year. Turning to our outlook, we've updated our FFO outlook to $3.54 to $3.66 per share, with the midpoint up $0.02 from the beginning of the year. This does not include the planned acquisition from PAC or our plan to accelerate non-core dispositions. We will update our outlook once the acquisition closes. The increase in the midpoint is essentially driven by higher NOI, which has also resulted in an increase in our same-property cash NOI outlook to 3.5% to 5.25%, up nearly 40 basis points at the midpoint. We continue to expect utilization rates across our portfolio will remain low in the second quarter and then recover in the third and fourth quarters. Many of you have asked about our parking revenue forecast given the reduction in parking revenues since the beginning of the pandemic. We still expect parking revenues to remain significantly lower in 2021, which is consistent with our initial outlook in February. Once parking returns to pre-pandemic levels, it will provide upside to our current run rate. Looking forward, we continue to remain positive about the long-term outlook for the company. We believe the improvement in cash flows is validating the asset recycling program we've employed over the past several years, and we continue to have a constructive view of our cash flow profile going forward due to the long-term positive outlook for our markets, our limited lease rollover during the next several years, our highly pre-leased $394 million development pipeline, the planned acquisition of core properties from PAC, and our plan to accelerate the sale of non-core assets. Operator, we are now ready for your questions.

Thank you very much. Our first question comes from the line of Brendan Finn with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

Hi, guys. Good morning. Can you talk any more about the profile of the potential sale candidates corresponding with your portfolio acquisition? And then how should we think about the quality and CapEx load for those assets versus the ones you're acquiring, and then maybe also versus the rest of your portfolio that you'll be holding on to?

Hi, Brendan. It's Ted. I'll start off, and maybe Brendan can jump in as well. In terms of the profile, it's going to be sprinkled throughout various markets; Atlanta, Tampa, Richmond, and Raleigh, and then obviously, the remaining buildings in Greensboro and Memphis as well. So really, the first wave of assets we're taking out is going to be largely single-tenant assets with strong credit, long lease terms, so very liquid assets. And then the second wave will be the three remaining non-core assets that we'll bring out later in the year and early next year. So very liquid assets, the first, call it, $250 million or so are going to be those single-tenant, highly leased assets, and then we'll follow up with another non-core.

Hi, Brendan. It's Brendan Maiorana. Regarding the capital expenditure profile, I would say that the initial set of assets is somewhat below average in terms of near-term capital expenditures since they are primarily single-tenant, well-leased properties with a respectable average lease term. However, the second group of assets is likely to incur above-average capital expenditures. Overall, I would characterize it as about average across our current portfolio. That said, the first wave of assets does present some medium to long-term capital expenditure risk. While it doesn't currently reflect in our financials, there is potential for significant future expenditure. Therefore, we believe it is wise to sell those assets when we can achieve maximum value.

Okay, great. And then just kind of switching gears here. In terms of cash same-store guidance, you guys demonstrated some pretty significant expense restraint in Q1. And then if I look at occupancy guidance, it remains the same as last quarter. So is it fair to say that the higher same-store guidance is a result of expense savings, or is there something else going on there that we should think about?

Yes. I would say the increase is more related to top-line performance rather than expense savings. The savings we saw in expenses were substantial in the first quarter and affected our FFO and same-store metrics. However, we are comparing this year to a fairly typical pre-pandemic quarter from last year. We've achieved a lot of operating expense savings since the pandemic. When we move into the second quarter, we started to see significant reductions in operating expenses. Looking ahead, we anticipate that the operating expenses for the same-store segment will be higher for the remainder of the year, particularly in the second, third, and fourth quarters. As disclosed in February, we expected an increase of about $6 million in net recoveries for our 2021 same-store portfolio compared to 2020. Therefore, operating expenses will rise. The increase was primarily driven by improved leasing activity, which Mark mentioned in his remarks, leading to an increase of approximately 40 basis points at the midpoint of our same-store guidance.

Great. Thanks, guys.

Our next question is from Manny Korchman with Citi. Please go ahead.

Hi, guys. This is Parker Decraene on for Manny. Just in terms of the 42 new deals that were signed during the quarter, did you guys sort of see any incremental demand from some of those tenants that you're referencing or just in general from sort of the non-Sunbelt markets, or do we sort of have to wait longer to sort of see some of that come through in terms of leasing demand?

Hi, Parker. It's Ted. Out of the 43 new deals, most were in healthcare, technology, engineering, and law firms, which accounted for 60% of the 250,000 square feet and included 21 deals in those sectors. The primary markets we focused on were Nashville, Atlanta, and Raleigh, representing about 70% of our new leasing volume. We did receive a few inquiries from other markets, but they were not substantial and came from smaller users. There were none of the major names we discussed earlier. Despite this, we are still seeing a good level of interest both from the market and internally.

Got it. And then just how actively are you guys sort of still considering acquisitions in terms of sort of at a larger scale, especially due to the recent transaction that you guys announced? If you guys find another opportunity or something as well as that, how would you guys sort of think about the source of funds? Do you guys just accelerate dispos even more, or would you consider hitting the equity market? Just some color on that would be great.

Sure. Look, I think we want to digest what we have. So while we look at everything in the market, we're not anticipating doing anything on a large scale at all. Again, we look at it, we underwrite it. But right now, we're highly focused on getting this transaction closed and getting the dispositions out of the market and returning our balance sheet to the metrics that we've currently got.

Yes, Parker, the only thing I'd add is we believe we've got a really good strong balance sheet, got good access to capital if we need it. So the ATM is always available to us. We obviously have raised capital when we needed to. And I think the playbook of replacing maybe higher CapEx load assets with newer, less capital-efficient assets is something we would be interested in. We think we've got flexibility to do that if something came up.

Thank you for your question. Could you provide more insight into the build-to-suit opportunities as they progress throughout the year? In the past, you mentioned that some economic organizations in various markets have shown interest or made proposals. Considering the strong job growth numbers you've mentioned, how should we view the evolution of the build-to-suit pipeline over the next six to twelve months?

Sure, Vikram, it's Ted. I'll step in, and Brian, feel free to add your thoughts. Our development team faced some setbacks during COVID, but I'm pleased to report that conversations have picked up over the last six months. Recently, we've even had a few pitches with significant interest from out-of-state customers who are exploring options in the southeast. Some haven't chosen a specific city yet, as they're looking at multiple locations. I'm feeling optimistic, as while we're not back to pre-COVID levels, there's definitely more activity and inbound interest. We've had a few ongoing discussions that are progressing slowly, but I believe this momentum will continue to grow, and I hope to see increased activity over the next several quarters.

Vikram, Brian here. A little bit to add, and sort of similar to maybe Parker's question, we are seeing kind of codename inbounds in multiple markets. So they'll show up in Nashville and then we'll meet them in Atlanta too and maybe Charlotte. So that's encouraging. I would also say maybe a year ago, there wasn't a lot of people coming in to talk about anything. Now there is. And so we'll continue to advance the advancement of designs, of entitlement. So that way, we are in the starting gate and being able to respond as quickly as possible.

Hi. Good morning, guys. Brendan or Mark, how should we be thinking about the guidance in terms of the first quarter results? So the $0.91 just flat puts you at the high end of your $3.54% to $3.66% range, excluding the APTS purchase and the dispositions. You guys sold FAA, bought Forum. You have some developments that come online. You did some new leasing. You talked about the occupancy loss in the prepared comments, but what's the incremental drags from here that we need to be thinking about against the $0.91 run rate that pushes downward on that throughout the remainder of the year excluding the asset sales and the acquisitions from the APTS stuff?

Yes, it's a great question. The first quarter was positively impacted by some timing related to discretionary operating expenses. We realized about $0.02 in lower operating expenses this quarter by shifting some spending from the first quarter to later in the year. While we don’t usually provide quarterly guidance, I would estimate that, without this timing effect, the first quarter results would have been closer to $0.89. When you annualize that, you arrive at approximately $3.56. Additionally, the positive factors you mentioned were present, but developments like Forum and FAA, completed in January, didn't have a significant impact. However, the progression of GlenLake Seven's delivery, the bond payoff, and occupancy gains as we move through the year contribute to an increase from that normalized $0.89 in the first quarter up to around $3.60 for the full year. In summary, it was mainly a case of timing related to operating expenses, and I also feel more optimistic about leasing, which pushed our midpoint estimate slightly higher than what we projected in February.

Okay. And then last one for me. Just given the comments that you made to Vikram's comment, is it likely that any of the development starts in 2021 would be sort of fourth quarter or at least late third quarter and beyond starts that there's nothing contemplated at this point in time breaking ground here in the second, or at least in the early to mid parts of the third quarter?

Sure, Rob. It's Ted. I believe it's too early to determine. Our performance will be assessed based on our development starts. We will require some level of pre-leasing, unless it's a build to suit, and this will depend on market conditions and the specific building. So, while there’s nothing immediate, we are optimistic about the ongoing discussions. If things go well, we might have one or two announcements later this year.

Okay. And the Apple announcement, what do you guys think that does to the value of the 40 acres that you guys hold in Raleigh now?

Yes. Look, obviously, it only gets better. Again, I think it's still early to understand exactly, but certainly, there's multiplier effects when all these companies are coming into our markets. So we continue to believe just in all of our Sunbelt markets, and it's only going to be great things I think for Raleigh.

Hi. Good morning. Brendan, I think on last week's call, you had discussed using proceeds from the disposition program to pay down debt in the near term. Just wondering if you can provide any color on the anticipated timing and amount? You guys have addressed the $150 million due in June. So it looks like the next maturity is the $250 million in January '23. Would that be the next targeted payoff, or would you look to address the $200 million of term loans coming due in November?

Yes, it's a good question. I think we're keeping our options open. I would say in the immediacy of letting disposition proceeds in the door, that will be used to pay down the line and potentially pay down the November 2022 term loan. But ultimately, I think when you look at that January '23 bond maturity, the $250 million that you referenced, that is a target for those disposition proceeds. So it will take a little bit of time to get the capital stack normalized as we get through the acquisition and then receive the disposition proceeds. So I think there'll be a little bit of bumpiness or choppiness with the FFO progression as we move throughout the next several quarters. But we do have a pathway to kind of get the capital stack normalized, and that is what we talked about, which is getting to an immediate kind of FFO neutral outcome from the entire PAC acquisition with the proposed dispositions and getting to cash flow accretion. And then ultimately, we expect that it will be FFO accretive as leases roll within the acquired portfolio.

Okay. Thank you. And during the quarter, Raleigh looks to have surpassed Atlanta and Nashville as your top market in terms of revenue contribution. By year-end '22, where do you think your exposure to those three markets will end up once you completed the acquisition and the non-core dispositions close and the in-process developments come online?

Sure. I think those three will remain the top three. There might be a little bit of a change, just depending on what actually closes by the end of the year and all that. But I would say Raleigh and Nashville are both going to go up a little bit. Atlanta may come down a little bit, I think, but I think those three are still remaining the top three markets. Just a little bit of shifting.

Okay. And one last quick one. I think on the 4Q call, you had mentioned potentially exiting the JV in Kansas City. Is that under consideration as part of the disposition program? And if so, what kind of proceeds do you think you could source there?

We're evaluating that. So we have a great partner. We've been in that building a long time. So it's something that's definitely under consideration. There's a little bit of moving parts on the rent roll as well. So it's obviously, we exited the Kansas City market about five years ago. So it's a non-core asset. So it's under evaluation along with several others.

Yes. Good morning, everyone. I have a question for Brian. While you have maintained face rates, it seems the economic conditions have been difficult overall. I have a couple of questions regarding this. First, do you have an understanding of how much of the current situation is due to market conditions versus possible issues related to not being able to access office spaces or get employees to construct those areas, which might be temporary challenges that could improve on the economic front? Secondly, you mentioned some tenants with long lease terms seeking early renewals; could you provide more details on that as well?

Dave, you raised some great points in your question. There are several factors at play, particularly with the varying sizes of our customers. Larger clients tend to take a longer-term approach, making decisions slowly and carefully. It's definitely a tenant's market now, and we recognize that shift. Some companies are seizing the opportunity to blend and extend their leases. The positive aspect of these discussions is that most tenants are maintaining their square footage rather than downsizing, and they believe bringing employees back to the office will benefit their business growth. Some are choosing to upgrade their current spaces or relocate. For example, we've seen a consolidation of multiple offices in Nashville into the new Virginia Springs II development, allowing them to move into top-tier space. I anticipate a flexible environment moving forward, with companies figuring out the best approach. It's a competitive tenant market right now, and we're prepared to compete for every deal. It may sound a bit clichéd, but we truly believe we have a better chance of renewing leases for current tenants than attracting new ones, so we are committed to bringing them in and keeping them.

Thank you, Brian. I appreciate the insights. Ted, I have a question for you. It seems like with the asset sales you're planning for the second half of this year, you are focusing on net lease single-tenant assets. It doesn't look like you're considering assets like Bridgestone. Considering that you have large single-tenant assets such as Asurion, Bridgestone, and Mars possibly located in a single market, how do you view the possibility of divesting from those specific assets over time? Also, what are your thoughts on a joint venture involving these highly sought-after assets?

Sure, Dave. I think that's a good question. It's something we talk about, right? I think the most important thing for us is making sure we build buildings that are not specialized. So the nice thing about Bridgestone and Asurion and the MetLife buildings, the other large build to suits we've done over the last cycle or so, they are all easily convertible. If we do lose a large customer, they're all in highly desirable BBDs in our markets. So that takes some of the pressure off from, again, from a development standpoint. But it's something we consider. I would never take that as an option that's off the table. But as we currently have them, they're all long-term leases with great credit. So we're very comfortable with the exposure we have on all this.

Thank you. I appreciate the update of your view that net effectives are probably down 5% to 10%. Can you talk about how that differs across the different markets?

Sure. I'll start and Brian can jump in. I think Raleigh, Nashville, and maybe Richmond are probably on the lower end. Richmond has seen slower volume, but we don't invest much in that market, and face rates have remained steady. Atlanta is currently more competitive due to concessions and higher tenant improvements on some transactions. Tampa and Orlando are likely in the middle, down in the mid-single-digit range. Overall, it’s a tenant market across all our locations, and we are experiencing an office recession similar to past downturns, which has put pressure on the fundamentals. That's my assessment on a market-by-market basis.

Jamie, Brian here. Just maybe piling on a little bit. In a market to submarket too you're seeing, whether it's in Charlotte and SouthPark deals getting done during the pandemic at rates higher than pre-pandemic because of that supply/demand balance for the best product. We're seeing it even here in Raleigh, in the North Hills, we're seeing it in other places in the portfolio, folks are able to kind of hold on. And again, I'm going to get kind of yanked at some point for rolling this one out all the time, but kind of the 1%, 9%, 90%, right? So when an organization looks at what creates value and where they spend their money or invest every year, 1% on utilities, 9% on real estate, 90% on people. Yes, there's an opportunity to save on that 9%. But for those organizations that really want people back in the office, which seems to be the majority that we're talking to, that 9% is more on the margins. So if they see an opportunity to get what they want or upgrade, they're paying for.

Okay. And then a similar question regarding where companies may be more inclined to adopt a hybrid model. Additionally, considering Pittsburgh since you haven't discussed that market much, do you think there are varying levels of risk associated with implementing a hybrid model across different markets, or does it seem fairly consistent overall?

Thank you for your question. I’ll begin with Pittsburgh. It can be challenging to cover everything during these calls, but Pittsburgh is quite intriguing. It isn't just a single market; there are various narratives unfolding. Our primary occupancy is in downtown, which is primarily corporate. While Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania have been more restricted, the city is also part of growth announcements from major companies like Google and Apple. We have a strong presence downtown, a key area in Pittsburgh that has a lot of tradition. For some context, our PPG Place property, an iconic multi-building asset, includes a skating rink where people traditionally skate around a Christmas tree. Despite having restrictions imposed by the city and state, we achieved 76% of our pre-COVID attendance, which is notable. Regarding the broader question about markets that may face more challenges with a flexible work model, we believe that markets with a greater distance between where people live and work—factors like long commutes or congested transit—are more vulnerable to work-from-home trends. However, our markets don't face such risks. The commute between work and home in our areas is relatively manageable. When considering markets like Atlanta and Pittsburgh, while commutes may be slightly longer, they are still easier compared to major gateway cities. Overall, we feel optimistic about our position, and it seems that other experts discussing work-from-home risks view our markets as being well-situated.

Okay, that's helpful. Can you discuss the value-add investment sales market? Are you seeing signs of it reviving? What trends are you noticing in terms of cap rates or IRRs, especially since the market has been so concentrated on high-quality, well-leased assets? How is that evolving?

Yes, Jamie. While certainly changing, there are a few that are finally hitting the market. I don't think we've got enough data points to see the change in the pricing and all that. There are a few that came out last year that ended up not trading, but there have been more come out in the last month or so that are working their way through the sale process. So I think it's a wait and see, and hopefully, we'll have some more data points in the next few months.

Okay. And then finally, have you seen any reverse inquiries since you announced the PAC announcement in terms of asset sales? Has anyone come to you and said, hey, here's what we're interested in that you weren't even thinking about?

Yes, Jamie. I think before I got back to my desk after the call last Wednesday, I had four or five, whether it be a text or an email or a call. So yes, we've had multiple inquiries.

Thanks for taking me in again. I actually got disconnected. I just had one more question on what you may have heard around potential downsizing or maybe you being a beneficiary of some of this restructuring in a post-COVID world. And perhaps more specifically, I think I heard or read that Global Payments, one of your tenants in Atlanta, has your space on the sublease market. Any update on that would be great.

Hi, Vikram. It’s Brian. I'll start this one and let Ted provide his insights. The utilization trends are quite varied. We're seeing different models emerging, such as having everyone in the office from Tuesday to Thursday while maintaining flexibility on Mondays and Fridays. Organizations are trying to figure out how to structure their offices for the peak days. There are two perspectives to consider. One involves organizations whose economic activity has declined or those with fewer employees emerging from a recession, which is a typical scenario in any recession and not solely related to work-from-home arrangements. I’d set that aside as a standard business challenge. Regarding flexibility, we don’t have a clear, universal trend to follow. As for your point about Global Payments, this involves a combination of significant changes, and they are evaluating their space allocation. Our lease terms are solid, with favorable provisions, and the location is advantageous, situated near MARTA. We value the asset and are strategizing to remain competitive there. Ted?

There isn't much more to add. We have benefited from the consolidation in several ways. We have seen instances where we gained from it. However, Global Payments opted to move to a different location than ours. As Brian mentioned, we have a substantial lease term remaining at our current location, and we believe it's a great building. We will manage the situation.

Gentlemen, those were all the questions we have. I'll turn it back over to you for closing remarks.

Well, thanks everybody for being on the call today. If you have any additional follow-up questions, please feel free to give us a call. Be safe and healthy. Thanks.

Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude our call for today. We thank you all for your participation. Have a great rest of your day. And you may disconnect your line.