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Tanger Inc. Q1 FY2023 Earnings Call

Tanger Inc. (SKT)

Earnings Call FY2023 Q1 Call date: 2023-04-27 Concluded

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Operator

Good morning. This is Ashley Curtis, and I would like to welcome you to the Tanger Factory Outlet Centers First Quarter 2023 Conference Call. Yesterday evening, we issued our earnings release along with our supplemental information package and investor presentation. This information is available on our Investor Relations website, investors.tangeroutlets.com. Please note that during this conference call, some of management's comments will be forward-looking statements that are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, and actual results could differ materially from those projected. We direct you to our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a detailed discussion of these risks and uncertainties. During the call, we will also discuss non-GAAP financial measures such as funds from operations or FFO, Core FFO, funds available for distribution or FAD, same-center net operating income, adjusted EBITDAre, and net debt. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are included in our earnings release and in our supplemental information. This call is being recorded for rebroadcast in the future. Therefore, it is important to note that management's comments include time-sensitive information that may only be accurate as of today's date, April 28, 2023. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Following management's prepared comments, the call will be open for your questions. On the call today will be Steven Tanger, our Executive Chair; Stephen Yalof, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Michael Bilerman, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Investment Officer. In addition, other members of our leadership team will be available for Q&A. I will now turn the call over to Steven Tanger. Please go ahead, Steve.

Speaker 1

Good morning, and thank you for joining us for our first quarter 2023 earnings call. We had a very strong start to the year as we outperformed our expectations. Next month, we will be celebrating 30 years as a publicly traded company and to mark that milestone we will be ringing the closing bell on the New York Stock Exchange on May 10. It has been an incredible journey where Tanger Stock has delivered an above-market total shareholder return. Looking forward, we remain confident in our optimistic outlook as the team continues to execute on its growth strategy. I will now turn the call over to Steve Yalof.

Thanks, Steve, and good morning. I'm pleased to report another quarter of growth as we have delivered positive results ahead of our expectations. Same center NOI grew by 7.4% driven by robust leasing activity and expense management due in part to a mild winter. We continue to execute to our key strategic initiative of leveraging our platform to deliver reliable earnings and attractive growth opportunities. Leasing activity remains strong. We ended the quarter with occupancy of 96.5%, a 220 basis point improvement over the prior year. This reflects our leasing team's commitment to locking in higher fixed rents and expense recoveries, extending lease terms, elevating and diversifying our tenancy and maintaining high occupancy. We delivered improved rent spreads for the eighth consecutive quarter with our blended average rental rates increasing 13.8% for the trailing 12 months ending March 31, 2023. This represents a sequential improvement of 370 basis points of rent spread growth and up over 10x from the 1.3% spread we reported in the first quarter of 2022. Re-tenanting spreads grew 36.1% and renewal rent spreads grew 11.8%. Our ability to drive solid increases in renewal rents is the clearest demonstration of our retailers' commitment to the outlet channel and our ability to capture rent upside. This is further demonstrated by our higher occupancy cost, which as of the end of the quarter was 8.8%, up 20 basis points sequentially. As of the end of the first quarter, renewals executed or in process represented 57% of leases expiring this year approximately 10 percentage points ahead of last year and at double-digit rent spreads. Sales and traffic continue to gain positive momentum. Traffic for the quarter was up 60 basis points compared to the prior year's first quarter. Total gross sales grew in the first quarter of 2023 from the prior year quarter. Our average tenant sales for the trailing 12 months also improved sequentially from the end of the fourth quarter to $447 per square foot for the period ended March 31, 2023. This sequential improvement is driven mainly by stabilizing trends in our core retailers, plus productivity gains derived from our new partners that are outperforming brands for stores that have exited our portfolio. Our results also reflect the continued improvement to our marketing programs, which focus on media spend with clear measurable results designed to drive traffic and sales. We are focused on digital media, which provides a more targeted reach with greater efficiency. We have added digital assets to all of our centers, including digital directories, tenant signage and easily identified QR technology, directing customers to our Tanger digital channels and our virtual shopper services platform. Our enhanced platform provides shoppers with amenities and same-day access to everyday and limited-time promotional offers from our retailers, plus the ability to earn personalized retailer-funded incentives as they continue to shop with us. As shoppers turn to our digital services, we can increasingly personalize their experience. We continue to leverage our media platform, which provides a unique revenue opportunity to Tanger given the scale and quality of our audience. In the first quarter, we enjoyed great success on Super Bowl weekend at our Glendale, Arizona Shopping Center, securing campaigns from national brands such as Nike and Under Armour as well as the NFL, which hosted a game day tailgate party on our site. Beyond adding more food and beverage and experiential retailers, we also continue to improve and update shopper amenities, and are investing in sustainable on-site initiatives across our portfolio. These investments accomplish multiple objectives. In addition to improving the shoppers' on-site experience, we continue to drive operational efficiencies, revenue generation, and environmental benefits. A few examples include our state-of-the-art security enhancements, growing electric security vehicle fleet and increased solar and electric vehicle charging capacity. Finally, we continue to make leasing and construction progress on our Nashville development where we are over 90% lease committed and anticipate our grand opening this fall. I'm proud of our team and the strong results they continue to deliver and remain optimistic in our outlook. Earlier this month, our Board approved an 11.4% increase in our dividend, reflecting this continued confidence. Tanger open-air shopping centers offer engaging and valuable experiences for our shoppers and a highly effective sales channel for our retail partners. We have a high quality and diversified roster of tenants increasing rents with more headroom for growth and a platform with additional opportunities to grow NOI. I want to thank the entire team, our shoppers, retailers, and all of our stakeholders for their continued support. I'll now turn the call over to Michael.

Thank you, Steve. Today, I'm going to provide some color on our financial results, our balance sheet position, and provide an update on our increased 2023 guidance. Our first quarter results came in ahead of our expectations with Core FFO of $0.46 per share compared to $0.45 in the prior year period. Same center NOI for the total portfolio increased 7.4% for the quarter, which as a reminder, we present on a cash basis without lease termination fees. Our growth was driven by gains in occupancy from the robust leasing activity, strong rent spreads, which have led to higher base rents and higher expense reimbursements and operating expense savings in part from a milder winter. In addition, we achieved this growth even as we comp the majority of the reserve reversals recognized in 2022, which as a reminder, totaled $4.5 million last year. Our operating results reflect our strategy of structuring leases to grow total rental revenues and higher Common Area Maintenance contributions while also converting percentage rents to fixed rents. We maintain a conservatively leveraged, well-laddered balance sheet with the liquidity and flexibility to pursue our growth objectives. We have no significant debt maturities into 2026, and we have been proactively addressing the February 2024 expiration of our current interest rate swaps. At the end of the first quarter, our cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments totaled $242 million or over $2 a share with full availability on our $520 million unsecured lines of credit. In addition, our net debt to adjusted EBITDAre was 5.2x for the 12 months ended March 31, one of the lowest in the retail sector, providing additional capacity to drive our growth while staying below our target leverage levels. We will remain prudent in our approach to external growth. The weighted average rate on our debt at quarter end was 3.5% with 93% of our debt at fixed rates and a weighted average term to maturity of 5.4 years. As previously discussed, we do have $300 million of interest rate swaps that will be maturing in February 2024. We have been selectively addressing these and to date have executed attractive forward-starting agreements on $100 million of these expirations. We have locked in adjusted SOFR at a rate of 3.3% with an effective fixed interest rate of 4.5%, including our credit spread, extending duration for an additional 2.2 years taking us into the spring of 2026. We are pleased with this execution and thank our banking relationships, and we'll continue to look at various opportunities for the remaining expirations in the coming quarters. In terms of just thinking about our anticipated cash moves during the rest of the year, our biggest cash expense remains the funding of the rest of our development in Nashville. Through the end of the first quarter, we have deployed approximately $63 million with an additional $83 million remaining to fund at the midpoint. We also continue to anticipate deploying between $50 million and $60 million for recurring CapEx across our portfolio, which includes second-generation tenant allowances and capital improvements, with approximately $8 million of that spend that occurred in the first quarter. Our recently increased dividend remains well covered with a continued low payout ratio, providing the company with additional free cash flow after dividends to drive our growth. And now turning to our increased 2023 guidance. We are increasing our expectations for Core FFO by $0.02 a share to a range of $1.82 to $1.90. This is underpinned by a 75 basis point increase in our same center NOI growth to a new range of 2.75% to 4.75%. This increase incorporates our first quarter outperformance, including lower-than-anticipated operating expenses and is consistent with our strong operating performance. For additional details on our key assumptions, please see our release issued last night. We are looking forward to ringing the closing bell on May 10 for our 30-year anniversary as well as seeing many of our investors and analysts at upcoming property tours, meetings and conferences, which we outlined in our earnings release last night. I'd now like to open up the call for questions. Operator, can we please take our first question?

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin our question-and-answer session. Our first question is from Greg McGinniss with Scotiabank. Please go ahead with your question.

Speaker 4

Hey, good morning. I just want to touch on the press release that you recently put out regarding a new tenant, Shake Shack and Dave & Buster's. And along that entertainment and food and beverage leasing, I'm just curious if you're starting to see any increase in visits or stay time because of those types of tenants that you're bringing in?

Good morning. The simple answer is yes. I mean, when you have sit-down food and beverage, and we've been adding that for the last, I would say 18 months, it's been a great practice for us. We're finding that a lot of our shopping centers, which are now sort of the centers of the community that they serve, those communities are really looking for places to come to spend time and the change to add more sit-down, more entertainment, more experiential, has definitely served its purpose of drawing people to our shopping centers. They are shopping more frequently, and they're staying longer when they're there.

Speaker 4

Great, thanks. Considering the leasing information you've provided, could you clarify the current pace of leasing compared to six months ago? Sometimes it's challenging to interpret the trailing 12-month disclosure. I'm interested in understanding more about the current leasing pace and the types of rents that tenants are signing now.

Yes, sure. Look, what it doesn't say on the page is the leasing activity in Nashville and leasing activity in the shopping center that we're managing and entered into a strategic partnership with Clarion Inn in Palm Beach. There's been a tremendous amount of leasing activity on both of those properties. But overall, across our portfolio, you hit the nail on the head when you talked about some of the new retailers that we're seeing at the press release that we recently issued. There are a lot of new to platform and new to Tanger retailers that are coming to join us, and they're not just doing one store with us. They're doing several. Justin Stein sitting here, he's our Executive Vice President of Leasing. Sure, maybe he'll share a couple of names of some of the tenants that are doing business with us right now.

Speaker 5

Yes, Greg. So, as Steve said, we're diversifying our portfolio in a big way and some of the brands that we've leased to recently, especially on the home furnishing side are Restoration Hardware, Design Within Reach, Casper, Crate & Barrel, Invicta. And as Steve said, we're doing multiple deals with these tenants throughout our portfolio. So the leasing activity is definitely robust, and we look forward to continuing the progress with these guys.

Speaker 4

I'm sorry, just to clarify on that leasing front, where I think there's someone speaking with investors and listen to some of the retailer management teams talk about store openings. It seems like maybe there was just a greater hunger for opening stores last year, a year before. I'm just curious if you're seeing any sort of moderation in that demand through Q1 and year-to-date.

Fortunately not. In our channel, what we're finding is a lot of our retailers are really optimizing outlet as a go-to destination for them. I don't want to be clear of excess inventory, but to get in front of a new customer. So there hasn't been much slowdown in leasing velocity over the past couple of quarters.

Speaker 4

Great. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is coming from Todd Thomas with KeyBanc. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 6

Hi, thanks. Good morning. First question, Michael, you emphasized that leasing efforts have aimed to capture higher base rents, but also expense reimbursement revenue and expense recovery income was higher, while expenses were down dramatically in the quarter. So your expense reimbursement rate was up in the 90% range this quarter, which is where it had been historically, but it was in the mid to high 70s, I think a little bit more recently. Should we expect to see that stay in the 90% range going forward throughout the balance of the year and ahead?

Good morning, Todd. You're correct that our leasing strategy focuses on increasing both base rents and expense reimbursements. The first quarter saw benefits from this approach, alongside lower operating expenses. We managed our expenses effectively this quarter, though there was some timing related to our advertising spending in the first quarter. While we anticipate a decrease in recovery going forward, it will remain significantly higher than last year due to our overall leasing strategy.

Speaker 6

Okay. So for the tenants that are on fixed CAM, which I suspect is the bulk of the portfolio, will there be sort of a reconciliation at the end of the year at all based on those actual results? I guess how does that work exactly in your portfolio? And will there be an adjustment in future periods? To the recoveries from tenants based on this quarter's operating expenses? And what was the impact versus your budget related to the warmer weather on the operating expense side?

So I'll take the second, and then I'll pass it to Steve to talk a little bit about the lease strategy. The milder winter, we probably had a $1.5 million to $2 million relative to our savings overall. And within that, there was a little bit of timing as well for the rest of the year.

And just on fixed CAM, fixed CAM was just that. Pro-rata CAM that's an old model and a lot of businesses are pivoted to the fixed CAM. It's not easier for the retailers and certainly a lot easier for us. And you're hoping you're accurate in your numbers when you put out your CAM dollar amount getting each year, but in some years, you may lose a $0.01.

Speaker 6

Okay. Got it. So nothing sort of variable in there related to the fixed CAM component. Okay. And then just last question, I guess, along those lines with your leasing strategy, capturing more expense recovery income, converting percentage rents to fixed rents. Does that change how we should think about base rent growth for here? I guess, base rent growth was up 2.5% in the same-store, but occupancy was up 220 basis points. You have rent escalators. You've talked about the positive leasing spreads, eight straight quarters of improvement there. I guess what's holding back base rent growth from accelerating? And are you expecting base rent growth to accelerate?

Our reported base rent includes base rent and CAM. We also incorporate various elements in our deals, with our triple nets covering real estate taxes. We frequently discuss the marketing fund, which many of our retailers contribute to. This fund is crucial for attracting shoppers to our shopping centers. Retailers typically do not invest their own marketing resources to draw customers to outlet centers and depend on us for that. This is why our marketing team is so well-equipped and why it plays an essential role, even though it is not reflected in our base rent figures.

Speaker 6

Okay. All right. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is coming from Samir Khanal with Evercore ISI. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 7

Good morning, everyone. Hey Steve, when I look at occupancy growth, certainly very strong year-over-year, close to 97%. Can you remind us how much of that is the sort of temp occupancy right now? And sort of how are you thinking about that pool of tenants the ability to do the conversion to perm given a sort of the macro environment a potential slowdown here?

At 97% occupancy, we have 3% of our portfolio still unoccupied, which is a key metric for us as we aim to fill and grow that space. Over the past year, we've successfully increased our occupancy by 220 basis points. Currently, our temporary tenants are likely around 10%, which is about double the historical pre-COVID averages. In the past, we operated in a more centralized manner, but now our decentralized operating team heavily depends on our general managers at each shopping center to handle localized leasing. This is crucial for our centers, as we focus on bringing in top-notch tenants from the communities we serve—be it food and beverage, entertainment, experiential offerings, or retailers that attract customers. We aim for this tenancy not only to fill space but also to enhance the diversity of our shopping centers. Our leasing team is dedicated to short-term temporary tenants, identifying the best retailers to move between shopping centers, which allows us to grow this aspect of our business, transitioning them from temporary to long-term while also increasing the number of stores in our portfolio. A vital point to remember is that with our temporary leases, we control the real estate. These leases can be canceled with 30 days' notice, ensuring that they don't disrupt our long-term leasing efforts, which is central to our business strategy.

Speaker 7

Thanks for that. And then I guess my second question is around the leasing environment and maybe the external growth opportunities that exist. You've talked about the strong demand. I guess how are you thinking about external growth you've got in Nashville? You got a pretty stable balance sheet here. So maybe any color would be helpful.

Yes, we've established a strong operating model for our business based on the results you've observed in leasing, operations, and marketing. Many independent owners, asset managers, and larger competitors have reached out to us, and we are currently in discussions regarding various partnerships and acquisition opportunities that could enhance the value of the shopping centers. For instance, since we started leasing at Palm Beach, we have successfully completed over 25,000 square feet of transactions and managed to reduce some costs in the expense P&L, allowing us to operate the properties more efficiently. This narrative reflects a lot of our current conversations, and our acquisitions team is assessing a range of opportunities. However, we won't disclose any specifics until we finalize a deal, but we are actively pursuing options in this area.

Speaker 7

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is coming from Caitlin Burrows with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your questions.

Speaker 8

Hi, everyone. Good morning. Maybe on lease maturities. The earnings release mentioned and you mentioned earlier how you have renewals executed or in process for 57% of the space set to expire this year, which is 10 percentage points ahead of last year, but it is still a little below 2018 and '19. So I was just wondering what's driving the year-over-year pickup in pace for 2023, but limiting it from getting to kind of historical levels? And there is a large amount of maturities in 2024. So wondering if you can kind of get to those early or not.

Well, first of all, good morning. I have to say that we see renewals, and we see that 24% that you referenced in 2024, we see that as opportunity. We have eight quarters of continued increase in our spreading. We think we've got pricing power. We've got the opportunity to drive additional rent. And so we get this space back, some of the negotiations are taking a little bit longer today than they might have taken in 2019 because we're holding out for rents and the results speak for themselves. We're getting our price.

Speaker 8

Okay. And then just back to the press release from earlier this week that talked about the Shake Shack and Dave & Buster's out parcels. Could you talk about how those locations were selected for outparcel activity? And then to what extent you've gone through the portfolio to see how big the outparcel opportunity could be?

Well, while I can't provide a specific figure for the potential of the outparcel opportunity, we believe it is quite significant. We have a portfolio of land in more than half of our properties that will enable us to generate revenue over time. Recently, we acquired 7.5 acres in Glendale next to our Arizona Shopping Center, where we previously hosted the NFL tailgate party on Super Bowl Game Day. This area is currently being renovated to improve infrastructure and create additional pathways. Retailers are increasingly viewing our shopping centers as the focal point of the communities we serve, and they are eager to connect with our shoppers. For instance, our shopping center will benefit greatly from the customers that Shake Shack attracts, fostering a mutually beneficial relationship between us and our retailers. We have a dedicated team focused on expanding our peripheral land and capitalizing on the external aspects of our portfolio.

Speaker 8

Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is coming from a representative at Bank of America. Please go ahead with your question.

Speaker 9

Hi, good morning. Could you please provide more details about the distribution of your $50 million to $60 million CapEx guidance for the rest of the year? Given that you've already spent $8 million in the first quarter, where will the remaining funds primarily come from, such as second-generation tenant allowances or capital improvements? What do you expect the typical pace of CapEx to be moving forward?

Speaker 10

Thanks, Lise. This is Doug. I would say that more of that $50 million to $60 million is going to come from our renovations and maintenance CapEx than the leasing side. As you know, we primarily only offer tenant allowance on the re-tenanting piece, and we've been heavier recently on renewals. And with our occupancy levels where they're at, we expect the renewals will drive the bulk of the leasing. In terms of the renovations, there's a few specific projects at certain centers and the timing of that will move around a little bit, but I'd say it's going to be fairly well-distributed throughout the rest of the year.

Speaker 9

Thank you for the update. I was wondering if you could share any new information on Rue21, especially since Justin previously expressed optimism about their turnaround. Are there any updates on their potential restructuring or any assumptions included in the 2023 guidance related to them?

Yes, Lise. So as we all know, they recently hired a restructuring firm to assist with seeking the deferral only. And what I'll say about our relationship with Rue21 is that it's strong. They're current on all of our rents. We feel that we're well-positioned to address the situation as needed, and they operate at a very healthy occupancy in our portfolio. So we believe that this is an isolated situation specifically to this tenant.

Speaker 10

And Lise, we maintain appropriate levels of bad debt within our guidance to account for any tenant issues.

Speaker 9

Got it. Thank you. And if I could ask one more. Just wondering on the conversations your General Managers have had with Temp tenants lately on converting to perm. Are there any new signs of reluctance on their end to stay longer or convert to perm or if there's anything new to make note of there?

I don't think there's anything significant to highlight. We've had some good success. It's interesting that we've added several new direct-to-consumer brands to our platform and outlet. Outlet operates differently; it's not about selling full-price retail but rather off-price goods as a clearance channel. For many retailers, it may take a few quarters to get established. We have a marketing team that assists retailers in understanding our channel better, including the regions where they have stores, the consumer demographics, and shopping behaviors. We depend on retailers and their branding to attract customers to their stores. Our team is very supportive of our retail partners because many of their leases include a percentage rent component, meaning their success is intertwined with ours.

Speaker 9

Thanks for the time.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is coming from the line of Floris van Dijkum with Compass Point. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 11

Thanks. Good morning. We have an encouraging set of results here. I have a couple of questions. First, can you discuss your other revenue? It grew a bit in your same-store pool, so what are the prospects for that? I know it has been a significant focus for Steve. Could you provide more details on that and its potential over time? I'll start there and then return with my follow-up.

Good morning. Earlier, we discussed the new digital initiatives we are incorporating into our shopping centers, which is a key aspect of our strategy. While we can introduce additional carts and kiosks and increase rent, our priority is ensuring that the shopping experience is enjoyable for customers. We are approaching the pursuit of extra revenue streams with careful consideration. Over the past few quarters, we have seen significant success with national brands, as they are easier to work with and are interested in our entire portfolio of 36 shopping centers. Securing a single deal that encompasses all these centers is always beneficial, reducing clutter and complexity. We will continue to focus on attracting these national brands while maintaining a cleaner, less noisy environment in our shopping centers.

Speaker 11

My follow-up question is about sales. They seem to have increased slightly in the most recent quarter, but are down compared to last year, particularly regarding tenant sales. Looking at your portfolio, many of your properties are fully leased, such as Deer Park and Sevierville, which are among your top assets, along with others like Branson, Gonzales, South Haven, and Hilton Head. How do you plan to grow sales across this portfolio, especially when several of these properties are already fully occupied? Additionally, how will you increase NOI in those assets?

Well, I would say that leasing is central to our strategy, just as marketing is crucial for us. We have a robust marketing system in place, focusing on performance-based methods. We analyze what is effective and scale up those efforts while reducing those that are not yielding results. It is vital for us to understand our customers and improve our communication with them. Whether it involves new technology, digital initiatives, or engaging through our app, we are gaining insights from our customers just as they learn from us.

Speaker 11

Sorry, we've discussed this before, and I've asked questions about it in previous calls, but we haven't received any updates regarding efforts to attract higher productivity and luxury tenants to your outlets. I know Simon has been working on this for its outlets, and it seems to just be getting started. Can you provide any further updates on your discussions and progress in this area? Also, how many of your assets do you think are appropriate for those types of tenants?

I think a lot of that has to do with the retailer's choice. Look, you take a look at our asset base, and we want to build the shopping centers with the retailers that we think are going to be the most successful in our geographies. And although we have a handful of geographies that I think that we can continue to push the tenancy, we are pushing that tenancy. You also know that Nashville, which we'll open in the next couple of months. We haven't announced a lot of the retailers there. So I think you'll be pretty surprised when you see the roster of tenants that are coming to join us in Nashville. But a push for us, we lean a little bit more heavily into the digital initiatives right now because a lot of those are household names and the communities that we serve. And again, we're a community-driven organization that's looking to bring the best possible brands to serve the communities where our shopping centers reside. And we want to give our retailers the best chance for success in those markets as well. So as important as luxury is as a component part and the handful of shopping centers that we have that have luxury retailers in them, we'll continue to lease around that, but we're going to be extremely laser-focused on making sure that we merchandise our shopping centers for the consumers that are shopping in those shopping centers so they can have the best shopping experience when they're there and the retailers can be as successful as they can be.

Speaker 11

Thanks, Steve.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is coming from Craig Mailman with Citigroup. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 12

Hi, good morning. I got Joseph in the line with me also. I'm just kind of curious, there's been some talk on the outparcels on this call. Just as you guys are getting done with Nashville, you have a little bit more capacity, a little bit more capital. Kind of how should we think about spending on this initiative on an annual basis going forward and your thoughts on kind of returns here and also sources of your funds?

Well, let's start with the returns. We just had a deal committee a couple of weeks ago, and the returns on the outparcel leasing are pretty astronomical. We're in at a very low basis. We've owned that real estate for quite some time. The capital improvement dollars that's required in order to bring that space up to a leasable condition is relatively nominal with – and if you take a look at the rents that we're getting, we're looking at high teens and low 20% returns on some of those investments.

Speaker 12

Okay. And then how should we think about kind of dollar volume here as you guys identify candidates and then also maybe a mix or targeted mix? Or how you guys think it could play out from a kind of ground lease opportunity where you're not necessarily putting out the capital to opportunities where you're kind of funding most of the construction?

Yes. Look, the only sort of concrete point that I can give you is that we're not sellers. We're leasers. And when you do an outparcel deal, whether it's we provide the capital in order to build it or we just ground lease the land and allow the customer to do the construction. We basically are focused on return. And that whole deal is really a return-oriented deal, and we consider the credit worthiness of the retailer that we're doing business with. So there's a number of outparcel deals that we've done, Dave & Buster's, we talk about a lot, Shake Shack, we talk about a lot, where we've made deals that are good deals for our customers but also really good deals for us.

Speaker 9

Thanks. It's Nick here with Craig. Michael, just on the balance sheet, you've dealt with, I guess, a third of the interest rate swaps that are expiring thus far. How are you thinking about execution on the remainder or kind of running with a bit more floating rate debt?

Good morning, Nick. So we've effectively fixed $100 million of anticipated floating rate debt exposure for an additional 2.2 years, which would take us to the Spring of 2026. And as you're pointed out, we have $200 million of effective floating rate debt that will come next February. And we're going to continue to look at opportunities over the next several quarters to potentially fix more of that debt or we can leave some of it floating and let that go to floating rate. And I think if you just step back from it for a second, we talked about our current cash capacity of $242 million and we've anticipated spend between Nashville and the FAD capital of about $130 million. So we sort of end the year before we even take into account the significant free cash flow generation after we pay our dividends with cash almost equivalent to our current floating rate debt. And so as we think about as we move into 2024, having some level, and I think if you look at your 100 comp sheet, the average REITs out there have about 20% floating rate debt. And so we're mindful of our balance sheet strategy of having some floating, but also providing reliable earnings and fixing additional amount as we go forward.

Speaker 9

Thank you very much.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from Mike Mueller with JPMorgan. Please proceed with your question.

Speaker 13

Yes, hi. Just a couple of quick tweaks on a couple of prior questions. First, is there any meaningful CapEx that goes into temp tenants? Or is it just that happens once you convert them to permanent? And then the second question is on the development. Is there anything in the works where we could possibly see here about another start in the next year or two?

Unfortunately, nothing to talk about right now. We don't like to talk about things that we're working on until they're inked ready to go. And then with regard to temp tenants, there's really no capital involved in the temp tenant deal. They're short-term leases, with mutual rights of termination of 30 days.

Speaker 9

Got it, okay. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is coming from Samir Khanal with Evercore ISI. Please proceed with your questions.

Speaker 7

Hey, Michael, I guess a question for you. What's been sort of the biggest misconception here you think? What's been misunderstood by the analyst or investor community about Tanger or Outlets in general now that you sort of have time to look under the hood? Just trying to get a view from you on that. What are you seeing that's the base misconception here?

I briefly touched on this last quarter when I discussed the difference between perception and reality regarding our assets, their performance, and the value they hold for retailers and consumers. I sensed a disconnect from the investment community regarding the quality of our asset base and the growth opportunities ahead. As we engage with investors and analysts, we’re making progress in demonstrating the strength of our platform in leasing, marketing, and operations. There's now a better recognition of our balance sheet, which, although it shows a 5x debt-to-EBITDA ratio—somewhat elevated due to our investments in Nashville without corresponding EBITDA yet—also highlights our cash capacity. This is a crucial differentiator compared to other companies that may need to raise new capital for growth. We aim to be more than just a buy-and-hold company; we strive to buy and add value, which depends on our strong operational platform. Ultimately, what sets us apart is our operational intensity and our asset base, which features small suites with significant velocity. We’re excited to continue showcasing our team, assets, and platform to the market.

Speaker 7

Thank you, Michael.

Operator

Thank you. We have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. So I would like to turn the floor back over to Mr. Tanger for any additional closing remarks.

Speaker 1

Thank you very much, everybody, for participating today. Samir, I might want to add to what Michael Bilerman said, I believe the biggest misperception is that we are open-air shopping centers. Our platform is not in closed malls and we may be considered by the analyst community in the wrong neighborhood. We should be listed and compared to the other open-air shopping center group. So we will see you and the rest of the analyst community at various different events that we have planned in the next couple of months and look forward to showing you our properties and exactly how and why we believe that they are open-air centers. I wish you a great day, and good luck. Goodbye.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude our teleconference and webcast. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day.