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spk04: Welcome to the Retail Opportunity Investments 2022 Fourth Quarter and Year-End Conference Call. Participants are currently in a listen-only mode. Following the company's prepared remarks, the call will be opened up for questions. Now I'd like to introduce Lori Sneave, the company's Chief Accounting Officer.
spk01: Thank you. Before we begin, please note that certain matters which we will discuss on today's call are forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities law. These forward-looking statements involve risks and other factors which can cause actual results to differ significantly from future results that are expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Participants should refer to the company's filings with the SEC, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K, to learn more about these risks and other factors. In addition, we will be discussing certain non-GAAP financial results on today's call. Reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial results to GAAP results can be found in the company's quarterly supplemental, which is posted on our website. Now I'll turn the call over to Stuart Kanz, the company's Chief Executive Officer.
spk11: Stuart? Thank you, Lori, and good day, everyone. Here with Lori and me today is Michael Haynes, our Chief Financial Officer, and Rich Schoble, our Chief Operating Officer. We are pleased to report that during 2022, through implementing our longstanding strategic property operations, leasing, and investment initiatives, we continue to enhance the long-term intrinsic value and competitive position of ROIC's portfolio and business. In the face of significant economic headwinds and uncertainty that continued throughout 2022, our gross re-anchored portfolio again proved its time-tested resiliency and value. In fact, capitalizing on the long-standing appeal and strength of our portfolio in West Coast markets We had one of the best, most active years to date in terms of property operations and leasing, setting a new number of new records. We achieved a new record high portfolio lease rate, surpassing 98% at year end. Our record high lease rate was driven by the ongoing strong demand for space and our ability to capitalize on that demand. In step with achieving a record high lease rate, we also achieved a new record for the company in terms of our overall leasing activity. Additionally, we continue to achieve strong rent growth. In fact, 2022 represented our 10th year in a row of achieving rent growth on both new leases signed during the year as well as renewals. With respect to new leases, 2022 was also our 10th consecutive year of achieving double-digit rent growth. and it is also our sixth year where we achieved rent increases in excess of 20%. In short, 2022 proved to be a stellar year on the leasing front, again, in the face of challenging and uncertain economic environment. While we work to enhance the underlying value of our existing portfolio through our leasing initiatives, we also continue to work on enhancing our leadership position and presence on the West Coast through our relationship driven investment program. During 2022, we continue to capitalize on our off market sources to gain unique access to acquire exceptional irreplaceable properties. In total, we acquired five excellent grocery anchored shopping centers encompassing over a half a million square feet of space in total. These new acquisitions fit our discipline, risk adverse strategy and our existing portfolio perfectly. They are well situated in our core markets, three being located in the Seattle market, one in Portland, and one in the San Francisco market. Within each of these markets, the properties are well established in the heart of affluent communities. All five shopping centers feature strong grocery operators that are longstanding existing tenants of ours, along with a broad range of necessity, service, and destination tenants, many of which are existing tenants of ours as well. While the new acquisitions provide a stable base of cash flow, they also offer a wealth of opportunities to increase cash flow and enhance the underlying value going forward. Within just a few short months of having acquired the properties, we have already leased the bulk of the available space. Looking ahead, there's an abundance of opportunities to release below market space over the next several years. There's also a number of opportunities to reconfigure expiring space and attract new tenants at higher rents, as well as potential expansion and pad opportunities. In summary, our 2022 acquisitions are an excellent strategic fit by all measures and enhance the value of our overall portfolio and presence on the West Coast. Additionally, our investment activities together with our leasing accomplishments serve to generate solid financial results. I'll turn the call over now to Michael Haynes, our CFO, to take you through those details. Mike?
spk10: Thanks, Stuart. For the year ended 2022, total revenues increased by 10.1% over 2021. Operating income, excluding the gain on sale from property dispositions, increased by 15.6% over 2021. With respect to property level net operating income on a same center comparative cash basis, NLI for the year 2022 increased by 4.6% over 2021, including a 5% increase in the fourth quarter. Turning to GapNet income, for the full year 2022, GapNet income attributable to common shareholders was $0.42 per diluted share, as compared to GapNet income of $0.44 per diluted share for 2021. Included in 2021 GapNet income was $22.3 million gain on sale of real estate, as compared to a $7.7 million gain in 2022. In terms of funds from operations, total FFO for the year 2022 increased by 13.6% over 2021. On a per share basis, FFO was $1.10 per diluted share for 2022, representing a 10% increase over 2021. And for the fourth quarter of 2022, FFO increased by 8% to 27 cents per diluted share. Turning to our financing activities, during 2022, we raised $61.4 million of capital, including $36.2 million from a property disposition and $25.2 million that we raised through our ATM program, issuing approximately 1.3 million common shares. With respect to our debt profile, we continue to reduce secured debt. During 2022, we retired two mortgages, totaling $23.5 million. Today, we only have two mortgage loans remaining on our balance sheet, meaning 91 out of our total 93 shopping centers are unencumbered, and secure debt is now down to a new record low of just 4.3% of our total debt outstanding at year-end. In addition to lowering our secure debt, during 2022, we continued to work at enhancing the company's financial ratios, including the company's net debt ratio. You may recall that back during the height of the pandemic in 2022, the company's net debt to annualized EBITDA ratio had reached 7.9 times, which we successfully lowered down to seven times by the fourth quarter of 2021. During 2022, we successfully lowered the ratio further down into the mid-sixes, ending the year with a net debt ratio of 6.6 times for the fourth quarter of 2022, which is the lowest our fourth quarter net debt ratio has been since 2016. Looking ahead, in terms of our initial guidance for 2023, on the positive side, we expect same-center NOI to grow in the 2% to 5% range for 2023, with a good portion of that growth being driven simply by contractual rent increases. However, we expect that property-level growth will be offset by higher interest costs. Based on the forecasted yield curve of 2023, we currently expect that the company's interest expense will be in the $68 million to $73 million range for 2023. depending in part upon our investment activities during the year. And with respect to the company's investment activities, the low end of our initial guidance assumes that we acquire $100 million while selling $200 million of properties and effectively utilizing the sale proceeds to fund acquisitions and pay down debt, which if the year plays out that way, we expect that our net debt ratio would drop down to the low sixes. The high end of our guidance assumes that we acquire $200 million while selling $50 million of properties and that we finance the acquisitions with a combination of sale proceeds debt and equity, the goal being to maintain our net debt ratio in the mid-sixes. Taking these and other various assumptions into consideration, we have set our initial FFO guidance range for 2023 at $1.05 to $1.11 per diluted share. Additionally, in terms of rental revenue recognition, you may recall that back during the pandemic, we did not move any tenants to being on a cash basis. As a result, as it relates to 2023, there's no additional or incremental rental revenue in our guidance coming from reinstating cash basis tenants. Lastly, with respect to the bonds that mature at the end of 2023, we're currently exploring a variety of refinancing strategies. However, it's too early to say definitively what strategy we will pursue, as it will depend in part on the market conditions as we move through the year. Our guidance assumes that we refinance the bonds in the fourth quarter. In addition, our goal is to lower our flooding rate debt exposure by reducing a portion of return loan market conditions permitting. Now I'll turn the call over to Rich Schovler, COO. Rich?
spk09: Thanks, Mike. As Stuart highlighted, 2022 proved to be one of the best, most active years on record for the company in terms of leasing. One of the core drivers of our success is the fact that more and more necessity, service, and destination tenants continue to gravitate towards open-air shopping centers, especially grocery-anchored centers, and especially those properties that are located in desirable, highly protected markets such as ours on the West Coast. At the start of 2022, our portfolio lease rate stood at a very strong 97.5%. Taking full advantage of the ongoing demand for space, we steadily increased our portfolio lease rate as we moved through the year, reaching a new all-time record high of 98.1% at year-end. Along with being very pleased to achieve a new record high lease rate, we are also equally gratified that we have maintained our portfolio lease rate above 96% for 10 consecutive years now. even surpassing our leasing accomplishments dating back to our time at Pan Pacific. Breaking the 98.1% down between anchor and non-anchor space, our anchor space remained at 100% leased throughout 2022. In fact, we have maintained our anchor space at 100% leased every quarter for the past six years now. In terms of non-anchor space, we increased our shop space lease rates steadily as we progressed through 2022. ending the year at a new record high of 96%. Our record high lease rate was driven by our record leasing activity. Back at the beginning of the year, we had 745,000 square feet scheduled to expire during all of 2022. Thanks to our team working aggressively and creatively at maneuvering and optimizing existing tenant spaces to free up new space, along with proactively recapturing space and renewing space early, we leased a record 1.6 million square feet of space during 2022, representing the 12th consecutive year where we once again leased approximately double the amount of space originally scheduled to expire. While leasing a record amount of space, we also continue to achieve solid rent growth, our 10th consecutive year, in fact, as Stuart highlighted. Specifically, during 2022, We achieved a strong 23% increase in same-space comparative cash-based rents on new leases, and we achieved an 8% increase in cash-based rents on renewals. In addition to our record leasing activity, 2022 also proved to be our most active successful year in terms of getting new tenants open and operating. During 2022, new tenants representing $9.5 million of incremental annual base rent on a cash basis open and commence paying rent, again, a new record. Taking into account all of our new leasing activity during 2022, at the start of 2023, the amount of annual incremental base rent from new tenants that haven't yet opened and commenced paying rent stood at $7.6 million. We are working proactively to get these tenants open and expect that the bulk will do so as we move through the new year. And speaking of the new year, demand for space continues to be strong across our portfolio, such that we expect to have another solid year. In terms of our portfolio lease rate, we expect to maintain our overall lease rate in the 97 to 98% range as we move through the year. In terms of lease rollover, specifically anchor expiration, a year ago, at the outset of 2022, we had 25 anchor leases scheduled to expire in 2023 totaling 723,000 square feet. During this past year, we renewed and released early, very early in fact, 12 of the 25 anchor leases, such that at the start of 2023, we had just 13 anchor leases scheduled to expire, totaling 393,000 square feet. And we have already renewed six of these anchor leases, including five that were not scheduled to expire until the second half of 2023, and we're close to finalizing four other anchor renewals. Lastly, in terms of non-anchor space, at the start of 2023, we had 466,000 square feet of shop space scheduled to expire. Similar to our anchor releasing activity, we are already hard at work and having good success at renewing and releasing shop tenants. Now I'll turn the call back over to Stuart.
spk11: Thanks, Rich. As our operating and leasing results firmly indicate, our gross re-anchored portfolio continues to perform at a strong level. We expect that to continue in 2023. Being consistently above 96% leased every year for the past 10 years and leasing two times the amount of space scheduled to expire year after year speaks not only to the strength and appeal of our portfolio, it also speaks to our hands-on approach. Additionally, it serves to create an important, fundamental, favorable leasing dynamic for us. Being essentially fully leased with consistent demand for space year after year means that we are able to be disciplined and selective in terms of the tenants we lease to, always with a strong eye towards managing downside risk and making sure that we maintain a strong and stable base of necessity, service, and destination tenants, which is the cornerstone of our business, as we like to say. Over the years, this risk adverse strategy has proven to be instrumental in our ability to generate a revenue stream that is consistent and reliable year after year. In terms of the prospects of growing our portfolio in 2023, while the acquisition market has been essentially idle since mid-2022, we've continued to maintain an active dialogue with our off-market sources, some of which, here recently, have been increasingly proactive in reaching out to us, which we view as a positive sign. Additionally, we are beginning to hear from brokers that both buyers and sellers are interested in starting to possibly enter the market again, which we also view as a positive sign. That said, until there is greater clarity in terms of pricing and greater clarity in terms of interest rates and the capital markets, we intend to continue being patient and cautious. With respect to the potential acquisition and disposition activity in our guidance, we are assuming it takes place during the second half of 2023. Finally, as we head into a year that is expected to again be challenging in terms of economic pressure and uncertainty, we believe that we're well-positioned to face the challenges. Our team has successfully operated grocery-anchored shopping centers on the West Coast for nearly 30 years now. through all kinds of challenges. We believe that we have the skill set and experience to continue operating our portfolio at a high level. Additionally, based on our experience over the years, challenging times often create unique opportunities, which we believe we are well positioned to capitalize on. Most important, we intend to stay focused and true to our longstanding discipline business plan that has and always will be focused on carefully building long-term value. Now we will open up the call for your questions. Operator?
spk04: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star 1-1 on your telephone. Again, to ask a question, please press star 1-1. Our first question comes from Wes Galladay of R.W. Baird. Your line is open.
spk02: Hey, good morning, everyone. Hey, Stuart, I just want to go back to the floating rate. It's about 27% of the debt right now. I think it's a big area of concern for investors. Just curious, do you have a particular time you want to address that? Can you take advantage of the inverted yield curve? You did mention about paying down secured debt, but could you do secured debt? And would there be any prepayment penalty on the term loan?
spk03: Hey, Bob, it's Mike.
spk10: With regard to the floating rate exposure, you know, we'd like to refinance the bulk of that as we move through the year and possibly pay down some of it, utilizing a mix of fixed-rate debt, sell proceeds, and possibly some equity, depending on market conditions. But to be conservative, our guidance assumes that the floating rate debt remains outstanding. No prepayment on the term loan? No prepayable at any time.
spk11: And, yes, there are other options, secure debt or other alternatives that we are looking at as well.
spk02: And I guess where could you borrow at? They call it a five-year, seven-year term. Is that the time frame you'd be looking at? Would you go 10-year? What's on the menu here?
spk10: I think all of those are basically available. The fives are probably a little bit less expensive than the tens, but you're probably looking at the high fives, low sixes for a five, seven, or ten-year deal.
spk02: Okay, fantastic. And then, Stuart, I think you mentioned that acquisitions will be back half loaded. Just curious if that comment is also for dispositions. And do you expect to have a positive spread for your asset recycling? Is there any non-income producing assets as part of that disposition plan?
spk11: Yes. I mean, non-income producing assets would be some of the densification, the land that we've entitled. We are moving that to the market over the next several weeks. We waited, you know, we thought it'd be patient to wait for this time where there's more clarity in the market. And in terms of acquisitions and dispositions, yeah, we are planning to move through the year with an emphasis on the second half of the year where there will be more clarity in terms of pricing. But more importantly, we intend to be buying accretively to our cost of capital.
spk02: Got it. And then just one last one. I think you have a bad debt reserve that's about a million higher versus how you started last year. Is this just a general macro concern, or do you have any known bankruptcies at this moment?
spk10: Our bad debt reserve, you know, to be conservative, we generally budget bad debt each year at about 1.5% of total revenue. But that said, historically, our actual bad debt has been typically below 1% of each, you know, each year. The loan number guidance is at 5 million. All of our bad debt guidance is assuming, takes into account all of our tenant base.
spk11: And at the current time, Rich, we don't really have anyone on our watch list, just so you know.
spk02: Fantastic. Thanks, everyone.
spk03: Yep.
spk04: Thank you. One moment, please. Our next question comes from the line of Craig Schmidt of Bank of America. Your line is open.
spk03: Hi.
spk00: Good morning. Good morning, Craig. Morning. This is Lizzie. Lizzie Joykin on for Craig this morning. I wanted to ask about the moving pieces to your same-store NOI guide. It just seems like a wider range of 2% to 5%. And if you could just talk about the moving pieces there, really, in terms of occupancy, contractual rent bumps, spreads, and impact from bad debt. You know, just want to see what might be swinging that to the lower end versus the higher end. Thanks.
spk10: Well, I've got some prepared remarks to walk you through. So, you start with our fourth quarter 2022 FFO of 27 cents a share, and you analyze that. It's $1.08. So, the loan over guidance assumes that we sell 100 million properties more than we acquire in 2023. So, the dilutive impact of that together with our assumptions of higher interest costs, higher G&A, and higher bed debt. Offset partially by 2% NOI growth for 2023 is reflective in the $1.05 at the low end of the range. The $1.11 at the high end takes into account acquiring 150 million more properties than we sell, plus 5% NOI growth. So it's kind of a range there, together with bad debt and G&A staying comparable to 2022, while being partially offset by added interest expense. So it's different components, but primarily a range of internal growth and adjusted for interest expense, G&A, and bad debt.
spk00: Okay, got it. Thanks for that detail. And then on the occupancy front, just with the, you know, you're continuing to see new record highs. You're at 98.1%. I believe you mentioned seeing a continued range within 97, 98% this year. Just curious on, you know, where the upside is and, you know, if this is really You see the opportunity more so on the small shop side versus anchors. Where is the room for growth here? Thank you.
spk09: This is Rich. We still see a lot of opportunities throughout the portfolio, whether it's shop space or anchor space. There's still several leases that are way below market that we continue to work to recapture and release at the current market rent. we still see, you know, good rental spreads going forward while maintaining that occupancy.
spk00: Okay, thanks. And if I could ask one more, just going back to acquisitions with that being more back-weighted, you know, it looks like you assume a fairly steady amount from the prior couple years. Is this based on visibility you have on current opportunities, or are there, you know, anything kind of any opportunities you have more visibility on based on your discussions?
spk11: Yeah, no, the pipeline is certainly building and it is based on, you know, a number of discussions we've had over the last several months with owners on the West Coast. So, you know, when you look at the guidance out there, we are anticipating, again, building the acquisition pipeline as we get through, you know, this quarter and next. But we anticipate that a number of these transactions will typically close and we'll get the benefit of that NOI in the second half of the year.
spk03: Okay. Thank you.
spk04: Thank you. One moment. One moment. Our next question comes from the line of Juan Sanbria of BMO. Your line is open.
spk03: Good morning, Juan.
spk06: Good morning. Just hoping you can speak a little bit about how bullish you are given the record leasing you've had and seemingly is continuing into 23. I may be holding back space and pushing rate a little bit more and be willing to let retention slip just to try to capture some of that mark to market? Or are you not really just because the macro is uncertain and you just really want to keep things steady and avoid any potential pitfalls?
spk11: Yeah, I mean, look, the market is very strong in terms of tenant demand. And I think I said in my remarks, that the focus here is to take advantage of this high occupancy as it relates to getting a bit more aggressive with the tenant base. That's the advantage of being so well leased. So the answer is, yes, we will get more aggressive. That may generate a touch more vacancy through the portfolio. But on the other hand, we're expecting leased or spreads, as you might say, to be as good or better given this high occupancy as we move through 23.
spk06: It may be a question for Rich. Could you provide any color on the cadence of economic occupancy or build occupancy? Should we expect a dip seasonally in the first quarter? And maybe any comments on where we expect to end the year from an economic or build perspective?
spk09: Sure. I mean, I don't think that we're expecting a dip in the beginning part of the year. I think that we're expecting, you know, to steadily be bringing in this income throughout the year. There are a few large leases that are commencing in the first quarter. But, you know, as we always do every year, we're doing other leasing in the meantime. So, while we'll be bringing that online, we'll also be adding to the number.
spk06: Okay, and maybe just one last one for me. In terms of the entitlements, how should we be thinking about the various opportunities and what you're looking to monetize and what that could represent at the large disposition range? Anything you're looking to keep on balance sheet, the crossroads perhaps?
spk11: Well, crossroads is still moving through the permitting process, and that's taken longer because of the municipality more than anything else. So there's not much capital spent this year at the crossroads. as it relates to densification or that particular project. The other two, Panola's fully entitled, and again, we have a pretty good offer on it right now, but we are taking it to the market shortly, and that will hopefully sell and close in, you know, second or third quarter of the year. And Novato's right behind that. Both those properties will account for about 20, $25 million in proceeds. And we're expecting to have both of those transactions done in 23, which will use that cash, obviously, to pay down debt on the balance sheet.
spk03: Thank you.
spk04: Thank you. One moment, please. Our next question comes from the line of Craig Millman of Citi. Your line is open. Yes.
spk07: Good morning, Craig. Good morning. I just want to go back. Mike, your comments on the variable rate debt. I understand you guys are going to pay it down, but going forward, should we expect your variable rate exposure to be really subject just to the line balance? Are you guys going to move away from using this and shifting more towards fixed rate?
spk10: I think we're going to definitely move more towards fixed rate. Ideally, I'd like to term all that out. Fixed rate is primarily through public bond offerings, you know, as we move through the year. The terminal in itself is floating, but it doesn't mature for a couple of years. So we've got some time for, you know, the market to evolve and settle down until we get more favorable pricing. But the, you know, we allowed it to go floating for flexibility. But the idea is we, you know, we prefer to have mostly fixed rate debt.
spk07: Okay. And if you guys decide not to pay off the terminal, would, just given the uncertainty in the rate market, would you guys look to put a swap on or cap or something just to lock it in?
spk10: Potentially a swap. I mean, the rates have already moved up and the swaps have moved up accordingly. So it just depends on the market conditions.
spk07: Okay. Then Stuart, moving back to your, your commentary on the acquisition market. I mean, what's, what's driving, do you think the, the move for sellers to kind of come back in the market? Is it, debt expiration driven or something else?
spk11: It's primarily debt expirations as well as the fact that capital is constrained out there for these sellers. And we still have some OP transactions that we had pretty well in the bag, you know, last year that we're still, you know, in contact with. So I think we may see some of that as we move through the year as well, which would be, you know, which would be good for the balance from a balance sheet perspective. But all in all, it's really being driven through the dynamics of the overall capital markets as well as the financing side or the debt side, as you would say.
spk07: From a required return perspective, where are you thinking about your hurdles, just given where your cost of capital is, where the debt market has moved to, versus maybe where you're having conversations today? Is there a recognition that the new hurdle rates are the norm, or what's the resistance to that from sellers?
spk11: Well, I mean, there's no real norm to speak of at this point because there's really been no benchmark, you know, formal benchmark that's been set on the West Coast for high-quality grocery anchorage centers. Have cap rates moved up? Yes. But there's been nothing that has really shown us that there's been a material move in valuations. So as we look forward in terms of growing the company, we're much more focused on buying assets, you know, probably in the high fives, low sixes. That's more importantly, accretive, you know, not so much on day one, but pretty quickly given our management team's ability to really drive value through, you know, an increase in either vacancy or rollover, as you might say, that's really how we're going to continue to deliver as we have in the past, a nice punch to NOI in growing the company this year. And again, as you probably know, we've been out doing this for a long, long time. So we've got a pretty good you know, view of the market as to how we're going to create that value in terms of what we're buying or what's in the pipeline.
spk07: And what does that, you know, five to six kind of translate to on a levered IRR perspective, just given kind of what's happening in the rent market, how you guys are underwriting that, etc.? ?
spk11: On an unlevered basis, our goal within 18 months of acquiring this asset is the mid sixes or the high sixes. Tough to tell you where that entry point is, but that's our criteria and that's the goal that we set on every transaction that we do.
spk07: Well, just one more for me. On the leasing side, you know, you guys are, you know, very far along on the anchor side of things, but maybe as it pertains to just like the grocery, So just given what's happening with inflation and consumer preferences, what – as you guys look to push rents on those, kind of what does that equate to on an occupancy cost for those grocers? And how much room do you think you have to push rents in this environment given what's happening on their expense side?
spk09: Well, I mean, again, this is Rich. You know, a lot of these gross releases are fairly old and below market. Several of them are coming up with no options remaining, which is creating opportunities for us throughout the portfolio where You know, we may have one lease with a grocer that's expiring with no options, and they're asking to reset that lease. And then we look at the entirety of the portfolio and are able to drive rents, get people to take down options early or get additional rent at other locations. So we continue to see good opportunities to continue capturing that rent. And some of these anchor leases are expiring at single-digit annual rent numbers. So there's a lot of room there.
spk03: Thank you.
spk04: Thank you. One moment, please. Our next question comes from the line of Todd Thomas of KeyBank. Your line is open.
spk11: Good morning, Todd.
spk05: Hi, good morning. I just wanted to circle back to the dispositions real quick here. Stuart, you know, I appreciate the added color around the land sales that you're looking to monetize. For the retail centers that you may sell, are you targeting, you know, non-core assets that are maybe a little bit, you know, higher yielding within the portfolio, or are they lower cap rate deals that might help a little bit more with, you know, the debt reduction efforts, you know, on sort of a maybe non-dilutive basis? You know, as I look at the variable rate debt, that's at a cost of, you know, above 5.5% today, you know, likely heading up. a little bit higher. Can you sell assets at a lower cap rate than that?
spk11: Yes, you can sell assets at a lower cap rate. And we are looking at assets that primarily have very little internal growth over the next several years. As you obviously know, Todd, a lot of the portfolio is 100% occupied. But the good news is the most sought after segment of the sector is grocery anchored shopping centers. So we feel pretty good in terms of moving these assets. And again, it will be really generated on the profile of the asset and its internal growth.
spk05: Okay. And so, are dispositions going to be used to match fund acquisitions? I mean, or is it sort of separate Right, where, you know, the dispositions that you might look to execute throughout the year are independent of acquisition activity that, you know, you may or may not really see materialize later in the year.
spk11: Yeah, I mean, it's a combination of, you know, paying debt down and funding growth. It will be a combination of both depending on how much we sell and the velocity of those, selling those assets.
spk05: Okay, so you're moving forward with disposition, you know, plans, again, independent of acquisitions. I mean, there are assets that you're looking to monetize throughout the year, whether or not, you know, any acquisition opportunities surface that meet your return requirements. Is that right? That is correct. Okay. Okay. And then also just with regards to assets that you might look to sell, are there certain markets where you might want to reduce exposure where some of those sales might be targeted?
spk11: No, not really. We're looking at all of the markets we're in, and again, we're looking at the whole portfolio. You may get more in one market than the other, but the reality is that all of our markets are performing extremely well. So, you know, we're in a good place in terms of picking and choosing which assets, but primarily focused on the fact that these assets won't, you know, deliver a better return than most of the rest of the portfolio over the next several years.
spk05: Okay. All right. That's helpful. Thank you.
spk04: Thank you. One moment, please. Our next question comes from the line of Michael Mueller of J.P. Morgan. Again, Michael Mueller of J.P. Morgan. Your line is open.
spk08: Yeah. Hi. Good morning, Mike. Hey. Good morning. Two quick ones. So what does guidance assume for physical occupancy year-end compared to the 93.3 where you ended 22? And then I guess just following up on the acquisition and disposition questions that you've had so far, would you issue equity at these levels if the deal flow was there and maybe, you know, dispositions didn't materialize?
spk11: Well, I mean, I'll answer the equity question. I'll let Rich answer the first part of the question. But no, we're not issuing equity in terms of where our stock is trading at the present time. Rich, do you want to answer that?
spk09: Well, I mean, you're asking about build occupancy at the end of the year or physical? Yes, build. Build. I don't think we have that number in front of us here. I mean, we're, you know, would expect that it would be in the same range as, you know, it has been historically. Hopefully a touch higher.
spk10: Let's just say if all 7.6 million came in, I think the majority was supposed to start by the end of September. Right. But that'll be replaced by the leasing activity. So incrementally, it's still an inch higher. But it's always being replaced by new opportunities to release.
spk08: Okay. Thank you.
spk03: Next slide.
spk04: Thank you. One moment, please. I'm sure no further questions at this time. Let's turn the call back over to Stuart Tans for any closing remarks.
spk11: In closing, thanks to all of you for joining us today. As always, we appreciate your interest in ROIC. If you have any additional questions, please contact Lori, Mike, Rich, or myself directly. Also, you can find additional information in the company's quarterly supplemental package, which is posted on our website, as well as our 10-K. Thanks again, and have a great day, everyone.
spk04: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's conference. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect. Have a great day.
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