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spk02: Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Brandywine Realty Trust third quarter 2023 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you'll need to press star 1 1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Jerry Sweeney, President and CEO. Please go ahead.
spk09: Liz, thank you very much. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for participating in our third quarter 2023 earnings call. On today's call with me today is George Johnson, our Executive Vice President of Operations, Dan Palazzo, Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer, and Tom Worth, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Prior to beginning, certain information discussed during our call may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Federal Securities Law. Although we believe estimates reflected in these statements are based on reasonable assumptions, we cannot give assurances that the anticipated results will be achieved. For further information on factors that could impact our anticipated results, please reference our press release as well as our most recent annual and quarterly reports that we filed with the SEC. So to start off this morning, during our prepared comments, as we always do, we'll review quarterly results and provide an update on our 2023 business plan. Tom will then review third quarter financial results and frame out the remaining key assumptions that drive our 23 guidance. After that, Tom, Dan, George, and I are available for any questions. So the third quarter saw additional progress on our 23 business plan. Our combined leasing activity for the quarter totaled 624,000 square feet. During the quarter, we executed 351,000 square feet of leases, including 118,000 square feet of new leasing within our wholly owned portfolio. Our joint venture portfolio achieved 273,000 square feet of lease executions including 108,000 square feet of new leasing activity. Also, while the third quarter mark-to-market results were below our annual targets, based on executed leases, we expect our full-year mark-to-market range to be between 11% to 13% on a gap basis and 4% to 6% on a cash basis. As I noted in last quarter's call, our mark-to-market will vary by region. With Philadelphia CBD, University City, and the Pennsylvania suburbs leading the way, we certainly continue to expect that given current market conditions, our mark to market in Austin for the balance of the year will remain negative on both the cash and GAAP basis. As we did anticipate in our business plan, we had negative absorption this quarter, primarily related to tenants moving out in our Pennsylvania Plymouth meeting portfolio. a tenant in Austin, Texas, and a 42,000-square-foot firm vacating the lower bank here at CIRA Center. And at CIRA, as I'll touch on later, this space is part of our life science conversion within that lower bank, and work is already underway. Overall, we are 88.3% occupied and 90.4% leased based on 256,000 square feet of four lease commitments. As a result of delayed occupancy on executed deals, primarily due to slower build-out approvals, and frankly, the slower pace of leasing in Austin, we are reducing our year-end occupancy range from 90% to 91% down to 89% to 90%. We are, however, based on activity, maintaining our lease percentage range of 91% to 92%. Our core markets at Philadelphia CBD, University City, And Pennsylvania suburbs and Austin, which comprise 92% of the company's NOI, is 90% occupied and 92% leased. We did add a new page in our supplemental package, page four, which highlights how well the majority of our portfolio occupancy is. We did highlight on that page eight of our wholly owned properties comprise 50% of the company's vacancy. Number of these properties are either being marketed for sale or undergoing analysis for conversion opportunities. But those properties do affect our occupancy numbers by 450 basis points. And plans are underway to address each of these projects, ranging from increased leasing outreach programs as well as what I just mentioned, sale and conversion opportunities. Both GAAP and same-store outperformed our business plan ranges during the quarter. and we are increasing both ranges for the year. The GAAP same store range has increased from zero to two to two to three percent, primarily due to approximately 500,000 square feet of positive blend and extend leases that were done. Notably, none of these blends and extends involved a contraction by the renewing tenant. You'll note that this activity brought down our forward rollover exposure, which I'll touch on in a few moments. cash change store is increasing from 2.5 to 4.5%, which was a previous range, to 5 to 6%, primarily due to proactive cost reduction initiatives resulting in lower utility, janitorial costs, reduced real estate taxes, all net of tenant reimbursement, as well as the continued burn off of some free rent. Third quarter capital costs were in line with our business plan range. However, Based on year-to-date results and projected fourth quarter activity, we are reducing our leasing capital ratio from 11% to 13% down to 9% to 10%. So as evidenced by our positive mark-to-market results, this lower capital ratio, we will continue to generate positive net effect of rents in most of our markets. Tenant retention for the quarter was 44%, again, in line with our plan. but below the bottom end of our full-year forecast. It was driven primarily by those vacates I previously mentioned, but we are maintaining our existing range of 49% to 51% based on forecasted Q4 activity. Our spec revenue range remains in the $17 million to $19 million range, about 94% done at the midpoint. We expect to be able to reach the midpoint of that range by the end of the year. Our operating portfolio is solid with a stable outlook. We have reduced our forward rollover exposure through 24 to an average of 6.3% and through 2026 to an average annual rate of 6.7%. We do feel very good about our portfolio quality, our management services delivery platform, and our sub-market positioning. We do believe the quality curve thesis remains intact. as evidenced by the overall pickup and leasing activity that we continue to see. Additionally, overall tour velocity, which is really a starting point for our leasing cycle, continues to improve. So just several points to amplify. The increase in physical tour volume has been very encouraging. Our third quarter physical tours exceeded second quarter tour volume by 29%. but also exceeded our trailing four quarter average by 69%, and our tour activity level remains above pre-pandemic levels by 18%. So good traction through the entire portfolio. On a wholly owned basis, during the third quarter, 62,000 square feet of new leases, or 53% of all new leasing activity, were a result of this flight to quality thesis. Tenant expansions continued to outweigh tenant contractions during the quarter. And the market recovery does continue, albeit at a slower pace than we would like. But our total leasing pipeline is up 20% for the second consecutive quarter and stands at 3.8 million square feet. That pipeline is broken down between 1.7 million square feet in our wholly owned portfolio, which is up from last quarter, and stability within our development project portfolio. The 1.7 million square feet existing portfolio pipeline includes approximately 100,000 square feet in advanced stages of lease negotiations. Also, 46% of our operating portfolio new deal pipeline are prospects looking to move up the quality curve. That's up from 31% last quarter. Turning to the balance sheet, as expected, our second quarter Net debt to EBITDA ratio decreased to 7.4 from 7.6, primarily from increased EBITDA offset by increased development and redevelopment costs. We anticipate this ratio to decrease to our business plan ranges with sales in the fourth quarter and achieving our target of reduction in joint venture debt attribution. As we noted in the SIP, this ratio is higher due to development spend and debt attribution from our joint ventures. If both of these items were removed from our 7.4 metric, our leverage would be a full turn lower at 6.44 times. To amplify this point, our core EBITDA metric, which is our operating portfolio excluding joint venture debt attribution and development and redevelopment spend, ended the quarter within our range at 6.3 times. On the liquidity front, We continue to make progress in our asset sales and financings. We have a short-term extension with the lender on our non-recourse leasehold mortgage in our MAP joint venture through December 23, December 1 of 23. The current outstanding balance of that loan is $181 million. The extension is providing additional time to finalize a recapitalization strategy with both the leasehold lender and the fee owner and discussions to date have been very constructive. In August, as we noted in the release, we completed a $50 million construction loan financing on our 155 King of Prussia Road property. That loan bears interest at 250 basis points over SOFR. In August, we also completed the sale of our three Barton Skyway projects in Austin, Texas. That sale price was $53.3 million. or $307 per square foot, which represented a cap rate in the high 6% range. Other than the recently financed Commerce Square joint venture, on our other operating JVs, we have $68 million invested, with $624 million of non-recourse mortgages maturing in 24 before any extension options. $113 million of that debt is attributed to Brandywine. Our ownership stake ranges between 15% to 20%. We are working closely with all of our partners and lenders on loan extensions and recapitalization efforts and would expect to report additional progress in the coming quarters. As Tom will touch on, our consolidated debt is 93% fixed at a 5.2% rate, and we have no consolidated debt mid-shortness until our 2024 $350 million bond, which Tom will also amplify our strategy there. At quarter end, there's no outstanding balance in our $600 million unsecured line of credit, and we have approximately $48 million of unrestricted cash on hand. As noted on page 13 in our SIP, based on remaining asset sales, development spend projections, our business plan projects that we'll have full availability on our line of credit at the year end 23. In September, our Board of Trustees did decrease our quarterly dividend by $4 a share, from 19 cents to 15 cents a share. And while our cash flow numbers are solid and our payout ratio is strong and remains well covered, and we continue to forecast, as I just mentioned, full availability in our line of credit, the Board felt we needed to reduce the dividend to account for both the challenges, but more importantly, simply the ongoing volatility in the equity and debt markets. We believe this reset dividend level will serve as a solid foundation for which to grow our dividend in the future as capital market recovers and leasing continues to accelerate. This level covers our taxable income and will generate approximately an additional $28 million of free cash flow to the company. Based on the $0.60 per share annual dividend and the midpoint of our guidance, Our CAD payout ratio for 23 is projected to be 75%, and our FFO payout ratio is projected to be 52%. Both of those payout ratios are very much in line with our historical averages. To spend just a few moments on looking at our development, we have $1.2 billion under active development. On the wholly owned pipeline of roughly $200 million, that's 95% pre-leased. The remaining funding For these wholly owned developments, it's only $22 million, which is built into the capital plan that shows our line of credit being unused. And that's primarily for tenant improvement dollars related to our $2340 property in Herndon, Virginia. On a joint venture side, at full cost, that pipeline is 30% residential, 32% life science, and 38% office. The remaining funding on this pipeline is less than $10 million. As you may recall, last quarter, we did increase some of the project costs to simply reflect the higher rate environment, and in some cases, a slight delay in targeted stabilization dates. Going forward, we may see some additional cost increases related to higher TI costs, but even with these increases, we are targeting and plan to maintain yield equivalency on all of our joint venture developments. I guess furthermore, given the volatility in the capital markets, while we'll continue planning on several projects, other than fully leased build-to-suit opportunities, future development starts are on hold pending both more leasing in our existing pipeline, but also more clarity on the cost of debt capital and where cap rates will be. Looking ahead, given the mixed-use nature of our master plan, communities are expected for development pipeline is 27% life science, 42% residential, 22% office, and 9% support retail, entertainment, and hospitality. And as we identified on page six, our objective is to grow that life-size portfolio and platform to over 23% of our square footage as market conditions allow, and that would be built on land that we already own or control. Just a quick review of specific projects. $2340 is 92% pre-leased That project is moving into full operations in the very near future. 250 King of Prussia Road in our Radnor Submarket is now complete. It does remain at 53%, at least as it was in the previous quarter. We've had $18 million of remaining funding. Pipeline remains very strong. That pipeline is 100% life science, and we have projected a stabilization date in Q2-24. The increased remaining spend on that project It's really the cost to do some additional tenant leasing, but as we indicated last quarter, we anticipate higher rents will leave our current yield intact as this project moves into operation. Pipeline activity and our development projects continue to build. We're actually pleased with the overall and continual increase in both tours and prospect activity as a true reinforcement of the quality thesis I mentioned earlier. We have a number of advanced discussions underway, but none quite yet across the finish line. As I mentioned last quarter, primary reasons for the delay in tenants making decisions really seem to be driven at this point more by macro considerations rather than specific real estate concerns. Construction of our 3025 JFK project, our life science office and residential tower, is on time for a Q4 23 full delivery. We're currently 15% leased on the commercial portion with an active pipeline that's almost 700,000 square feet for the life science and office component. We have done over 160 tours. We did deliver the first residential units with the balance phasing over the next quarter and a half. Activity levels are very good, and we currently have 62 leases executed. We're about 19% of the project. Fifty-seven of those leases have already taken occupancy, and the rental rates that we're achieving are very much in line with pro forma, particularly now that the amenity floor just recently opened. 3151 Market, our 441,000-square-foot life science building in Schuylkill Yards, again, is on schedule and budget. The topping-off ceremony occurred yesterday, and the project's profile in the market continues to improve. The leasing pipeline there is roughly 400,000 square feet. and tour activity now that the steel is up is beginning to increase as well. Uptown ATX Block A construction is also on time and on budget. Block A consists of 348,000 square feet of office, excuse me, and 341 residential units, 15,000 square feet of ground floor retail. On the office component, the pipeline remains strong in advance of building delivery, which will be later this year. The pipeline includes a mix of prospects ranging from 5,000 square feet to 200,000 square feet, and the multifamily component of 341 units will begin phasing in during the third quarter of next year. Moving back to University City, our next phase of B-Labs on the 9th floor of Sears Center is nearly complete. That's a 27,000 square foot expansion. This conversion of that office space to graduate lab space is now 81% pre-lease, with a lease out for the remainder of the space. That full conversion will be completed in Q124. The total costs remain on target for $20 million, with an expected yield of about 11%. So to wrap up commentary on development activity, the key phrases on our forward pipeline is timing, flexibility, low basis per FAR, and product diversity. Of the square feet we can build, only about 25% is office, with the ability to do between three and four million square feet of light science space and over 4,000 apartments. And the overall overlay approvals we have on our master plan developments give us the flexibility to adjust that mix further to meet market demands. Looking at the sales activity, Look, there's no question that the pricing and pace of office sales has been impacted by the challenging rate environment and the pullback by lenders in commercial real estate and certainly the negative macro tones on office. Despite that this is previously highlighted, we did sell to $53 million in Austin, and based on our existing pipeline and transactions and process, we're still maintaining our $100 to $125 million sales target by year end. We do have about $200 million in the market for sale. Those properties are in our MetDC and Pennsylvania suburban operations, and we also have several joint venture properties in the market as well. Several of those properties are moving through the contract negotiations and maintenance at some level of short-term bridge seller financing. In general, we continue to see a good list of bidders with the primary challenge being getting those acquisitions financed. Certainly, dollars generated from all these sales and joint venture restructurings will be used to fund our remaining development pipeline commitments, further reduce leverage, and redeploy into higher growth opportunities, including debt and stock buybacks on a leverage-neutral basis. With that, Tom will now provide an overview of our financial results.
spk07: Thank you, Jerry, and good morning. Our third quarter net loss totaled $21.7 million, or $0.13 million. and our results were negatively impacted by a non-cash impairment charge totaling $11.7 million, or $0.07 per share. Third quarter FFO totaled $50.6 million, or $0.29 per diluted share, and $0.01 above consensus estimates. Some general observations regarding the third quarter. Being above consensus, we had several moving pieces and several variances compared to our second quarter guidance. Management, leasing, and development fees were up $700,000 above our re-forecast, primarily due to higher leasing commission income. Interest expense was $500,000 below re-forecast, primarily due to higher capitalized interest and no borrowings on our line of credit. We forecasted two vacant land parcel sales to generate $1 million of land gains during the quarter, and they were both delayed until the fourth quarter. Our third quarter debt service and interest coverage ratios were both 2.7, and net debt to GAV was 41.6. Our third quarter annualized core net debt to EBITDA was 6.3, and within our 2023 range, and our annualized combined net debt to EBITDA was 7.4, and 1% above the high end of our 7.0 to 7.3 guidance Any further reduction will be based on timing, size, and pricing of our fourth quarter asset sales. Regarding portfolio changes, during the quarter we removed two properties located in Austin totaling 225,000 square feet from our portfolio. Both properties will not be available for lease and were located in our uptown ATX developments. We anticipate adding $2340 quarter to our core portfolio during the fourth quarter as well. On the financing activity, as Jerry outlined, we closed on a construction loan for 155 King of Prussia Road in Radnor, Pennsylvania. The loan bears interest at 250 basis points over SOFR, and we anticipate drawing on that facility during the fourth quarter as our equity is now fully funded. We remain focused on our 2024 bond maturity in October and continue to evaluate funding in both the secured and unsecured financing markets. As you know, the traditional banks are allocated little to none to new originations on new office loans, except for certain situations as fully leased bill-to-sue properties. However, we will continue to explore term loans from our syndicate banks as we did earlier this year to execute on a $70 million term loan. We are exploring some property level secured financing options as well, including another wholly owned CMBS transaction. We anticipate our ongoing sales and joint venture liquidation strategy will also generate additional capacity. As we discussed in the past, we prefer to remain an unsecured borrower and will continue to monitor the unsecured bond market as well. Given the above, we will seek the most efficient capital source with a bias towards the unsecured market. Regarding our upcoming 2024 joint venture debt maturities, as Jerry mentioned, we are working with our partners on the 2024 maturities to potentially extend the current maturity dates with our existing lenders, commence marketing efforts for new lenders, and make certain property level sales to lower JV leverage. Regarding our MAP joint venture, we hope to agree to a recapitalization ahead of the current December 1st, 2023 extension date. We are a 50% partner in a joint venture which owns leasehold positions and a portfolio of assets, and we are working with the lender to potentially recap the joint venture with the ground owner. Looking at 2023 guidance, we narrowed the guidance by two cents and maintain a midpoint of 116, and the range is is mainly attributable to the variability of our asset sales program, both in terms of volume and timing, as well as our projected land sale and related gains. On our 2023 business plan continues, we have the following general assumptions as is property level sales with 153.3 million complete. The balance of our guidance is expected to occur in the fourth quarter, so dilution should not be very significant. no new property acquisitions, no anticipated ATM or share buyback activity, and the share count will approximate 173.5 million shares. Our fourth quarter guidance, looking more closely, we have the following general assumptions. Property level operating income will total approximately $74 million and will be about $3 million below the 3Q range, primarily due to lower revenue, from several known moonouts we discussed, and incrementally higher operating expenses, primarily due to fourth quarter seasonality and higher R&M. FFO contribution from our joint ventures will break even for the fourth quarter. The sequential decrease is primarily due to the residential component of Schuylkill Yards West becoming operational. And during the fourth quarter, we will recognize higher operating losses, lower capitalized interest, and increased preferred equity costs. These losses will decrease over the next four to five quarters as the residential operation fully stabilizes. In addition, our MAP FFO contribution decreased about $700,000, primarily due to higher interest expense. Our fourth quarter G&A will remain consistent with the third quarter at $8.1 million. Our interest expense, including deferred financing costs, will approximately $26.5 million, and capitalized interest will approximate $3 million. Termination and other fee income will total $6 million, which primarily consists of an anticipated one-time real estate transaction generating about $4.5 million of income. Net management leasing and development fees will be $3 million as we forecast sequential lower third-party lease commission income after a higher third quarter level. Land gain and tax provision will total about $1.1 million of income representing two forecasted land sales that didn't occur in the third quarter. On the capital plan, we experienced better than forecasted third-party CAD payout ratio of 76%, primarily due to leasing capital costs being below our business plan range and improved operating results. Based on a revised annual dividend of 60 cents per share, our pro forma 2023 coverage ratio is projected to be 75%. As outlined on page 14 of the supplemental package, our fourth quarter capital plan is very straightforward. and totals $95 million. Most importantly, we continue to prioritize liquidity and still project no borrowings on our $600 million unsecured line of credit at the end of the year. Uses during the fourth quarter are comprised of $36 million of development and redevelopment, $26 million of common dividends, $8 million of revenue maintained, $10 million of revenue created, and 15 million contributions to our joint ventures. The primary sources are going to be capital after interest payments totaling $50 million, 10 million of construction loan proceeds for 155 King of Crusher Road, and 50 million of net cash proceeds from property, land, and other sales. Based on the capital plan outlined above, we project a $15 million increase in cash during the quarter. We are also maintaining our net debt to EBITDA range of 7 to 7.3 and will be partially dependent meeting that range based on the timing of the fourth quarter sales as I mentioned previously. Also, that will be impacted by any GAV recapitalization or sales during the quarter as well. Our debt to GAV will be in the 40 to 42% range. Our core net debt to EBITDA range is 62 to 65. This range excludes our joint ventures and our active development projects. We continue to believe this core leverage metric better reflects the leverage of our core portfolio and eliminates our more highly leveraged joint ventures and our unstabilized development and redevelopment projects. We believe that our Leverage ratios are elevated due to our development pipeline, and we believe once those developments are stabilized, our leverage will decrease back closer to this core leverage ratio. We anticipate our debt service and interest coverage ratios to approximate 2.6 by year end, which represents a slight sequential decrease from the coverage ratios in the third quarter, primarily due to the additional development spend and higher interest rates. I will now turn the call back over to Jared. Great, Tom, thank you very much.
spk09: So the key takeaways are the portfolio is in solid shape with an increasing leasing pipeline. As I mentioned, we continue to be very pleased with the level of traction through every element of our portfolio. Our average annual rollover exposure through 2026 is only 6.7%. We've been posting and expect to continue to post fairly strong mark to markets. Manageable capital spend is evidenced by reducing our capital ratios on our horizon as well. And we do expect to have stable and accelerating leasing velocity through our development pipeline. We have covered all of our wholly owned near-term liquidity needs. Our plan to keep the line of credit zero. and are executing a baseline business plan that, as Tom touched on, improves liquidity, keeps that portfolio in very solid footing with strong forward leasing prospects. So, as usual, we'll end where we started with that. We hope you and your families are doing well, and we're delighted to open up the floor for questions, Liz. We do ask that in the interest of time, you limit yourself to one question and a follow-up. Liz?
spk02: As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question at this time, please press star 1 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 1 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Steve Sokwa with Evercore ISI.
spk03: Thanks. Good morning. I guess first question, Jerry, I just want to go back on sort of the JVs and the debt that you were sort of talking about, just to make sure I'm understanding. Are you potentially in a process of maybe trying to hand keys back, or is this just a situation where you and your partners are trying to just get to the finish line on, I guess, loan extensions? I just couldn't tell from the commentary kind of where you were heading with some of those assets.
spk09: Yeah, Steve, great question. Thanks for the inquiry on the clarity. I mean, our intention is to work with our partners to extend these loans out on terms that are acceptable to both the lender and the partnership as we wait for the market conditions to improve. I think from Brandywine's standpoint, we think we have a a cadre of very high-quality partners, very seasoned, very experienced. The loans themselves are all structured on a non-recourse basis, so we do have the opportunity that if things do not work out, we'll certainly take a look at what's the best answer for Brandywine. But our plan going into each of these discussions is to make sure that we accommodate both the both the partnerships objectives and the lenders objectives to the extent we can to facilitate a bridge solution that will keep these partnerships intact as the marketplace continues to recover from a leasing standpoint, but also hopefully the capital markets provide more stability so there's more opportunities to refinance. I think one of the points I was trying to amplify is that If you look at the balance sheet and the supplemental package, those JVs have $624 million of non-recourse debt on them. $113 million of that is attributable to Brandywine, and our investment base in those ventures, excluding MAP, which has a negative basis, is $68 million. So I think we're in a good position as a sponsor with our partners to go into the discussion with every single lender, with the hopes of structuring a program that's mutually satisfactory to both parties.
spk03: Okay, and just as a quick follow-up, when you kind of look at your expirations for next year, it's about 880,000 feet. I know you'll provide more details on exact guidance, but are there any, I guess, large known move-outs at this point in 24 that you could sort of highlight or share with us that might be more negatively impact the retention rate next year?
spk08: Yeah, Steve, good morning. It's George. We've got, for 24, we've only got two leases over 50,000 square feet. One of those is potentially a move out, and we've already got quite a bit of increased activity looking at that space over at our Logan Square project. And then the other one, we've actually got an amendment out. Some of the square footage in that 50 will be converted to swing space, so it will bridge 24 into 25, and a portion of it will be extended on a long-term basis. So really only kind of two at the present time in that higher range.
spk02: Great. Thanks.
spk08: Thank you, Steve.
spk02: Our next question comes from the line of Camille Bunnell with Bank of America. Hello.
spk00: Can you hear me?
spk09: Yes. Good morning, Camille.
spk00: Good morning. Following up on the balance sheet, with further occupancy pressures and slower development leasing, to what extent are you factoring these risks when thinking about deleveraging, and what other potential avenues could you consider to drive further progress on this front?
spk09: I guess Tom and I can tag team. I think from our perspective, you know, the portfolio, while we're, the occupancy range has been reduced by 100 basis points in our range for 23. As I mentioned, that was really due to some slower delays in occupancy. We got our leasing percentage where it was. So we certainly think the portfolio has a good degree of stability to it. And while the elements of the development pipeline are progressing slower than we would like, the pipeline continues to get very strong. So we do have an expectation that, as we've even seen on the residential component of 3025, where we're running ahead of pro forma on the residential leasing side, that we will be in a good position on those development projects. So that's more of a backdrop. The frame out where we are in terms of looking at liquidity, look, that remains a key objective for the company. So as we take a look at the deleveraging components, one is clearly land sales. And as we mentioned, we still remain focused on selling non-core land parcels. Some of those are going through rezoning efforts to other uses in office to kind of optimize the value of those land holdings. Two, we will continue to push our sales program. And frankly, Camille, to the extent that we need to to facilitate good sales in this kind of challenged market, we are prepared to take back some creative short-term bridge financing to generate some near-term liquidity for the company, de-lever the balance sheet, and create an interest rate bridge on those purchase money mortgages for the next couple years. Three, we do plan to reduce our interest and or liquidate some of our positions in these joint ventures, particularly some of the operating ones that are kind of reaching the end of their life cycle. Again, while we don't have a lot of dollars invested in some of them, we do pick up a fair amount of debt attribution. And to the extent that we're in a position to reduce that debt attribution, that in and of itself creates some great capital capacity. And in terms of, you know, there's other opportunities we're exploring in terms of looking at private equity investments in some portions of our portfolio that could provide not just a near-term liquidity, but also deleveraging. And I think Tom did a great job of outlining some of our other tactics in terms of resolving our 2024 bond maturity.
spk07: Yeah, Camille, it's just Tom to add to that. We do have, you know, most of our debt is fixed at 93%, and to the extent we can keep the line of credit unused, that certainly, you know, limits even more our exposure to the floating rate debt. And really, as Jerry mentioned on the JVs, if you look at sort of our wholly owned net debt dividend, which we, you know, outline on page 32, wholly owned net debt, even with the developments we are doing wholly owned, we're at 6.7%. I do think being able to manage our joint venture leverage will help as well in bringing that down. Certainly, the bond in 2024 will be dilutive, and depending on how we finance that will be a measure of what that does to sort of our fixed charge and leverage ratios. But we're looking at several different ways of doing that, whether it be in the unsecured market or secured or the additional asset sales, as Jerry outlined.
spk00: Appreciate the details. As my follow-up, could we focus a bit on Plymouth meeting, given the current occupancy levels and nearly 14% of your leases are expiring through 2024? How is the leasing pipeline generally trending in that specific sub-market?
spk09: I'm sorry, Camille, you did cut out. Did you mention Plymouth meeting?
spk00: Yes, Plymouth meeting.
spk09: Okay. Okay.
spk08: So look for some detail in the Plymouth meeting. Yes, we had a 55,000-square-foot tenant move out during the third quarter. That's on two contiguous floors at 401 Plymouth Road, which is a great project for us right at the interchange of the Turnpike and the Northeast Extension. Activity levels have been good. We've had... you know, several tours within the space knowing that it was coming back. We've got one proposal outstanding right now that we're still kind of, you know, back and forth with the prospect, but, you know, we feel good about it. The space is in relatively good condition, so I'm not sure it'll be, you know, a heavy capital requirement, but, you know, we feel good about that project, its location, and the underlying pipeline.
spk09: And I think you said on George's comments, Camille, you know, 401 is the top project in the market. It's not that strong, not that large of a market. It combines with Bluebell, which is another adjoining sub-market. But the 401, as George mentioned, very high-profile project at the interchange of really three interstates. And the pipeline, the visibility there will be good. So if there was a building we had to get space back on, I'm saying we want space back, that was probably the one that would be the, had the highest probability of near-term re-letting.
spk00: Thank you for taking my questions.
spk09: Thank you.
spk02: Our next question comes from the line of Anthony Pellone with JP Morgan.
spk04: Thanks. Good morning. I guess first question, if I look at the development pipeline and call it yields around seven and think about current debt costs, if this rate environment persists, do you think just as this stuff gets delivered, it could be an actual earnings drag? Or how do you think about the levers you might have to kind of protect earnings for the company if that's kind of a situation?
spk09: Yeah, Tony, good question. Look, I think certainly with the increased rate of debt, it squeezes the return margins on those properties. You know, we typically have done is we'll build in, you know, three plus percent rental rate increases into all of those leases. So the idea from our perspective is to, you know, get those projects to a stabilization point The lease terms we're doing there typically tend to be between 10 to 15 years. They tend to be with good credit tenants with good collateral support. So the game plan would be as the interest rate market still remains higher than any of us would like, execute the business plan for each of those assets, maintain yield equivalency or potentially higher yield equivalency than we have in the projections right now, and then learn or get those projects stabilized and then really focus on kind of refinancing or sale options as market conditions clarify. But certainly with debt costs going up to the extent that they have during the development cycle, the margin of contribution is lower than we were initially targeting when we started these projects. And we recognize that, which is why one of the reasons we're focused on, you know, driving the net effective rents we can achieve, not just on those projects, but across the entire portfolio.
spk04: Okay, thanks. And then just follow up. If you look out to maybe 24 or even perhaps 25, you noted the limited exposure on leasing, but can you maybe address just where you think mark-to-markets may be right now and or perhaps
spk09: know if there's any appreciable change in the in the capital that might be needed for that leasing uh look i think from a market mark to market right now the best evidence we give you is what we've been posting thus far so we do expect to continue to see very good mark to markets in uh in our cbd university city and uh particularly our radnor sub market in in pennsylvania I do think, though, Tony, in all candid, we'll continue to have negative mark to markets coming out of Austin. That marks in a certainly a state of disequilibrium. And as you notice from that new page we put into the supplemental, you know, some of our bigger vacancy exposures are in three of our Austin complexes. So I think there the watchword will be, you know, accelerate activity, meet the market in terms of pricing. try and keep good annual rent bumps in and control capital to the extent that we can. But look, one of the interesting things that we are seeing is the competitive set is actually shrinking a little bit in some of these markets. Not every landlord has the quality product we have, nor the financial resources to attract tenancy. So our focus remains on leasing every square foot through the portfolio. driving net effective rents as high as we possibly can, and really taking advantage of this continuing window we see of tenants really wanting to move into higher quality projects with landlord stability. Brokers want to show space in buildings where they can get their leasing commissions. Tenants want to move into buildings where they know that there's certainty of getting their tenant improvement dollars funded. Brandywine resonates on both of those fronts incredibly well. So we've increased our leasing teams and our talent at the ground level to make sure that we're really focused on turning over every possible stone where we think there's a leasing prospect.
spk04: Okay, thank you.
spk09: Thank you, Tony.
spk02: Our next question comes from the line of Michael Griffin with Citi.
spk10: Great, thanks. For the Skyway asset sale, do you have a sense of what the cap rate or buyer interest was on that property? And then for assets you're currently marketing, similar question, where do you think you could sell these at and what's the potential buyer pool?
spk09: Yeah, great question, Michael. The cap rate on the Barton sale was in the high sexes and came in about $300 a foot, a little below $300 a foot. Look, I mean, the buyer pool is actually interesting right now. We have a number of properties in the marketplace. We have one or two properties waiting to go under firm agreement. And on the standard office product, we're typically seeing the small institutions, the syndicators, the well-capitalized private development, redevelopment companies in the marketplace. So, you know, cap rates are kind of in the, I'll call it in the eight to 10% range for some of those more workmanlike products. The biggest challenge really is getting the financing in place. So we haven't really seen as much pricing pressure as you would expect, unless it's really driven by, hey, I need to get financing. So I think Brandywine being in a position where we can provide some bridge financing for several years and take that refinancing risk off the table, I think puts us in a pretty good position. For example, we have a couple of properties we have on the market in Northern Virginia. We've had, in one case, over 40 investors sign the NDA with about 10 different tours. We have another project where we had 75 CA sign with tours occurring on almost a daily basis. So there seems to be still a fair amount of interest in buying properties. The major gating issue that I think we're all facing is just how we can facilitate the debt side of their equity investment. And I think really depending upon how the interest rate climate goes and the commercial banks and life insurance companies, that'll dictate whether, you know, to get some of these sales done, we need to do some bridge financing.
spk10: great thanks um then maybe one on the leasing side can you maybe comment on sort of how concessions have been trending in your markets and kind of a sense of what tenants are out in the market right now and sort of what they're looking for in terms of space requirements yeah sure michael this is george i'd be happy to take that one i mean you know ti's have remained relatively constant um you know we've seen a little bit of pressure on unit costing but um
spk08: But the overall package, and again, we look at the concession as a combination of both abatement and TI. So we have seen a little bit of a shift more towards abatement, and we obviously try and limit that to just a fixed rent as opposed to the operating expense pass-throughs. Commissions have remained unchanged. So overall, net effective rents, we've continued to see growth, especially in Philadelphia, University City, and in Radnor. More challenging given the dynamic in Austin on net effective rent growth.
spk06: Great. That's it for me. Thanks for the time. You're welcome. Thank you.
spk02: Our next question comes from the line of Michael Lewis with Truist Securities.
spk05: Great. Thank you. My first question is about, you know, Jerry, you talked about the dividend cut, or maybe the question is really about cashflow, right? So the new dividend payment looks to me, it's about 60% of your third quarter CAD, even at the old payment, it only would have been 76%. So your stocks traded at a 15% yield with 60% coverage, just spot, you know, at three Q. So the question is, you know, the markets, you know, with a yield that high and coverage that appears comfortable, you know, the market's not really buying this. And so is the dividend cut, is it as simple as, you know, you save $28 million and you have good uses for that on development and de-levering? Or is this an expectation that, you know, cash flow is still going down and you got ahead of this, you know, coverage getting really tight?
spk09: Hey, Michael. Now, let me be real clear. Our cash flow is strong. The coverages that we've talked about are in very good shape. This was a deliberate review that the board and management went through in taking a look at really the, as I touched on in my comments, really the volatility and unpredictability of the capital markets. The fundamental reality is there's a lot of economic uncertainty out there. There's a lot of geopolitical risk. No one's sure where interest rates are going to go. No one's sure what the state of the labor market is. So I think that the board took a hard look at our forward projections. And in thinking about a reset dividend, wanted to set it at a level that provided bulletproof coverages for us, sent a strong signal that we recognized the volatility, the uncontrollability in those capital markets. but also set a firm foundation point where that revised dividend covered our taxable income distribution requirements and really set a firm foundation point for that dividend to hopefully grow as the capital markets showed more sign of stability or predictability and our cash flows continued to increase. So if anything, it was a signal that recognized the realities of the current capital markets not a harbinger that it was concerned about where our cash flows were going. So I want to be very clear on that.
spk05: Okay, great. And then second for me, these eight properties with high vacancy on page four, your supplemental you know, 300 Delaware stands out, but you know, is there any detail, you know, specific detail on the plan for that asset or for anything else, you know, on that list that you think might be helpful to go, you know, in terms of addressing, you know, these properties which are driving, you know, a large part of the vacancy in the portfolio?
spk09: Yeah, great question. Thanks, Michael. We laid out those eight properties, and as you know, you know, three of them, actually four of them really because it's too light, you know, is really kind of properties in Austin. So I think in Austin, the real focus for us is accelerating leasing. So we have a number of properties really talented leasing folks down there, great top executives. They've all gotten involved even more so than the past in really sourcing deals. We've reached out to brokers for incentive programs. And in one of those properties, frankly, it's very, very well located. We are taking a look at whether there's a residential conversion opportunity on a couple of the buildings in that complex. But Austin is primarily... pedal to the metal, let's get through this moment of disequilibrium in the marketplace as tenants return to the marketplace for space. Let's make sure these buildings look great, they're positioned well, they're well-staffed, great talent at the ground level, and let's get them leased up. So that's really the focus there. You know, we take a look at a 1676 International. As you know, that building has been a great redevelopment for us. The market has not performed as well as we hoped it would, and that property, along with some of our other assets in the northern Michigan market, we view as sale candidates in the near term. 401, Plymouth. George touched on it in one of the other questions, which is we just had a tenant give us space back there. That's top of the market. The game plan there is to release that space. Sierra Center. That's on there because of the give back this quarter. But that space is all part of our converting this building from purely office to the lower nine floors being life science. So as you can see there, we've even pre-leased 22,000 square feet of that space. 300 Delaware is an interesting dilemma for us. It's a property in downtown Wilmington. We really haven't leased any space in that building for a number of years because the lease terms just aren't economic. The floor plate sizes are around 15,000 square feet plus or minus. The existing zoning provides for residential and office use. So that is a building we're looking at a potential residential conversion and a tenant move out plan over the next several years that would be a project either Brandywine could undertake or simply sell it based upon the conversion plan that we put in place. But that's a project we do not anticipate investing any significant additional capital into. Was that helpful? Did that answer your question? Yeah, no, that's helpful. I appreciate it. Thank you.
spk02: Our next question comes from the line of Dylan Brzezinski with Green Street Advisors.
spk06: Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking the question. Just curious, you know, you mentioned several times, you know, bridge financing or seller financing or whatever you want to call it. But just curious, you know, what would be the LTV that you guys would be willing to offer in this sort of structure?
spk09: Yeah, I think in that framework, anywhere kind of between 50 and 75%, depending upon the project, the quality of the buyer, and our convertibility,
spk06: capacity to the extent the loan doesn't perform uh so uh but but that seems to be the the the pretty safe range still in somewhere in that 50 to 75 range okay that's helpful and then I guess just just touching on the expense side of things you know you mentioned lower expenses in the quarter I guess just how should we be thinking about that looking into in 2024 should we expect to continue to see relief on this front, or should we return to a more normalized environment headed into 2024?
spk08: Yeah, Dylan, it's George. I mean, I think, you know, probably a little bit of a continuation. You know, we continue to aggressively, you know, appeal and challenge real estate tax assessments. So I do think we maybe have some opportunities still there. You know, utilities, Our teams have just done a good job at kind of managing that consumption load and some of our negotiated contracts on forward purchase agreements have benefited the portfolio. You know, we've got a little bit of seasonality coming up for the fourth quarter, so we'll start to get into, you know, the potential for snow removal that, you know, hasn't existed thus far. But year over year, I would think, you know, There's certainly a lot of focus on our property management teams to maintain, if not reduce, expenses across the board.
spk09: Yeah, and, Dylan, just to add on to that, I mean, we're doing the same thing on the construction side. I mean, the reality is, you know, if you think about it, overall leasing velocity is down, not just in Brandywine, but in the markets. You know, a lot of general contractors are looking for work, so we're able to kind of get – better buying power given the size of our asset base here, particularly in Philadelphia, to drive better GC fees, better general conditions, do some forward procurement programs. So really one of the real green shoots this year has been our ability to really maintain very strong control over our capital spend, which I think really helps drive those net effective rents. So I think a combination of The really great work our operating teams do every day to make sure that we ever improve our margins in a challenging environment, that we expect to be a continual trend line. And certainly, as the pace of overall construction slows, we think we'll be in even a stronger position to leverage our buying power in our core markets to drive even better cost modules from our outside general contracting firms.
spk06: That's helpful, Collin. Really appreciate it. Thanks, guys. Thank you.
spk02: Our next question comes from the line of Upal Rana with KeyBank.
spk01: Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Tom, your prepared remarks on the Schuylkill Yards lease up was helpful, but could you expand further on that project? You know, any LOIs on the office portion you hope to get to the finish line in the near term? and any timing on the residential lease-up, and if you can provide any numbers on the impact on the capitalized interest burn-off, that would be helpful. Thanks.
spk07: Yeah, well, I'll touch base on just what I talked about. Tom and I sound very much alike. Yeah, we sound alike, but I guess I'll touch on what I said in the remarks. Yeah, as we bring the developments online, we're going to be experiencing a lease-up phase. And with the multifamily, that's going to be brought in over time. But for the first year, we expect to slowly bring up the operating results for the residential. That'll be both here and when we eventually have Uptown ATX residential started. When that happens, we're going to have some operating losses as we bring those properties on. So that's going to be one phase of it. Two, you begin to reduce interest capitalization. as more and more of the units become available for lease. And then number three, we have our preferred equity partner costs that also are phased in on a similar manner. So those costs over the first two, three, four quarters are going to be at a level that'll hopefully decrease as we get them closer to stabilization. So that's how I think we look at the the rollout of some of the JVs, especially on the multifamily side. As you look at the office side, until we can lease the square fee, it's a little simpler. We basically have one year from substantial completion to lease up that space. So again, that's more of a future thing, and Jerry can touch more on the pipeline and what he's seeing there. But after the one year, then it does become an operational asset, regardless of lease up. Our goal, as we've said, is to get the leasing completed. So as we roll into that one-year window and we start to look at that operational property come online, that we've done our best to get the revenue start. But that will occur, again, we have a year to do that from an office standpoint. And as leases come on, we just turn on that portion of the building from an operation point of view.
spk09: Yeah, and I'll just add on to Tom's good comments. You know, I think on the pipeline, you know, the really near-term focus is on 3025. That's pretty much delivered at this point. We have a number of residential units that won't really deliver for the next couple months, but the activity levels are very good. I mean, I think we've been very pleased with the progress on the residential. We've had, there's tours taking place every day, including the weekends. The leasing team there is doing just a rock star job of getting tenants qualified and leases executed. So to mention, we're in the low 60s in terms of leases signed, which is right in line with what we're hoping for. And rates are holding in there. We had to do some pre-construction opening rent concessions. They're pretty much all burning off. So we're very much in line with our pro forma there. I will tell you, on the commercial side, we did sign the one lease with Goodwin Proctor. We have picked up a whole new listing of prospects in the last quarter. Those tenants range everywhere from 10,000 square feet up through over 100,000 square feet. So very pleased with the pipeline there. Now the building is done. The lobby is done. Furniture is in. Park is completed. Amenity floor is done. the building really does present a very attractive showcase. So the leasing team is doing more and more tours every day. So while we don't have anything under LOI or in lease negotiation, we have a number of proposals being exchanged and a number of substantive discussion. Same thing on 3151, which is, again, not going to be delivered until later in 24. And we just topped this deal off the other day, so it's – really hard hat tours up to just the first few levels. But the activity level there has picked up as well. The life science market is showing some signs of recovery. There's more tenants in the marketplace. The RAID environment has created a dynamic where there's not as many new projects on the horizon as there was feared to be a couple years ago. And those tenants that we're talking to at 3151 you know, range in the, you know, 50 to 125,000 square foot range. So good size tenants, again, proposals being exchanged, nothing signed at this point. Uptown ATEC, the residential won't really deliver till the latter half of next year. So it's still a bit too early to tell. The business plan there looks good. Market dynamics seem solid. And on the commercial side, that market, as I touched on, remains slow. But we do have... a number of prospects that we were doing tours and having discussions with. So hopefully that provides you a little more color than the prepared comments.
spk01: Great. That was very helpful. And just one quick last one for me. What was the $11 million impairment related to?
spk07: We looked at one of our assets. Some of them are in-use impairments that we take at a couple of property levels as we start to assess whether we're going to sell those assets or not. So that is not related to 3 Barton. Last quarter, we did take an impairment on 3 Barton ahead of that sale. This is impairment on assets that we are taking a look at as possible sale candidates.
spk06: Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you.
spk02: That concludes today's question and answer session. I'd like to turn the call back to Jerry Sweeney for closing remarks.
spk09: Great, Liz. Thank you for your help today. And thanks to all of you for participating in our third quarter earnings conference call. And we look forward to updating you on our business plan progress after the first of the year. So thank you very much.
spk02: This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.
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