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spk03: Greetings and welcome to the Empire State Realty Trust fourth quarter 2021 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce Tom Keltner, Executive Vice President and General Counsel. Thank you. You may begin.
spk11: Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us today for Empire State Realty Trust fourth quarter 2021 earnings conference call. In addition to the press release distributed yesterday, a quarterly supplemental package with further detail on our results and our latest investor presentation were posted in the investor section of the company's website at esrtreit.com. On today's call, management's prepared remarks and answers to your questions may contain forward-looking statements as defined in applicable securities laws, including those related to market conditions, property operations, capital expenditures, income, expense, and proposed transactions and events. As a reminder, forward-looking statements represent management's current estimates. They are subject to risks and uncertainties, including ongoing developments regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, which may cause actual results to differ from those discussed today. Empire State Realty Trust assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement in the future. We encourage listeners to review the more detailed discussions related to these forward-looking statements in the company's filings with the SEC. Certain of our disclosures today are added specifically in response to the SEC's direction on special additional disclosure due to the changes in our business prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic and are unique to this instruction. We do not expect to maintain the same level of disclosure when we resume normal business operations. During today's call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures, such as FFO, modified and core FFO, NOI, cash NOI, and EBITDA, which we believe are meaningful in evaluating the company's performance. The definitions and reconciliations of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in the earnings release and supplemental package, each available on the company's website. Now I will turn the call over to Tony Malkin, our Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer.
spk08: Thanks, Tom, and good afternoon to everyone. 2022 is off to a very busy start for everyone here at ESRT. We have intense focus on the tasks at hand, maximize the benefits of our balance sheet, and excitement for the next normal as we all continue to adapt to a world where we live with COVID as an endemic and have less and less disruption from COVID as a pandemic. May I remind everyone on the call that I have said for nearly more than 18 months that we will see a constructive shift in the dialogue by the end of 1Q 2022, and we have seen progress towards that end. There's clear recognition that the world has changed since the onset of COVID nearly two years ago. The path towards the next normal is not a straight line, and the trend is positive. More and more examples accumulate every day, which build companies' recognition that work unity matters. Learning, teamwork, performance reviews, retention, promotion, and fostering a strong culture are incredibly hard, if not impossible, for most to execute entirely remotely. That said, this is the next normal to which we will move, not a return to the old normal. New York City's refocus of its priorities to be inclusive of the business community and the needs of its law-abiding citizens, under the leadership of newly elected Mayor Eric Adams, is refreshingly underway. Schools remain open, trains and subways are busier, there's traffic throughout the city, Hotel occupancy was up 21% year-over-year through November, and hotel bookings for December were up 312% year-over-year. At the end of December, just prior to the Omicron spike, foot traffic in the Garment District rebounded to 86% of pre-COVID levels, as 3.2 million people traversed the streets and sidewalks around our Manhattan office portfolio. ESRT is in pole position to capitalize from the recovery and the competitive positioning of our portfolio as a beneficiary of the flight to quality is obvious. As Tom Durrells will discuss, we had a strong leasing quarter. We continued to see the return of activity on long-term leases as tenants contemplate their future needs post-COVID. Unlike past variants, discussions with tenants and leases underway for their long-term office needs continued. With deals underway, we have the seeds for the growth in our leased occupancy. We continue to attract great companies who see us as long-term partners in their real estate needs who want to grow with us. Market commentators debate about the long-term outlook of Class A and Class B office buildings and their ability to attract tenants has been erroneously oversimplified. Our redevelopment work has placed our portfolio firmly in the sights of companies' needs to implement their long-term return to office plans. Best-in-class office space and well-amanitized, healthy, indoor-quality, energy-efficient buildings centrally located near mass transit in which employees feel safe is critical in all price ranges. We offer office space with these important attributes at rents that are accessible to the broadest population of tenants, not just those who can afford or want to pay triple digits for brand new buildings. Our properties benefit from the off-sited flight-to-quality trend in the market, and we see it in leasing activity concluded and underway. Shifting to our observatory operations, the U.S. reopened its border to fully vaccinated international tourists on November 8th. which contributed to the accelerated recapture rate that we achieved in November and December before impacts from the Omicron variant were felt. Our visits continue to improve along with our revenue per caps, and fourth quarter NOI of $10.7 million is up 67% from the previous quarter. Two-thirds of recent visitation has been driven primarily by domestically sourced retail onsite and website sales, with the balance driven by our third-party vendor sales to international visitors. Omicron has been a speed bump in our hypothetical recovery rate for the first quarter, and the good news about that is that the first quarter to date is our historically slowest period, and we already see post-Omicron recovery. We continue to provide our visitors with the unique, memorable, best-in-class experience, and we continue to look for ways to enhance that experience that produces better Google and TripAdvisor reviews than any of our new competitors, One World, The Edge, and the latest shiny penny, The Summit. Our goal is to provide best visit for our guests and to maximize revenue through our timed ticketing reservation system through which we manage visits in peak periods for our immersive museum quality exhibits. We are out of the pure volume for volumes sake business. The observatory's health and safety enhancements, the top of the line indoor environmental quality, including MERV 13 filters, ventilation, and active bipolar ionization, have been successful for our visitors and our team members. Fourth quarter attendance, that approximately 40% of 2019 comparable period attendance, a continued improvement from 2020 and the prior quarter, and in line with our hypothetical illustration. We registered strong November and early December visitation. Attendance for the fourth quarter was slightly impacted by Omicron. In our latest investor presentation, we revised the pace of our hypothetical observatory recapture wrap-up to account for the impact of Omicron. We remind everyone that the first quarter is historically the lightest quarter for the observatory. A quick note on competition, we believe there's a large enough market for multiple attractions to do well. We remain the only authentic, iconic attraction and have demonstrated repeatedly our ability to compete when other observatories opened. We are confident in our continued ability to do so. Turning to external growth, as previously announced in our business update in early January, at the end of December, we closed on the acquisition of 625 attractions multifamily units across two Class A multifamily assets in Manhattan. This is a great transaction for our shareholders. I'm very happy with the execution from everyone involved across our company and with our new partner. Our investment team continues actively to underwrite new office, retail, and multifamily acquisition opportunities where we think we can get an edge with our local knowledge, ability to spot special opportunities, and ability to solve others' problems with our flexible balance sheet. We continue to look at share buybacks and achieved a meaningful level during the fourth quarter at an attractive share price. Turning to sustainability, we are happy to share that ESRT was selected to receive a $5 million competitive grant in the first funding round of the Empire Building Challenge, a $50 million grant. state initiatives spearheaded by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85% by 2050. Additionally, ESRT was selected for the 2022 Bloomberg Gender Equity Index, an index that aims to track the performance of public companies committed to transparency in gender data reporting. Our leadership in energy efficiency Sustainability, Healthy Buildings, and IEQ continues to set the industry standard while we show annual improvement and differentiate our attractiveness to expanding and new tenants. Thanks to our SVP and Director of Energy, Sustainability, and ESG, Dana Robbins Schneider, we look forward to our second annual sustainability report publication in spring 2022. ESRT has a well-honed operational skill set, flexible balance sheet, disciplined track record of capital allocation, and ESG leadership position that will deliver long-term shareholder value. The team works well and hard as we press forward. Now, I will turn it over to Tom Durells.
spk01: Thanks, Tony, and good afternoon, everyone. In the fourth quarter, we signed 34 new and renewal leases totaling approximately 375,000 square feet. That included 294,000 square feet in our Manhattan office properties, 75,000 square feet in our greater New York metropolitan office properties, and 6,000 square feet in our retail portfolio. The weighted average lease term of 11.2 years this past quarter reflects the success of our modernized healthy transit-oriented portfolio and our tenants' long-term commitments. Major leases signed this quarter include a 168,000 square foot expansion lease with Signature Bank at 1400 Broadway. This is the second expansion by Signature Bank, who now leases 280,000 square feet across 10 full floors on a long-term lease. Signatures expansion includes 159,000 square feet of space that was leased to other tenants, of which 131,000 square feet was terminated during the first quarter. As part of these partial terminations, we received at least termination fees totaling approximately $12 million, which will be recognized as rental revenue over the remaining term of the respective leases, which spans multiple years. The other 28,000 square feet will be relocated within our portfolio. A 17,000 square foot expansion lease with iCapital Network and One Grand Central Place. This is the third expansion by iCapital, who now leases 82,000 total square feet. A 51,000 square foot new direct lease with United Rentals, the world's largest equipment rental company for space that had previously subleased at First Stanford Place in Connecticut. And a 15,000 square foot new lease with Clarins, the multinational cosmetic company at 1400 Broadway. We also signed leases for 17 pre-built office spaces in Manhattan in the fourth quarter. Subsequent to the fourth quarter, we signed a 24,000-square-foot full-floor lease with Crown Castle at 1359 Broadway. During the fourth quarter, rental rates on new leases signed at our Manhattan office properties increased by 3.9% on a cash basis compared to the prior escalated rents. Positive lease spreads on our four retail leases were 7.3 percent, and new and renewal leases across our entire portfolio increased by 1.9 percent. Our total portfolio occupancy was 82.4 percent, down 110 basis points from the prior quarter, and leased percentage was 85.7 percent. Looking ahead into 2022 for our Manhattan office, We anticipate our leased percentage will increase starting in first quarter 2022. We remain focused on driving our leased percentage and tenant retention to increase occupancy. Based on the timing of our partial termination of existing tenant leases to accommodate the signature expansion, we expect occupancy to decline slightly in first quarter 2022 and reach mid-80s by year end. Our office portfolio is fully modernized for the 21st century and benefits from the recent flight quality. More than ever, companies are focused on their employees' health, well-being, and productivity. We were first in energy efficiency, indoor environmental quality, and amenitization, which are front of mind for most tenants who must consider how the spaces they occupy factor into their ESG and CSR goals. Our industry leadership in these areas is widely recognized by the brokerage community, and more than a decade of our work in indoor environmental quality and sustainability positions us to provide real estate solutions to a wide range of prospective tenants who seek a healthy workplace environment. We offer newly built modern office space and accessible rents in central locations with convenient access to mass transit. We are at the forefront of future-proofed accessible offices in Manhattan. Building utilization experienced a dip amidst Omicron, followed by a sharp increase in the past two weeks, and currently stands at 30 percent for our Manhattan office portfolio and 52 percent for our greater New York metropolitan office portfolio. Each day that passes, we see more and more companies announce their return to office date and anticipate a steady increase in utilization heading into spring. Property operating expenses in the fourth quarter were $35 million, a $3.5 million increase from the fourth quarter of 2020 due to increased building utilization and gradual return to normal operation. Our property management team has done a fantastic job to reduce operating expenses with approximately $48 million saved in 2021 compared to 2019. Looking ahead to 2022, when building utilization increases, we will see steady return to normalized operating expenses. However, we expect 2022 operating expenses will remain below our annual 2019 operating expenses. Since we announced our multifamily acquisition in October, we've seen improvement in fundamentals and mark-to-market increases compared to current in-place rents. Concession packages have been reduced, and tour volume continues to be strong. occupancy has increased to 96.4%. We have initiated our plans for upgraded community spaces and common areas and intend to enhance further property performance and replicate our comprehensive approach to sustainability. In summary, we had a solid leasing quarter with 375,000 square feet of total lease assigned, our centrally located healthy future-proofed portfolio, with convenient access to mass transit, is well-positioned, fully modernized, and has built tenant spaces ready for lease-up. We see strong fundamentals at our multifamily properties. And our industry leadership and experience in indoor environmental quality and sustainability enhances our ability to attract and retain office and multifamily tenants. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Christina. Christina.
spk00: Thanks, Tom. For the fourth quarter, we reported core FFO of $49.8 million or 18 cents per diluted share. Same store property cash NOI, if you exclude one-time lease termination fees and observatory results from the respective periods, was off 4.9% from the fourth quarter of 2020. This change was primarily due to a reduction in revenues with the termination of the lease with Global Brands Group in 3Q 2021 and decreased occupancy. Switching to observatory results, observatory NOI was $10.7 million for the fourth quarter of 2021, a 67% increase from the third quarter of 2021. Observatory revenue for the fourth quarter increased to $17.7 million from $12.8 million in the third quarter of 2021 as visitation continued to ramp up. Observatory expenses were $6.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to $6.4 million in the third quarter of 2021. We continue to expect run rate expenses to be approximately $6 to $7 million per quarter until we reach 60% recapture rate and $8 to $9 million per quarter thereafter. Turning to our balance sheet, as of December 31st, 2021, the company had $1.3 billion of liquidity, which is comprised of $424 million of cash, and $850 million of undrawn capacity on our revolving credit facility. Inclusive of our share of assumed debt from our recently announced acquisition, the company had net debt of $1.9 billion with a weighted average interest rate of 3.9% and a weighted average term to maturity of 7.5 years. We have a well-laddered maturity schedule with no outstanding debt maturity until November 2024. Our pro rata net debt to total market capitalization was 42.2%, and net debt to adjusted EBITDA was 6.5 times, which includes the assumed debt from our multifamily acquisition before we receive credit for full-year EBITDA from the asset. In the fourth quarter and through February 14, 2022, the company repurchased $41.7 million of its common stock at a weighted average price of $9.46 per share. This brings the cumulative total to $195.5 million at a weighted average price of $8.61 per share, which represents approximately 7.6% of total shares outstanding as of March 5, 2020, the date our share buyback program began. Our balance sheet flexibility provides us with the ability to engage in the repurchase of our shares, as well as evaluate opportunities to deploy capital for external growth. The recently announced multifamily transaction is immediately accretive to FFO with an initial yield on cost of approximately 4% and expected to reach a mid-5% stabilized cap rate by 2025. This acquisition expands our New York City opportunity set for recovery and future growth beyond our existing well-positioned office and retail portfolio and iconic Empire State Building observatory business to include multifamily, which benefits from very favorable current market trends. Our investment team continues actively to pursue and underwrite investment opportunities in New York City office, retail, and multifamily against the backdrop of record levels of private equity capital, wide availability of low-cost financing, and lack of distressed asset pricing. As we have emphasized, we will continue to exercise prudence in our capital allocation and focus on the creation of long-term shareholder value. The company has under consideration capital recycling and allocation initiatives, and in this we take a hard look at all of our assets. As part of this review, during the quarter, the company incurred an $8 million non-cash impairment charge on our property at 383 Main Avenue in Norwalk, Connecticut. We stopped debt service on our $30 million mortgage as of November 1st, 2021, and are in discussions to transfer property ownership back to the lender. We believe this action is in the best interest of our shareholders and allows us to avoid significant capex costs to lease up the property, which was 46% occupied as of December 31st, 2021, a reflection of the challenging weak fundamentals of the Norwalk submarket. We would note that this action is specific to this property and the submarket where ESRT does not own any other assets and has no bearing on the balance of ESRT's greater New York metropolitan area portfolio. As we look ahead, we enter 2022 with a well-positioned and flexible balance sheet, a focus on disciplined capital allocation, and continued commitment to ESG. We also look forward to benefiting from companies' return to office and recovery of New York City tourism. With that, I will now turn the call back to the operator for a Q&A session. Operator?
spk03: Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for your question.
spk10: Our first questions come from the line of Steve Sacqua with Evercore.
spk03: Please proceed with your questions.
spk06: Thanks. Good afternoon. I guess maybe first one for Tom on the leasing. I was intrigued by your comment. I think you said you were going to get to the mid-80s on an occupancy level by the end of 2022. And I was just hoping you could, you know, talk a little bit more about, you know, the signed lease not commenced offset by the rollovers and the known vacates that you have. And I guess how much sort of speculative leasing do you need to do in order to kind of hit that? Am I thinking about that right, that, you know, 85 is the target up from 82.4?
spk01: Well, certainly, Steve, first of all, we're focused on our leased percentage, right, and retention of existing tenants, which will drive our future occupancy. Right now, our Manhattan office is 87% leased, and we do expect a higher leased percentage in the first quarter. But, of course, the occupancy, as I said, we expect to decline slightly just because of the timing of the move-out to accommodate the signature leasing. But that signature lease, we would expect to commence by year-end, so that will help drive our occupancy. Look, I'd say that we've got a good pipeline of overall activity leading into the first quarter. We just signed a new full-flow lease with Crown Castle at 1359 Broadway. But in Manhattan... our least percentage of occupancy certainly results from the 270 base point decline for the Manhattan office portfolio by the GBG move out. We have 545,000 square feet of signed leases not yet commenced. About 500,000 square feet we expect will commence by year-end of 2022, but about 330,000 square feet represent positive absorption. In other words, those signed leases have not yet commenced. That 330,000 square feet will go against currently vacant space. And then we have modest rollover in 2022 with only about 576,000 square feet, for which, you know, if you look at page 10 or something, there's how much has been covered by expected renewals and such. So that hopefully gives you good ideas of where we're headed. But we expect steady improvement in lease percentage. Occupancy may be bumpy the first, second quarter, and then improve over the second half of 2022.
spk06: Okay, thanks. And just, I guess, one question on the investment activity. Christine, I understand you guys are, you know, kind of casting a wide net, but maybe could you just talk about sort of what is sort of out there today and, I guess, you know, how confident do you think you can scale the resi part of the platform over the next couple of years, given sort of how low cap rates are and how quickly the Manhattan market has recovered?
spk00: Sure. Yeah, so we continue to actively underwrite deals. The investment team is hard at work, and our focus area is New York City office, retail, and multifamily, consistent with what we have messaged in the past. We are pleased with this transaction, and hopefully what this demonstrates is we are looking forward for opportunities where we can add value, where we are utilizing our balance sheet to help solve an issue, and that can involve some deal complexity. It could involve recapitalization, 421A, estate planning, tax issues, so a number of factors. What we've said on multifamily and scale is the intention is not for these to be orphan assets. You know, 625 units, it's a good start. We'd like to do more. The fundamentals are great. However, we won't force anything. We will look for the right opportunities to come along where it makes sense. And we recognize that there's a lot of capital that is interested in this sector. But it will be driven by our ability to generate shareholder value over time.
spk08: Great. I might add, Steve, Tony here, that the fact is... We look for creative ways where we can apply our capital, solve people's problems, sellers, existing owners, and we really need to shy away from actively marketed properties given the capital markets today.
spk10: Great. Thanks. Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Jamie Feldman with Bank of America.
spk03: Please proceed with your questions.
spk04: Great. Thank you. Good afternoon. I guess just going back to the percent least comment. So it looks like I'm looking at page four of the supplemental. It looks like you are at 85.7% to end the year. And then you're saying it'll dip and then get back to the mid 80s. Is that the right number to compare that to? I think this is total portfolio. Or did I? I just want to make sure I'm following you correctly.
spk01: Yeah, well, I think, Jamie, you're referring to a leased percentage as opposed to occupancy percentage, and our current portfolio is 85.7% leased, and our occupancy is 82.4%. That's the delta between those two figures represents leases that have signed but not yet commenced. So my comment about occupancy... in my prepared remarks has to do with we expect occupancy to hit the mid-80s by the end of the year. But as I said before, look, our number one focus here is to lease up vacant space and tenant retention. That's going to drive our occupancy going forward. We expect improved leased percentage in the first quarter of 2022. So as I mentioned earlier, a slight decline in occupancy simply to reflect the the move out of spaces to allow for the signature lease that will commence by year end. That will also help drive our occupancy by year end.
spk08: And I might add, Jamie, just keep in mind, we are maybe a little different. We aggressively, when we see tenants do not utilize their space, we aggressively move to lease that space and get buyout money from those tenants. So there are other transactions on which we work and other transactions we have done where we will move to create space for tenants, and that may involve momentary pops in our vacancy while we increase our leased percentage or maintain against future potential vacancy.
spk04: Okay, that's helpful. Sorry for my confusion. So the $12 million termination fee, how will that flow through earnings over the next several quarters?
spk00: So as Tom mentioned, because these are partial lease terminations, the way it will be recognized is through rental revenue over the span, the remaining term of those tenants' leases, which is about four or five years. So it will come through same-store cash NOI, but in a gradual pace.
spk04: Oh, so four to five years. Okay.
spk00: Yeah. So it won't be anything chunky. We were just trying to be transparent on the deal economics.
spk04: Okay.
spk09: That's helpful. Needless to say, we get the cash right away. It's just when we recognize it.
spk04: Right. Okay. And then one of the stats you provided in the press release was that I think 17 of your 24 Manhattan leases were pre-built. And I was just hoping to get some more color on that part of, you know, I know that's an active part of your business, but maybe talk more about the types of tenants that are going into those, or is there any read-through in terms of what that's saying about, you know, tenant interest in terms of term, rent, the kind of space they're looking for as we come out of the pandemic?
spk01: Yeah, we've seen the most activity on our pre-builds is at one Grand Central place due to its proximity to Grand Central buildings. We're seeing interest from a variety of tenants really in all sectors, healthcare, finance, professional services, legal. It really runs the gamut. And we also have activity where we have significant pre-built inventory at 1350 Broadway and at Empire State Building. As I said before, I think that the smaller tenants were able to leave the market, work from home during COVID, and then they were the quickest to return to the market. So we're seeing a steady pace of activity on our pre-builds. The good news is we have about 270,000 square feet of pre-built inventory that's been built. The money's been previously spent. and those units are ready to go and ready for lease-up. That combined with our full amenitization of our portfolio really hits home with these smaller users. They can come to our buildings and get access to our portfolio amenities and move right in, be up and running. So I think that that's where we'll continue to see some steady activity.
spk04: Okay, so it sounds like there's smaller tenants. What's the average tenant size, or maybe if you break up your... How much of that was pre-built in terms of square feet?
spk01: Well, generally our pre-builds are anywhere from, say, 3,500 square feet to 6,000 square feet on average. The total pre-builds that we leased during this quarter were 17 units representing about 83,000 square feet.
spk04: Okay. Do you see this size growing? into more, you know, just, I guess what I'm asking is just, you know, we keep hearing about tenants wanting more flexibility, more enterprise-type leases.
spk01: First, we will always accommodate tenants' growth. And, in fact, our pre-book program has been a feeder to many of the tenants that have grown with us over time. Certainly, Workday is a good example. It came into us at a on a pre-built and expanded to a full floor over time, and a plan came to us on a pre-built at one Grand Central place, eventually took a tower floor at 111. So we will always look to lease to quality tenants who have the opportunity and the potential to grow with us over time. But in terms of flexibility a la lease term, we really haven't seen any significant changes. As mentioned in my opening remarks, we had an 11.2-year weighted average lease term this quarter. And we're seeing tenants commit to long-term leases, pre-builts, generally the lease term could be you know, around three to five years on average.
spk10: Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of John Kim with BMO.
spk03: Please proceed with your questions.
spk13: Thank you. Good afternoon. You guys talked a lot about flight to quality in your portfolio and taking advantage of that trend. A lot of the trophy buildings in the market are being signed with rents exceeding 2019 levels. And I was wondering if you see that potential in your portfolio, you know, given your discussions today.
spk01: Well, we're definitely seeing a flight to quality. Today, tenants are more focused than ever on modernized buildings and modernized tenant spaces today. healthy buildings, indoor environmental quality, which we were an early leader, you know, well before for COVID, and with giving you access to mass transit and full suite of amenities. And that's what our portfolio provides. So we are benefiting from a flight to quality tenants looking for those attributes that have come to our portfolio. And we see that come up in discussions with our tenants on a regular basis.
spk00: Yeah, and I would just add to Tom's comment, you know, the attributes on IEQ, centrally located near mass transit, buildings that are fully modernized, these are all really important talent attraction and retention tools. But the vast majority of companies in the city can't afford triple-digit rent. And so we think we're really filling a portion of the market that has demand, they want collaboration, they want to bring their teams together. and they want the price point to be very accessible so it fits into their business model. So that's really what our comments relate to, which is flight to quality, accessible price point, and we think that we're solving businesses' problems.
spk08: I would just add, when you look at the flight to quality and who goes where, Signature Bank is a phenomenal credit, it's a phenomenal company, and they have come to us. Crown Castle is a phenomenal credit and a phenomenal company. They have come to us. We can go through any number of different leases we have done where our IEQ, healthy buildings, energy efficiency have been the driver. Flight to quality does not necessarily mean the bright, shiny penny. Flight to quality means in your price point at what you want to do, what's the option for which you are differentiated in your decision making. We believe we are absolutely in the catcher's position for this.
spk09: And the results will be in higher occupancy in your portfolio, as you alluded to earlier?
spk08: Higher lease percentage, which will lead to higher occupancy. And we also know that we are renting at higher prices with better credits on longer lease terms than buildings of similar vintage to ours.
spk10: Okay.
spk13: Christine, I think you mentioned the Norwalk property. write-down or impairment was a one-off situation. But your suburban portfolio has been a consistent underperformer versus New York. I'm looking at occupancy that was at 95% back in 2016. Today, it's probably in the low 80s, excluding Norwalk. Do you think you'll need to make a significant amount of or invest a significant amount of capital in these assets to get it back to where it was before? and thus have to make a decision whether or not you want to do that.
spk00: Yeah, well, I'll make a quick comment, and I'll let Tom speak more on the capital. But on our point on Greater New York Metro, we are taking a hard look across all our assets, which is where is the best place to invest our capital, whether it's on CapEx, whether it's on share buybacks, and whether it's on external opportunities. And that's going to be the lens at which we look. And Norwalk took a turn for the worse after the exit of GE, so that's very specific to the market. And Tom, why don't you comment a little bit on the capital for the rest of that portfolio?
spk01: Yeah, we recently completed upgrades of common areas and amenities at all of our properties out there. We've got a little bit of work left to do at Metro Center, but for the most part, our CapEx spend on common area upgrades and on amenities has been done. That includes a refresh of our fitness centers, dining, coffee lounge, conference centers, lobbies and some outdoor space. So we're positioned very well. Remember, two of our assets or three of our assets are located right next to mass transit and CBD locations.
spk13: So do you see a similar pickup and occupancy in your Greater New York portfolio as you do in Manhattan?
spk01: Not as strong as Manhattan. I would think that, look, we are focused on leasing our vacant space and tenant retention. United Rentals was a great example of of retaining a really quality tenant. We have some other leases that we're in negotiation on now on some significant tenant retentions. We're seeing good traffic out there, and it's still too early to call in terms of a strong rebound in that market, but I'm pleased with the traffic we're seeing and the condition and the show of our properties.
spk09: Great. Thank you.
spk10: Thank you. Our next question has come from the line of Craig Mellman with KeyBank.
spk03: Please proceed with your questions.
spk14: Hey, everyone. Tony, maybe just for you, you know, in the past you've always said, you know, when you guys do buy something, it's going to have something maybe with a little bit of hair on it where you guys can bring in expertise. You said it again today, to solve problems. I mean, Other than money, what problem did you solve at the apartments and where's the extra juice that you should get for bringing your expertise to this? It seemed like a pretty fair price for the assets.
spk08: Craig, you're absolutely completely wrong on the pricing on the asset as far as residential is concerned. And I'm happy to provide you, we're happy to provide you with comps in the market, number one. Number two, we solved a problem of an existing partnership with an individual who wished to, an entity who wished to stay, an institution who wished to leave. And number three, it was incredibly complex and involved things that, frankly, we were in a unique position to be able to accomplish from a tax perspective. the structure perspective. If you think that the numbers that were quoted as far as the result is indicative of what is available in broadly marketed, recently concluded transactions in the market, we can better educate you.
spk00: Sorry, I would add one more comment on that, which is if you look a little bit at the timeline for when this deal closed and when we first announced we were going to do it, it was in a time in New York City where the fundamentals were not as clearly, strongly improving. So this demonstrates, you know, we were able to see long-term into and had confidence in New York City, you know, the sub-markets, and we were able to step in at a time to solve the issues, whatever the issues are for a seller. We were able to move quickly and utilize our balance sheet and got very comfortable. And as a result, we're able to go in in the low fours cap rate with stabilization expected in the mid fives, and that is nowhere near where comps are trading in the market, as Tony mentioned.
spk14: Right. I guess the bigger picture, right, you guys passed on 1440 Broadway because it would stabilize in the fives, and you didn't think that was attractive. This stabilizes in the fives, and your cost of capital is probably 200, 300 basis points wider than it was at the time of that potential acquisition. So I'm just trying to get a sense of, you know, reconciling the relative attractiveness of the cost of capital with the going in and stabilized yield.
spk08: Greg, I think that it would be probably helpful for your particular line of question for us to follow up with you and educate you better on the difference in the assets in the rent rolls in the exposures 1440 had, which were very significant to vacancy. I think that you've got just a lot of mixed information here and we can probably spend some time with you and help you out.
spk14: Sure, that's fair. Maybe we'll do that after the call.
spk00: But on that point, on cost capital, I know what you're getting at, which is our shares are discounted, and hopefully you and the market can appreciate while we are looking for ways to add value through external growth, and in particular through more unique situations, at the same time, we are also engaged in the buyback of our shares, which does speak to attractive discounted valuations where we brought back over 7.5% of our total shares outstanding. So to us, it's not exclusive. We're not rushing into one or the other. We're looking for multiple ways to drive value on behalf of our shareholders.
spk14: And, Christine, it's not necessarily that. I guess the point I'm trying to make is you guys sat on cash for about five years because you said you couldn't find anything with a yield that was appropriate. Then you ended up buying something at a similar yield to what you could have bought. several years ago and he was down on accretion and over that time period. That's my only point.
spk08: I really think we should move on to the next question and we can have a little time for a tutorial with you and follow up.
spk14: Sure. Can I ask a separate question?
spk09: Sure.
spk14: I was just going to ask, you guys have a couple, you know, Duane Reads and street retail. I'm just kind of curious with all the headlines about store closures because of shop listing and other issues of that sort. I mean, how have your particular tenants been weathering this? Is there any concerns that any of your locations are having these kind of problems? Or have you guys, your tenants, been able to kind of sidestep this issue in your locations?
spk01: They're doing quite well. We're 91% leased. That says something about our portfolio. Our tenants are open. They're doing business. If you walk into Wolfgang's Restaurant in the Broadway Quarter at 1359 Broadway on a typical weekday night, that restaurant is packed. As you know, we assisted some of our smaller local retailers, particularly in F&B, to get through COVID, converting some of their base rent to percentage rent. They come out of that nicely. We're glad we did it. They provided an important and valuable service and amenity to our office tenants. I'm glad we did it. And so our tenants are doing really well. Tenants down here at 112 West 34th Street, Target, Foot Locker, Sephora, you walk in their stores, their business is bustling.
spk10: Great. Thank you.
spk03: Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Manny Corshman with Citi. Please proceed with your questions.
spk02: Hey, good afternoon. It's Michael Bellarmine here with Manny. Christina and Tony, it was helpful just to understand sort of capital allocation and using different uses for that capital that you have on the balance sheet, whether it's share buybacks or these acquisitions. but I'm wondering if you can just step back and obviously you referenced the fact that the shares are not trading at a level that you like, which is why you're buying seven and a half percent of your base back. And I know you have $400 million of cash on the balance sheet, but I guess what happens as you spend all this capacity on the next retail or multifamily or office deal or buying back another hundred or $200 million of stock, what happens when you chew up all this capacity and your stock still trades at a 10 times 10% implied cost of equity capital. I mean, how aggressive are you going to want to be to use all this capacity when your main source of capital raise is your common equity?
spk00: So I'd say for New York City office REITs, the main source of capital raise would not be common equity given discounted And from that lens, it's very helpful to have a flexible balance sheet. And your point is well taken, right? At some point, you keep spending. And that's why we mentioned we are actively focused on capital recycling and capital allocation initiatives, taking a hard look at the portfolio, seeing where we want to deploy our capital between capital requirements for leasing up the asset, upkeep, keeping it competitive. buying back our shares, and also external opportunities. And remember that our assets, except for the latest multifamily transaction, we own 100% of our assets, and that does afford us the ability to pursue JVs should we choose. Our lower than average levels of leverage allows us to tap into the debt market, not to be overly aggressive on leverage, but it is another source of capital as we navigate. So we feel we have good optionality and hence our comments on balance sheet flexibility. So we won't take it for granted and understand your point. You can't just keep going on that and the cash runs out, but we feel we're navigating patiently and prudently through this market and engaging on all those fronts.
spk08: I would just add that in addition, we have the benefit of terrific balance sheet. And on that balance sheet are assets. And we will also have the opportunity to recycle capital through our portfolio. And we also make decisions. And that's what came down with Merit View in Norwalk. We said, look, we have a major multi-million dollar commitment on this asset going forward in a market that's poor. Better for us to put that capital elsewhere. And we decided to walk from the property.
spk02: As you think about the portfolio and maybe tapping into it either in a joint venture or in a sale process, You know, over the years, you've been reluctant to sell anything down at the Empire State Building, which obviously is a significant amount of your value. You obviously, Tony, your family has the tax protection agreements and some of the assets North of the city, you obviously have a number of assets on ground leases, and your assets are different from where the market is clearing today in the sense that it's the high trophy assets, high credit leases that are finding the most appetite from institutional investors. So really, what do you have that you could open yourself up to liquidate to start narrowing this gap between what you perceive value to be and the stock being in a single digit range?
spk08: I think there are three factors here. One is to take things that have been made sure through our work over time and move to things where we see growth over time. Two is 1031s are very useful in this regard and there's all sorts of structuring that we can we can and will do around that using that structure which avoids the issue of tax basis and tax protection. And three, I think there's a myopic and problematic view of what's happened and happening in transactions today. And I think that we'd be happy to share some time with you guys as well as we will do with Craig. Just to highlight, there are a tremendous number of deals that have cleared the market that are not the bright, shiny pennies which get reported in the press and evidently have made its way to the analyst community. I mean, the fact that Hudson Commons went well leased, brand new, of course, to Peloton and Lyft, we didn't participate in that. We don't believe in Peloton as a long-term credit. We didn't believe in Lyft as a long-term credit. There are many other deals that have occurred. in many different property types in Manhattan and in the boroughs where we would be interested. And I think that the market is way more active than you're making it out to be on every asset quality. Assets of quality and not quality of every type.
spk02: My question, Tony, was more going to your own portfolio and some of the restrictions over time that you've talked about, talking about not wanting to sell anything in the United States building, some of the ground lease assets, things like that. Maybe just stepping back, your stock's trading at a 10 times multiple, which is the lowest in the urban office space. I guess, can you communicate a little bit more clearly what the company is going to do to try to lift its stock price. I don't think doing a 1031 and exchanging assets is really what the market is looking for from an active perspective. And so I think that's where some of these questions are coming from just given where the stock is and how it hasn't reacted to your multifamily purchase. If anything, it's gone further down because of that. And so that's where I'm struggling of really trying to understand management's view of things and where the investors appear to be.
spk08: First of all, I think we can go through the charts and find at least one other office REIT that's trading at a worse multiple than ours. Number one. Number two, I do believe that there is a fundamental reality that we need to build value over time and that the investor community within REITs really looks at today and tomorrow and not that far down the road. And we've seen that occur in any number of different situations with other REITs as well. And our goal over time is candidly to do the work to build value when people are interested in investing in New York City-based office REITs, primarily office REITs, and in New York City. And that's really our focus point. And we do believe that a move from stabilized, well-redeveloped, into growth makes sense, and we haven't seen what can happen in assets like ours because there really aren't other assets like ours, fully modernized, high IEQ, energy efficiency. They haven't come on the market. If we do put those on the market, we anticipate that we'll get a good reaction to them. All that said, we have demonstrated before the ability to raise additional capital, and we also have the ability to on our balance sheet to borrow for additional capital. So we feel pretty comfortable in an uncomfortable time in the market in general.
spk02: and look you have tapped that right i remember the qia but qia invested at 21 i think it was 21 or 22 dollars uh you know that doesn't set up the next person that wants to invest in stock if that's that but you took advantage of the market at that time um just the second topic i want to address was you mentioned we're out of the volume business i think is what you said on the observation deck and and i respect and i remember uh you know you and i did our special tour of all the unique things that you've been able to develop in that experience. But at the end of the day, isn't the goal to get as many bodies profitably through there as possible? So, I mean, as a gated admission, I would always want to have as many volumes as possible. So can you just sort of reconcile that for us a little bit?
spk08: I think when you read the transcript of the earnings, you'll hear from my comments what I said. We're out of the volume for volume's sake business. So we don't drive volume with pricing. We have a unique asset. We like the fact that the observatory business in general has been really dubbed, knighted if you will, as an institutional asset. And we've seen this through the KKR partial acquisition of the Edge and the Summit's assist in the high loan proceeds for One Vanderbilt. We do believe that we will continue in our highest revenue per visitor that we've had. We will continue to provide a better experience. We rate on Google, TripAdvisor, much higher than the Edge, the Summit, than OneWorld, all these new competitors. And don't forget, we also have the ability to do much higher volume just because the way we're built, the way we're structured, We have much higher volume at a much higher quality experience than those buildings can, those observatories can, just because of the way they were built, designed, and what the infrastructure is that is dedicated to them. That said, the key thing for us is we will not just do volume for volume's sake. And our volume has increased significantly. We like what we're seeing in the snapback from Omicron even today, even this week. And we feel good about that business, and we feel good about it at our higher pricing. Most importantly, what we don't want to do is to have people eight deep, seven deep during sunset at the Empire State Building, which drives high volume at that particular time and delivers people a lousy experience and bad reviews online. And the reviews online are what ultimately inform customers and clients. And ours are excellent and better than anybody else's of those new competitors.
spk02: Thanks for your time, Tony.
spk03: Thank you. Our next question has come from the line of Blaine Heck with Wells Fargo. Please proceed with your questions.
spk07: Great, thanks. Just one for me here in the interest of time. Tom, I know this is looking out into 2023. There's a lot on your plate between now and then, but You guys included your expectations for new leases, renewals, vacates, and unknown for 2023 in the supplemental on page 10. And it seems like there's a larger proportion of leases in that unknown bucket in 2023 than has been the case in previous years, which is certainly to be expected given the current environment. But just wanted to ask if there are any major leases in that bucket that could swing occupancy progression one way or another in 2023.
spk01: Well, Blaine, as you've seen in the past, as time goes on, those unknowns move into other categories, and that will be the case as we approach 2023, and we'll have clarity on those unknowns. And when we move into another category, when we have strong conviction as to exactly what's going to happen, that said, we are already in discussion with tenants whose leases expire between now and the end of 2023. The largest... tenants whose leases expire are at 1333 that represented about 100,000 square feet of tenants that were former sub-tenants of GBG. They've now gone to direct lease with us and we're already in discussion with them about their future plans.
spk10: Great. That's helpful. Thanks. Thank you.
spk03: Our next questions come from the line of Daniel Ishmael with Green Street. Please proceed with your questions.
spk12: Great, thank you. Maybe just a quick question for Tom. You mentioned concession packages being reduced. Are you able to quantify that change, maybe relative to pre-COVID levels?
spk01: I would say that our net effective rents have trended positive over the last four quarters, still a bit below pre-COVID levels. That said, our average lease cost per lease year for TIs and commissioners This quarter was $9.25 a square foot, which is really right in line with our lease costs over the past three years and certainly helped by the length of lease term, which represents tennis' long-term commitment to their space and to New York City. So our concession packages have been trending, again, right in line with our average lease cost per lease year over the last few years.
spk12: Got it. Thank you. And then maybe just turning to sustainability quickly. Tony, you've been active on the Local Law 97 implementation board, and I'm curious what you're hearing from the new administration on, excuse me, the new administration thoughts on sustainability-related laws in New York City.
spk08: Look, the Mayor Adams administration has made a brilliant move to bring Rit Argawala back. Rit was the original director of the Mayor's Office of Sustainability under Mike Bloomberg. And number one, number two, we have had very constructive engagement, both I have had one-on-one constructive engagement with Mayor Adams and with RIT prior to and after his actually taking office and prior to and after RIT's actual appointment. So I think that... The difficulty is I have a confidentiality agreement that I have signed as a member of the Mayor's Advisory Board. I would say that the engagement with the Mayor's Office, the new Mayor's Office, is very constructive.
spk10: Understood. I appreciate it. Thank you.
spk03: Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the call back over to Anthony Malkin, Chairman, President, and CEO, for closing remarks.
spk08: Thank you very much, everybody. Great work by the team, confidence that we continue to focus on moving the least percentage and bringing back visitors to the observatory and reinvesting in a constructive and accretive fashion. We look forward to a chance to meet with many of you at non-deal roadshows, conferences, and property tours in the months ahead and to share our fourth quarter results in April. Actually, excuse me. our first quarter results. And until then, thank you very much for your interest, and onward and upward.
spk03: Thank you. That does conclude today's teleconference. We appreciate your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Have a great day.
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