4/30/2025

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

this 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 host for today's conference, Brian McCarthy, Senior Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Communications. Please go ahead.

speaker
Brian McCarthy
Senior Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Communications

Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Kite Realty Group's first quarter earnings call. Some of today's comments contain forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions of future events and are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from these statements. For more information about the factors that can adversely affect the company's results, please see our SEC filings, including our most recent Form 10-K. Today's remarks also include certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to yesterday's earnings press release, available on our website. for reconciliation of these non-GAAP performance measures to our GAAP financial results. On the call with me today from Kite Realty Group, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, John Kite. President and Chief Operating Officer, Tom McGowan. Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Heath Feer. Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer, Dave Buell. and Senior Vice President, Capital Markets and Investor Relations, Tyler Henshaw. Given the number of participants on the call, we kindly ask that you limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you have additional questions, we ask that you please rejoin the queue. I will now turn the call over to John.

speaker
John Kite
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Brian. KRG had an excellent start to 2025, highlighted by our strong first quarter operating results guidance raise and a landmark acquisition in a joint venture with GIC. I'm proud of our team's ability to navigate the recent macroeconomic environment and focus on sound execution. This is in no small part due to our incredibly strong balance sheet that allows us to respond opportunistically to any potential economic disruption. Demand for space in our high-quality centers continues to remain healthy, allowing our team to produce solid spreads, generate strong returns on capital, improve our embedded growth, and enhance our merchandising mix. Blended cash leasing spreads in the first quarter were just under 14%, highlighted by 20% non-option renewal spreads. We continue to emphasize our non-option renewal spreads, as we believe they are the best barometer for mark to market potential in our portfolio. Our new leasing volume was more heavily weighted to the small shop side of our business this quarter. We were encouraged to grow the shop lease rate sequentially, giving the seasonality that generally occurs in the first quarter. To accompany the leasing volume, starting rents for comparable new shop leases in the first quarter were nearly $41 per square foot, approximately 20% higher than our current portfolio average. In addition to strong starting rents, new and non-option renewal shop leases signed in the first quarter of 2025 have weighted average rent bumps of 360 basis points, which is nearly 100 basis points higher than the shop leases executed just three years ago. Pushing our portfolio to a higher cruising speed remains the primary focus for our team as we continue improving on our long-term growth profile. Demand for our anchor spaces remains strong as larger format tenants focus beyond short-term headlines, making decisions designed to benefit their businesses for decades across multiple economic cycles. We're making great progress on backfills evidenced by the depth of demand in our pipeline, including grocery, off-price retailers, full-line apparel, fitness, sporting goods, and home furnishings. Our strong first quarter results culminated in a $0.02 increase to NAREIT and Core FFO per share guidance. Keith will provide more details on the components of the raise, but first I'd like to discuss our recent acquisition of Legacy West in a joint venture with GIC. Opportunities to acquire iconic mixed-use assets are rare. Given our strong presence in the Dallas MSA and strategic objective to increase exposure to high-caliber assets, We viewed Legacy West as a property that aligns with our investment criteria and long-term portfolio vision. Recognizing the magnitude of the opportunity, we proactively approached GIC to explore forming a joint venture. We could not be more enthusiastic about our partnership. Additional transaction details are outlined in our earnings release and investor presentation. But Legacy West unequivocally represents a pivotal step forward for KRG. Legacy West instantly enhances our portfolio quality and solidifies KRG's position as one of the prominent owners and operators of significant lifestyle and misused assets. The leasing synergies within the balance of our portfolio are powerful, enabling us to deepen relationships with leading brands like Aritzia, Fox Restaurant Group, Lululemon, Sephora, Viore, and West Elm, just to name a few. and the acquisition also fosters new relationships with luxury tenants, including LVMH and Caring. As we implement our proven operating platform on this asset, we expect to capitalize on significant mark-to-market opportunities and further elevate the merchandising mix. The transaction is immediately accretive to FFO per share, while modestly increasing pro forma leverage by 0.2 times. keeping us comfortably at or below our long-term net debt to EBITDA target of five to five and a half times. Our first quarter results capped off by this game-changing acquisition and joint venture are the product of disciplined capital allocation, a best-in-class operating platform, and prudent balance sheet management. While we have more work to do for the balance of 2025, We are a battle-tested and energized team that will always strive to outperform expectations. I'm confident in our ability to produce strong results in 2025 and deliver long-term value for all our stakeholders. Thanks to the team, and now I'll turn it to Heath to discuss details of Q1.

speaker
Heath Feer
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, and good afternoon. Before diving into our quarterly results and increased guidance, I want to take a moment to thank the KRG and GIC teams that worked on the acquisition of Legacy West. We have been focusing on this transaction since November, and we could not be more excited about putting our stamp on one of the nation's top open-air mixed-use destinations. Turning to our results, for the first quarter of 2025, KRG earned $0.55 of NAVREIT FFO per share. and $0.53 of core FFO per share. Both NAERIT and core FFO benefited from a $0.03 contribution from a large termination fee we received from a single tenant. As we previously discussed, termination fees are a recurring but unpredictable part of our business, and this particular fee will compensate us for downtime and releasing costs. Same property NOI grew 3.1%, driven by a 350 basis point increase from minimum rent a 90 basis point increase in net recoveries as partially offset by higher bad debt as compared to the unusually low levels in Q1 of 2024. Based on the first quarter outperformance and our revised outlook for the balance of the year, we were increasing our 2025 NAE REIT and core FFO per share guidance by two cents each at the midpoints. The components of our guidance raise included one penny related to net transaction activity, and the other penny was driven by the aforementioned termination fee being higher than we originally anticipated. Our same property NOI range remained unchanged from original guidance, as did our full year credit disruption assumption of 195 basis points of total revenues. It's important to note that we increased the NIP point of our general bad debt reserve by 15 basis points to 100 basis points of total revenues, while decreasing the anchor bankruptcy impact by 15 basis points to 95 basis points of total revenues. The change in the general bad debt bucket is reflective of the increased economic uncertainty, while the change in the anchor bankruptcy reserve is driven by better than expected outcomes. Last quarter, we estimated that the total of five of the 29 bankrupt anchor boxes would be assumed, and that is exactly where we will end up. Subsequent to quarter end, we executed an additional four new leases. some of which have Brent commencement dates in the later part of 2025. For another 12 boxes, we have selected the tenant and we are in active negotiations. In total, over 70% of the 29 boxes are being addressed. Finally, the sequential increase in our net interest expense assumption is driven by the acquisition of Legacy West, which we will partially fund on a revolving credit facility with the goal of paying down the balance from plan disposition set forth on page 19 our investor deck please note that as of last night our full-time metro asset is under contract with a non-refundable earnest money deposit as john mentioned our disciplined capital allocation strategy and tremendous balance sheet afforded us the opportunity to acquire legacy west together with gic holding aside the exceptional quality and potential of this asset upon completion of the associated transactions we have upgraded the quality of our portfolio de-risked our underlying cash flows, created immediate earnings accretion, and improved our long-term growth profile. We still have some work to do in the transactional front, but it's important to mention that if we had to finance the Legacy West transaction with unsecured debt, the annualized core FFO accretion would be approximately 2.5 cents, and our leverage would remain within our long-term range of 5 to 5.5 times net debt to EBITDA. Please note that our new joint venture is to be treated as unconsolidated entity for accounting purposes. We have yet to finalize our purchase price accounting, and our Navy FFO guidance assumes no impact from non-cash items. As the conference circuit heats up, we look forward to seeing many of you in the coming weeks to talk about our progress and this amazing acquisition. Again, thank you to the KRG team for a great quarter, and we will push for continued success. Operator, this concludes our prepared remarks. Please open the line for questions.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question at this time, please press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster.

speaker
Unidentified
Conference participant (audio check)

Our first question comes from Todd Thomas with KeyBank Capital Markets.

speaker
Todd Thomas
KeyBank Capital Markets

Hi, thanks. Good afternoon. On Legacy West, a couple questions. I was wondering if you can comment on the expected NOI growth rate in the near term and how that compares to the KITE portfolio in general. And can you share what the current occupancy rate is at the office and retail components?

speaker
John Kite
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Let me start with that, Todd. In terms of the growth rate, what we can tell you is that the embedded rent bumps on the deal, which I think is in our presentation, are 2.6%. So obviously that's well above the average of the rest of the portfolio, which is at 1.7%. So that's obviously a good start to that. And then the other thing that we mentioned, I think, in the remarks is that we believe that There is significant mark-to-market opportunity here. So over the next three years, I think about 30% of the deals roll over either with fair market value options or no options at all. So, I mean, at this point it's early, but there's no question that that was a big part of our underwriting process, both ours and GIC's, in the sense that we thought there was excellent upside here. if you want to hit the second one.

speaker
Heath Feer
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, the office is 98.7% leased and the retail is 95% leased as is the residency.

speaker
Todd Thomas
KeyBank Capital Markets

Okay. And then in terms of the office, you know, I realize you just sort of onboarded the property here recently, but in general, is there a way to characterize the office demand and discuss how it's performed? Is there any recent leasing or or tenant turnover that you can discuss and what's the remaining lease duration for the office segment look like?

speaker
John Kite
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

I'll start with that and maybe Tom can give some commentary. I mean, this is extremely strong office product, obviously highlighted by 98% lease percentage, which literally I think there's one space and there's action on that one space. And again, even here, the overall rents are below market. You know, this is the kind of office product you want to own, highly amenitized. The tenants are very happy to be there. The submarket, by the way, is very strong in Plano. I think the submarket's like 95% leased. So, look, we feel great about it. Tom, you want to add to that?

speaker
Tom McGowan
President and Chief Operating Officer

Yeah. Todd, I would add that there are 72 companies in the Forbes Global 2000. in this small sub market. So it's kind of amazing the actual number. And then there are three Fortune 1000 headquarters as well. So you just have this extremely unique sub market. And the great thing that we learned as we went through all the tenants and we had the discussions is just from a recruiting standpoint, the environment inside Legacy West was a huge marker for them. Just in terms of their ability to want to stay there and working with the mayor and economic development groups, there's a lot on the horizon. So we feel very good about this sub-market, and I think it's reflected by the tremendous amount of strong companies that have located here.

speaker
Heath Feer
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

And, Todd, the average duration left on the office lease is around six years. I will tell you, obviously, we were very conservative in how we underwrote it. And while the big market opportunities really in the retail portion, we're looking at the recent rents and deals that we're signing in the office, there's also opportunity for us to push rents there as well. So again, very conservative in our underwriting. Love the balance sheets of the underlying tenants. But yeah, we're very happy about the office piece.

speaker
Todd Thomas
KeyBank Capital Markets

Okay, great. That's helpful. If I could just sneak one more in quickly about the relationship here with GIC. Is there interest to expand the relationship with additional investments, either third-party acquisitions or by seeding additional assets above and beyond what's sort of currently contemplated?

speaker
John Kite
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Sure. I mean, the answer is yes. I mean, we're very happy about our partnership with GIC, and we've worked very well together over the last several months. second joint venture contributing seed assets into that, which we highlighted in the presentation. So, you know, obviously that's a lot in a short period of time with a new partnership, but, you know, the long-term vision is quite aligned between both KITE and GIC, so it's early, but I would suggest that we have other opportunities.

speaker
Todd Thomas
KeyBank Capital Markets

Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Our next question comes from Craig Mailman with Citi.

speaker
Craig Mailman
Citi

Hey, guys. Just want to follow up on the shift in sort of the bad debt reserve. I know you guys feel like the outcome feels a little bit better on the bankruptcies, but you shifted the same amount of reserve to just general. Are you guys seeing anything on the AR side or having conversations with tenants or putting additional tenants on the watch list that Or is it just kind of the general uncertainty in the market right now that's leading to some conservatism on that front?

speaker
Heath Feer
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, well, the anchor reserve went down because some of the tenants stayed open longer than we had assumed. And also, we signed four new leases for those spaces, and a couple of them are opening up in 25. So better result on the anchor, which is giving us that 15 basis points back. And then there's nothing specific. There's no, you know, increase in age they are. Craig, it's just a matter of saying, hey, you know what? The world's a little crazy, so why don't we take that 15 basis points and put it in our general bad debt bucket? So really just shifting it over with nothing specific.

speaker
John Kite
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Craig, it's still early, right? It's first quarter. So we're into the second quarter now. I think it was a smart thing to do in light of the world that we're living in. But as he said, I mean, that's one of the good things about our system internally is we do a bottoms-up every month of every tenant. Um, you know, and so we have a really good pulse on where AR is and where the small shop health is, and that pulse is still very strong, but I think it's prudent at this point in the year.

speaker
Craig Mailman
Citi

That's fair. And then just on the, um, the transaction environment, you know, you guys are kind of selling some things into the third party market. What, what's been the reception for some of those power center type deals, the bidding pool sizes.

speaker
John Kite
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

of sensitivity on pricing that you're seeing i mean right now it remains healthy as he's mentioned uh in the prepared remarks uh the deal we have which is kind of a larger format deal in la that that was uh on the market went hard last night uh at the pricing that we thought it would um so i think i think there's still some very active uh acquisition buyers out there um there's liquidity you know look i think there's uncertainty but on the ground, operationally, it's a lot better. So I think we continue to see good demand, and cap rates continue to be very competitive. I mean, obviously the 10-year is in the low four range. So you can make things work, especially with NOI growth. So I think it's a pretty good market, and we'll see how the rest of the year kind of evolves.

speaker
Craig Mailman
Citi

Perfect. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Our next question comes from Flores Van Dijkum with CompassPoint.

speaker
Flores Van Dijkum
CompassPoint

Hey, guys. A couple more questions on Legacy West, if you don't mind indulging me. You mentioned that the average tenant sales are north of $1,000 a square foot. I believe the in-place rents are somewhere in the $60 a foot range. what are the new leases being signed at? What kind of mark-to-market are you expecting? And then I guess the follow-on question, and you indicated that this is not in your results yet because you haven't had the purchase accounting yet, but what would that do if you were to have to recognize that in terms of purchase accounting for a returns for your income that you have to recognize, how much of an impact would that be, a further upside to this acquisition in terms of earnings?

speaker
John Kite
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Well, let me start with just overall in terms of where we think the rents are and what the potential market is. Without getting into specifics, I think it's easy to kind of look at the fact that the health ratios, you know, certainly in the retail component, are low. I mean, we're talking mid to low single digits or mid to high single digits in health ratios, luxury lower than the overall. So I think we're very comfortable that there is upside there, and whether that's 20%, 25%, 30% upside, we'll see over the next three years. But there's no question that that was part of both GICs and KITE's real excitement about the asset was there was mark-to-market opportunity. In terms of the purchase accounting, I mean, it's obviously, as we mentioned, too early to say. It's why we will continue to give you both NAREIT FFO and Core FFO to highlight the differences. But suffice to say, there will be purchase accounting, and there's also a mark-to-market on the debt. So we'll see the net result of that But we'll be a little more focused on the core, and we'll be more focused on the actual cash flow and NOI growth floors.

speaker
Flores Van Dijkum
CompassPoint

Great. And then maybe the follow-on question, additional asset sales. I know you talked about your GIC venture, and obviously you've got three assets that I guess two are now hard. One is still – sort of in the works, but should hopefully join them as well. How many more asset sales do you expect to be able to complete? And how many of those potentially could be used for share repurchase opportunities?

speaker
John Kite
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Well, you know, again, high level, Floris, We mentioned on the last call that we have a strategy around the repositioning of the portfolio and the repatriation of cash. And so it's hard to say right now, based on the fluidity of the market and where people feel transactions will occur. So we don't have a specific number that we are out there saying is going to happen in the next X number of months. But we were pretty clear that there are assets that we think are tradable that we could, again, repatriate that into whatever we think the highest and best use of that capital is. So I think it's too early to say, but there's no question that we think the market is somewhat supportive right now and probably gets even more supportive as we move through the year. And so I think we're just going to have to see how that evolves. Heath, anything to add to that? Yeah.

speaker
Dave Buell
Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer

Thanks, John. That's it for me. Thanks.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Our next question comes from RJ Milligan with Raymond James.

speaker
RJ Milligan / Wesley Galladay
RJ Milligan – Raymond James; Wesley Galladay – Baird

Hey, good afternoon, guys. First, Heath, I wanted to touch on the guidance on the lease term fees. How much was in original guidance, and how much is there now embedded in guidance? I just would have thought after the term fee or the $7.5 million of term fees in one queue, the guide would have moved higher than that penny.

speaker
Heath Feer
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

So we had visibility into that termination when we gave guidance. So we thought it was going to be about two pennies, and then we ended up negotiating it. We did better, so it turned out being three pennies. That's why you're only seeing a one cent increase in the guidance from termination fees.

speaker
RJ Milligan / Wesley Galladay
RJ Milligan – Raymond James; Wesley Galladay – Baird

And so then what's included in guidance for the remainder of the year?

speaker
Heath Feer
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

In terms of termination fees? Yes. In general, if you saw year over year, we said there was going to be one more penny in 2025 versus 24 and sort of that recurring but unpredictable bucket. So now that's going to be two pennies. So if you do the math and go back, we do have some additional term fees, not nearly this magnitude in guidance for the balance of the year. And we do have a land sale gain as well, which we have visibility into as well. So again, net two cents more. of those type of items in guidance as opposed to 2024.

speaker
RJ Milligan / Wesley Galladay
RJ Milligan – Raymond James; Wesley Galladay – Baird

Okay, that's helpful. And then on the Legacy West transaction, I'm just curious how you guys deliberated between asset sales and using the proceeds for Legacy West versus buying back stock.

speaker
John Kite
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Sure. I think, RJ, I mean, great question, obviously. We're at a point in time today where the stock is at a level that doesn't make sense. As you know, deals like this take a long time and gestation. And if you go back to the beginning of when we heavily engaged in this deal, our stock was at a much higher price. But most importantly, assets like this that we truly believe is an iconic open air, one of the best in the country, they just don't come around very often. And there was actually quite a bit of product on the market over the last several months. And this is by far was the best opportunity because of the mark to market, because of the asset, the quality. So we did, you know, we heavily debate, you know, what's the best place for capital to go. And when we looked at the potential growth and we looked at the underlying asset and quality, and we looked at the strength of our joint venture and long-term strength of that with GIC, It was clearly the right place to be. But obviously, we'll see how the rest of the year plays out and we'll see what other opportunities we have throughout the year, whether that be through things such as that or buying back stock or whatever the highest and best use would be. But we do take it seriously and try to do the best we can to underwrite it at the point in time. But the fact of the matter is these play out over multiple quarters. as you know.

speaker
RJ Milligan / Wesley Galladay
RJ Milligan – Raymond James; Wesley Galladay – Baird

And John, I'm going to push you a little bit, if that's okay, but based on your comments from the time that these transactions take, would it be fair to say that if your stock was currently trading where it is today, that you would have considered instead buying back stock?

speaker
John Kite
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

I mean, it's hard to be hypothetical, but yeah, I mean, if the deal was happening today, it obviously would underwrite differently But that being said, in the end, this was really about the long-term value creation opportunity that we saw here, and we thought that was the – and still think that is the best pace to be. There's long-term value to be created, and I think in the end it will be very significant.

speaker
Dave Buell
Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer

I appreciate that. Thanks, guys. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Our next question comes from Daniel with Green Street.

speaker
Daniel
Green Street

Hello. The composition of your portfolio has shifted more to mixed use properties now with the acquisition of RPAI and now Legacy West. Can you talk about the benefits of these properties over a traditional grocery anchorage center? And then do you see your portfolio or this portfolio shift continuing?

speaker
John Kite
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

I think, first of all, in terms of the benefits, we tried to highlight that earlier. I mean, the embedded rent growth, the quality of the asset, the scarcity of the asset, these are all things that are very specific to things, to assets like Legacy West. So clearly the growth rate and just the value creation when you can get into these deals at below market rents is really powerful. But that being said, I mean, we still have, our portfolio is still pivoted across the spectrum of various, you know, retail genres. And we, in the same, you know, in the quarter we acquired a grocery anchored center in West Palm Beach, Florida. So we continue to very, you know, to be very focused on that as well. I think what we're trying to do over time is pivot a little away from the centers that have, you know, know more percentage risk associated with the boxes it doesn't mean that we'll be out of that it just means it's going to be a smaller part of the portfolio over time so what we should get as a result of this is better cash flow growth and better nav over time that that's the objective got it thank you thanks

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Our next question comes from Andrew Wheel with Bank of America.

speaker
Andrew Wheel
Bank of America

Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. Just on leasing, have there been any changes in how you're approaching conversations with tenants and your leasing strategy overall in recent weeks? And I know you've had success pushing pretty favorable monetary and non-monetary provisions within your leases in recent years, but curious if there have been any areas in the lease negotiation lately where you're getting more pushback from tenants?

speaker
John Kite
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

No, I mean, at this point, it's pretty much business as usual in the way that we operate with our customers, the retailers. And, you know, as we tell you all the time, we engage with them every single day. We mentioned in the prepared remarks that, you know, retailers, particularly the national retailers, when they making decisions, they're thinking about decades of being in that particular property. And so they have to operate throughout the cycles. that being said is you know the market is the market and there is concern today but it hasn't you know come to fruition at this point in terms of our negotiations if anything the scarcity of the product continues to put us in a very good place as it relates to negotiating time you I mean only other thing I would add is I think we see our primary customers wanting to do more portfolio reviews we actually have a

speaker
Tom McGowan
President and Chief Operating Officer

one tomorrow where a grocery company is going to assess some of their new target markets and we're going to really dig into that. So I think if anything, we're seeing more interaction, more engagement with these customers to make sure they're able to jump on opportunities as well as us as we move down the road. So we are definitely not seeing a lot of changes at this point other than people really wanting to forecast out opportunities within our portfolio.

speaker
Andrew Wheel
Bank of America

Okay, thank you. And then just on your active and future developments, how do you feel about yield holding up just given the broader macro uncertainty and potential cost headwinds associated with tariffs?

speaker
John Kite
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Again, I mean, at this point in time, the yields have not been impacted by that, but we're very early into this process. There may be some impact down the road, but generally when there's impact from that, we are able to get better returns vis-a-vis the rents or other value engineering, but today it's too early to see any impact from that.

speaker
Andrew Wheel
Bank of America

Okay. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Our next question comes from Alexander Goldfarb with Piper Sandler.

speaker
Alexander Goldfarb
Piper Sandler

hey uh good afternoon out there uh john just following up on on the previous question on on leasing do you think that leasing is a good indicator over time of like what's going on the economy and what i'm asking for is do you think that the continued strength we're seeing in retail is more driven by the dwindling availability versus you know strength of the underlying economy just trying to get a sense of how we should interpret the still strong leasing environment, if it's more lack of space or it's more, hey, the retailers see great things in their business and they're continuing to expand?

speaker
John Kite
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Alex, I mean, I think it's a combination of lack of space and strength of, you know, the retail physical footprint for these retailers to make money. But right now, I would say that, you know, it still remains, you know, a pretty healthy environment because the The product is scarce, and the retailers over the last several years have really kind of morphed their businesses and are able to figure out how the whole multi-faceted online, in-store, all that works. So right now, I think it's a combination. We'll see how this plays out over the next several quarters, but we're still in a pretty good place as of today.

speaker
Heath Feer
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Ellis, I'd also add, this is Heath, that you know, during COVID, you saw a lot of these tenants shut down their real estate machine and they fired the real estate teams and it was really hard to get it going again. So I think they're remembering, hey, let's not overreact. This is likely a temporary situation. It's business as usual. You know, part of their growth depends on them opening up new units. So yes, it does feel a little turbulent, but I think the continued growth is them realizing that, as John said before, you know, they're looking to make real estate decisions for 10, 15, 20 years. And by definition, they're assuming they're gonna be some point of a downside. So again, I think it's the tenants looking back and saying, you know what, let's hold the course and let's stick to our business plan.

speaker
Alexander Goldfarb
Piper Sandler

Okay, and then the second question is, in your slide 19, which I give you guys credit for, it's a great slide, so glad you guys put it out there. You talk about the potential for a special dividend based on the dispositions, and I'm just wondering, you know, obviously REITs have been pretty good at sheltering taxable gains. And apart from doing a 1031, I'm assuming you guys explored all other options to shelter. Any capital would just seem in the current environment, retained cash is probably the most valuable asset you have versus a special dividend that I'm not sure you'd get much credit for. So just curious on your thoughts on that.

speaker
Heath Feer
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Well, Alex, we absolutely investigated ways to shelter any potential special dividend. And we say it's likely required, so that's why we're not giving a range on it. But as you know, when you're purchasing an asset in a partnership, you can't use it at the 1031 fee sales. But with that said, there's other things like dividend throwbacks, et cetera, that we can use. So we are actively looking, and we have tremendously good tax advisors of ways to avoid it. But at the end of the day, when you step back we don't think it's the worst use of capital. And if it's returning cash to our shareholders, and we're doing this incredible transaction, and even after we return that cash, this is still accretive, it feels like that's a great result all around.

speaker
Alexander Goldfarb
Piper Sandler

Thank you.

speaker
Heath Feer
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thanks.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Our next question comes from Hongmian Zhang with JP Morgan.

speaker
Unidentified
Conference participant (audio check)

Hello, can you hear me?

speaker
Dave Buell
Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer

Yes.

speaker
Hongmian Zhang
JP Morgan

Cool. Sorry about that. I guess two questions. I guess the first one, it seems like between the asset sales and the JVC funding, all those transactions are coming in to call it like a mid-7th cap rate. Is that indicative of, I guess, what you'd be selling properties at today?

speaker
John Kite
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

I mean, it's hard to say across the entire portfolio of what we'd be selling, but I think it's a reasonable kind of cap rate based on the type of products that we're selling. And we felt pretty good about that in terms of how we were growing the remaining cash. So, yeah, I think it's a reasonable assumption.

speaker
Hongmian Zhang
JP Morgan

Got it. And I guess on occupancy, I think your economic slash build occupancy was like in the low 91s in the first quarter. Where do you think that will trend by the end of the year?

speaker
Heath Feer
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

We generally don't guide to occupancy, but you're going to see, obviously, it dip as we lose more of the leases out of the bankruptcy. We still have all of our Joanns. then obviously you're going to see it start building up as we're turning on the rent. So, again, we don't guide to economic all these documents at the end of the year, but generally those are the two factors that are going to be impacting it.

speaker
Tom McGowan
President and Chief Operating Officer

Well, we're on a very nice pace of backfilling these boxes, and so we're very hopeful that that will continue to increase through the balance of the year.

speaker
Dave Buell
Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer

Oh, well, thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Our next question comes from Dory Keston with Wells Fargo.

speaker
Dory Keston
Wells Fargo

Thanks. Good afternoon. Are you able to quantify the fees that you'll receive through the, I guess, potential to GIC JVs?

speaker
Heath Feer
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Dory, no, we're not ready to share those. But we set in our materials at their market, so you can do a survey of various joint ventures, and they're going to be in the ballpark.

speaker
Dory Keston
Wells Fargo

Got it. And as you walk through your 25 small shop lease expirations, is it your expectation that your fixed rent bumps of 3% plus should continue to grow from the 92% that you achieved this past year?

speaker
John Kite
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, I mean, I think if you look at the quarter over quarter results, we continue to make great progress there. Obviously, as the portfolio gets leased up, You end up, you know, it ends up getting harder and harder to get the growth out of a tougher space to lease. But certainly 3% north is a very comfortable place for us to assume that we're going to continue to do small shop leases.

speaker
Dory Keston
Wells Fargo

Okay. Thank you.

speaker
Dave Buell
Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer

Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Our next question comes from Wesley Galladay with Baird.

speaker
RJ Milligan / Wesley Galladay
RJ Milligan – Raymond James; Wesley Galladay – Baird

Hi, everyone. The JV helped you mitigate the risk of taking down a very large asset. And just kind of curious, you know, at what size of an asset would you want to bring in a JV partner?

speaker
John Kite
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

You know, I think it's probably deal by deal specific, Wes. But when you look at this particular asset, you know, it felt like the appropriate size that we should be thinking about that. That being said, you know, our share of the total deal is less than 10% of our undepreciated assets. So I, you know, again, I think it's a large asset, but it's not crazy large. Um, uh, but I think in this range, you would see us consider that. I mean, there's more to just, there's more to it than just the size, but in this range, we would consider it.

speaker
Heath Feer
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

One piece of it is a risk diversification. It's a large assets. You bring a partner along. But also when you're looking at these large assets, your counterparty is thinking about the ability of the other side to perform. And I'll tell you that based on our joint venture with GIC, we were at the highest bidder on this asset. And we were able to get the deal awarded to us because of the strength of the partnership. They looked at Kite's ability to execute along with GIC's ability to execute. And that's why we won the bid. So it's more than just risk allocation. It's also partner with someone that's going to give you a better advantage, you know, when you're underwriting and when you're submitting your bid.

speaker
RJ Milligan / Wesley Galladay
RJ Milligan – Raymond James; Wesley Galladay – Baird

That's a fair point. And then I guess maybe your other assets in the market, you know, how much does that play into it as well where you can get the immediate synergies?

speaker
Heath Feer
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Which other? You mean the seed assets or the... Well, your other assets in the market, yeah.

speaker
John Kite
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Oh, yeah. Sorry.

speaker
Heath Feer
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

100%.

speaker
John Kite
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

This answers the question. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, as we mentioned, it was a big part of our underwriting of the asset was that we are a major player in the market. In fact, own an asset across the street, essentially across the tollway. And then also the fact that we own Southlake, which is a similar asset, very dominant. Now, all of a sudden, we own two of probably the top five open-air retail assets in Dallas. So that's a pretty major thing. And I think we can kind of cross-pollinate tenants across the board and hopefully just lift rents across the board.

speaker
Tom McGowan
President and Chief Operating Officer

Yeah, the inbound costs from the Dallas market have been substantial today just in terms of opportunities, what's out there. So we will definitely build on our momentum in this market.

speaker
RJ Milligan / Wesley Galladay
RJ Milligan – Raymond James; Wesley Galladay – Baird

Okay, nice. And then one last one on the term income. It looks like it's running through the non-same store. base rent in one queue, not to flow it through? And then also, when should we assume that tenant is backfilled?

speaker
Heath Feer
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

So, Wesley, you kind of broke up. In terms of when that tenant gets backfilled, it's an anchor spot, so call it 12 to 18 months is our average to backfill it. But I missed the first part of your question. You kind of cut out.

speaker
RJ Milligan / Wesley Galladay
RJ Milligan – Raymond James; Wesley Galladay – Baird

Oh, yeah. Sorry about that. Is there anything in the run rate of the non-same store that we need to take out in two queue? And what amount should we put in, call it late next year?

speaker
Heath Feer
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

No, on our termination fee policy, you know, when we get a termination fee, we count the rent for the 12 months. So there's nothing to remove out of the run rate.

speaker
RJ Milligan / Wesley Galladay
RJ Milligan – Raymond James; Wesley Galladay – Baird

Okay. And I guess would it be safe to assume that maybe it's a few years of rent?

speaker
Heath Feer
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yes. Oh, and how much it was?

speaker
RJ Milligan / Wesley Galladay
RJ Milligan – Raymond James; Wesley Galladay – Baird

Yeah, well, I guess the base rent, like, well, yeah, I'm trying to figure out how much credit I need to give you for the, you know, call it, you know, mid to next, mid to late 2026, what type of rent we should put in the run rate, because it's a non-same source. We don't have an idea what's going on there.

speaker
John Kite
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

I think it's too early to say what the backfill rents are going to be, if that's the question.

speaker
Dave Buell
Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer

Yeah.

speaker
John Kite
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Okay. I think we lost a little bit, and it's breaking up a little less, but... Okay. I think it's a little early to tell what the backfill. I think the point is that we have a lot of capital from the lease termination to reinvest in whatever we do there. Okay, thanks a lot, guys. Thank you.

speaker
RJ Milligan / Wesley Galladay
RJ Milligan – Raymond James; Wesley Galladay – Baird

Appreciate it.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Our next question comes from Linda Tsai with Jefferies.

speaker
Linda Tsai
Jefferies

Thanks for taking my question. In terms of sales productivity, how does Legacy West compare to Legacy East and Southlake? And is Legacy West the one with the most amount of luxury retail? Because I know you highlighted those tenants as having higher mark-to-market rent upside.

speaker
John Kite
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, I think Legacy West would be similar to Southlake in sales productivity, slightly better, but very similar. Better than Legacy East, as Legacy East is, you know, we're transitioning the property, recently did a small redevelopment there. So I think legacy East has a long way to have a lot of upside, which is great. And we're going to, we're obviously going to be running these properties in conjunction. So, um, but yeah, I think, I think between the three of them, we have a lot of opportunity and the sales are strong.

speaker
Linda Tsai
Jefferies

And is there a sense of how much luxury you have across the kite portfolio?

speaker
John Kite
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. I mean, I think this would be the highest concentration in this particular asset. which is what we were excited about. One of the things we were excited about is it's a whole new channel of tenants for us. So yeah, this would be the concentration at Legacy West.

speaker
Linda Tsai
Jefferies

Thanks. And then how are you feeling about acquiring more for the rest of the year? Are you actually seeing opportunities now, or is it more like pencils down for a bit with the purchase of Legacy West?

speaker
John Kite
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

You know, I think we're always reviewing the market. Today, we're not seeing anything today that would be anything close to what we were able to do here. But I think the market is in a little bit of flux, and we expect that to change over the next probably couple quarters. But we're always in the market, and I think as we go down the road, and if we have more asset sales, we'll obviously have to look at what we're doing with that. But as of right now, there's not something that we're engaged on that is of the quality and growth profile of Legacy West.

speaker
Unidentified
Conference participant (audio check)

Thank you.

speaker
Dave Buell
Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer

Thanks.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

That concludes today's question and answer session. I'd like to turn the call back to John Kite for closing remarks.

speaker
John Kite
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Well, again, thank you everyone for joining us today. We hopefully look forward to seeing most of you in the next month or so. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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