LXP Industrial Trust

Good morning and thank you for standing by. My name is John and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the LXP Industrial Trust first quarter 2026 earnings call and webcast. All lights have been placed in mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. And if you would like to withdraw your question, press star one again. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Heather Gentry, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. Welcome to LXC Industrial Trust's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call and webcast. The earnings release was distributed this morning, and both the release and quarterly supplemental are available on our website in the investor section and will be furnished to the SEC on a form 8K. Certain statements made during this conference call regarding future events and expected results may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. LXB believes that these statements are based on reasonable assumptions. However, certain factors and risks, including those included in today's earnings press release, and those described in reports that LXC files with the SEC from time to time could cause LXC's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Except as required by law, LXC does not undertake a duty to update any forward-looking statements. In the Earnings Press Release and Quarterly Supplemental Disclosure Package, LXP has reconciled all non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure. Any references in these documents to adjusted company FFO refer to adjusted company funds from operations available to all equity holders and union holders on a fully diluted basis. Operating performance measures of an individual investment are not intended to be viewed as presenting a numerical measure of LXP's historical or future financial performance financial position, or cash flow. On today's call, Will Eglin, Chairman and CEO, and Nathan Brunner, CFO, will provide a recent business update and commentary on first quarter results. Brendan Mullenix, CIO, and James Dudley, Executive Vice President and Director of Asset Management, will be available for the Q&A portion of this call. I will now turn the call over to Will.

Thank you, Heather. Good morning, everyone. Following the successful execution of our key strategic initiatives in 2025, including strengthening our balance sheet, increasing occupancy, and resolving our big box vacancy, this year we are focused primarily on creating value in our land bank and addressing our near-term explorations and existing vacancies. We've executed 3.2 million square feet of new leases and lease renewals year-to-date, highlighted by the successful outcome at our 1.1 million square foot facility in the Greenville Spartanburg market. Additionally, we leased over 300,000 square feet of vacancy and extended the lease on an 850,000 square foot facility in San Antonio for 10 years. Industrial fundamentals continue to trend in the right direction, with first quarter U.S. net absorption of approximately 40 million square feet representing the strongest first quarter in three years. Our target markets made up approximately 29 million square feet, or 72% of U.S. net absorption, demonstrating continued strength in our markets, particularly in Phoenix, Indianapolis, Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Atlanta, and Columbus. These positive trends are reflected in our strong leasing momentum year to date, as well as our forward pipeline, in which we are in active discussions on 7.4 million square feet of development and redevelopment leasing, vacancy, and expiration through 2027. Leasing activity continues to be the strongest for large format facilities, especially for those of 1 million square feet or more. We're also seeing increased demand from data center-related tenancy and manufacturing suppliers and industries in our markets. Leasing volume of 1.8 million square feet during the quarter included the extension at our 1.1 million square foot facility in Greenville-Spartanburg, which added considerable value. We renewed this lease for an additional four years to 2031, following the initial two-year lease signed in May 2025. This extension enhanced the 8% initial cash stabilized yield on the development project with the new cash rent representing a 5% increase over the prior rent and 3% annual rental bumps. On the remaining 700,000 square feet we leased during the quarter, we achieved base and cash-based rental increases of 34% and 24%, respectively. Construction is underway at our 1.2 million square foot Phoenix development project that we announced on our last quarterly call. Since then, the remaining 2 million square feet in the West Valley has been leased, leaving no million square foot buildings currently available in the market. We are in discussions with a prospective tenant, and we are well positioned if they proceed with a lease in the West Valley market, given the limited supply of million square foot buildings. We are evaluating other development opportunities in our land bank, including in Columbus, where we have 69 acres at our Aetna land sites, which can support three facilities totaling roughly 1.25 million square feet. In the last 12 months, net absorption in the Columbus market was 10 million square feet, resulting in a decline in vacancy of over 300 basis points. Columbus continues to be a strong distribution market with increasing demand across product sizes, particularly in the large format space, and has seen an influx of tenant activity that supports data center and advanced manufacturing facilities. To the extent we move forward with future development projects, we intend to fund them through opportunistic asset sales in our non-target markets. As we've noted previously, acquisition activity will be selective and will be funded via 1031 exchange transactions to defer gains on dispositions. I'll now turn the call over to Nathan, who will provide a more detailed overview of our financials, leasing activity, and balance sheet.

Thanks, Will. Our adjusted company FFO in the first quarter was approximately $47 million, or $0.80 per diluted common share, representing 2.6% growth for the first quarter 2025. Same-store NOI growth was 2% for the quarter, which was in line with our expectations. Our stabilized portfolio was 96.6% leased at quarter end and 97.1% leased pro forma for new leases signed in April in line with year-end 2025. We are maintaining both our 2026 adjusted company FFO guidance range of $3.22 to $3.37 per combat share and 2026 same store NOI growth guidance range of 1.5% to 2.5%. With regard to the cadence of same store growth for the remainder of the year, We anticipate that second quarter same store NOI growth will be lower than the first quarter, reflecting the impact of first quarter move outs and timing of lease commencement for new leases signed here today. These new leases are expected to contribute to higher same store NOI growth in the second half of the year. G&A in the first quarter was approximately $10.3 million. The full year 2026 G&A expected to be within a range of 39 to 41 million. Turning to leasing, we continue to make good progress on 2026 expirations and have addressed approximately 3.7 million square feet, or 57% of our total 2026 lease roll, with an average cash rental increase of approximately 25%, excluding two fixed-rate renewals. Will highlighted some of the larger leases that we executed year-to-date, and I'll touch on a handful of other notable leasing outcomes. During the quarter, we renewed 352,000 square feet at our 640,000 square foot facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, for a three-year term with 3.5% annual escalators, representing a 42% cash rental increase. We are actively marketing the remaining 288,000 square feet of the property, which expires in October 2026. Subsequent to quarter ends, we extended the lease for the tenant that occupies 270,000 square feet at our multi-tenant facility in the Savannah Market, which was a July 30 expiration. The 10-year lease extension with 3% annual escalators represents a cash rental increase of 19% over the prior rent. With respect to 2027 expiration, post-quarter, we extended the lease at our 850,000 square foot facility in San Antonio, for a 10-year lease term with 2.75% annual escalators. The lease extension commences in May 2027 with a 25% cash rental increase. We're encouraged by the active discussions underway on 4.6 million square feet of the 2026 and 2027 lease roll, including several of our larger facilities. We've leased 330,000 square feet of vacancy year-to-date. During the quarter, we leased 85,000 square feet in Indianapolis to a tenant involved in data center development, achieving a 34% cash rental increase. Post-quarter, we leased our 250,000 square foot facility in the Houston market for a seven-year term with 3.75% annual escalators. The new Houston lease commences in June and represents a 25% cash rental increase. LXP's balance sheet remains in great shape, with net debt to annualized adjusted EBITDA of 5.1 times the quarter end. We had $130 million of cash on the balance sheet at quarter end, and our $600 million revolving credit facility was undrawn and fully available. As we highlighted on our last call, the recast of our $600 million revolving credit facility and $250 million term loan in January extended the company's debt maturity profile and reduced interest costs. further strengthening the balance sheet and providing financial flexibility. Finally, we repurchased 325,000 shares in the quarter at an average price of $48.70 per share. With that, I'll turn the call back over to Will. Thanks, Nathan.

In summary, we're pleased with first quarter results and our strong leasing outcomes year-to-date. As we move through the year, we will remain focused on executing our strategic priorities including disciplined capital deployment, pursuing value-enhancing growth opportunities, leasing our Phoenix spec project and remaining vacancies, and driving mark-to-market rent growth. As the leasing market continues to improve, we're confident that our forward leasing pipeline of over 7 million square feet will result in numerous attractive leasing outcomes that produce strong mark-to-market results. With that, I'll turn the call back over to the operator.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. At this time, I would like to remind everyone in order to ask a question, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. And if you would like to withdraw your questions, you can press star again. If you are called upon to ask your question and are listening via loudspeaker on your device, please pick up your handset and ensure that your phone is not on mute when asking your question. Our first question comes from the line of Todd Thomas with KeyBank Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Yeah. Hi, thanks. Good morning. A couple of questions. One on the, you know, you talked well about the lack of big box space in some of your major markets, including Phoenix, where you broke ground. You know, can you talk about, you know, how that's impacting the market? Are you seeing that translate into, you know, pricing power, better discussions around prospective rent growth or urgency from tenants? And then would you look to, you know, sort of de-risk and pre-lease that development project, or do you think it probably affords better return opportunities to hold off until it's closer to completion and delivery?

Yeah, sure. Thanks, Todd. I think as we expected in Phoenix since our last call, the last two million-foot competitive buildings have leased. So we're essentially in a great position on that facility that we've started. We do have a prospect that we're working fairly closely with, but nothing to report today. I think we would prefer to pre-lease and de-risk the investment and lock in a profit and then move on because there are other good opportunities in the land bank. You mentioned Columbus. That's another one that we think sets up pretty well for us. So big box demand is doing very well. And at the moment, we're quite optimistic about the outcome on Phoenix for sure.

Okay. And then Nathan says, You indicated, you know, that 57% of the 26 expirations have been addressed. I think that included some of the activity that occurred in April. Can you just provide an update on the remaining 26 expirations in terms of your expectations there or if there's any known move outs?

Hey, Tom. This is James. I'll take it. We've got really good activity on the remaining 2026s. And the majority of which we're expecting to renew. We do have a few small known move outs that are remaining. We've got a 97,000 square foot space in our multi-tenant building in Columbus where we're expecting the tenant to move out. We're marking that at the lease. We've got good activity on that one. And then I guess touching on a couple of the new vacancies that we had too, we had the Tampa move out, the 230 that we've got some decent activity on recently. And also the 120 that just moved out in the first quarter as well. And Greenville Spartanburg, we've got really good activity on. And then we've also got a very small lease in Greenville Spartanburg of 70,000 square feet that we expect the tenant to potentially move out of. And another one for 163,000 square feet in Greenville Spartanburg that's a no move out. So small no move outs, you know, good activity in a strong market. And the Greenville Spartanburg stuff is concentrated um mostly around the park that we own so we've got a lot of different things we can do there from a size perspective and moving tenants around we're talking to the tenants that are in our um in that space in the park currently trying to figure out if someone who expands um so again good activity on that um on that upcoming vacancy in the vacancy that we had the first floor

Okay. That's helpful. And just lastly, I guess the 1.8 million square feet of vacancy, that opportunity in the portfolio, um, you know, you estimate it to be about 32 cents a share. Um, you know, is there anything embedded in guidance, uh, related to the lease up of, of that vacant space that would hit or that's included in the guidance this year?

Yeah. So maybe what I'd frame that is, um,

you know, back to kind of the underlying drivers of the guidance, and they're pretty much unchanged versus our Q4 earnings call, and that is average occupancy for the portfolio at the midpoint is about 96.5%, which is essentially in line with where we finished Q1. We're a little above that with some of the activity we had in April. At the high end of guidance, average occupancy would be 97%, and at the low end, average occupancy would be 96%.

Okay. Got it. Thank you.

Our next question comes from the line of Anthony Palone with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Good morning. You know, given the comments on Columbus, you know, what's the likelihood that you start a project or two this year?

Okay. It's Brendan. Nothing to announce today, but as has been noted, the fundamentals in Columbus are are very positive today. We've been seeing a lot of demand from both data center-related uses and manufacturing, as well as the demand drivers that have existed in that market for some time. At the moment, in order to position ourselves with the most flexibility, we're doing pre-development work, including design work on three different size buildings there, we can build a total of 1.25 million. And that'll just allow us the maximum flexibility to respond to where we see the most favorable supply and demand.

Okay. And is the pipeline outside of what you have on your balance sheet right now for things like build the suits and development? Has that changed much? Is there much activity there with any other developers that you might be working with right now?

Well, I should have also added to just with respect to the existing land bank, we are additionally responding to build a suit interest at both our our Columbus sites and our Phoenix sites. So there's that build a suit opportunity in the land bank as well as considering speculative development if the fundamentals are there and remain there. uh with respect to other opportunities yes we do have conversations with uh the merchant builder relationships that we have from time to time about build a suit opportunities outside of our land bank as well um but uh it's nothing imminent to to report on today on that front okay and then just last one um uh the stock buyback just you've done a little bit of there

a little bit there, what's just the appetite at current levels and just how does it fit into the capital allocation right now?

The development is, you know, a better investment from our standpoint with respect to creating shareholder value. So, you know, we have some liquidity that we can use for buyback opportunistically. But what's happening in the development there, especially in Phoenix, is a much larger driver of value creation. Okay, thank you.

Thanks, Tony. Our next question comes from the line of Vince Teabone with Green Street. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Question for Nathan. I'm curious within guidance, how much new leasing is kind of baked into the low end, high end? Because it sounds like you have a pretty good pulse on move outs and retention rates. So just trying to get a sense of, you know, you need to lease, you know, another 300,000 square feet of, you know, existing vacancies or move outs to hit the midpoint or is it lower? Just trying to get a sense of the kind of different outcomes as I just move out on the new leasing side that could move the numbers within guidance or the same store or so.

Yeah, Vince, you know, so going back to to James's answer earlier on the Q&A here, you know, we have We have three known move-outs essentially in the second half, which is a roughly 550,000 square feet. So in the context of our earnings guidance at the midpoint, we're essentially saying that on average during the year, including Q1, the occupancy will be 96.5%, which is in line with Q1. So the guidance at the midpoint essentially assumes that we have new leasing activity with regard to all of that move out activity. And then so if you look to the high end of guidance where average occupancy is 97%, there's obviously incremental new leasing beyond the 550 of no new move outs.

No, that's helpful. And just to follow up, it looks like just some quick math. It looks like the retention rate is going to be higher than than we previously projected. Is that fair? I think on the last call you indicated it would be about 70%, and it looks like just given the first quarter move outs and the 500 you mentioned there, it looks like retention will be, yeah, closer to 90, if my math is right, or in the 80s. Is my logic correct there?

We're building in some buffer for, you know, unknown situations that come up. There's always something that comes up in the back half of the year that, you know, you don't expect. And so there's some buffer. Our guidance is still you know, based on 70% to 80% retention.

Got it. And then just last one for me. Just on the, you know, you mentioned if you're going to proceed with any new developments, you would likely fund it with dispositions. Is there any chance you look to, you know, sell out of the cold, you know, cold JV or the, you know, the remaining net lease office JVs? Or kind of what's the strategic rationale to, hold on to those joint venture assets that are now very different from the rest of the portfolio?

Well, yeah, there's not much left in the office savings. And we have been sort of liquidating that as quickly as the market will bear in the other industrial joint venture. You know, we're at 20% partner there, so it's, you know, where the minority partners entirely up to us. We do have some opportunities to make some good sales in that in that portfolio. So we do expect that it will shrink modestly over time. But, you know, it's an investment that produces a pretty high return on equity for us, and it keeps us with modest exposure to the manufacturing business. which gives us some insights into the logistics demand and some of those manufacturing hubs that we're invested in.

Great. Thank you.

Our next question comes from the lightest team. Cameron from Evercore. Please go ahead.

Good morning. Thank you. I think, Nathan, you mentioned, you know, 4.6 million square feet or so of lease negotiations for new inspirations. James Pfeiffer- How much does any of that encompass? You guys have two big Nissan deals in early 27 and a million square footer in Jackson, Tennessee. Any color updates on those would be appreciated. I didn't know if that was in your 4.6 million square feet.

James Pfeiffer- Hey, Jim. It's James again. I guess I'll touch on the 2027s. Yeah, we've got a number of chunky leases in 2027. James Rattling Leafs, You know we're in advanced negotiations, in some cases, and definitely talking to all the tenants for these large boxes and expect a very high rate, if not 100% renewal on the on the big boxes that we have that includes Nissan.

James Rattling Leafs, Thank you James appreciate thanks.

James Rattling Leafs, Our next question is from the line of Mitch germain with citizens back please go ahead.

Good morning. I think, Will, you mentioned any new development would be matched with or new potential development would be matched with asset sales. Is that, you know, are you going to sell ahead of, you know, the project commencement and kind of sit on those proceeds like you've done at the end of 4Q with Phoenix? Or how should we think about the cadence regarding how that process can play out?

No, I think it's preferable to match fund sales with stabilized outcomes for development. So we had some distribution activity last year that left us in a very strong cash position to fund the project in Phoenix. But I think we would prefer to hold on to the income from the assets that we might sell to fund development and try to match things better.

Got you. And then, you know, last one for me, obviously significant amount of demand acceleration happening in the industrial sector. You mentioned the seven plus million square foot pipeline. Any sort of themes, industries that you're seeing that are driving, you know, more demand versus others?

You know, Brendan touched on it a little bit. We've seen a big uptick in data center adjacent demand in a number of our markets, and we're fortunate to be placed well for those potential tenants as well. You've seen a couple of big leases get done for Meta and for AWS in Phoenix that took down a couple of the big boxes there. There's been a lot of new activity in Columbus that's data center related as well. And then we've got our Richmond redevelopment where there's a big Google data center campus going in next door. So I think that's one of the things I would point out. There's also continued to be growth in, you know, supplier demand for advanced manufacturers that we're seeing continue to grow and develop their different opportunities. You know, I'll bring Phoenix up again with TSMC, you know, moving along and some of the ancillary demand that's popped up there. So we're starting to see it pick up there. Manufacturing and data center adjacent, I think, has definitely been the recent theme and a big pickup in the demand.

Thank you. Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press R followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from the line of John Peterson with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Oh, great. Thanks. Just one quick question for me. So the senior notes that are due in 28, the $160 million with a six and three quarters interest rate, can you remind us, are those callable early? Like, should we think about you taking those all the way to maturity, or should we assume you're able to refinance those early?

They have a make-all structure.

So they're technically callable, but it requires payment of a premium. Okay.

All right. That's all for me. Thank you.

Thank you, John. And at this time, we have no further questions. I will now turn the call back over to Will Edlin for closing remarks.

We appreciate everyone joining our call this morning, and we look forward to updating you on our progress over the balance of the year. Thanks again for joining us today.

This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect your lines. Have a pleasant day.