Macerich Company (The)

In the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would like now to turn the conference over to Samantha Greening, Assistant Vice President, Director of Invest Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you for joining us on our first quarter 2025 earnings call. During this call, we will be making certain statements that may be deemed forward looking within the meaning of the safe harbor of the Private Security Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding projections, plans, and future expectations. Actual results may differ materially due to a variety of risks and uncertainties set forth in today's press release and our SEC filing. Reconciliation of non-GAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAP measures are included in the earnings release and supplemental filed on Form 8K with SEC, which was posted in the investor section of the company's website at MatesRage.com. Joining us today are Jack Shea, President and Chief Executive Officer, Dan Swanshroom, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Doug Healy, Senior Executive Vice President of Leasing. And with us in the room is Brad Miller, SVP of Portfolio Management. And with that, I turn the call over to Jack.

Thank you, Samantha, and good afternoon. We're pleased to discuss today the significant progress we continue to make in executing on our path forward plan. I want to make sure everyone comes away with three main themes from this call. First, MatesRage is a much better informed, aligned, and operationally focused company than ever before. Second, we are ahead of schedule on our leasing progress targets. This gives us a greater line of sight and confidence into the key operational, financial, and de-leveraging metrics embedded in our path forward plan. And third, this leasing progress demonstrates how close we are to our major inflection point in mid-2026, the point that indicates we would be substantially complete with the plan. When I sent out the path forward plan in July of 2024, the goal was to create a new MatesRage. That required transforming the company by simplifying the business, improving operational performance, and reducing leverage. We put a mission statement in place to own and operate thriving retail centers that bring our communities together and create long-term value for our shareholders, partners, and customers. We instilled new corporate values of excellence, empowerment, integrity, optimism, relationships, and fun. Based on the results I've seen to date, I can attest to how well this mission and the corporate values have been embraced throughout the company. I also put in place a new structure that I talked about last quarter to streamline all of our permanent, specialty, and department store leasing teams under one leadership and reporting structure, make our asset management team a stand-alone group, and place our property operations, marketing, and development under a new leadership structure. To ensure that these teams could collaborate seamlessly with real-time tenant data and leverage the five-year Argus models that the asset and portfolio management teams created for each property, we implemented a leasing dashboard that we refer to internally as the Leasing Spenometer. This tool and other technology enhancements we've implemented drive every leasing and capital allocation decision at our properties. Everyone at Mace Rich is fully aligned on what we're doing. Over the past six to nine months, we have de-risked the path forward plan by consolidating joint ventures, issuing equity, completing our refinancing, and executing on dispositions. Today, I'll talk about the data that we have now that gives me the confidence that one track is to deliver our 2028 leverage and earnings metrics. This data shows that we're also on track with the major milestones and catalysts that can be expected to help us reach our mid-2026 inflection point. Let's speak to leasing first. Leasing is the piece of the plan that best tracks the progress on hitting our 2028 targets. It is what I am most focused on today at Mace Rich. I believe that it is the most accurate predictor of Mace Rich's future success. I'm pleased to say that we are ahead of schedule on all our leasing efforts. I noted last quarter that we are targeting an average of 4 million square feet of leasing in 2025 and 2026. During the first quarter, we signed 2.6 million square feet of leases, including 2.3 million square feet of rules. As Doug will describe in a moment, that's more than double the leases signed in the first quarter a year ago. Between commitments and LOIs, we are nearly done with our 2025 lease expirations. We are now well into 2026 lease expirations. We are also laser focused on a higher percentage of new lease deals versus renewals in our annual mix of business, as new deals will be the primary driver of higher spreads and incremental revenue to hit our NOI goal. We are tracking our progress on this front with two metrics. The new deal completion percentage that we track internally on our leasing speedometer and our snow pipeline. As laid out in our last quarter earnings call, our initial goal on new deals was 50% progress by mid-2025 and 70% by year-end 2025. Hitting the 70% goal by year-end would put us on track for the -80% range by mid-2026. Reaching that goal also puts us on track for our ultimate opportunity to achieve the 130 million in cumulative snow potential that I outlined last quarter. Reaching that mid-2026 leasing goal would effectively complete the new leasing goal outlined in our original plan. As I noted earlier, we are ahead of this plan. As of last quarter, our leasing speedometer was at 39%. I am pleased to report that we are currently at 60% for new deal completion and have a large pipeline of LOIs which gives us tremendous confidence in hitting the 70% mark by year-end. Last quarter, our snow pipeline was 66 million. That has now grown on a cumulative basis to $80 million as of today, which puts us on track to achieve a total and cumulative snow pipeline of 100 million by year-end. Doug will provide additional details on our snow pipeline shortly. While we are on the topic of leasing, I want to address the inevitable question on tariffs and any impact we are seeing. I'll echo what many CEOs have already said this quarter, that we have seen minimal impact to date across the portfolio. We've had three strong executive leasing committees since early April and have touched base with all retailers with leases out and virtually all are moving forward. In addition, we're in contact with existing tenants and so far, there is no material effect on their business or inventories. We'll obviously continue to monitor these discussions and developments in real time. For our targeted $2 billion of asset sales and loan givebacks, we continue to execute on targeted dispositions which strengthen the balance sheet and I'm pleased with the substantial progress made by the team. Dan will provide an update on these activities shortly. We're approaching the balance of 2025 with a significant amount of confidence in the outcome and timing of our plan. As well as the clear conviction that we have de-risked the elements of the path forward plan. This conviction is based on the fact that we have simplified the business by consolidating JVs which also enabled us to execute the refinancing on Washington Square. Dispositions have reached a total of $1.1 billion. We completed the equity raise ahead of plan, raising $500 million. Refinancings are ahead of plan for $1 billion in total. We've locked in lease escalations that are a massive part of the expected lift. And lastly, efforts to secure new leases are well ahead of plan. All we have remaining to achieve the plan is $50 million of snow and completion of the remaining mold dispositions and givebacks as well as the out-parcel sales. Unconfident, our leasing and asset management teams can deliver on these two remaining pieces. In conclusion, we have exceptional talent here at Mace Ridge and I'm pleased to see how well the team is collaborating using the tools and technology we've implemented. We are ahead of plan and have proven that we have the right process, strategies, and team in place with great retail centers that can drive rental rates with strong permanent occupancy. With that, I'll turn the call over to Doug.

Thanks, Jack. Portfolio sales at the end of the first quarter were $837 per square foot which is flat when compared to the fourth quarter 2024. However, when you exclude our eddy properties, sales were $928 per square foot which is up $13 compared to the last quarter. Traffic for the year is up 2% when compared to the same period in 2024. Occupancy in the first quarter was .6% down from .1% when compared to the fourth quarter 2024. Most of this decline is due to the decrease in temporary holiday stores which closed at the end of 2024 or during the first quarter 2025 as well as transitioning Fashion District Philadelphia from a development project back into same center occupancy. Portfolio occupancy excluding our eddy properties was .2% for the quarter compared to .8% for the fourth quarter of 2024. Trailing 12-month leasing spreads as of March 31, 2025 were .9% versus .8% last quarter. This comprised of 22% spreads on New Deals and 7% spreads on Renewals. And this now represents 14 consecutive quarters of positive leasing spreads. Looking at the leasing spreads on a same space basis, spreads from New Deals were .4% and spreads from Renewals were 1.3%. In the first quarter we opened 177,000 square feet of new stores while signing 320 leases for 2.6 million square feet. In terms of these lease signings, this represents 50% more leases and 160% more square footage than we signed in the first quarter of 2024. And just looking at New Deals, it's almost 70% more leases and 180% more square footage than first quarter 2024. The best brands remain very active and continue to take advantage of great space and centers. To that end, in the first quarter we signed two flagship stores at Tyson's Corner Center, a 45,000 square foot Zara and an 18,000 square foot Uniglo. Uniglo will open in late 2025 and Zara in early 2026. Other notable signings in the first quarter include Aloe Yoga at Los Cerritos in Fantan Village, Abercrombie and Fitch at Broadway Plaza in the Village of Puerto Madera, Arritia at Los Cerritos, Rag and Bone at Fashion Outlets of Chicago, and Loro Piana at Scottsville Fashion Square. This list goes on, but these examples are reflective of the continued flight to quality that retailers are pursuing, especially in our portfolio. Now let's look at our Executive Leasing Committee, which reviews and approves deals on a biweekly basis. This is much more forward-looking and a better representation of the current environment and retailer sentiment. To date, we've reviewed over 70% more new and renewal deals and 145% more square footage than we did during the same period last year. And if you look at new deals only, we've reviewed twice the number of new deals and four times the square footage than we did during the same period last year. And keep in mind, once these deals are approved, they go to lease, get signed, and eventually become part of our Sign Not Open pipeline. Turning to our lease expirations. To date, we have commitments on just about 80% of our 2025 expiring square footage that is expected to renew and not close, with another 16% in the letter of intent stage. So between commitments and LOIs, we're basically done with 2025 and now well into our 2026 lease expirations. As we all know, in the first quarter, Forever 21 filed for bankruptcy. This being the only bankruptcy filing year to date in our portfolio. While Forever 21 had a lot of square footage, they didn't pay a lot of rent. We've anticipated this liquidation of stores for some time, and recapturing these stores will provide an excellent opportunity to re-merchandise the space with higher and better uses, paying us significantly more rent. To date, we have commitments on just over 50% of the closed square footage, with another 10% in the letter of intent stage. With our commitments alone, we've already surpassed the rent Forever 21 was paying. And when we finalise this entire backfill endeavour, we anticipate we should more than double the rent Forever 21 was paying in the aggregate. Turning to our Sign Not Open, or SNO, pipeline. To date, we have 148 signed leases for 1.2 million square feet of new stores, which we expect to open between now and into early 2028. In addition to these signed leases, we're currently negotiating leases that were previously approved in our executive leasing committee for new stores totaling just over 1.7 million square feet. And these too will open between now and into early 2028. So in total, that's nearly 3 million square feet of new store openings throughout the remainder of this year and beyond. The leasing activity has grown our SNO pipeline from $66 million of last quarter to $80 million today. I'm very pleased with this growth in just 90 days, and it gives me confidence that we will hit $100 million by the end of the year. In 2025, we expect to realise approximately $25 million of the current $80 million pipeline. And of that $25 million, we've already realised $6 million in the first quarter. The remainder of the $80 million is anticipated to be realised between 2026 and early 2028. Lastly, we're very excited to announce that we will be breaking ground this week on the redevelopment and expansion of Green Acres, which is located on Long Island in Valley Stream. This development is comprised of 370,000 square feet, which addresses 260,000 square feet of the vacant Sears and Coles boxes, along with the demolition of Sears TBA and parking deck. The project will open sight lines to the major highway in front of the mall and will include a new grand entrance, along with an attractive streetscape showcasing outward facing shops as well as full service restaurants, quick service restaurants, grocery, entertainment and service uses. Demand and pre-leasing have been very strong, with almost 50% of the project's square footage committed and another 17% in the LOI stage. Tenants will open in phases beginning in 2026 with full completion by fall 2027. So stay tuned for several exciting announcements in the very near future. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Dan to go through our first quarter financial results.

Thanks, Doug, and good afternoon. I'll start with a review of first quarter financial results. FFO excluding financing expense in connection with Chandler Freehold accrued default interest expense and loss on non-real estate investments was approximately $87 million or $0.33 per share during the first quarter of 2025 as compared to approximately $75 million or $0.33 per share for the first quarter of 2024. The primary driver of the $12 million increase in nominal FFO is higher leasing revenues, including from the net impact of JV interest acquisitions and dispositions activity, which more than all set increases in operating expenses and interest expense. I would like to highlight the following items included in our FFO adjusted for the quarter. Number one, $9 million of interest expense relates to the amortization of debt mark to market resulting from our various JV interest acquisitions. This non-cash expense is included in the interest expense. Number two, $2 million of severance expense is included in management companies operating expenses. And number three, $6 million of legal claims net settlement income at one of our properties related to a construction design defect matter. We believe aggregate proceeds recovered are more than adequate to cover our proposed solution. This $6 million is non-recurring in nature and is included in other income. Same Center NOI excluding lease termination income increased .9% in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the first quarter of 2024. Excluding Eddie Asa, Same Center NOI increased .4% year over year. Turning to the balance sheet, during the first quarter, we have made good progress on our path forward plan. We closed on a new $340 million 10-year mortgage loan on Washington Square at an attractive fixed interest rate of 5.58%. We used a portion of the net proceeds to repay the remaining first mortgage on Flat Iron Crossing, which was approximately $72 million at our share, and to repay the balance outstanding on our line of credit, which was $110 million. Flat Iron was a 2025 maturity and inclusive of the $7.5 million mesloan in Flat Iron that we paid off earlier in the quarter, carried an interest rate of just north of 9%. Flat Iron is now unencumbered. For the balance of 2025, we have only one remaining maturing loan in November for approximately $200 million, and will continue to proactively address our remaining 2026 debt maturities through a combination of potential asset sales, refinancings, loan modifications, or loan givebacks. We currently have approximately $995 million of liquidity, including $650 million of capacity on our revolving line of credit. From a leverage perspective, net debt to EBITDA at the end of the first quarter was 7.9 times, which is almost a full turn lower than at the outset of the path forward plan. And importantly, we've outlined our strategy to further reduce leverage to the low to mid six times range over the next couple of years. We continue to make substantial progress in executing on planned dispositions as part of the path forward plan. In March, we closed on the sale of Wilton Wall for $25 million. In April, we closed on the sale of Cell Park for $11 million. Both assets were unencumbered. We are currently under contract to sell Lakewood, which is expected to close in the second half of 2025, subject to customary closing conditions. We expect net proceeds to mace a range of approximately $5 million above the debt balance outstanding. These sales transactions are consistent with our stated disposition plan to improve the balance sheet and refine our portfolio. With respect to our bucket of disposition, out parcels, freestanding retail, non-enclosed malls, and land, we have also made considerable progress toward our 2025 goal of $100 million to $150 million in total sales for the year. During the first quarter, we closed on $7 million at our share of land sales. In April, at Santan Village, we closed on the sale of vacant lots for $25 million at our share and three out parcel assets for $7 million at our share. And I'm very pleased to report that we currently have approximately $17 million of additional out parcel sales under contract, which are expected to close in the second half of 2025, subject to customary closing conditions. This brings us to $77 million sold or under contract against our $100 to $150 million target for 2025. To recap on the path forward plan's significant progress to date on the three key pillars to reduce leverage. One, Jack and Doug provided an update on the successful leasing progress to date that is a critical component of delivering on the NOI growth component of the plan. Two, we achieved the equity issuance component of the plan in the fourth quarter of 2024. And three, we have made substantial progress on the sales and give back component of the plan and have identified a clear path to achieving our $2 billion disposition target. To date, we have completed almost $800 million and as you will see in the incremental disclosure we've provided in our supplement, this includes Country Club Plaza, Biltmore, The Oaks, Southridge, Wilton Mall and South Park, all of which are closed. Santa Monica Place, in which the loan encumbering this property is in default. And then Atlas Park, which is currently being marketed for sale. The sale of Lakewood, which is now under contract, would increase our sales completed total to just over $1.1 billion. And then we have identified internally several additional assets totaling up to $400 million for sale or give back over the next one to two years. The remaining dispositions in our plan represent the sale of L parcels, freestanding retail, non-closed mall assets and land. We continue to expect to be substantially complete on this last bucket of the disposition program by the end of 2026. We'll provide further updates on these sales as we progress through the year. In conclusion, we are making great progress on our path forward plan objectives to reduce leverage, refine the portfolio and strengthen the balance sheet. With that, we'll turn the call back over to the operator.

Thank you. As a reminder to ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. We ask that you limit to one question and return to the queue for follow up to allow everyone an opportunity to ask a question. And our first question will come from Kevin Kim with Truist. Your line is open.

Thank you. And congratulations on a great quarter. So first question, I know this answer might be a little bit different and you touched on the customer reactions and the trade tariffs. But, you know, with the news from this weekend, do you think there's any potential upside on leasing going forward?

Keith, Doug, I'll take that one. Let me let me talk about what we were seeing during the tariffs. We did not see a lot of pullback. In fact, a couple of weeks ago, we had our board meeting. Prior to that, we contacted every one of our 40 national rent paying tenants. And really, none of them was pulling back on open device. They were all honoring their leases out or their fully executed leases. Then we actually looked at every lease we had out for signature, contacted every retailer, and there was only a handful that were pulling back. So, you know, we haven't seen a lot. Therefore, I don't think there's really any change in the upside. I mean, the retailer sentiment is strong. You can see it in our leasing metrics, what we signed, what we approved in ELC, and then most importantly, what's currently in our pipeline.

OK, and on the snow pipeline of 80 million, that's a cumulative number. But can you provide what is net incremental that we can expect when we model?

It is all that I'll take that one. So the 80 million dollars is incremental over the revenue being generated in the spaces from 2024. So that is our cumulative total that we expect to see in our model through 2028. And 25 of that will be realized in 2025 and 6 million of it was realized in Q1.

OK, thank you.

And the next question will come from Craig Mailman with Citi. Your line is open.

Hey guys, you know, you mentioned a couple of times that you're ahead of plan here on the leasing side of things and you're doing well on the sales and givebacks. Just kind of curious as you look at what you're spending on the leases to get them up and running on the cap back side, is that treading ahead? And then also just given the execution here, when do you guys think you'd be in state giving guidance?

Hey, Craig, this is Jackson. So, you know, on the stand, I think we talked about on spaces under 10,000 square feet. You know, it's basically north of one times annual rent, you know, 1.2 to 1.4 times in that range. Obviously for anchor deals, anchor deals are more expensive. You know, we have 26 anchor deals that we believe will come online in 2028. 17 of the 26 deals are already committed. There's either leases signed or leases out. Got another six LOIs and three are prospecting. And so I would say generally as we think about capital, you know, the plan is probably slightly more capital than initially envisioned when we came up with the path forward last year. The dollars are being spent faster, you know, in the model. And as we discussed last time, correspondingly, you can see the major uplift in FFO and EBITDA in 27 and 28, just as it relates to the time it takes to deliver.

Okay. And our next question will come from Linda Sy with Jeffreys. Your line is open.

Hi, thanks for taking my question. Great job with all the progress this quarter. Just wondering about the success of the new deals in the quarter up 70% from a year ago. I assume that the new structure that you talked about to streamline permanent specialty and department store leasing under one leadership helps. But just any more color and details you could provide about the success of the pace in new leasing?

Yeah, thanks Linda. It's Jackson. Look, the pace works because of the way we've laid out the plan and organizational structure. Obviously the leasing is consolidated into one team. But, you know, the asset management team, which rides as an equal partner to leasing, there's a very direct line of communication between asset management, leasing, how it affects portfolio management in our model and in our speedometer. You know, that speedometer, once again, just to reiterate, that represents expected revenue from these new leases. So it's very important to be at 60% at this point. So I would say that while the pace has been honestly incredible versus historical experience here, there's no reason why it can't stop or continue with this pace. It's, you know, we've got the right properties, tenants want to be in there, we kind of know the right prescription, we know how it affects the model, we make decisions very rapidly, and it seems to have a very clear directive. I also think, like I said, one of the reasons why I think we've really broken the back of this plan, the 50 million of remaining snow that we talk about, 20 million of that 50 is within our fortress properties, you know, our best properties in the portfolio. And of the 50 million, 90% of that revenue is going to come from A, B, and C rated space. So we're talking about the best space and our best centers, or our top centers that are remaining to go. And so, yeah, we're going to continue to lease at very aggressive levels, but we've got a lot of great space to lease still in great centers.

Just one follow up to that. In terms of the funnel of tenants that you're considering, have you opened up the funnel of tenants that you're leasing to as well?

Linda, can you repeat the question, please?

Oh, just wondering if you're considering a wider cohort of tenants that you would lease to?

No, I think we've talked about this on several calls. You know, coming out of COVID, the breadth and depth of, we don't even call them retailers anymore. It's really uses, has expanded tremendously. So when we talk about leasing, yeah, there are the key legacy retailers. They'll always be a part of our shopping centers, but you're also looking at digitally native and emerging brands, international brands, food and beverage, restaurant, medical, entertainment, you know, electric vehicles, fitness, home furnishings, groceries. So, you know, the uses that we have to choose from are really unprecedented today.

Thank you.

And the next question will come from Ronald Camden with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.

Hey, just I think the last call you'd mentioned thoughts on the same story and why maybe being flat is for, you know, this year and next, maybe until you sort of get the lease commences and so forth. Just curious if we can get an update on that given things are running ahead of plan and any sort of high level 27, 28 occupancy targets in your mind would also be helpful.

Thanks. Hey, Ron Jackson. So, you know, last quarter, you know, when I made reference to the flat. And I like same store profile, you know, my initial comment was really related to the entire portfolio. You know, as I said, you know, the best indicator of success is our leasing progress. You know, and based on this faster leasing pace on our go forward portfolio, we actually expect same store in our go forward portfolio in 2026 to be in the three to four percent range and significantly higher in 27 and 28. As it relates to physical permanent occupancy, you know, I talked last quarter about roughly being around 84% physical permanent occupancy in our go forward portfolio. At the time, the snow that we talked about last quarter represented about 250 basis points of potential permanent occupancy. So, you know, if we kind of keep it this pace, you sort of should expect us to get very close to that 89% area of physical permanent occupancy plus 26 anchor locations being fulfilled, which, you know, those anchors we think would generate over 600 million sales. So we do our work. You know, we think that we're going to really be able to accelerate the sales productivity and traffic in our centers. And that's going to really set ourselves up for some some better releasing spreads as we get more permanently occupied on the next cycle of lease renewals, you know, after 2028.

Super helpful. Thanks so much. Sure.

The next question comes from Samir with Bank of America. Your line is open.

Yeah. Good morning, everybody. I guess, Jack, I mean, you're certainly making a lot of good progress here, especially on the leasing side, but just, you know, one metric that's sort of is lagging or is sort of held constant is sales. I guess how should we think about your ability to sort of push rents here, especially if sales don't grow? And again, it's good progress made so far, but just want to get your thoughts on sales here. Thanks.

So I think you've got to sort of trust in the process that we're executing on. You know, when I look at like Scottsdale's fashion square, that center is doing over a billion dollars in sales. Tyson's is going to do over a billion after we get a couple more. We've got an anchor deal that's approved, but we're in the documentation phase. You know, we've got 26 anchors that are coming online between now and 2028 and an incredible amount of inline permanent occupancy increasing with what I call best in class brands that drive traffic and rent and sales. So yeah, we're spending a lot of money in centers. We're not densifying. We're in good retail use. And I think that's what is really that gives us the confidence to be able to drive sales productivity. So I wouldn't get so worried about this intermediate period on sales. Maybe at some point we'll break down sales in some of our better centers where we've done this type of work like Tyson's and Scottsdale. They give us the confidence to know if you do the right things in the center, so a retail standpoint, you get the right result in terms of traffic increase and sales productivity. And we're applying that that sort of basic strategy across the go forward portfolio at this point.

And the next question comes from Flores Van Ditchcombe with Compass Point. Your line is open.

Hey, thanks, guys. My question to you was more you've identified your eddies or your and some of these potential additional sales candidates. Can you quantify to us what percentage of your and why today is core versus non core? And maybe talk a little bit about I think you've indicated that you think your core analyze is going to grow by three to four percent. Is that this year or is that next year?

So that's next year on the three to four percent on the core go forward portfolio. But we're going to come out with this in a wide bridge in the next two weeks. Like it's between ICSC and NARIE. It's going to outline. It's I think will make this a little bit more clear and also outline what properties are designated within the go forward. And I think that you have to we do that be more helpful for you. If we can take you through it.

And our next question comes from Greg McGinnis with Scotiabank. Your line is open.

Hey, two questions on the new leasing. Just kind of better understand that kind of speedometer metric. But what percent of total leasing deals do you expect to be new deals in 2025 and 26? How does that compare to the historical average? And then does this new deals under consideration by the executive leasing committee? Is that more retailers looking to locate in May search assets or is that more of a willingness on your end not to renew tenants? Take on the short term vacancy for some longer term gain.

I'll take the second question first and then, Brad, maybe you can take the first question. But the deals we review in our executive leasing committee are really a combination of new deals and renewal deals. Many are new deals that are just strictly taking vacant space that we've identified. Jack mentioned A, B and C quality space. We have every single space in our portfolio identified and a rent attributed to it. So we know exactly what we're doing methodically. Are we taking off some space, taking some space offline? Yes. And we do that. That's just normal course of business. We do that to enhance the merchandising of the shopping centers. And Jack just alluded to that. So really, ELC is a combination of both renewal deals and new deals. But I really view it as a forward looking metric that unlike sign leases, which is the stuff we've done in the past, what we look at on a biweekly basis is all new and really more indicative of what's going on in the present and more importantly, in the future. And Greg,

on the first part of the question, in 2023, just as a point in time, we did 4.2 million square feet of leasing. 1.4 million of that square footage was new leases. Now that was for the entire portfolio. I would say as they go forward, you should expect our percentage of new to be higher. I can give you exact target, but it's going to be higher than that percentage. And we've talked about that where that's the big opportunity.

Okay. If I could just follow up on the developments or the sorry, the redevelopment, just so that the yields fell a bit this quarter. It looks like a mix of increased project costs and lower rent assumptions. Just hoping you could give us some more clarity on that.

Yeah, hey, Greg, it's really just the teams just completed their property quarterly reviews and then going through that process, there were some marginal cost increases at both flat iron and green acres, which are really driving the differences that you'll see in the supplement page on the development.

Okay, no risk for further growth beyond that.

Not as we stay here today, based on the latest review of the projects that we just completed over the last couple of weeks. Okay, thank you.

And the next question comes from Vince with green street. Your line is open.

Hi, thank you. Could you clarify the differences in the two renewal leasing spread statistics you cited earlier? I believe you said one was seven percent and the other was like closer to one percent on the same space basis, but stuff renewals. You know, things should generally be same space. So just to clarify kind of what's driving the delta there. That'd be helpful.

Hey, it's right. I'll take that one. So on the same space spreads, you know, we look at it. It includes temp spaces and who's in the space today. And so it's apples apples of the exact same space. When we look at the new and we go the 22 and the metric for new deals. That includes both against the same expiring rent. So it's just splitting it between the two.

Okay, I'm here then I thought it was like one renewal seven percent. The other one was one percent. I guess. So renewals, it sounds like the one percent figure is the more appropriate like renewal spread on to think about.

Yeah, I would say so. I mean, our renewal spreads are definitely less than our new deal spread. And that's why we're also like,

first quarter, we had an anchor renewal. So does the faith is also waiting in that package?

Yes. Got it. So there is so that the prior tenant includes anchors. It includes temps. I just want to make sure I understand what's in that metric. I believe that's the first time this has been provided. Correct me if I'm wrong. I think we provided the color last quarter as well on the same space. Okay. Okay. Well, thank you. No, it's helpful.

And the next question will come from a Mateo Ocasana with Dorch E Bank. Your line is open.

Yes, good afternoon. So this is still in a wide group. This for could you also a little bit more detail about the kind of things to our revenues and things to expenses. What what happened in this to just two items to kind of get to the same store in a way.

Are you referencing for the first quarter of twenty twenty five?

And then just trying to understand how you ultimately expect that to change to kind of get to this three four percent worth we're talking about in twenty six.

Yeah. In the first I mean in the first quarter we did see some operating expense increases. But as I mentioned earlier, the revenue generation was was more than offsetting those shopping center increases for the first quarter. And you went out on the second part of your question. You

just thought about the go forward.

So it's a different portfolio. That's the problem. Yeah. So, yeah, so, you know, we have one. Yeah,

that's the first quarter. Twenty twenty five is for the current portfolio and the commentary Jack referenced earlier. The three to four percent in twenty twenty six. That's for the go forward portfolio, which to the earlier comment will be providing more color on the position of that portfolio with our average over the next couple of weeks.

Thank you.

The next question comes from Alexander Goldfarb with Piper Sandler. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning. Morning out there. I were one or two questions. I just want to make sure. Are we can we ask one or two?

Just ask one if you could.

Okay, great. Well, then on the numbers side, there were some items in the first quarter. I maybe you mentioned the legal expense in the opening. I didn't hear it, but there was a lease term fee and then there was legal expense. And then also it sounds like there's twenty one million of land sales potentially in the balance this year in FFO. So just trying to get a better understanding on the on the legal and lease term in the first quarter expectations for more lease terms this year and then land sales that we should expect in FFO for the balance of the year.

Yes, sure. So I'll start with the legal claims. As I mentioned was six million dollars of net settlement income at one of our properties during the first quarter related to a construction design defect matter. That's one time in nature. We expect those proceeds received recovered will more than be adequate to cover the cost of the proposed solution. So we highlighted that as more of a non recurring one time item as it relates to lease termination fees. We had about five million dollars of these termination fees come through in the first quarter. And that was primarily driven by one large tenant at Fashion Outlets of Chicago, which was a three million dollar amount. And we're pleased that we already have another tenant that has taken that space. So that's good news at that particular asset. And then as it relates to land sales, we just kind of gave an update that for the first quarter we closed on seven million of land sales. And then in April we closed on the sale of another 25 million of land sales. So in totality that's part of our 100 to 150 million dollar bucket, which in combination with the out parcels were now 77 million sold against that 100 to 150 million dollar target.

And then expectations for lease terms for the balance of the year?

You know, we expect maybe a couple more million dollars of lease termination income in the balance of the year based on the visibility we have today. Okay. Thank you.

The next question comes from Handel St. Just with Mizuho. Your line is open.

Hey guys. Good morning out there. Appreciate the comments on the tariffs not impacting leasing, but I guess I'm curious on how tariffs might be impacting the conversations around some of the asset sale that you're doing here. I understand Lakewood is the last sizable asset you have left to sell. But what can you tell us about the pricing, the demand for Lakewood, any color on that and potentially a sense of when you expect that to close?

Yeah. Well, you know, Lakewood, as we referenced, you know, the proceeds over the debt amount are not very significant. So, you know, the borrower is going through a process right now with the existing lender, the buyer. I would say, you know, as it relates to debt financing, I mean, I think Washington Square is a great example of refinancing stabilized bonds that, you know, Dan can give you more color. On the out parcels, you know, some of the cap rates on the restaurants were like in the 5%, mid 5% range. You know, we're seeing really, you know, these are high net worth buyers, 1031 buyers, you know, Handel did a lot of this at our old company, Experit. And so he asked me on our out parcel objective, you know, I think we laid out 500 million of out parcels, roughly 8%. I think we're going to do better than that. I think it's going to probably be closer to 7%. And I think we're going to end up maybe even do it more if we want, because we've identified more vacant land opportunity that, you know, quite candidly on a price per acre is a lot more valuable than what we did at Santan. And so, yeah, I think we're really good about that piece of the execution that's left.

Okay. Any bulk parts on an a why yield or any stat on the pricing for the liquid from a value perspective given the space where we don't get a lot of trade?

I would just look at the debt yield that we put in the supplemental, you know, in our disclosure. It's pretty good approximation for a cap rate there.

Okay, fine. And then maybe one more if I could just appreciate the color and all the numbers you guys provided, lots of numbers. But I guess if I'm curious, I'm curious if we should be reading into your comments that, you know, the mid-26 inflection, if that's when we should be thinking about cash flow or earnings to be troughing and then to inflect positively from that point. Thank you.

Yeah, I think that's a fair characterization of it. Just as Jack mentioned, you know, as we have a lot of leasing activity coming online over the next couple of years, development and why really starts to ramp second half of 26 and 27 and 28. And then on the flip side, you know, we're working through these out parcel sales and asset sales and give back. So it's possible that the NOI lost NOI from those, you know, could could be more than what's coming online from the sources coming in over that next 12 to 18 month period. So that's a long way of saying it. I think your statement is fair. Okay, appreciate it, guys. Thank you.

The next question comes from Caitlin Burrows with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.

Hi, good morning there. I guess just thinking about the long term plan and the targets in terms of reaching the physical permanent occupancy targets by 2028, which I think was up about 500 basis points from year and 24. I'm wondering if you could go through what kind of leakage or tenant fallout non renewal is that sort of thing you're assuming on the other side. I guess one concern is that a new forever 21 or someone like that comes along and creates a new hole to fill. So just wondering kind of how that's factored into your occupancy targets and outlooks.

We take that all into consideration in our 500 basis points of increase. Any fallout from planned closures and times that we're replacing is all weighed into that 500 basis points.

Okay,

thanks. And our next question will come from Michael Mueller with JP Morgan. Your line is open.

Yeah, hi. Just for the forever 21 releasing, what portion of that activity is going to single users who single users as opposed to breaking up the spaces for smaller tenants.

I can take that one. Michael Stug. It's really a mixed bag. I would say that the majority of the space is being leased as it is. Some of the larger anchor store spaces that forever 21 took may get broken up. But as I mentioned, we're about 56% about 50% committed. And, you know, we're going to basically double the rent that forever 21 was paying. And while we're not at liberty to to disclose or talk about, you know, the replacement deals yet, you should be thinking about some of the real, real hot tenants that are out there right now. I mean, this is this is really an opportunity for us to be able to get these underperforming stores back and then think about like Dick's house to sport or Zara or Primark or Uniblow or Urban Planet replacing them. There's just so much upside, not only in the rent, but by in terms of merchandising as well.

Thanks. I am showing this is all the time that we have now for questions. I would now like to turn the call back to Jack Shay for closing remarks.

Thank you. And we're pleased to report our continued progress on the many strategic initiatives within our forward path forward plan. And we thank you all for your time today.

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