PS Business Parks, Inc. (MD)

Good afternoon and welcome to the PS Business Park's fourth quarter and full year 2021 earning results conference call and webcast. At this time, all participants have been placed in a listen-only mode, and the floor will be open for your questions following the presentation. If you would like to ask a question at that time, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. If at any point your question has been answered, you may remove yourself from the queue by pressing the pound key. If you should require operator assistance, please press star 0. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Adeel Khan, PSV's Chief Financial Officer. Sir, you may begin.

We thank you for joining us for PS Business Park's fourth quarter 2021 earnings conference call. In addition to the press release distributed yesterday after market closed, we posted a supplemental package in the investor relations section on our website at www.psbusinessparks.com. On today's call, management's remarks and answers to your questions contain forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements address matters that are subject to risk and uncertainty that may cause actual results to differ from those discussed today. For more information about these risk factors, we encourage you to review our 10-K and other SEC filings. PS Business Parts assumes no obligations to update any forward-looking statements in the future. In addition, Certain financial information presented on this call represents non-GAAP financial measures. Our earnings release and supplemental package present GAAP reconciliations and explanations of why such non-GAAP financial measures are useful to investors. Today's conference call is hosted by PS Business Park Interim Chief Executive Officer Steve Wilson, Interim Chief Operating Officer Maria Hawthorne, together with Chief Financial Officer Adil Khan. We will make some prepared remarks and then open the line for your questions. Now I will turn the call over to Steve.

Thank you and welcome to PS Business Park's fourth quarter 2021 earnings call. Before we begin, on behalf of the entire PSB team and the board of directors, we wish Mac a speedy recovery and the management team will continue the forward momentum from 2021 into 2022 in his absence. I'll begin with a summary of our fourth quarter and four-year operating results. I will then discuss PS Business Park's positioning and general outlook for 2022. Maria will then cover our operational activity, and Adele will follow with more details on our financial results and balance sheet. Let me start with our fourth quarter results and activity. We increased core FFO by 9.6% to $63.5 million and generated a 9% increase in core FFO per share to $1.81. Our Sane Park NOI grew by 6.5% on a cash basis and 8.6% on a GAAP basis. We achieved 96.4% occupancy in our same park portfolio, representing 270 basis point increase from prior year. We are pleased to report our leasing volume during the fourth quarter was 1.8 million square feet. Our leasing spreads were 6.1% on a cash basis and 16.4% on a gap basis. Our industrial assets led the way for the quarter with cash and gap rent growth of 11.5% and 25.7% respectively. We redeemed all Series W preferred shares in November and paid a one-time special dividend of $4.60 per share to common stock and unit holders. We acquired one property during the fourth quarter for $25.5 million. Our four-year 2021 investment volume was $148.5 million. We sold three properties during the fourth quarter for $329 million. Our four-year disposition volume was $408 million. 89.6% of PS Business Park's portfolio is comprised of industrial and industrial flex space and continues to benefit from the uniqueness of the supply-demand dynamics in our markets. Our industrial portfolio continues to flourish, with an average same-park occupancy of 97.7% for the quarter and full-year same-park cash NOI growth of 12.5% compared to last year. Moving to production. For the year, we leased 7.4 million square feet. Cash and gap rent growth was 5.2% and 14.7% respectively. Again, our industrial assets led the way with cash and gap rent growth of 9.4% and 21.7% respectively. Leasing transaction costs were $3.15 per square foot for the quarter, a sequential decrease of 28%. Turning to our rent collections, as of December 31st, 2021, the company collected 99.9% of the revenue bill during the year. The company collected $5.3 million of rent deferral per repayments representing 99.8 percent of the amount scheduled to be repaid through December 2021. An additional $900,000 of rent deferral repayments is scheduled to be repaid, of which $500,000 is in 2022. While we remain focused on rent collections, we have not and will not lose sight of our overall strategy. to create better-than-core returns through investment in prime infill industrial real estate in our key markets. The key tenets of PS Business Park's strategy continue to be proven out in the midst of this pandemic. Supply-demand dynamics remain in the landlord's favor. Rental rate growth is expected to continue, and we have a platform designed for value creation beyond market rental rate growth. Now turning to our investment activity. On November 21st, 2021, we acquired Jupiter Business Park, a 141,000 square foot multi-tenant industrial park in Plano, Texas for $25.5 million. The park is currently 97.3% occupied and continues to meet our high expectations in all aspects, particularly on rank growth and renewals. We are forecasting a stabilized yield of approximately 4.3%. On the sales front, we announced the sale of Lust Business Park, a 371,000 square foot industrial flex property in San Diego for a gross price of $315 million. This sales price represents greater than 60 times or 1.6% cap rate on our 2021 estimated NOI for the property. The net proceeds and gain from last Business Park sale were used for the payment of the special dividend, Series W preferred redemption, and the remainder was exchanged in Port America and Jupiter Business Park. In addition, we sold a 53,000 square foot property in Beltsville, Maryland for $4.8 million and a 70,000 square foot property in Dallas for $9.1 million. We've previously announced that we are marketing for sale our Royal Tech Flex Park in Dallas. We anticipate this project should close this quarter. We are actively in the market for external growth through acquisitions that meet our thresholds, particularly multi-tenant industrial parks that allow us to add value to our best-in-class leasing operating platform. Moving to our development projects, we are pleased to announce our 83,000 square foot Freeport industrial development in Dallas is now 100% occupied with a stabilized yield of 11%. Our Boca Raton development in Florida and 212 development in Seattle are on track with anticipated completions in fourth quarter of 2022. Construction of Brentford at the Mile, our 411 unit multifamily development in Tysons, Virginia is on schedule. We plan to deliver the first units in late 2022. For 2022 and beyond, we will continue to evaluate our portfolio with an eye towards improving the property mix and the income stream with a critical eye on disposing of non-core high capex office similar to the Royal Tech and Emondale dispositions. In addition, we will be nimble to capitalize on opportunities within the portfolio to seek the highest and best use, which can ultimately lead to higher densities and outsized value creation. The re-entitlement at the Mile and the South San Francisco multifamily rezone are prime examples. We now have in-house capabilities to execute these strategies and create value and have identified a number of such opportunities. We may pursue re-entitlements internally or sell to others to pursue. LUSC is a prime example. During Mac's absence, the team is fully engaged and has hit the ground running. We look forward to executing the strategy as we move into 2022. I will now turn the call over to Maria.

Thank you, Steve. I'm happy to be here today with so many familiar names. As you can tell from Steve's comments, our leasing machine and operations teams are all performing extremely well. If 2021 was the year of growing occupancy, 2022 will continue to be the year of driving rental rates. It's safe to say that all industrial markets are seeing record low vacancies And as a result, there is upward pricing pressure. Operating fundamentals include low unemployment, positive net absorption, limited new construction of our product type, and robust user demand. Now let's turn to the individual markets. In Seattle, our industrial assets average occupancy increased to 98.2% for the fourth quarter. a 260 basis point sequential expansion and cash rent growth of 11.5%. The Seattle industrial market in general had a record year with good job growth and great absorption. The story in California continues to be great despite regulatory constraints. In California, our same park industrial assets, average occupancy, increased to 97.3% for the fourth quarter, a 100 basis point sequential expansion. Cash rent growth for the industrial assets was 10.9%. Northern California delivered outstanding metrics in Q4 and led us in leasing production with 452,000 square feet and retention of 78.5%. Southern California saw 85% retention on 242,000 square feet of deals executed. Fourth quarter same park average occupancy was 97.7%. With the economic engine moving forward in Texas, we had success in virtually all our metrics. Leasing production delivered 359,000 square feet and retention at 72%. Our same park industrial assets average occupancy increased to 96.6% for the fourth quarter, a 230 basis point sequential increase. Cash rent growth for the industrial assets was 14.9%. As Steve mentioned, our development adjacent to DFW Airport is 100% leased and occupied, with rental rates that set a new high point for the market. The South Florida industrial market is benefiting from strong trade dynamics. From time to time, we may lose a customer due to uncertainty with the various trade issues, but we are able to re-tenant quickly and often through existing customer demand. Our industrial assets average occupancy increased to 98.6% for the fourth quarter, a 10 basis point sequential increase, and cash rent growth for all assets was 16%. For the Washington metro area, our same park industrial assets average occupancy increased to 98.5% for the fourth quarter, a 240 basis point sequential increase. As you know, the bulk of PSB's office portfolio is in this market. And it is here that we are battling our only headwinds. We had hoped at the beginning of the year that people would head back to the office in 2021. However, the COVID variants put that on hold for many office users. Despite this, I'm proud that the team was able to maintain 88% occupancy in an office market that is 80% occupied. and had gap rent growth of 5.8% on 171,000 square feet of leasing with transaction costs of only $4 per square foot. This just proves once again that our small tenant spaces with generic office build-out and finishes continue to outperform the market. I am optimistic as we look at 2022. For the remainder of the year, 71% of all expirations are in our industrial product. 21% is flex and only 8% is office. Our goal is to take advantage of the industrial tailwinds by maintaining high occupancy and pushing rental rates. I will now turn the call over to Adeel.

Thank you, Maria. Beginning with our operating results, for the three months ended December 31, 2021, Net income allocable to common stockholders was approximately $267.4 million, or $9.66 per fully diluted share. This compares to $26.9 million, or $0.98 per fully diluted share, for the same quarter in 2020. For the three months ended December 31, 2021, core FFO was $63.5 million, as compared to $57.9 million for the same quarter in 2020. On a per share basis, core FFO was $1.81 per fully diluted share, representing a 9% increase year over year. Same park NOI was $72.2 million for the three months ended December 31, 2021, which compares with $66.5 million for the same quarter in 2020, an increase of 8.6%. Our same park NOI was driven by a 7.3% increase in same park rental revenue while same park operating expenses increased by 3.9%. On a cash basis, same park NOI increased by 6.5% year over year. Funds available for distribution, or FAD, was $54.3 million for the three months ended December 31, bringing 2021 FAD to $210.7 million, representing a 10.8% increase from the prior year. In addition to the previously mentioned cash NOI growth, FAD continues to benefit from well-managed recurring capital expenditures, which for our same portfolio registered at 11.5% of NOI. Turning now to our balance sheet and financing activities. We continue to believe that maintaining a low leverage balance sheet with ample liquidity and a diverse array of capital sources is a competitive advantage for PS Business Parts. In November, we redeemed all $190 million of Series W preferred shares. At the end of the fourth quarter, we had approximately $27 million of cash and $368 million available on our credit facility. We remain in a very strong liquidity position with a net debt plus preferred equity to EBITDA ratio of 2.6 times. With regard to our dividend, on February 21, 2022, our board declared an ordinary dividend of $1.05 per share to be paid in the first quarter of 2022 on March 31, 2022 to stockholders of record on March 16, 2022. This concludes our prepared remarks, and with that, we'll open the line for questions. Operator?

The floor is now open for questions at this time. If you have a question or comment, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. If at any point your question has been answered, you may remove yourself from the queue by pressing the pound key. We do ask that while you pose your question that you pick up your handset to provide optimal sound quality. Thank you. And our first question comes from Anthony Pallone with J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.

Yeah, thank you. I was wondering if you can first potentially address the timeline with MAC and just any update on that front. And also in that same regard, I know you had some plans to consider a CIO position and whether that's on hold or any of those types of moves are still in process.

Hi, this is Steve. Well, first and foremost, our thoughts are with Mac and his family, and that's the most important element. Other than what we've already publicly disclosed, we have no additional updates at this time, and should that change, we will publicly release that status. The second part of your question, I think we'll leave that until Mac returns. He needs to hire his own team. So I think we'll put that on pause for a while. But it doesn't stop or slow down the work that we're doing.

Okay. And then second question, can you talk about just what the investment pipeline looks like, put any dollar amounts around it or the types of things you might be looking at in the near term?

There's a lot of product out there of mixed quality. We're underwriting a number of opportunities right now. You know, how much of that we execute on remains to be seen, but we're going to be competitive, and there are things I think we would be quite aggressive with.

Okay. Then this last question may be for Maria. You talked about pushing rate in 2022, given where the occupancy level is. Can you give us any sense as to, you know, perhaps what mark-to-markets might look like this year in comparison to to last year, given the mix and just what's happened with the market?

Yeah, Tony, I think that, you know, on the West Coast and, you know, because all of the markets are really good, whether it's Seattle, the Bay Area, or the L.A. markets that we have. So we'd be looking at, you know, 15 to 20 percent for our industrial. Flex is a little more variable depending on the office build out. But overall, I would hope we could get at least an average of 10%. And on office, right now on that, we're just looking to maintain occupancy and it's not so much about rent growth at all. But the good news is that We don't have really any big expirations coming up this year. One that we have is in Florida. It's about 100,000 square feet. There's intense activity. I think we've already pre-leased one or two of the spaces. And we're looking at, for instance, on that one, we're looking at between 25% and 30% rent growth. And then we have one in Dallas expiring about 60,000 feet. And again, that one we're looking at 27% rent growth. Those are both industrial deals, but that shows you the sort of overall rent growth we're looking at.

Okay. And just to clarify, those spreads are cash numbers?

Cash.

Okay.

Yes.

Got it.

Thank you.

We'll take our next question from Craig Melman with KeyBank Capital. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon or good morning out there. This is already on for Craig. Just a quick one on sort of capital sources and uses. So it looks like you guys have pro form of the disposition in Texas. You guys are looking at some capital that you can redeploy here. I mean, through the year, should we expect you guys to be net acquirers given how you guys feel about the acquisition pipeline today and just any thoughts there?

All right. This is Adeel. Thanks for the question. And I think the best way to answer that question is that our goal, first and foremost, is to continue to fine-tune the portfolio in the way we have been doing over the last year or so. I think that's priority number one. And to Steve's point earlier, right, as we fine-tune the portfolio and as we get any disposition proceeds, our first order of business is to get that money to exchange so we can find sources to redeploy. So that's That's our laser focus. So we're not distracted from that perspective. But having said that, you know, we're very disciplined in terms of our approach as to how we deploy that capital. And to Steve's point, there's quite a bit of stuff that we're looking at across the markets, right? The great thing is that we are operating in some of the best markets, and that's great in terms of our ability to execute in different markets. And certainly what you have seen us do in Dallas, you know, it's just an example in terms of our capability. And the last part of this question, obviously, you know, that's just on the disposition strategy and what we do with the proceeds, right? Our balance sheet is just ready and equipped to go any which way we want, right? We have the best balance sheet in class, so the team is laser focused on that perspective. And to Steve's point earlier, right, I think we've got a great team here and just looking at every single thing that we need to do just to make sure that we continue to be creative for the shareholders.

Got it. Thank you. And one more quick one, if I could. How should we think about the two preferred shares that are coming callable this year, the Series X and the Series Y?

Yeah, great question, and I think we'll answer that as we get closer, right? So, it all starts with growing the base from a company perspective, right? That's our first and foremost priority. However, having said that, if for some reason we don't find The quality that we're seeking or the returns that we're looking at, right, if they don't pencil in really well, that's certainly an opportunity set for us, right? And we've seen us execute on that side in the past, but we can't really guide to that just yet, the years ahead of us. But as we get closer, you'll certainly have a lot more messaging from our perspective in terms of the quarter-by-quarter breakdown, and then we'll guide you a little bit further. But certainly, you know, two are, you know, certainly at our table, but we'll see. The first and foremost priority is to just creatively grow the company.

Got it. Thank you.

We'll take our next question from Manny Korkman with Citi. Please go ahead.

Hey, everyone. Steven, maybe this is one for you, but I'm just trying to reconcile a couple of comments you've made on holding to hire a CIO as leaving that to Max's decision, but then sounding like you might be aggressive on some satellite acquisitions. So help us reconcile what you guys are willing to do without Mac sort of actively in the seat, or is that just stuff that's already underway, or how are you thinking about what needs to be a more permanent decision versus a decision made with this interim team in place?

Well, the management team has some depth. We have a senior vice president of real estate. He's actively in the market and, you know, he's sourcing all the deals. So the underwriting is done by the existing team. the chief investment officer would obviously be more strategic. But it doesn't affect what's going on right now. Things we've been looking at for maybe three months. So it doesn't change how we're viewing the business. Maria, Adil, and myself, we're very involved. And so I don't think it affects anything. I just think it's important for Mac to hire his own chief investment officer when the time comes. But it doesn't impact how we're going about our business on a daily basis.

And then, Maria, one for you. Just as you think about the relationship between occupancy and rental rate growth and retention and all those things, are you actively changing the way that you structure any releases, be it shorter or longer or depending on size, longer or shorter or anything like that?

Yeah, that's a good question, Manny. and it's nice talking with you again too, but you know, our average deals are three and a half years, and on the larger spaces, our preference is to get five plus years, and you can do that with more sophisticated tenants as seen by the deals we executed last year with Amazon, and we got some 10-year deals on those. You know, our little guys are bread and butter, It's hard to get them beyond three years just because when you have a small business owner, they don't have five and ten year projections usually. But we're happy with that. Some of these shorter terms allow us to be able, as the markets have been rising so well over the last seven years, to have two and three bites at the apple of increasing the rental rate growth on even those little guys. But, you know, when you have the little guys, you're not getting 20% and 30% rent increases if you're renewing them every two years. Does that make sense?

No, it does. So it sounds like not much has changed versus your business two or three or five or ten years ago. I was just wondering if you were actively thinking about changing things. It sounds like the answer is no.

No, you know, you can't, you know, On the little guys, if I wanted to say if I would love to get five- and ten-year deals with our automatic, you know, increases, that would be great, but you just can't do that.

Hey, Manny, and I'll just add one more anecdote to what Maria is saying is that, you know, and I think this just goes to Maria's comment earlier on the rent growth. I think that's purely the focus here, right? And when we look at 2022, and I know we don't provide guidance here, right, but when we look at our internal numbers here, we're pushing more, try to put lower retention because we want to push the rents. That's how we're kind of looking at our business. So that really aligns well with what Maria was saying. And obviously this is not news to you guys on the call because you've seen that from all the industrial peers, right? So that's the key focus, right? So if that retention rate shifts a little bit lower, it's all by design, right? Because again, to her point, right, we're trying to get more bites at the apple and we want to make sure that if there's an opportunity set there, right, we get new tenants who are willing to pay higher, right, because the demand just certainly is there. So hopefully you'll see a little bit of that flow through the numbers as well as we go in the year.

Thank you, everyone.

And there are no further questions at this time. I will turn the call back over to Steve Wilson for any closing remarks.

Well, thank you, everyone, for your time this morning, and we look forward to talking to you again in a couple of months. Thank you. Have a great day.

Thank you, and this does conclude today's conference call. Please disconnect your line at this time and have a wonderful day.