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spk10: We thank you for joining us for Rexford Industrial's third quarter
spk00: 2020 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.rexfordindustrial.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 risks and uncertainties 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 FCC filings. Rexford Industrial assumes no obligation 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 an explanation of why such non-GAAP financial measures are useful to investors. Today's conference call is hosted by Rexford Industrial's Co-Chief Executive Officers, Michael Frankel and Howard Schwimmer, together with Chief Financial Officer, Laura Clark, and our General Counsel, David Lanzer. They will make some prepared remarks, and then we will open the call for your questions. Now I'll turn the call over to Michael.
spk03: Thank you, and welcome to Rexford Industrial's third quarter 2020 earnings call. We hope this call finds you and your families well and healthy. Today, I'll begin with a brief summary of our third quarter operating results, and Howard will then cover our market activity. We are also very pleased to welcome Laura Clark, who joined Rexford on September 1st as our new chief financial officer. Laura will provide more details on our financial results, balance sheet, and outlook. We will then open the call for your questions. We are very pleased with our strong third quarter results, to which we credit the hard work of our entire Rexford team, and the extraordinary resilience and overall quality of our tenant base within Infill Southern California. Highlights from the quarter include the following. We increased company share of core FFO by 20% to $40.6 million and generated a 6.5% increase in core FFO per share to 33 cents. Consolidated NOI grew by 23.8% on a GAAP basis and by 22.2% on a cash basis. Our stabilized same property NOI grew by 4.4% on a GAAP basis, and our stabilized same property cash NOI grew by 5%. We signed 101 leases for 1.6 million square feet during the third quarter and achieved leasing spreads of 26.8% on a GAAP basis and 17.4% on a cash basis. And we achieved 98.4% occupancy in our stabilized same property portfolio. During the quarter, we also acquired five properties for approximately $69 million. And, subsequent quarter end, we acquired one additional property for $22 million, bringing our year-to-date investment volume to $375 million. With regard to rent collections, suffice it to say that third quarter and now October are all tracking essentially very close to strong pre-pandemic levels. The strength of our collections is truly a testament to the high quality of our infill tenant base particularly in light of the fact that many of our tenants have the unilateral right to defer rent under unique California mandates due to COVID. Laura will provide additional color regarding our collections. We also completed the quarter with a low leverage fortress-like balance sheet at 2.9 times net debt to EBITDA, which equaled about 9.7% debt to total enterprise value. We ended the quarter in a very favorable position with upwards of $1 billion of liquidity as we move forward. The company's outperformance has been exceptional, rivaling our strongest pre-pandemic quarters. As a result, we are very pleased to be increasing our guidance, which Laura will be describing in more detail. Rexford has grown to become the third largest and fastest-growing publicly traded logistics REIT, focused on the nation's strongest market. Looking forward, we believe Rexford is very well positioned into 2021 and beyond. With regard to internal growth, we are positioned to capture about 18% NOI growth embedded within our in-place portfolio over the next 12 to 24 months, principally driven by our entrepreneurial and value-add asset management strategies. Our external growth prospects are also strong. The ongoing benefit of our proprietary, research-driven originations continues to increase the volume and quality of our investment pipeline. We see a very substantial opportunity to consolidate well beyond our current 1.5% market share within our highly fragmented, exceptionally large infill Southern California industrial market. We believe a principal reason our market is the most highly valued and sought after industrial market in the country is due to operating history that demonstrates our infill SoCal tenant base to be the strongest tenant base in the nation, driven by a range of key factors. To begin with, our infill locations are generally mission critical for our tenants. Their businesses depend upon our infill locations as they generally serve regional consumption and would not be able to do so if located outside infill Southern California. Further, due to extreme constrained supply within infill Southern California, our tenants would be challenged to find similar quality space anywhere else within our submarkets. Meanwhile, tenant demand continues to expand, driven by growth across a range of sectors from consumer staples and food distribution, healthcare and medical products, renewable energy and electric vehicles, space exploration and aerospace technology, among many other growth sectors. Further, the dramatic growth in e-commerce, which has been accelerated by the pandemic, continues to drive unprecedented new demand for space within our target infill markets as we are positioned within the largest first mile as well as the nation's largest last mile of goods distribution and consumption in the United States. As a result of these dynamics, tenant demand is as intense as ever. In fact, CBRE now projects industrial market rent growth in Los Angeles County to increase a full 41% through 2025, which equates to 7.1% per year compared to only 2.9% per year projected for the rest of the nation's major industrial markets. Finally, we owe a tremendous thank you to the entire Rexford industrial team as we express our appreciation for their superior performance and as they continue to prove themselves as the most effective team in our business. And with that, I'm very pleased to turn the call over to Howard.
spk07: Thank you, Michael, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. Despite the impact of COVID-19 and associated shutdowns, market fundamentals in the infill Southern California industrial market remain very healthy in the third quarter. They can see how markets remain persistently low and demand accelerated, as we have seen increased leasing from both traditional industries and e-commerce growth. As a result, we continue to see strong rental rate growth and net absorption in infill Southern California. Our target markets, which exclude the eastern Little Empire, ended the first quarter at 2.6% vacancy, with asking rents up year over year, despite COVID. During the quarter, we experienced our largest volume of new leasing, which speaks to the incredibly high demand for our quality, well-located generic warehouse and distribution product. We generally achieved or exceeded our pre-COVID projected lease rates, resulting in aggregate leasing spreads at pre-COVID levels. COVID dynamics are directing activity toward vacant, move-in-ready space and are driving increased rent growth, as demonstrated by our 1 million square feet of new leases signed. at impressive spreads of 38.9% on a gap basis and 25.5% on a cash basis. Turning to acquisitions, in the third quarter, we acquired five properties for a total cost of $69 million, adding approximately 386,000 rentable square feet to our portfolio, which are projected to deliver a 5.5% aggregate unlevered yield. Post-quarter end, we completed one acquisition for $22 million. Details on acquisitions can be found in our recent press releases and supplemental posted to our website. In the next few weeks, we expect to complete the non-continued acquisition of Gateway Point Industrial Park in the L.A. Mid-County Submarket for $297 million. The modern 989,000-square-foot four-building complex is 100% leased at rents estimated to be 21% below market. The project is strategically located in proximity to the central Los Angeles, mid-counties, and West San Gabriel Valley submarkets. The buildings are 32-foot clear at First Bay with an elevated dock loading ratio, excess container parking, and currently serve the high-demand e-commerce and last-mile distribution sector. The initial stabilized yield is 3.6%, and using conservative rank growth projections, grows to over 4%, with mark-to-market upside as leases roll over the next several years. Additionally, it is important to note that this project is one of the highest-quality industrial properties in one of our strongest submarkets and is ideally positioned to capture the excess market rent growth projected by CBRE that Michael mentioned earlier, which is not incorporated in our underwriting. As you may recall, our investment strategy is to acquire a blend of core, core plus, and value-add opportunities And Gateway Point fits squarely into our core bucket, which provides cash flow growth and stability in future periods when some value-add projects may be in transition. We continue to leverage our information advantage through our deep market knowledge and research-driven platform, which has enabled us to complete 77% of our acquisitions this year through off-market or lightly marketed transactions. As we look ahead, our acquisition pipeline remains strong. with approximately $675 million of new investments under LOI or contract, including Gateway Point. These acquisitions are subject to the completion of due diligence and satisfaction of customary closing conditions. We will provide more details as transactions are completed. Regarding dispositions, as announced last week, we sold three properties totaling $44 million during the third quarter. The proceeds will be used to tax-efficiently fund a portion of the Gateway Point acquisition, and moving forward, we expect to continue to sell assets opportunistically to unlock value and recycle capital. Finally, I'd like to provide an update on our value-add repositioning program. Our repositioning projects have remained on track through COVID with only nominal impacts from slowed permit processing. During the third quarter, we stabilized or pre-released four repositioning projects totaling 349,000 square feet at an aggregate unlevered yield on total cost of 5.8%. In light of recent increased demand for our vacant space and amid a backdrop of very low vacancy, we feel very good about future performance for the 1.4 million square feet of projects that are planned or currently under repositioning or development. I'm pleased to now turn the call over to Laura.
spk01: Thank you, Howard. I am excited to join the Rexford team and to be with you all today. Over the past eight years, Rexford's highly differentiated strategy, irreplaceable high-quality properties, leading internal and external growth, all supported by a best-in-class balance sheet, have solidified Rexford's leading platform in the industrial sector. The future opportunities ahead for Rexford are great, and I am excited to be a part of our next level of growth. Today I'll begin with the highlights of our operating results. In the third quarter, stabilized same-property NOI was up 4.4%, driven by a 5% increase in rental revenue related to higher occupancy and leasing spreads offset by bad debt expense. Property operating expenses increased 6.9%, which was mostly related to some repair and maintenance expenses, that were delayed into the third quarter due to the pandemic. On a cash basis, same property NOI was up 5% in the quarter. Regarding rent collections and deferrals, we are pleased with third quarter cash collections at 96.8% near pre-COVID levels and 920 basis points above the second quarter. October collections are tracking in line with the third quarter at this point in the month at 91.7%. It's important to note that nearly all deferrals had burned off in the quarter, so these strong collection numbers are a true testament to the health of our tenant base and the strong infill Southern California market dynamics. In regards to rent deferral, we have executed approximately $4.6 million of base rent deferrals, including $700,000 in the third quarter or 20 basis points of ADR, with an average deferral period of one and a half months. In the third quarter, we collected $160,000 of deferral rent, representing 100% of amounts due. As of October 19th, we have collected approximately 85% of the $1.5 million deferred rent due in October, with only $220,000 remaining to be collected. About $3.6 million, or nearly 80% of all deferrals, are scheduled to be paid back in the fourth quarter. Turning now to our balance sheet and financing activities. At Rexford, we have a commitment to maintain a leading, best-in-class, low-leverage balance sheet. Our strong balance sheet has allowed us to capitalize on our value-add model over time as we have produced sector-leading growth while at the same time maintaining a low-leverage balance sheet, a true testament to our internal and external value creation. We have never been better positioned for the future growth opportunities ahead while at the same time being well positioned for any future disruption. At the end of the third quarter, we had approximately $286 million of cash on hand, which includes $42 million of 1031 proceeds related to our third quarter disposition. We remain in a very strong liquidity position with no debt maturities until 2022, $500 million available on our revolver, and approximately $260 million available under our ATM program. As Howard discussed, we anticipate closing on the acquisition of Gateway Point in the coming weeks for approximately $297 million. We will initially use cash on hand and our revolver to fund this accretive acquisition. We estimate that this transaction will contribute approximately 7 cents per share to Core FFO in 2021. Before turning the call over for your questions, I would like to discuss our updated 2020 guidance. Given our performance to date, including the added visibility we now have on collections, as well as the announced acquisition of San Fernando Road and the imminent closing of Gateway Point, we are increasing guidance for core FFO per share to $1.29 to $1.31 per share from our previous guidance range of $1.26 to $1.29 per share. As a reminder, guidance does not include assumptions for prospective acquisitions, dispositions, or capital transactions that have not yet been announced. We have also increased our expected 2020 same property NOI growth range to 3% to 3.5%, driven primarily by occupancy gains to date, as well as lower than expected bad debt expense in the third quarter, as the overall health of our tenant base remains solid. Our updated guidance range includes the assumption of bad debt expense of approximately 180 basis points for the full year. While we continue to be very pleased with collection levels, we do feel that it is prudent to remain cautious given the uncertainty of the current environment. Lastly, we anticipate year-end stabilized same-property occupancy will be in the range of 97.5% to 98%, and no change to our previous G&A guidance range of $36.5 to $37 million, which includes $12.5 million of non-cash equity compensation. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to the operator for your questions.
spk10: Thank you. At this time, we'll be conducting a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad and the confirmation tone indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you'd like to remove your question from the queue. For participants that are using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for questions. Thank you. And our first question comes from the line of Emmanuel Kochman with Citi. Please proceed with your question.
spk06: Hey, everyone. Good morning and afternoon. Maybe this is one for Howard or maybe Laura. As you thought about the change in guidance from 2Q to 3Q, obviously the occupancy and same-store assumptions changed significantly in a positive way. Just maybe what did you or didn't you see happen during the third quarter for that drove that change in sort of your projections or sentiment for fundamentals?
spk01: Hey, Manny, this is Laura. I'll start with that one. So I think it's really important to go back to the time when our prior guidance was set. So if we can all remember back to July when we were experiencing a new wave of shutdowns and much uncertainty remains. So fast forward three months, and while uncertainty certainly continues, we have much more visibility into leasing demand, as demonstrated by our record leasing levels this quarter, and as well as record absorption levels that are at pre-COVID rents. Our updated guidance ranges really reflect what we're seeing in regards to the demand for our portfolio, as well as what we're seeing from a collection standpoint, when you see our cash collections at nearly 97%. and the collections of our deferrals that we're really pleased with at nearly 85%. Right.
spk06: And, Laura, on bad debt, I think you gave guidance for the year of 180 basis points. Could you just give us actual numbers for 3Q and where you are year-to-date?
spk01: Yeah, absolutely. Year-to-date bad debt expense is approximately 120 basis points of revenue. And in the third quarter, it was 1.5 million or 170 basis points of revenue. On a same property basis, bad debt impacted our 3Q same property NOI growth by approximately 200 basis points or 1.1 million. So as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we anticipate bad debt expense for the full year to be in the 180 basis point range.
spk06: Great. Thank you very much.
spk01: You're welcome.
spk10: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jamie Feldman with Bank of America. Let's see what their question is.
spk09: Great. Thank you. I guess just to confirm on the bad debt expense, so you've taken 120 year-to-date and there's 180 in the guidance. Does that mean there's 60 more to go? I just want to make sure we're thinking about this the right way.
spk01: Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, kind of think about how it rolls. So we've taken 120 to date, and we're estimating that to get to 180. for the full year. So that would mean that, you know, our 4Q estimate of bad debt is, you know, higher than what we've experienced in the prior quarter. So I think it's important to dive in here a little bit and talk about, you know, what we're seeing in terms of the drivers of our increase in bad debt expense. So as you can see with our cash collections at 97%, we're actually doing pretty well. and we've always taken a very conservative approach in regards to our watch list and our bad debt. And, you know, despite the fact that some of the tenants that are on our watch list today are actually quite healthy and are taking advantage of the moratoriums in place. So when I think about the drivers of the bad debt increase, I think the drivers can really, those tenants can really be broken down into two buckets. It's first tenants that are following the California moratoriums that are in place, And then there is a bucket of about half of that is tenants that are struggling. So in terms of the first bucket that represents about half of the non-payers, these are generally healthy tenants but are following the California municipal moratoriums that have given them the unilateral right to defer rent. Once the moratoriums lift, we do believe that these tenants will pay rent again and pay back the amounts that they owe. The second bucket of tenants are those that have businesses that have been impacted by the pandemic and may be struggling post-COVID. So we certainly are looking to the opportunity to proactively work to take back that space as that will allow us to release to better quality tenants at higher rents. And we have the opportunity to do that this quarter as well. So I think what's really important when you think about our bad debt and what I would say is really a cumulative impact of our conservative approach to our bad debt reserve is how we account for bad debt. So regardless of the reason a tenant isn't paying rent, either the moratorium or credit risk, if a tenant accrues more than two months of base rent, we fully reserve for the rent and our bad debt expense. So, for example, if you have tenants that are following the moratoriums that are in place, our bad debt expense will continue to grow until those payments commence again. So we're continuing to evaluate our policy as we gain further insights, you know, into new information that we have into our overall collections as well as the visibility we have into deferral payments. But, again, I think it's important to note that that list of tenants on our watch list and that aren't paying as relatively small as you can see in our nearly 97% collection levels that are near pre-pandemic levels.
spk09: Okay, thank you. That's helpful. And then, you know, you have a large acquisition coming soon. Can you just talk about how the acquisition market has changed during the pandemic? I mean, I know there's a lot of potential sellers you've been speaking to for years. Do you think that they're going to be more willing to sell in a downturn or it's just not a downturn and it's not really going to matter? Just any thoughts there?
spk07: Sure. Hi, Jamie. Howard. Well, first of all, from the results we've put up this quarter, if you didn't know the word COVID, you'd probably be thinking things were just pretty typical in terms of our business. So that carries through to the entirety of our market. There's a significant amount of demand in the market. Vacancy is still incredibly low, and the amount of tenants, for instance, in our portfolio that Laura just described that are having either trouble paying rent or just taking advantage of the moratorium is fairly small. So when you really look at the entirety of the market, there is not really any distress that's out there. There's a few things going on here and there, but that's not leading to Sellers, thinking because of the pandemic, they need to sell their real estate. I think, if anything, they've seen rents increasing dramatically and values as well through some of the recent transactions and some that are about to hit. So the market's incredibly strong, and we don't really see any signs of any financial issue that would create any more selling in that respect.
spk03: You know, Jamie, Michael, I do think it's a great question. And just to add to it, I think we are seeing continued maybe growing interest, for instance, from potential upgrade of property contributors. You know, there's some very major long-term trends in the market that arguably could be accelerating a little bit. You know, we track well over a billion square feet owned by these private owners who own, you know, small and large portfolios. And that activity is, you know, we did a $210 million deal, for instance, in that pre-transaction earlier this year, and we have a lot of those in the hopper. And we are seeing some interest from some of the corporate owner users on the sale lease back, which, you know, over the years we've been pretty active on the sale lease back front. We're probably seeing incrementally a little more activity there. But hard to say that that's directly tied to the pandemic.
spk09: Okay, thank you. And I know you had mentioned $0.07 accretion from Gateway Point in 2021. I assume that's putting cash to work in your revolver to fund it, but how do you think about either long-term debt on that, or I think you said you're also going to fund with disposition. So can you talk about cap rate disposition, just the moving pieces to get to that $0.07? Sorry, you're on mute.
spk08: You're on mute.
spk01: Thank you, Howard. Based on our position today, assuming no other capital transactions, that's what that $0.07 is based upon. In terms of the acquisition of Gateway Point, it's really a steady state $0.07. But, you know, we have a strong pipeline of near-term acquisition opportunities of about $675 million, including Gateway, that are under contract or LOI. So the capital structure is obviously somewhat fungible in terms of our go-forward fundings. So we'll continue to evaluate really a full range of debt and equity options available to us. And importantly, we're committed to maintaining our low leverage balance sheet and investment grade profile as we move forward.
spk09: Okay. And then finally, any large 21 expirations we should be aware of or known move outs?
spk07: You know, there's 5.1 million square feet. that expire in 2021, but the largest is maybe a 200,000-foot building. The rest of them are hundreds and less. Nothing dramatic. In fact, we're in discussions with expirations right now with these expiring tenants. We've already done more renewal work with the remaining 2,000 20 expirations. At the end of the quarter, there were 733,000 feet remaining, and as of today, that's about 548,000. And it's actually even lower when you break it down because more than half of that remaining square footage goes into our repositionings. And so, you know, today we're now starting full-bore tackling those 2021 expirations, and I think in the top 20 of those, I think we have activity and discussions and renewals taking place probably within the range of more than 30% of those occupants. And so I think from a renewal standpoint, we feel pretty good about where we sit in the market. As you know, we tend to have the best quality product in each of these sub-markets, and there's just limited options for tenants in terms of relocating and moving. So we're excited about the discussions that are already taking place on some of those earlier renewals. Okay.
spk09: All right. Thank you.
spk10: Our next question comes from the line of Blaine Heck with Wells Fargo. Please proceed, sir.
spk02: Great. Thanks. Good morning out there. Can you comment on the October collections a little bit? First of all, how does the pace of regular rent collection compare with prior quarters? And then second, on the deferral of repayments, do you have any sense of kind of what that 84% collections at this point in the month means for your ability to collect the rest of those deferrals that are owed to you in October?
spk01: Yeah, hey, Blaine. Thanks for joining us today. So, yeah, in terms of kind of where we are in October, so October to this point is at 91.7%, and when we look back over Q3, that's really right in line with where we were at this point in the month in the prior quarter. So, you know, we have visibility into seeing those October collections be at or near where we were in Q3. In terms of the deferral payments, I actually just got a note from our team this morning, hot off the press, that we actually got another deferral payment in this morning. So we're now at deferral collections about 88% compared to the compared to the 83.4% that were reported last evening. So, you know, that leaves about under $200,000 to be collected in October. And we have, you know, it's still relatively early in the month from our standpoint. So we have pretty good visibility into, you know, those deferral collection percentages to be pretty in line with what our contractual billing collection percentages are in that, you know, 95%, 96% area. Yeah.
spk02: Okay, that's helpful, Feller, and congrats on that additional collection. And then just following up on one of Jamie's questions, you know, you guys didn't issue any shares on the ATM this quarter, which is pretty atypical, but you clearly have the capacity to increase leverage a little bit. I think if you calculate pro forma leverage, including the $297 million portfolio deal, it still remains in the low fours on a debt to EBITDA basis. So the question is, you know, looking forward, how much additional capacity do you think that affords you before hitting kind of the top of your leverage comfort targets? And how should we think about ATM issuance going forward as well?
spk01: Yeah, Blaine. So in terms of our ATM issuance this quarter, I think, you know, important to note that we had a pretty significant cash balance sheet, cash in our balance sheet this quarter and ended the quarter with $286 million. So we really had ample capacity to fund our needs this quarter. So that really drove kind of the lack of ATM activity. In terms of your question on our balance sheet strategy, you know, we believe our balance sheet is really one of our core competencies and our competitive strengths and maintaining that strong investment grade profile is really a key objective of ours. So, you know, our low leverage balance sheet today, we certainly have ample capacity, and that provides us with what I think is ultimate flexibility to execute on both our internal and external growth opportunities, and does position us well for, you know, what could be future disruption. So, And I think that if there's anything that this and other downturns have taught us is that it doesn't take much disruption to move leverage considerably. So, you know, we feel like we've never been better positioned than we are today given the low leverage nature of our balance sheet and, you know, expect to continue to maintain the strategy going forward.
spk02: Great. Thanks, Laura. Thanks, guys.
spk10: The next question comes from the line of Dave Rogers with Baird. Please proceed with your question.
spk12: Yeah, Michael, Howard, maybe I'll start with you. A question on the tenant demand that you're seeing both in the quarter and I guess what you're seeing here into the fourth quarter. Can you talk about the mix or the breadth of the tenant demand that you're seeing? I think national numbers have quoted 40% from e-commerce and up to 40% from Amazon in the first half of the year. Are you guys seeing something similar, and can you give us more color on the breadth of the tenants you're talking to?
spk07: Hi, David. In the prepared remarks, we mentioned that demand is coming not just from e-commerce. There's a lot of demand just from traditional tenants that have been in the marketplace. Some of it clearly is pent-up demand because they weren't in the market in the second quarter. Some businesses are doing great and they're growing and expanding. Some of them for obvious reasons, might be taking a little bit more space to have a bit more inventory on hand. But, you know, really a lot, I think, can be spoken to with just even the port activity, if you think about it. You know, the ports were down, I think, a little over 11% for the first half of the year, and with all the activity in August, they're down only about a little over 7%. In August, record-breaking activity periods for imports for both of the ports. They've never done more import volume in the history of those ports. So there's a lot of product coming in from California, and that's creating incremental demand, whether it's e-commerce or even traditional retailers. They need a place to put the product. And so, you know, demand's, I think, pretty diversified. And then you talk about Amazon and so forth. I mean, Amazon's been one of the largest takers of space in all of our sub-markets, and certainly contributed to helping the market maintain the exceptionally low vacancy rate we have. So it's exciting. As far as our e-commerce demand, this was one of our highest quarters as well. I think we had over 50% of our leasing that occurred, new leasing that had some e-commerce relationship. which is up pretty significantly from what you've seen in the past quarters, which seem to average more in the 30%, 35% range. So e-commerce is clearly a driver, but it's not just an Amazon. It's companies we've all never heard of before and every business you can think of that knows now that bringing their sales online is more than a revenue generator. It's an insurance policy.
spk03: Dave, it's Michael. I think it's a really great question. And just adding a little bit of color to Howard's comments, another way to think about demand in our markets and our portfolio is when you look at just how low vacancy our markets are, you know, hovering a little over 2% on average. But realize then these are very deep markets. And so of that 2% plus vacancy in the market, the product that actually competes with us is probably half of the actual vacancy out there, maybe even less. Because, again, our mandate is to acquire the best locations, and if they're not the most functional in the submarkets, when we buy them, we proactively make it so. So, you know, in terms of product that actually competes with the Rexford portfolio, you're probably looking at half or less than half of the market vacancy out there. And I think it's reflected in our portfolio, by the way. I think our occupancy numbers are materially higher. Our vacancy numbers are about half of what the submarkets are where we operate. And so, you know, you layer in the dynamics that Howard's talking about, and, you know, the portfolio and the business is exceptionally well positioned from a demand perspective. We're way above what we would have considered structural, you know, occupancy.
spk02: Great. Thanks for all that, Clark.
spk12: That's really helpful. Yeah. And then I wanted to follow up, Laura, on the security deposits you guys have applied in the last quarter or so. Are you collecting those? Are those part of the deferrals that come back in this year? Is that something that we should also be looking at in those numbers?
spk01: Yeah, I mean, when we look at that deferral of base rent that we're reporting, that does not include the replenishment of those security deposits. That number, that close to 90% number that I just talked about in the last question that we've collected in October is just the deferral of base rent.
spk10: Okay, that's helpful. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of my caller, JP Morgan. Please proceed with your question.
spk11: Yeah, hi. I think you mentioned opportunistic dispositions, and I'm curious how you're thinking about dispositions today versus equity issuance given where the stock is trading. And then, I guess, what are the characteristics of those disposition candidates?
spk07: Hi, Mike. It's Howard. Thanks for visiting with us today. As far as dispositions, our thought process on them hasn't really changed much from quarter to quarter or even year to year. We're always looking deep in the portfolio and looking for dispositions that either can outperform cap rate values where we might sell to some owner users, which we had an example of during the quarter, or more management-intensive properties requiring more capital in the near term that we don't feel that will be paid an incremental return on. So we sold some multi-tenant product as well. and we took advantage of new capital coming into the market, frankly, that is hungry for industrial assets, less sophisticated, and significantly outperformed on an exit on one multi-tenant building that we sold in San Diego. And, you know, dispositions will continue to be a part of how we operate, and we do have some others in mind, and we'll certainly provide more information on those as we transact.
spk03: You know, Mike, just adding again to that, it's Michael. You know, when you look at the portfolio, and particularly when we look at the expiration, for instance, next year, you know, the portfolio from an expiration's perspective is about 16% of the place leases there being below market. And in the aggregate, the portfolio is probably over 10% mark-to-market. So, you know, there's a lot of value creation there. to be had throughout the portfolio. So we're going to be opportunistic is probably the right way to clarify it, but I think we're really focused more over on value creation.
spk11: Got it. So is maybe the way to think of it, dispositions are going to be what they're going to be given the situation and any excess equity requirement that you would need to fund, you know, whatever investments you make would come from traditional equity issuance as opposed to we like dispo cap rates more than the stock price today.
spk03: I think that's a fair statement.
spk11: Okay. That was it. Thank you.
spk10: Thanks, Mike. As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question today, you may press star 1 from your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from the line of Eric Frankel with Green Street Advisors. Please proceed with your question.
spk05: Thank you for taking my question. First, I guess, Howard, for you, so leasing activities have been pretty good this quarter. Can you just clarify the difference in releasing spreads between new and renewal leases? Were the new leases on rehab buildings or rehab spaces?
spk07: The new leasing was on some of it, obviously, was on sort of repositioning. We mentioned that we stabilized four. repositioning projects in the quarter where we achieved about 5.8% return on total cost and others were just space obviously that had been vacant. What's interesting is I think just testament to the demand in the marketplace we had a few lease terminations in the quarter which for the most part were driven by us trying to get the space We had one that was one of our larger explorations that was going to occur at the end of the year for a 200,000-foot building where we were able to talk the tenant into relinquishing about 100,000 feet and have a tenant in hand take that. We had another one that was a 135,000-foot building exploring next year that we were able to do the same thing and bring a tenant in tow into that space. So, you know, A lot of the new lease, and by the way, those are incredibly strong rent spreads as well. So a lot of the new leasing is being created by ourselves in terms of trying to get to the value in that space. You've heard us talk in the past about trying to get some of these tenants, even some of the ones that weren't paying us rent, get them out of the spaces because the market's been strong that we can replace them quickly. and produce those high leasing spreads, a lot of it now being done without any substantive capital work in terms of the value-add side as well.
spk05: Interesting. That's a good comment. I appreciate that. Just to – obviously, you haven't closed on it yet, but just the Gateway deal, obviously, it's a pretty big purchase even for you guys. And I just want to clarify, I didn't quite hear your comments well earlier in the call, but did you guys say you expect to achieve a 4% yield on that deal, and when would that exactly occur?
spk07: There's a lot of, you know, role right now in the leases on that product. There's a 105,000-foot lease that expires this year, in the next couple months, and then there's another that expires, I think, around May next year. And so if you look at the product, there was an aggregate of about 21% below market rents, and that's based on some of our more conservative underwriting. And it's interesting to think about because if you look at some of the projections CBRE recently put out with 41% projected rent growth, over the next five years, that averages about, I think, on a compounded basis, a little over 7% per year. We obviously didn't underwrite anything near that, but the Gateway product, you know, really is in the bullseye of the highest demand product in the marketplace right now. You know, it has probably about a 50% excess dock-high door count compared to, you know, typical buildings in the market. It's 32-foot clear at Forest Bay. It's got ESPR sprinklers. It's got container parking. And the location is just right in the bullseye for e-commerce last mile type delivery. So, you know, we're really optimistic that that product is going to outperform a lot of the Class A product that we've bought over the past few years. It's substantially outperformed our rent projections just because, there's a dearth of the product in the market. Half of the greater Los Angeles market was built before 1980. And so you can imagine when you look at a market like Southern California today, there just isn't enough space to supply the demand that's out there. In fact, even construction, this construction pipeline in greater L.A. is down probably 30% quarter over quarter. So, you know, there's a shortage of space, and they'll continue to be it. So Gateway... You know, we're real excited about it. We think it's got all the elements of the type of product that, at the end of the day, will perform very, very strongly and potentially, you know, outperform even our underlying.
spk05: Yeah, no, they look like very good buildings. No doubt about that. I appreciate all that color. And final question, I think one of your peers alluded to this on their earnings call yesterday, but I guess the cat is fully out of the bag in terms of industrials. fundamentals and its attractiveness as an investment class. And so I think you're remarking this in your disposition opportunities. But do you foresee any issues? Obviously, you guys, you know, canvassed the market so thoroughly. Do you see any issues in terms of just increased competitiveness, identifying investment opportunities going forward versus, say, six months ago?
spk03: Hey, Eric. It's Michael. Thanks for joining us today. And, you know, our market has been competitive or arguably hyper-competitive, you know, for a very long time. And, you know, we see new capital come into our market, you know, frankly, consistently, you know, for many years. So I wouldn't say there's necessarily an increase in demand from investors. I think it's people have acknowledged that industrial is a great asset class. And I think what's amazing, frankly – about our market is that Info7 California is probably only about 7% owned by all industrial REITs, all public REITs. The vast majority of our market is mom and pop owned. You know, probably upwards of 70% of our market is mom and pop owned. And those mom and pops that are not real estate professionals. And so despite the heightened interest in the asset class, arguably, you know, it's still a highly fragmented market. And what I find astounding is in the vast majority of our transactions, we're not competing with institutional capital. You know, I think we, as I noted, about 77% of our transactions this year were through off-market and lightly marketed transactions that we catalyzed through our research and our broker efforts, you know, in-house. And so it's really just that we create a fundamentally different playing field by creating this information advantage through our proprietary originations capability and And, frankly, when we started this company a couple decades ago, we started with the fundamental premise that it wouldn't be a very exciting business if we were relying on third parties, namely brokers, to bring us our growth opportunities because they're highly competitive. And so we created a machine at Rexford that's capable of, by and large, generating our own investment opportunities. And that translates directly into better economics, better cash flow growth, and better return on equity.
spk05: I appreciate that, Howard. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.
spk10: Next question comes from the line of Capital Insecurities.
spk08: This is good afternoon for me and good morning for you guys. Just a couple of follow-up questions. Howard, great new lease and quarter. I guess just curious on the five segments that you guys sort of divvy up in terms of the disclosure. Is there a segment that has the most opportunity to put rent in it right now, or is it very specific to the asset?
spk07: I think, you know, if you look at the market and the low vacancy throughout, you know, there's just a shortage of space. You know, when you even think about just the smallest kind of spaces we own, you know, the cost to replicate those makes it impossible to deliver any of that product. So if you look back for, quite a few decades in, you know, for instance, greater L.A. with the top of the market, there hasn't been any of that product that looks good. So there's a shortage of that product. You know, we've seen, you know, leasing spreads pretty, you know, evenly distributed throughout, and that's, you know, quarter to quarter. I don't think there's anything dramatically different this quarter versus others. I mean, we can point to, you know, some of the larger leases that we did that had some large spreads to them, but there's a whole bunch of small leases that are not worthy of even speaking to that had very strong spreads as well. I think if you look at our portfolio, though, the smaller spaces today don't make up as much as the larger in terms of this ABR that contributed. Probably Almost half the portfolio now, ABR comes from spaces above 50,000 feet, and I think it's in the 9% range is even some of the smallest spaces. So, yeah, I think from – if you look at some of the assets we've been buying, you don't also see us buying a lot of some of these small product type spaces and In fact, you know, the majority of what we've been selling quarter to quarter has been taking advantage of the strong market and selling some of those more management-intensive multi-tenant parks as well. So over time, you know, I think our percentage of ABR derived through some of the larger tendencies you'll see increasing as well.
spk08: Great. And then I guess just in terms of – the time process that tenants take to make decisions about leasing, has that been changing at all this year? I don't know how much, you know, COVID impacted it. I don't know whether or not it's recovering at this point. Can you give us a sense of what you're seeing from tenants in terms of their responsiveness?
spk07: Yeah. Well, certainly people slowed that process as COVID hit during the second quarter. You know, we certainly saw leasing pull back because people didn't know how to react. But, you know, obviously in the third quarter and even toward the latter part of the second quarter, leasing really rebounded and has really not slowed down or is not showing any signs of slowing down. You know, I think what you saw, though, from our leasing in this past quarter was, first of all, our highest quarter ever in terms of new leasing. You know, I think that was about 45% higher than new leasing that occurred in this quarter. than our prior peak amount of new leasing. And so what that means is that people are focusing on vacant space for obvious reasons, you know, concerning the pandemic, and those decisions are happening a lot quicker when they're looking at vacant space. You know, for instance, we had almost half of the move-outs, I'm sorry, almost half of the new leasing this quarter was really from three move-outs. where we had almost, you know, a little over 450,000 square feet. And I think there was about 34 days of downtime on those. And they were released during the quarter. So that's, you know, that's obviously testament to the market. But in terms of leasing decisions, you know, we've always seen leasing, you know, it really depends on the size of the space. And so most of the product in our portfolio, the leasing is fairly quick. Somebody's out in the market. they need space, they want to sign the lease, and they move in right away. And that's really, I think, what you saw in the new leasing side this quarter was really, I think, solidifying that thought process and demonstrating it.
spk08: Thanks for the call, Howard. That's all I had to say today.
spk04: Thank you.
spk10: Thank you. At this time, I will turn the floor right to management for closing remarks.
spk03: This is Michael. On behalf of the entire Rexter Industrial team, I want to thank everybody for joining us today. We hope you and your families remain safe and healthy, and we look forward to reconnecting next quarter. Thank you.
spk10: Thank you. This does conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.
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