SL Green Realty Corp

Thank you everybody for joining us and welcome to SL Green Realty Corp's first quarter 2021 earnings results conference call. This conference call is being recorded. At this time, the company is about to remind listeners that during the call, management may make forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ from any forward-looking statements that management may make today. Additional information regarding the risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause such differences appear in the risk factors and MMA section of the company's latest form, 10-K, and other subsequent reports filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Also today, during today's conference call, the company may discuss non-GAAP financial measures as defined by Regulation G under the Securities Act. The GAAP financial measures are most directly comparable to each non-GAAP financial measure discussed and the reconciliation of the differences between each non-GAAP financial measure and the comparable GAAP financial measure can be found on both companies' websites at www.slgreen.com by selecting the press release regarding the company's first quarter 2021 earnings and then our supplemental information filed with our current report on Form 8K relating to our first quarter 2021 earnings. Before turning the call over to Marc Holliday, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of SL Green Realty Corp, I ask that those of you participating in the Q&A portion of the call to please limit yourselves to two questions per person. Thank you. I will now turn the call over to Marc Holliday. Please go ahead, Marc.

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. After a year defined by lockdowns, closures, and restrictions, New York City is now undergoing a vast reawakening. Businesses, restaurants, and hotels are reopening and restrictions are being eased. The leisure and hospitality industry is starting to bounce back as domestic tourism is increasing in Manhattan. 100,000 jobs have been regained over just the last three consecutive months during the first quarter of this year. Leasing volumes for the period January through March were higher than any quarter since the outset of the pandemic. These are just some of the signs indicating a robust and perhaps unprecedented recovery is underway. The cycle of a sharp downturn followed by large monetary stimulus, followed by increased business activity and profitability, and ultimately followed by increased demand for office space is a familiar one and one we believe will once again be played out during this recovery. Just about every company we've spoken with in our portfolio is making firm plans to have their workforces return to the office sometime between June and September of this year. Big New York City employers like Google, Bloomberg, Amazon, and JP Morgan have reversed course and have set hard dates for return to work this summer or even sooner upon workers being vaccinated in certain cases. Leading the way, Mayor de Blasio has called back 80,000 New York City government workers to city offices on May 3rd. It's right around the corner. With a goal of 5 million people vaccinated by June, employers will have every expectation of seeing their employees back in action and working together. While some employers will undoubtedly experiment with a hybrid workplace model, giving employees the option of working one or possibly two days a week from home, I believe this will be at first limited in practice and over time will become even less and less prevalent. I think we have a bright future for New York City office properties because we have the most important thing and that's a growing, successful business space in a diversified economy. Last year, Wall Street firms made $51 billion. That's the second highest profit ever recorded since the data was first kept over 30 years ago. The first quarter big five bank profits were up 163% year over year, and the technology sector in New York is absolutely booming. This rising momentum resulted in our leasing 178,000 square feet during the first three weeks in April, bringing our year to date leasing results to 530,000 square feet putting us well on track to meet or exceed our 1.3 million square foot goal for the year. And One Vanderbilt is front and center in these results. I couldn't be more pleased with the way One Vanderbilt turned out. It exceeded all expectations and it's just simply a wonderful addition to the East Midtown and to the New York City skyline. A very special building that is resonating with tenants and establishing a blueprint for the future of Sustainable Development in New York City. East Midtown needed this development and it is sparking a wave of new development projects all throughout East Midtown, the number one business submarket in New York City. Earlier this morning on Squawk Box, I announced a 35,000 square foot lease at One Vanderbilt that was signed last night at 10.30 p.m. to be exact and moments after I went off air. We signed another 17,000 square feet this morning, bringing total building occupancy at One Vanderbilt to 77%. As we are trading paper on another six deals at OVA, we expect to achieve 90% lease status by the end of the year, which is much faster than originally projected and higher than our goal for the year of 85%. The success we are having with One Vanderbilt is an enormous endorsement for our development at One Madison, which we are now well underway with. The One Madison project will be the only project in Midtown Midtown South delivering in 2023 to offer the desirable combination of well-designed parkfront new construction, an amenity package to rival One Vanderbilt, and direct subway access. Project completion is scheduled for more than 30 months from now, but we nonetheless have good activity from tenants in the market who have shown significant interest in this new development. We are about to experience the confluence of low interest rates, approximately $100 billion of federal stimulus making its way to New York over the next 12 to 18 months, surging financial sector, significant business activity, upward swinging hiring trends, and a gradual listing of COVID era restrictions. That's a recipe for what could be a truly explosive recovery in New York City. And SL Green is well positioned to meet the growing tenant demand and develop the future of New York City. So with that, we'd like to open it up for questions on the quarterly release that we sent out last night.

Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Please limit yourselves to two questions. Your first question today comes from the line of Alexander Goldstar with Piper Sandler. Please proceed with your question.