Piedmont Realty Trust Q1 2025 Earnings Report

Piedmont Realty Trust EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.36
• Consensus EPS: $0.35
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.01
• One Year Ago EPS: $0.39

Piedmont Realty Trust Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $136.06 million
• Expected Revenue: $141.29 million
• Beat/Miss: Missed by -$5.22 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: -1.30%

Piedmont Realty Trust Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q1 2025
• Date: 4/28/2025
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Tuesday, April 29, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 9:00AM ET

Piedmont Realty Trust (NYSE:PDM) is a real estate investment trust (REIT) headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, that focuses on the ownership, acquisition and management of office properties. The company’s portfolio comprises a mix of multi-tenant and single-tenant buildings, with a particular emphasis on small- to mid-size office campuses and urban infill properties. Piedmont Realty Trust structures its leases and property services to support a diversified base of tenants, including professional services firms, government agencies and technology companies.

The company’s operating model combines property management, leasing and strategic capital allocation to enhance asset value and drive income stability. Through active asset management, Piedmont Realty Trust seeks to optimize occupancy rates and rental income, while selectively investing in value-add opportunities such as building renovations, infrastructure upgrades and re-tenanting of vacated space. Its in-house team of leasing and property professionals is responsible for day-to-day operations, tenant relations and market analysis.

Piedmont Realty Trust’s geographic footprint is concentrated in major markets across the Sun Belt and Mid-Atlantic regions, including Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh and select Texas cities. By targeting high-growth business corridors and established corporate hubs, the company aims to benefit from regional economic expansion and evolving workplace trends. Piedmont Realty Trust continues to evaluate portfolio diversification opportunities to enhance long-term shareholder value.

Piedmont Realty Trust Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Piedmont completed approximately 363,000 square feet of leasing in Q1 2025, with about half from new tenants and achieved double-digit rental rate roll-ups on both a cash and GAAP basis.
• The company refinanced its debt by paying off a $250 million term loan, extending its $600 million credit line, and now has no maturities until 2028 and about $500 million of liquidity available.
• Management announced the decision to suspend the dividend to conserve capital for tenant improvements and leasing commissions, which they expect will be accretive by up to 1 cent of FFO in 2025.
• Piedmont’s leasing backlog stands at $67 million of annualized revenue from leases yet to commence or in abatement, and there are 1.9 million square feet of executed leases pending cash rent, supporting strong 2026 growth.
• The company reaffirmed its 2025 core FFO guidance at $1.38 to $1.44 per diluted share, expecting a midyear dip as new leases ramp up and improvement in Q4.

Presentation

[Operator]

Greetings. Welcome to the Piedmont Office Realty Trust first quarter 2025 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Laura Moon. You may begin.

[Laura Moon, Chief Accounting Officer and EVP at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

Thank you, Operator, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us today for Piedmont's first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Last night, we filed our 10-Q and an 8-K that includes our earnings release and our unaudited supplemental information for the first quarter of 2025 that is available for your review on our website at piedmontreit.com under the Investor Relations section. During this call, you will hear from senior officers at Piedmont. Their prepared remarks, followed by answers to your questions, will contain forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements address matters which are subject to risks and uncertainties, and therefore actual results may differ from those we anticipate and discuss today. The risks and uncertainties of these forward-looking statements are discussed in our press release as well as our SEC filings.

[Laura Moon, Chief Accounting Officer and EVP at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

We encourage everyone to review the more detailed discussion related to risks associated with forward-looking statements in our SEC filings. Examples of forward-looking statements include those related to Piedmont's future revenues and operating income, dividends and financial guidance, future financing, leasing, and investment activity, and the impacts of this activity on the company's financial and operational results. You should not place any undue reliance on any of these forward-looking statements, and these statements are based upon the information and estimates we have reviewed as of the date the statements are made. Also, on today's call, representatives of the company may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures such as FFO, Core FFO, AFFO, and Same Store NOI. The definitions and reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures are contained in the earnings release and supplemental financial information which were filed last night.

[Laura Moon, Chief Accounting Officer and EVP at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

At this time, our President and Chief Executive Officer, Brent Smith, will provide some opening comments regarding first quarter 2025 operating results. Brent?

[Brent Smith, President and CEO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

Thanks, Laura. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today as we review our first quarter 2025 results. In addition to Laura, on the line with me this morning are George Wells, our Chief Operating Officer; Chris Kollme, our EVP of Investments; and Sherry Rexroad, our Chief Financial Officer. We will have the usual full accompaniment of our management team available to answer your questions as well. We are very pleased with our solid start to 2025, completing approximately 363,000 sq ft of total leasing during the quarter, with roughly half related to new tenant leases. The overall volume is especially encouraging given that the first quarter is typically the slowest quarter of any given year, and the leases executed were spread throughout the portfolio, with almost every market executing at least one lease for 10,000 sq ft or greater.

[Brent Smith, President and CEO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

Further, leases executed during the quarter reflected double-digit rental rate roll-ups on both a cash and GAAP basis. Additionally, as we disclosed on last quarter's call, we completed our last bit of required refinancing activity during the first quarter, including paying off a $250 million term loan that was scheduled to mature in March and extending our $600 million line of credit. As for broader market commentary, the occupier market recovery appears to be continuing to progress as more national employers such as JPMorgan continue to change their mandate to five days a week, adding to a chorus of large office users like Amazon, realizing the benefits of more in-office interaction. In many cases, these users have discovered they do not have enough space to accomplish this shift and are exploring expansion options, something we have seen in our own portfolio, as George will touch on in a moment.

[Brent Smith, President and CEO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

Against the strengthening backdrop, however, macroeconomic uncertainty emerged during Q1, causing national gross leasing volume to slow moderately after reaching post-pandemic highs in late 2024. Net absorption turned negative again, driven in large part by federal lease terminations, mostly impacting DC Metro and albeit still reflecting a 60% improvement from the first quarter of 2024. Also, a positive new development: deliveries on a quarterly basis fell to their lowest level in over a decade, and groundbreaking continues to be scarce, with less than 1 million sq ft started during the first quarter. As we've seen in our operating markets, the lack of renovations from capital-starved owners suffering from tenancy losses and debt-related issues benefits well-capitalized owners like Piedmont as the flight to quality intensifies. While these macro factors should continue to benefit Piedmont's ability to lease space, we're mindful of the current economic volatility and the uncertainty it brings.

[Brent Smith, President and CEO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

That said, and certainly bearing a recession, we believe we're on track to meet or exceed our 2025 goals. Over the past 18 months, Piedmont has leased over 3.6 million sq ft, or approximately 24% of its operating portfolio, with an additional 1.1-1.2 million sq ft of leasing budgeted for the remainder of 2025. Leasing momentum remains strong, including over 275,000 sq ft of leases signed during the month of April. We're experiencing increased demand for our buildings from full floor and larger tenancy, particularly in Dallas, Atlanta, and Minneapolis. As a result of our recent leasing success, our backlog at year-end of $46 million is now $67 million of annualized revenue that are from leases yet to commence or in their free rent period.

[Brent Smith, President and CEO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

Furthermore, because of the unprecedented level of leasing, the gap between lease percentage and economic lease percentage, or cash-paying tenancy, is at its widest in over a decade at 10.6%. We expect Piedmont's leasing success to maintain its current momentum as our legal stage pipeline has faced minimal disruption despite broader economic uncertainties. If leasing activity continues as anticipated and Piedmont maintains its current dividend payment, absent any dispositions which are difficult to forecast in this uncertain environment, the company would need to increase its leverage to fund this future growth. We believe that taking on additional leverage would not be prudent as it could impede long-term growth and constrain our liquidity and access to capital.

[Brent Smith, President and CEO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

Due to this unique period in our corporate life cycle, where Piedmont is experiencing significant capital outlay to fund tenant improvements and leasing commissions, while simultaneously having a sizable percentage of our portfolio not paying cash rents, management and the board have made the decision to suspend the dividend. This decision aims to fund accretive long-term growth and retain a larger portion of the company's earnings to do so, which are our lowest cost of capital. Additionally, we can utilize any remaining retained earnings to reduce leverage on the balance sheet and enhance our debt metrics. Together, suspending the dividend and subsequent reduction in borrowings is expected to result in up to one penny of accretion in 2025. These actions will position Piedmont with a stronger balance sheet and a clearer path to earnings growth in 2026 when the leases in process commence.

[Brent Smith, President and CEO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

In summary, we believe the action to suspend the dividend will be accretive for shareholders in the medium and long term as we deploy our retained earnings, generating an average unleveraged return in excess of 25% on this invested leasing capital. Our capital is an extremely precious resource that will be best used to fund growth by leasing our unique, modernized, hospitality-infused properties, and we're experiencing record levels of tenant interest across both our operating and out-of-service portfolios. The market's demand for our assets remains at record levels in terms of tours and proposal activity, including approximately 300,000 sq ft of proposals in the legal stage for our out-of-service portfolio. I'll now hand the call over to George, who will go into more details on the leasing pipeline and first quarter operational results. George?

[George Wells, COO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

Thanks, Brent. Piedmont's premium office space continues to attract and retain customers that value a modern, highly amenitized workplace environment. Creating that special place is more than just renovating a project's common areas. It's also about balancing impactful design with a range of purposeful social spaces. During the first quarter, our Galleria 600 lobby rejuvenation was awarded the Best of Special Projects Award from the International Interior Design Association's Georgia chapter. Our market-leading placemaking efforts are being recognized and are contributing to consistent positive quarterly results. During the first quarter, we completed 57 transactions for approximately 363,000 sq ft of total overall volume, well on track towards our overall goal of 1.5 million sq ft and evenly split between new deal and renewal activity.

[George Wells, COO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

Regarding new deal transactions, approximately 80,000 sq ft commences in the first half of 2025, and 100,000 sq ft commences in the first half of 2026, with an overall new volume delivering a weighted average lease term of 10 years. Expansions exceeded contractions for the third straight quarter, a clear sign of more in-office attendance. Our trailing 12-month retention came in at 67%. Lease economics were very favorable, with an approximately 10% and 19% roll-up or increase in rents for the quarter on a cash and accrual basis, respectively. Our leasing capital spend of $6.69 per sq ft was slightly elevated when compared with the past several quarters as several law firm deals were completed. However, this translated into higher-than-average rental rates, near $47 per sq ft as compared to $38 per sq ft in 2023.

[George Wells, COO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

Sublease availability continues to hover around 5%, with only 10,000 sq ft expiring in 2025. Atlanta was our most active segment this quarter, closing on 12 deals for 122,000 sq ft, or a third of the company's overall volume, with eight new transactions for 99,000 sq ft completed across our three submarkets, which consist of two infill locations in Central Perimeter and Galleria Cumberland, and the most vibrant urban submarket in Atlanta and home of our two trophy towers Midtown. Most notable are local Chamberlain Hrdlicka law firm for 30,000 sq ft at 999 Peachtree for a 14-year term and is the first lease or step in accomplishing our goal of quickly re-tenanting the Eversheds Sutherland space, which sits prominently in the upper portion of the tower and expires in the second quarter of 2026.

[George Wells, COO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

This transaction also achieved a new rental rate high starting at $55 per sq ft, substantially higher than the expiring lease rate of approximately $39 per sq ft. We're bullish about backfilling this block over the near term as premium quality space in Midtown is scarce and our pipeline is quite active, which should translate into strong rental rate roll-ups as we re-tenant this space. Also, at 999 Peachtree, an existing law firm doubled its footprint to accommodate internal growth and more in-office attendance and will now occupy two full floors. Elsewhere in Midtown, the Midtown Improvement District announced that it has entered a contract to purchase a prime four-acre undeveloped site on 14th Street, which is adjacent to our 1180 Peachtree skyline-defining tower, to create a permanent signature public space that would be the hub for arts and cultural experiences of uniquely Atlanta.

[George Wells, COO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

We're excited over the news that this would provide our 1180 customers with unparalleled views forever and direct access to the park, removing one of the most attractive developable sites in Midtown and adding value to our investment. Orlando garnered the second most activity in our portfolio, capturing 23% of the overall volume, including our largest renewal this quarter. Orange County, a AA- S&P-rated government agency, renewed its entire 50,000 sq ft block downtown at The Exchange, our most recently transformed tower that continues to hit new top-of-the-market rental rate highs. I'd like to remind everyone that 8.6% of our government ALR exposure relates to state or local government entities and only 0.2% relates to GSA or federal agencies. With regards to the New York City lease at 60 Broad, we remain confident in extending a majority of its lease and anticipate a year-end amendment execution.

[George Wells, COO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

Back to Orlando, our full building headquarters lease at 501 West Church with Travel + Leisure Co. was awarded CoStar's 2025 Impact Award, reinforcing downtown's vitality and effectiveness in attracting high-quality tenants. In Dallas, the most notable news arrived after the first quarter. In April, our local team executed a 12-year lease with a global insurance broker at three Galleria office towers for 93,000 sq ft that largely backfills Ryan's space at its scheduled expire in the second quarter. The tenant selected Galleria for its exceptionally accessible and central location to accommodate its merger and consolidation plan. Commencement is projected for May of 2026, and we're achieving $55 per sq ft rates at this asset, the highest in the Lower Tollway submarket. Coming back to the overall portfolio, we're cautiously optimistic about our near-term leasing prospects.

[George Wells, COO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

Our leasing pipeline is strong with approximately 750,000 sq ft executed or in the legal stage, largely for current vacant space and above our total volume quarterly norm. Outstanding proposals stand at 3 million sq ft for both our operating and our out-of-service portfolios, higher than a trailing 12 months. Our supplemental report shows a manageable 5% of sq ft expiring for the remainder of this year. Assuming there's no material surprise for the U.S. economy, we remain comfortable in achieving our previously released year-end lease percentage guidance of 89-90%. I'll now turn the call over to Chris Kollme for his comments on investment activity. Chris?

[Chris Kollme, EVP of Investments at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

Thanks, George. I'll just provide a very brief update. Last quarter, we reported that we were in advanced negotiations for the disposition of two small non-core assets, and I'm pleased to report that one has closed and the other is expected to close later this quarter. Combined, these two deals will generate approximately $35 million in gross proceeds. We have another two to three assets that are currently being marketed, but it is too early to comment on specifics or to speculate on timing. On the acquisitions front, we remain engaged in each of our key markets and continue to think creatively about ways to leverage our operating platform while conserving our capital resources. With that, I'll pass it on to Sherry to cover our financial results. Sherry?

[Sherry Rexroad, CFO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

Thank you, Chris. While we will be discussing some of this quarter's financial highlights today, please review the entire earnings release and the accompanying supplemental financial information, which were filed yesterday for more complete detail. Core FFO per diluted share for the first quarter of 2025 was $0.36 versus $0.39 per diluted share for the first quarter of 2024. Approximately a penny of the decrease is due to increased net interest expense as a result of refinancing activity over the past 12 months, with the remaining decrease attributable to lower reported rental income due to the sale of two properties, as well as downtime associated with the expiration of a few large leases over the last 12 months. The lease with Travel + Leisure Co. in Orlando will commence in the fourth quarter and provide approximately $5.7 million of additional annualized rent.

[Sherry Rexroad, CFO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

That's 1% of ALR or one-third of our executed but uncommenced future revenue. AFFO generated during the first quarter of 2025 was approximately $23.5 million, in line with the last several quarters, and CapEx returned to more normalized levels during Q1 as we wrapped up several major building redevelopment projects around year-end. Turning to the balance sheet, we covered the Q1 refinancing activity that Brent mentioned in detail on our last call, so I won't go into the particulars again, but rather just highlight that we currently have no final debt maturities until 2028 and approximately $500 million of availability under our revolving line of credit. Based on the current forward yield curve, we expect all of our unsecured debt maturing for the rest of this decade will be refinanced at lower interest rates and thus be a tailwind to FFO per share growth.

[Sherry Rexroad, CFO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

At this time, I'd like to affirm our 2025 annual core FFO guidance in the range of $1.38-$1.44 per diluted share, with no material changes to our previously published assumptions. Based on the timing of when certain leases are scheduled to commence, we currently anticipate core FFO will dip a bit over the next two quarters and then improve in Q4 as some larger recently executed leases, such as the Travel + Leisure Co. lease in Orlando, commence, with NOI continuing to improve in 2026. Please refer to page 26 of the supplemental information filed last night for details of major leases that have not yet commenced or are currently in abatement. As of March 31, 2025, the company had 1.9 million sq ft of executed leases yet to commence or under abatement.

[Sherry Rexroad, CFO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

This future cash flow is testament to the leasing success of the team and will fuel future earnings growth, although it does demand additional capital spend, as Brent outlined. With that, I will turn the call over to Brent for closing comments. Brent?

[Brent Smith, President and CEO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

Thank you, George, Chris, and Sherry. We here at Piedmont remain laser-focused on our core business: designing, leasing, and managing best-in-class work environments. We believe that the recent investments that we made in our portfolio, combined with our customer-centric placemaking mindset, continue to set us apart in the office sector, and we will continue to garner more than our fair share of the leasing market. We will be selective with capital deployment and concentrate our resources on driving lease percentage and increasing rental rate, which will ultimately result in FFO and cash flow growth. With that, I will now ask the operator to provide our listeners with instructions on how they can submit their questions. Operator?

[Operator]

Thank you. At this time, we will be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants 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. Once again, please press star one if you have a question or a comment. Our first question comes from Dylan Burzinski with Green Street. Please proceed.

[Dylan Burzinski, Senior Analyst at Green Street]

Hi guys. Thanks for taking the question. Just wanted to touch on sort of the leasing pipeline and decision to sort of keep guidance maintained. Obviously, good leasing so far to date in April, positive commentary on sort of the leasing pipeline and turn activity. It just sounds like you guys are on track to sort of exceed some of those leasing targets that you guys outlined in guidance or reaffirming guidance, I should say. Just curious, is there some conservatism baked in given heightened macro uncertainty today?

[Brent Smith, President and CEO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

Hi, Dylan. It's Brent. Appreciate you joining us this morning. Good question. Jumping into it, the leasing pipelines we noted in the earnings release, very strong at roughly 750,000 in total. As we talked about, 275,000 of that 750,000 has been executed in the month of April. The remaining portion we would expect to be executed in the next, call it, two to four months or so. Overall, good momentum. Behind that, as George alluded to, our pipeline for tour activities and overall proposals are at record levels over 3 million sq ft. As we all know, it takes a long time from lease to construction to commencement and then into pre-rent period on to cash-paying rents. While we have a strong leasing pipeline, I would not imagine it to impact guidance for 2025, but certainly would continue to bolster growth for 2026.

[Brent Smith, President and CEO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

As you know, we have about 1.1-1.2 million sq ft to accomplish post the first quarter, and we've already done a significant number of that already in the month of April. If we also backed out the New York City lease, which is, again, over 300,000 sq ft, given what we've got remaining in the pipeline, it is potentially possible that we would accomplish our leasing goals sometime around late summer, if I had to estimate, if the economy holds up and our legal stage pipeline holds up as well, which we've not seen any deterioration in that. You're correct. It is conceivable that if the strength in the markets holds true, then on the second quarter's earnings call, we may revise our leasing volume guidance for the year up, potentially 200,000 sq ft or more, depending on what we continue to accomplish on the leasing side.

[Brent Smith, President and CEO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

We are cautious, just given post-liberation day, a lot of uncertainty in the market. As I've noted, we have not seen a deterioration, and we are still seeing large users, i.e., the backfill tenant for Ryan, which we executed in the month of April for about 95,000 sq ft in our Dallas Galleria building. We are just not seeing that right now waver. We will revisit that in the second quarter when we have just a little bit more clarity around that pipeline and more clarity around the impact of the uncertainty in the market. We still remain very cautiously optimistic that that would be the case.

[Dylan Burzinski, Senior Analyst at Green Street]

Awesome. That's great details, Brent. Appreciate that. I guess just one more for me. I mean, obviously, historically wide gap between lease percentage and economic lease percentage in the portfolio today, as you guys alluded to in your prepared remarks. I guess, are you able to help sort of frame when you think you can get back to, I think the historical spread was closer to 500 basis points versus over 1,000 basis points today, on when you expect that gap to close? Is that largely a 2026, then? Do you expect that to sort of close over the next few years as leases start to commence? Can you kind of just help frame the timeline on when that should largely compress?

[Brent Smith, President and CEO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

Yes. Suspension of the dividend is going to provide approximately $60 million of additional cash flow annually retained within the company. Given that we are going to have a partial year of suspension this year in 2025, those retained earnings are going to be mainly earmarked for internal growth, just continuing the leasing momentum. We certainly do not want the team to put pencils down, if you will, after late summer. That will be earmarked for the internal growth. As we move into 2026 and more leases begin to cash flow, we will be able to have some excess retained earnings that could be utilized to pay down debt or likely continue to fund a lot of leasing momentum as well.

[Brent Smith, President and CEO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

I think we're hesitant to kind of say when things would definitively be reevaluated and a dividend turned back on, but I would imagine it would be latter part of 2026 at the earliest, given the focus that we have to continue to have excess liquidity and continue to improve the balance sheet.

[Dylan Burzinski, Senior Analyst at Green Street]

Thanks. That's it from me. Really appreciate it.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Nick Thillman with Baird. Nick, please proceed.

[Nick Thillman, Senior Research Analyst at Baird]

Hey, good morning, guys. Brent, maybe just circling back on the dividend, kind of maybe walk us through some of the thoughts behind it. Maybe was there any pressure from the banks when it comes to lending, how much with it not being fully funded? Then maybe on the rating agencies, what kind of metrics they're looking at when evaluating you guys, because you said that played a part, and then kind of what you have earmarked for kind of TIs and CapEx out of the dollars that are going to be saved from that.

[Brent Smith, President and CEO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

Great series of questions, Nick. I'll try to tackle those one at a time. Again, thanks for joining us today. First, just around our thoughts around the dividend. Piedmont is a company we've leased since the pandemic over 10 million sq ft, about 10.3 million sq ft. Remarkably, about a third of that has been in the last 18 months or so, 3.6 million sq ft. That equates to about a quarter of the operating portfolio as it stands today. We have record levels, if you will, of uncommenced and pre-rent tenancy. While our earnings and EBITDA remain very strong, right now we're in a period unique to the company's life cycle where cash flow is diminished from rents, and we have a lot of leasing momentum, and we want to continue that momentum.

[Brent Smith, President and CEO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

Really, as we thought about sources and uses of that capital to fund that growth, of course, there were dispositions as an alternative. However, again, post-liberation day, the uncertainty of accomplishing those dispositions just continues to come into play and recognizing that we still have a couple of assets under contract. Certainly, I think the probability of closing has diminished slightly, but we still are hopeful and expect that they will go to closing sometime this year. We could not rely on that as a source. As we thought about raising equity, I think where our current share price stands today, that also really does not make a lot of rationale from a finance perspective. We have thought about, yes, you could utilize leverage. We have ample capacity on our line of credit and certainly a lot of support from our banking relationships.

[Brent Smith, President and CEO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

We just recast a term loan, and a number of those banks stepped up in more capacity. We recast our entire line of credit at the same level, again, with a lot of support from those same level of banks. We had the opportunity to utilize debt, but as we look at the cost of that debt and/or the cost that with the retained earnings come into play, it's certainly a lower cost of capital right now to utilize retained earnings. Continuing to be mindful of our unsecured credit rating and our commitment to remain investment-grade also came into play. I would say the rating agencies, and we've actually toured all three of those groups through our portfolio, particularly here in Atlanta in the last, call it, two months or so.

[Brent Smith, President and CEO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

They are very supportive of the leasing that we've accomplished, the proactive nature that we've taken in refinancing our maturing debt. I think they're very supportive of this proactive approach too to funding these leasing and CapEx requirements that are really good news. I'm going to continue to increase the earnings of the company, particularly in 2026 and beyond. Finally, to touch on your last part, really kind of what portion is denoted as TI and CapEx versus other uses. I'd say, again, for probably the next year or so, it's going to predominantly go into the leasing bucket or use, if you will, because of just the velocity that we see in our portfolio, and then with a likelihood that CapEx might dwindle or reduce in 2026.

[Brent Smith, President and CEO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

We might be able to utilize some of that excess cash flow saved from the dividend to pay down debt or to consider external growth opportunities. I think our priority right now, if I had to rank them, obviously fund the capital for leasing, generate returns of greater than 25%, then focus on the balance sheet, and then third would be acquisition opportunities. Those would likely be distressed situations that we focus on that, frankly, may not fit our balance sheet today. In which case, we probably look to utilize a JV partner. We have talked to some groups that see our platform success in our own portfolio and would like to partner with us. At the moment, we do not see anything right now that is imminent from an acquisition perspective.

[Brent Smith, President and CEO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

Obviously, what we've seen post-liberation day is going to put a little bit of a wet blanket on the transaction and capital markets at the asset level probably for several months. We will continue to be thoughtful and evaluate those opportunities as they come. For right now, again, focused on leasing, leasing, and leasing.

[Nick Thillman, Senior Research Analyst at Baird]

That was a lot of questions and a very helpful answer. I appreciate that. Quick one just on George, the 3 million sq ft of proposals has to pick up quarter-over-quarter. Any markets you're noticing? I know you highlighted kind of Dallas, Atlanta, and Minneapolis in particular, but any of the other markets seeing a pickup as well, or is it those three kind of driving that uptick?

[George Wells, COO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

Good morning, Nick, and welcome. I would tell you those three markets is where most of our vacancy sits. So it's not surprising that 87% of our new activity coming in that proposal type pipeline is heading in that direction. I mean, New York and Orlando is pretty stable, right? We're sitting in the lower to mid-90s. I'd say Boston is probably still sitting around 86 for us, although I would say it's not quite the velocity of the first few markets that I mentioned. And then Dallas has kind of just been stagnant at this point.

[Nick Thillman, Senior Research Analyst at Baird]

That's it for me. Thank you, guys.

[Operator]

If there are any remaining questions, please indicate so.

[Brent Smith, President and CEO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

Just to clarify, Nick, there, George meant DC was not Dallas. DC, he misspoke, was flat. Sorry, go ahead, operator.

[Operator]

Absolutely. If there are any remaining questions, please indicate so by pressing star one on your touchstone phone. Okay. We have no further questions in the queue. I will now turn the floor back over to Brent Smith for any closing remarks.

[Brent Smith, President and CEO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust]

Again, I want to appreciate everyone for joining us here today. Again, at Piedmont, we are extremely excited about the volume and the success we're having on the leasing front that will lead to operational growth and excited about where the platform is headed. Obviously, a lot of leasing accomplished in April, and we're going to continue to update investors. We have a Wells conference next week, May 6th and 7th for Wells Fargo. Of course, first week in June will be NAREIT's REITweek conference held in New York City. I would encourage investors to come to Atlanta, spend time with management, or contact Sherry or Jennifer to have a chance to set up a one-on-one at either of those conferences. Again, thank you, everyone. We look forward to continuing to update you on the leasing front. Have a great day.

[Operator]

This concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

Participants

Executives

• Sherry Rexroad, CFO

Analysts

• George Wells, COO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust
• Nick Thillman, Senior Research Analyst at Baird
• Laura Moon, Chief Accounting Officer and EVP at Piedmont Office Realty Trust
• Chris Kollme, EVP of Investments at Piedmont Office Realty Trust
• Dylan Burzinski, Senior Analyst at Green Street
• Brent Smith, President and CEO at Piedmont Office Realty Trust