Federal Realty Investment Trust Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
July 31, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Q2 FFO beat and guidance raised: FFO per share was $1.88, up 7% year over year and $0.03 above the midpoint of guidance. Federal Realty raised full-year Core and NAREIT FFO guidance to $7.48–$7.56 per share, implying approximately 6.5% growth at the midpoint.
  • Positive Sentiment: Record leasing momentum continued: The company signed a record 819,000 square feet of comparable leases at cash rents 15% above prior in-place rents, while small-shop leased and occupied rates reached 93.9% and 92.3%, respectively. More than 1.5 million square feet remains in negotiations, with $31 million of executed lease revenue expected over the next 18 months.
  • Positive Sentiment: Major redevelopment projects are advancing, including Bass Pro Shops and AMC at Grossmont Shopping Center and an expanded Harris Teeter at Barracks Road. Federal expects its residential pipeline to add nearly 800 units and approximately $27 million of stabilized operating income over the next several years.
  • Positive Sentiment: The balance sheet remains well positioned, with $1.2 billion of liquidity, no significant debt maturities until mid-2027 aside from $30 million due in August, and annualized net debt to EBITDA improving to 5.4 times. The company also raised its dividend for the 59th consecutive year to $1.16 per quarter.
  • Negative Sentiment: Management expects occupancy churn to constrain comparable growth in the second and third quarters, with the benefits of anchor openings weighted toward the fourth quarter and 2027. Acquisition competition has intensified and pushed cap rates lower, while higher G&A for digital and business-development investments and more conservative interest-rate assumptions partly offset the outlook.
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Earnings Conference Call
Federal Realty Investment Trust Q2 2026
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Operator

Good day, welcome to the Federal Realty Investment Trust second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on a touch-tone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jill Sawyer, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations.

Jill Sawyer
Jill Sawyer
Senior VP of Investor Relations at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Thanks, Debbie. Good morning. Thank you for joining us today for Federal Realty's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Joining me on the call are Don Wood, Federal's Chief Executive Officer, Dan Guglielmone, Chief Financial Officer, Wendy Seher, Eastern Region President and Chief Operating Officer, and Jan Sweetnam, Chief Investment Officer, as well as other members of our executive team that are available to take your questions at the conclusion of our prepared remarks. A reminder that certain matters discussed on this call may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include any annualized or projected information, as well as statements referring to expected or anticipated events or results, including guidance.

Jill Sawyer
Jill Sawyer
Senior VP of Investor Relations at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Although Federal Realty believes the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, Federal Realty's future operations and its actual performance may differ materially from the information in our forward-looking statements, and we can give no assurance that these expectations can be attained. The earnings release and supplemental reporting package that we issued this morning, our annual report filed on Form 10-K and our other financial disclosure documents provide a more in-depth discussion of risk factors that may affect our financial condition and operational results. Given the number of participants on the call, we kindly ask that you limit yourself to one question during the Q&A portion. If you have additional questions, please re-queue. With that, I'll turn the call over to Don Wood.

Don Wood
Don Wood
CEO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Well, thank you, Jill, good morning, everybody. Strong quarter. $1.88 a share, 7% year-over-year growth, 96% occupancy, record leasing volume, 59th year consecutive dividend raises, another beat and raise, all validating the optimism for the rest of the year and next. Dan will get into the specifics for modeling purposes. After roughly four exceptionally strong leasing years, this quarter set records. Again, here we are in the second quarter of 2026 and are reporting 124 comparable deals for a staggering 819,000 sq ft and an average first-year cash rent of $33.68, which is 15% higher cash rent than the prior year and 28% higher on a straight line basis. That sort of volume is record-setting, and while contributions to it came from all of our markets, Southern California and Virginia were instrumental in signing a few anchor deals that'll be transformational to the properties they were done in.

Don Wood
Don Wood
CEO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

The first affects the market-dominant 860,000 sq ft Grossmont Shopping Center in suburban San Diego, where re-merchandising this 2021 acquisition is now seriously underway. We've signed our first deal ever with hugely successful outdoor retailer, Bass Pro Shops, to a 20-year deal for 161,000 sq ft, replacing an underperforming Macy's and adjacent small shop tenants with a national draw unlike most others. We also signed a new 53,000 sq ft deal with AMC at Grossmont for a new state-of-the-art theater where a shuttered smaller theater operator once was. With an anchor system comprised of Bass Pro, AMC, Walmart, and Target, and 350,000 sq ft of other space to feed off that system, Grossmont will be among the most productive assets in Federal's portfolio once the significant redevelopment has been completed. We're looking at a $56 million comprehensive redevelopment and incremental 10% cash-on-cash here.

Don Wood
Don Wood
CEO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

The second affects the market-dominant 500,000 sq ft Barracks Road Shopping Center in Charlottesville, Virginia, home of the University of Virginia, where we signed a 79,000 sq ft deal with Harris Teeter for an expanded flagship grocery store, and where additional important merchandising improvements that'll be announced very shortly will further solidify Barracks Road as the preeminent shopping center in the market, as it has been since we bought it some 40 years ago. As we've talked about before, these large market-leading dominant retail centers, not unlike most of the acquisitions we've made over the past few years, are our property type of choice in every major market we're in. They tend to provide opportunities for both continued cash flow growth and value enhancement for decades. Stay tuned for more in the quarters ahead.

Don Wood
Don Wood
CEO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Opportunities for additional accretive acquisitions and net of dispositions continue to be a laser-like focus of the team and are expected to continue to improve our overall growth. We're getting close on a couple of very important deals, though a bit too soon to announce on this call. Stay tuned in the weeks ahead. On the development side, let me give you a quick update on the status of our residential pipeline that, as you may remember, is only undertaken on excess land at our existing shopping centers. With little to no incremental land costs and higher rents because of the proximity to our shopping center amenities, the math works in the right locations. Currently, we've allocated a total of $400 million for the residential development of Blayr at Bala Cynwyd, which is already two-thirds leased and well ahead of projections for both timing and rate.

Don Wood
Don Wood
CEO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

By the way, that fast lease-up pace has reduced the earnings dilution that normally comes at this stage of resi development. 301 Washington Street in Hoboken, which is on time and on budget, preparing for a 1Q 2027 delivery. Lease up begins later this year. Early renting inquiries spurred on by the construction progress have been far in excess of our expectations. Lot 12 at Santana Row is well under construction, on time and on budget for a late 2027 delivery, as many of you saw at our June Investor Day. An incremental 261 units at Willow Grove Shopping Center outside of Philadelphia, for which the site has been prepared and cleared and is now fully underway.

Don Wood
Don Wood
CEO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Together, this densification of our shopping center assets will add nearly 800 units and $27 million of new operating income to the portfolio, once stabilized over the next few years. Our experience with residential development at our retail-centric properties is a skill set developed over 25 years, and is certainly a unique differentiator of our business plan. Incremental income in the form of parking revenues, sponsorship opportunities, signage revenues are also benefiting by the high traffic counts at our large properties, including not only our mixed-use assets, but also the broader portfolio. More upside to come here, too. We're firing on all cylinders. Leasing operations, including a comprehensive technology-based efficiency program. We'll introduce you to our Senior Vice President of Digital and Innovation at some point in the future. The hunt for special acquisitions and a modestly sized but impactful development and redevelopment program are all working.

Don Wood
Don Wood
CEO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Enhanced internal and external growth using all the tools at our disposal is the name of the game. Quarters like this increase my confidence of our ability to do so. A sincere and grateful thank you to all of you that gave us your time and your attention at our Investor Day at Santana Row, either live or on the webcast. We're a proud and talented group of real estate execs who love to share our story. We hope you enjoyed it and found it useful, and believe these second quarter results help validate to you the focused path that we're on. Let me now turn it over to Wendy, and then to Dan to provide some additional color. Wendy?

Wendy Seher
Wendy Seher
Eastern Region President and COO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Thank you, Don. This quarter, our leasing platform once again delivered record volume, signing 819,000 sq ft, the most comparable square footage in a single quarter in company history. Rent spreads for these deals were 15% over prior in-place rents, and that 15% is not a one-quarter story. In fact, the trailing 12-month comparable rollover sits at 17%, the highest in any 12-month period in more than 10 years. This tells you everything you need to know about the desirability for high-quality shopping centers. What I'm most proud of this quarter is occupancy. Despite the timing of expected anchor transitions, the strength of our small shop leasing held occupancy neutral to last quarter. We delivered over 100,000 sq ft of net small shop occupancy this quarter, increasing our occupied rate by 100 basis points in just three months.

Wendy Seher
Wendy Seher
Eastern Region President and COO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Our small shop portfolio is now 93.9% leased and 92.3% occupied, levels we haven't seen since 2007. Put that alongside a record leasing quarter and you get a clear picture. The demand for our centers is not slowing down. The natural question is how much upside is left, and I would say more, much more. At these occupancy levels, we can drive small shop rents in the double-digit range on average, something we've done consistently for the past three years. Our current pipeline, which is always a good indicator of future leasing momentum, remains strong with over 1.5 million sq ft of space in lease negotiations. In addition to our pipeline, we have fully executed leases that will contribute an additional $31 million in revenue, delivering over the next 18 months. Just as important, our high lease rate lets us pre-lease well in advance of vacancy.

Wendy Seher
Wendy Seher
Eastern Region President and COO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

This translates to less downtime from one tenant to the next, a metric we are focused on quarter-after-quarter, with clear progress being made as highlighted by our 100 basis point jump in small shop occupancy this quarter. Foot traffic across the portfolio is up, reinforcing the health of our consumer, and collections remain strong across the portfolio. Our retail redevelopment pipeline is delivering the same story. In Philadelphia, Giant just opened a brand-new prototypical 45,000 sq ft grocery store in our Andorra Shopping Center, with small shop leasing rents coming in 16% over underwriting. Andorra is just one example. We have another half a dozen centers in various stages of reinvestment, with many more in the pipeline. Historically, these reinvestments have produced 10%+ returns on average with a single objective: drive productivity and rents at our centers, making our existing portfolio a continuous source of multiyear growth.

Wendy Seher
Wendy Seher
Eastern Region President and COO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Finally, our business development platform that we highlighted at Investor Day had a standout quarter, with our incremental income initiative on track to be up 20% for the year over the prior year comparable pool. That is extraordinary given the fact that our occupancy continues to climb and improves. This program is much more than leasing temporary space. It is a sustainable source of revenue unique to our property set of large, dominant, and/or mixed-use assets. Parking revenue alone, which is very unique to our portfolio, is expected to be up almost $3 million year-over-year, driven by higher rates, events, activations, and partnerships. The through line across all of it is the same. Dominant, durable, high-quality real estate creates value. In this K-shaped economy, our centers are thriving. Let me turn it over to Dan to dive into the numbers.

Dan Guglielmone
Dan Guglielmone
CFO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Thank you, Wendy, and hello, everyone. Our FFO per share of $1.88 for the second quarter reflects 7% growth versus last year and highlights another exceptionally strong quarter operationally. This result came in $0.03 above the midpoint of our guidance range, highlighting a business plan that's delivering across all of its components. Drivers for the outperformance this quarter include $0.03 from higher rental income and recoveries, $0.02 from stronger percentage rent, parking revenues, and the incremental income initiatives Wendy just referenced, almost $0.01 from better term fees than we had forecast, as well as another $0.005 further benefit from our capital recycling activity. This was essentially offset by $0.015 from a one-time investment write-off, $0.01 from straight-line write-offs, and $0.01 higher G&A than we had originally forecast.

Dan Guglielmone
Dan Guglielmone
CFO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Net-net, a $0.03 beat on the shoulders of $0.05 of better-than-expected rents, recoveries, and incremental income. Adjusted comparable growth, our cash basis comparable growth metric was 4.2% for the quarter and stands at 4.6% year-to-date. Our GAAP metric was 2.8% for Q2 and 3.7% year-to-date, both outperforming the expectations we set out on our call in May. Also the result of the drivers that we just highlighted. Cash basis revenues increased 3.6% for the quarter. All of these metrics, all of these variations of same-store metrics, were ahead of our expectations, highlighting the solid first half of the year. Let's turn to our balance sheet. With the exception of $30 million maturing in August at a 7.5% interest rate, we currently have no debt maturing until mid-2027, while sitting with $1.2 billion of liquidity at quarter-end.

Dan Guglielmone
Dan Guglielmone
CFO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

We continue to see strong free cash flow after dividends and maintenance capital, forecasting over $100 million for this year, with that figure heading towards $150 million by 2028 as we convert straight-line rent to cash-paying rent. If you'll recall, we outlined these figures at our Investor Day in May. This will also have a positive impact on AFFO through 2028 and beyond. During the second quarter, we closed on another $66 million of retail asset sales, bringing the year-to-date 2026 total to $225 million at a blended 5% cap rate. When combining 2025 and year-to-date 2026 asset sales, our total stands at $540 million at a blended initial cash yield of 5.4%. Note that the estimated foregone unleveraged IRRs on this pool blends to an average of less than 7% with no assumed terminal cap rate compression.

Dan Guglielmone
Dan Guglielmone
CFO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

All metrics which reflect a very, very attractively priced source of capital. Through this active and disciplined asset recycling program, our debt rep metrics remain solid. Second quarter annualized net debt-to-EBITDA has improved to 5.4x, and fixed charge coverage stands solid at 3.9x. Now, on to guidance. As a result of another solid FFO beat for Q2 on the heels of a robust first quarter, along with an encouraging outlook for the balance of the year, we are raising guidance for both NAREIT and Core FFO to $748 to $756 per share. At the $752 midpoint, this increase represents 6.5% growth for Core FFO when compared to 2025, with the range being roughly 6%-7% at the low- and high-end of the range, respectively.

Dan Guglielmone
Dan Guglielmone
CFO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Drivers for the guidance increase include our comparable GAAP-based POI growth outlook improving to 3.25% to 3.75% from the previous 3.125% to 3.625%. Our cash comparable growth or adjusted comparable per our disclosure is expected to be 75 basis points higher, so a range of roughly 4%-4.5%. That's a 35-basis point to 40-basis point increase. Small shop momentum helped us maintain our occupied rate during the second quarter, and we continue to forecast a spike in our overall occupied rate to the mid- to upper-94% range by the end of the year, powered by leases that have already been signed. We continue to see stronger than expected contribution from the $750 million of dominant high-quality properties acquired in 2025.

Dan Guglielmone
Dan Guglielmone
CFO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Our outlook on term fees also moves higher to $10 million to $11 million as the second quarter fees were roughly $600,000 to $700,000 higher than our forecast with better visibility into the second half of the year. This roughly $2 million increase is offset by a $2 million rise in our forecasted G&A as we make investments in our digital innovation and business development teams. Incremental development POI is up $500,000 to $15.5 million as we deliver space to tenants ahead of forecast. We're keeping our credit reserve as is at 60 basis points to 85 basis points of rental income as we effectively run near the midpoint year-to-date. Lastly, we have adjusted our interest rate outlook to reflect more conservative current market expectations. Additional guidance assumptions remain unchanged and are outlined on page 27 of the Form 8-K.

Dan Guglielmone
Dan Guglielmone
CFO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

This updated guidance also reflects the $66 million of asset sales completed during the quarter, with the foregone yields in that mid-to upper-5% range. Please also note that we issued $61 million of equity during the quarter through our ATM program, further enhancing our capital base. We continue to be active on capital recycling, with additional acquisition and disposition opportunities targeted for the second half of the year, and we will adjust guidance for those, likely upwards, as we go. To summarize, our guidance increase is driven by the following puts and takes. $0.03 of forecasted operational outperformance, driven by parking, percentage rent, and incremental income and stronger occupancy than we forecast. Plus $0.02 from term fees. Offset by $0.02 of higher G&A, given the aforementioned investments in digital innovation and business development, and $0.01-$0.02 from a more conservative interest rate outlook.

Dan Guglielmone
Dan Guglielmone
CFO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

With respect to our expectations for quarterly FFO cadence over the remainder of 2026, we've set the third quarter at $1.82-$1.86 per share, and the fourth quarter at $1.91-$1.95 per share, primarily driven by the aforementioned contractual occupancy growth. As a result of the strong year to date and our bullish outlook, Federal will continue to lead the REIT sector as its only dividend king, a distinction of 50+ consecutive years of annual dividend growth, as we once again increased our dividend for a 59th consecutive year to $1.16 per share per quarter, or $4.64 annually. You've heard me say since I joined the company a decade ago, for every year I've been alive, Federal has increased its annual dividend. Think about that. Since 1967, at a roughly a 6.5% cadence. That's a record the Federal team continues to be tremendously proud of.

Dan Guglielmone
Dan Guglielmone
CFO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

With that, operator, please open the line for questions.

Operator

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touch-tone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. We ask that you limit questions to one. You can then reenter the queue for any follow-up questions. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question is from Michael Goldsmith with UBS. Please go ahead.

Michael Goldsmith
Michael Goldsmith
Analyst at UBS

Good morning. Thanks a lot for taking my question. You had previously spoken about NOI growth accelerating in the back half of the year after the lower second quarter results. Is that still the case? Can you provide some color on what's driving that? Is that occupancy growth? Is it increasing rent growth or any other factors? Thanks.

Dan Guglielmone
Dan Guglielmone
CFO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Yeah, I think consistent with what we shared kind of on the May call, the second and third quarter, we'll continue to have some occupancy churn in the third quarter. That'll keep a lid on until an acceleration in the fourth quarter, which we really won't see the benefit of probably till next year as those tenants get open and operating and rent paying. Yeah. It's consistent with kind of I think what we shared with you at Investor Day and on the May call.

Don Wood
Don Wood
CEO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Yeah, Michael, I'd just add to that. Think about the anchor progress that we've been making and the timing of the openings of those stores, very heavily weighted to 4Q, which should bring occupancy of the anchor side up into the 98+% range after that.

Operator

The next question is from Alexander Goldfarb with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

Alexander Goldfarb
Alexander Goldfarb
Analyst at Piper Sandler

Hey, morning down there. Don, the robustness of the leasing and obviously against the economy and everything else that's in the macro, do you get a sense that all the tenants are leasing on full offense, or do you feel like increasingly tenants are leasing because they have to, because there's not enough space left and therefore they feel more compelled to lease? I'm just trying to understand the robustness, if it's all 100% offense for growth or some of the tenants are increasingly feeling like they need to take the space because if they don't, there won't be anything left for them as space dwindles.

Don Wood
Don Wood
CEO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Yeah, I think that's a great question, Alex, as usual, the answer is a balance of both. It's hard to paint this big broad brush of the reason people lease what they're trying to do. Clearly, in large measure, business plans are long-term in nature, expansion plans are long-term in nature, and accordingly, the offensive nature of growing your portfolio is the driver. Having said that, it's no secret to anybody that because there's been no new supply that's been added over the last 15-20 years at this point, that making sure that retailers are in the places they need to be

Don Wood
Don Wood
CEO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

That does include anytime a great piece of real estate comes available, there is always ample demand for that space. I don't know if you define that as defensive or you define that as part of the offensive strategy of the company. I personally don't care. It's about making sure great space that the demand for that space exists and exceeds the supply. That is the case, it's been the case, and everything we see suggests that should continue to be the case. Offense is the real answer to your question.

Operator

The next question is from Haendel St. Juste with Mizuho. Please go ahead.

Haendel St. Juste
Haendel St. Juste
Analyst at Mizuho

Thank you. Close enough. Good morning. Hey, Don. I wanted to ask you about acquisitions. You guys obviously have been more active the last couple of years. There's a lot more that we're hearing on the market today, for various reasons. I guess I'm curious, if you could add some color on broadly, your appetite here. Kind of maybe what inning are we in kind of the sort of portfolio moves you've been making and recycling some assets. Are you seeing more deals that are passing your screening? Maybe some color on target returns and if equity could play a role here. Thanks.

Don Wood
Don Wood
CEO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Yeah. No, it's a great question, and I'd love to turn that over to Jan Sweetnam to make sure that you get a fulsome answer to that question. Hey, Jan, you there? Jan's on the West Coast.

Jan Sweetnam
Jan Sweetnam
Chief Investment Officer at Federal Realty Investment Trust

I'm here.

Don Wood
Don Wood
CEO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Yeah, I think we're-

Jan Sweetnam
Jan Sweetnam
Chief Investment Officer at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Hi, Haendel. That's a loaded question. I'll do my best to try to get through it. Let me just sort of start with what are we seeing and how big the pipeline is. In Investor Day, we were looking at about $1.4 billion of assets that we thought were interesting and provided some of the large centers that we're looking for, the returns, and all that. Kind of as we go through it in terms of what sort of come out of that pipeline because it just didn't fit for us, a couple of assets that we're working on down, Don referenced a little bit earlier, and kind of what's come in. The pipeline is still pretty robust. In fact, it's probably a little bit bigger than $1.4 billion today.

Jan Sweetnam
Jan Sweetnam
Chief Investment Officer at Federal Realty Investment Trust

I think the deal flow is looking and feeling really good for us as we progress through the balance of the year. Our appetite is still very strong to acquire assets. Look, it's gotten a little bit more competitive out there. Cap rates have come down a little bit, in particular for the best of the best properties. Look, this cuts both ways as we're recycling capital and lower cap rates make our acquisitions more expensive, but they make our dispositions more valuable. Turning to acquisitions, yeah, it's more competitive. I'll give an example where there are a couple of properties that we like. They're really good properties, with good mark-to-market on the in-place rents. They're set to trade at cap rates lower than 5%.

Jan Sweetnam
Jan Sweetnam
Chief Investment Officer at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Breathtaking, really, and a steep climb to get to 8% unlevered IRR. We just couldn't get there. It's competitive. We remain optimistic that there are properties where we can deliver our returns. We'll look at opportunities in the sixes, 6% cap rates, and maybe even a little bit less than a 6% cap rate if the growth is really good. 4%-5% CAGRs over the first five years should get us to better than 8% 10-year unlevered IRRs. As Don said just a little bit earlier, it's about, is there material unmet demand and the ability to push rents and get to spaces in a reasonable timeframe? That's what's going to drive those CAGRs. That's how we drive revenue. As we look at opportunities, Wendy and her team are laser-focused on understanding demand and our ability to drive rent or not.

Wendy Seher
Wendy Seher
Eastern Region President and COO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Yeah, Jan, I'll just jump in here. It's really, as you said, it's all about revenue growth and getting comfortable with our mark-to-market underwriting assumptions. When we go through this due diligence process, it's not calling a couple tenants. We go very deep. As you know, we are format agnostic, and we have various different properties that we own, so we have a really wide lens of retailers that we do business with. Really, the secret sauce of our due diligence is those relationships and the tenants who are not in that particular shopping center and getting that unfiltered, honest, in-depth feedback that helps us with not only underwriting, but what's working at the property, what's not working. Is the property on their list for expansion? Why is it not on their list? Is it lower on the list?

Wendy Seher
Wendy Seher
Eastern Region President and COO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

If we owned it, would it be higher on the list? We saw that example in Kansas City. We just bought that property a year ago. We've already done over 20 deals, and we were making chess moves with tenants before we even bought the property. That's why Alo just opened and Vuori is under construction. Haendel, you're getting a long answer on this one. Lastly, I think it's important to mention our operating platform. We know how to operate properties efficiently. We know how to scale management and local operators along with that. When you're setting up in a situation that might have fixed CAM, like Kansas City and Annapolis, that goes straight to our bottom-line. Very productive.

Operator

The next question is from Greg McGinniss with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Greg McGinniss
Greg McGinniss
Analyst at Scotiabank

Hey, good morning. You finished acquiring the entire Kingstowne assemblage. It's not in the redevelopment pipeline. Is this a simple lease-up strategy and doing more in the same space, or is there a different long-term plan there? Not to get you too far over your skis, on the potential two deals that you talked about, Don, are those considered kind of market dominant centers in new markets or more of a clustering opportunity? Thanks.

Don Wood
Don Wood
CEO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Thanks, Greg. Couple of things to talk about. First, with respect to Kingstowne, that's just good real estate acquisition. That is a piece of land in the middle of our two shopping centers that are effectively there, that are certainly better-off in our hands than anybody else's hands. It is a stay-the-course strategy, effectively, for the near-term. Because of where they are and some of the due diligence that we did with respect of alternatives, should there be an issue with the current tenancy, we got a good plan. In some respects, that's defensive to fill out the nice square of the two shopping centers there, also offensive because of what we think we've got going on there. Look, on the properties we're looking at, I can't talk to you about it until we're all done with respect to those.

Don Wood
Don Wood
CEO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

I will tell you that I think we've been pretty darn clear over the last year that we'd like to be in three to five new markets. We've also been pretty darn clear that filling in existing markets remains a priority. It's a combination of both of those things. While I won't comment on two particular properties that are referenced, that's the business plan of the company. That's what we're doing and trying to continue that program. Frankly, having more success than even at the beginning of the year that I thought we'd have. Things have changed. I like Jan's answer on the fulsome nature of all of that stuff that's available, and I hope to provide better news even, or more complete news, if you will, as the rest of the year continues.

Operator

The next question is from Andrew Reale with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Andrew Reale
Andrew Reale
Analyst at Bank of America

Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Maybe just to hit on the guidance, could you provide maybe just a little more color on some of the tenants driving the term fee higher this year? Then on the higher G&A, Dan, I know you mentioned that might be some investments in digital initiatives, so maybe you could just speak a bit more about those. Thanks.

Don Wood
Don Wood
CEO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Thanks, Andrew. Let me tell you about one particular term fee issue that I really kind of wanted to get this out there and why it's so important to us. I can't give you the specifics, obviously, in terms of the tenancy, but imagine you've got a really strong lease at a good shopping center where that tenant is obligated. They do have a go dark, right? That they can go dark. They have an obligation to pay rent forever, and it's a very important component, obviously, to the long-term lease. They are paying rent and continue to pay rent regularly. However, when you have a really good shopping center, you should be able to backfill, and backfill, hopefully, with a better tenant, a tenant that does more for the shopping center, that pays at least that amount of rent and hopefully more.

Don Wood
Don Wood
CEO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

While we were accepting the ongoing rent of this particular tenant, the ability to re-lease it were there. We've got a new tenant coming in, a new tenant paying a better rent, a new tenant that will be better for the shopping center. By the way, the old tenant is paying us seven years of rent. The math works all day long. That's $3 million. That was a $3 million term fee. That's why the change in the assumption for the year. I'll take that all day long and hope that somehow that's included in the understanding of what our business is and the strength of our leases.

Don Wood
Don Wood
CEO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Dan, you may have more on guidance, Andrew, thanks for asking that because I really do want you to understand the math and the reason for doing deals with high credit tenants that have the ability to either continue to pay or because the lease is really strong, when we have another tenant to be able to backfill, cutting a deal right then and now so that we can double dip. That's what we're doing, double dipping.

Dan Guglielmone
Dan Guglielmone
CFO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Yeah, I'll just add a little bit of color. The anchor tenant was not leaving for credit issues. It is a strong investment grade-backed tenant who made a strategic decision to exit a particular market. Okay. This was, as I said, not a credit issue. In fact, of our $8.6 million of term fees year-to-date, over two-thirds of it were from investment grade-rated or investment grade-backed tenants. With regards to guidance, we increased the guide for the year driven by $600,000-$700,000 of beat in the second quarter. Plus, we have greater visibility into the second half of the year. That implies roughly $1 million per quarter on average in Q3 and Q4. You have that color for the balance of the year.

Wendy Seher
Wendy Seher
Eastern Region President and COO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

G&A.

Dan Guglielmone
Dan Guglielmone
CFO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Lastly, G&A.

Wendy Seher
Wendy Seher
Eastern Region President and COO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Digital innovation, more on digital innovation.

Dan Guglielmone
Dan Guglielmone
CFO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Yeah, look, we are making investments with regards to guidance. We are making those investments. We expect to get strong returns. I think we will get returns immediately on some of the business development stuff.

Dan Guglielmone
Dan Guglielmone
CFO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Which we're really, really excited about. With regards to the digital innovation side, I think that's a little bit longer-term an investment. We've got a really strong group of professionals who have joined us, and we feel really good about making these investments. That'll obviously impact the G&A line item in the second half of the year.

Operator

The next question is from Juan Sanabria with BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Juan Sanabria
Juan Sanabria
Analyst at BMO Capital Markets

Hi, thanks for the time. Just maybe a question for Dan. Seems to run a line implies a bit of a decel from the first half into the second half. Just curious on what's driving that, if that's how we should think about it, and maybe how the build or in-place occupancy should trend for the balance of the year as a subset of that.

Dan Guglielmone
Dan Guglielmone
CFO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Yeah. We had indicated, I think previously, some obviously lower numbers in the second and third quarter, and a stronger first quarter, which you saw, and a stronger fourth quarter. You should expect in the low 2s on our GAAP-based metric for comparable, and probably in kind of the low 4s range. Blended in the low 3s, and that gets us into kind of the low 3s in the second half of the year. That's what it implies. Hopefully, we can do better than that. The second piece was

Wendy Seher
Wendy Seher
Eastern Region President and COO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Decels are-

Dan Guglielmone
Dan Guglielmone
CFO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Yeah Yeah. Same thing. I mean, that's really occupancy is driving a lot of that, and getting tenants open. We'll see kind of a nice resurgence in the fourth quarter on that comparable metric and feel good about the comparable metric entering 2027.

Operator

The next question is from Jamie Feldman with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

Analyst at Wells Fargo

Hi. Thank you. You've got Connor on with Jamie. Can you talk about where yields are today on your entitled multifamily pipeline? How we should think about potential start activity over the next 12-24 months, and which locations are closest to penciling?

Dan Guglielmone
Dan Guglielmone
CFO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Yeah, Connor, I can do that a little bit. What we'd love to be able to do is on a cash on cash basis, be in the 6.5%-7% or so on the residential stuff that we do. If it doesn't pencil, if it's below a 6% or somewhere like that, we're just not going to do it. When you look at where we are, what we've got opportunities for, we've got things like Pembroke in Florida. We're getting close on seeing if we can make that one work. There's also an opportunity potentially at Assembly for one of the sites that we have. Those two, I would say, are the closest to being the next stage, if you will, after Willow Grove.

Dan Guglielmone
Dan Guglielmone
CFO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Now, what you should remember is we've got something squared away now for 2026, for 2027, for 2028, and effectively what we'll hit 2029. The notion would be in the next 12 months or so, getting that next project or two or three teed up. Those are our best guesses at the moment.

Operator

The next question is from Michael Griffin with Evercore. Please go ahead.

Michael Griffin
Michael Griffin
Analyst at Evercore

Great. Thanks. Jan, I want to go back to your comments around cap rate compression, and just as it relates to some of the opportunities in the expansion markets. I mean, I think if I recall correctly, both Town Center and Village Point were in the high 6s. If you're talking about deals that you're finding now in the low 6s, that feels like a decent amount of cap rate compression over the past year. I guess, number pne, is it increased competition that you're seeing for some of these more operationally complex assets, or is it just a mix of kind of the more coastal core markets that you highlighted at the Investor Day that you're targeting versus the potential expansion markets?

Jan Sweetnam
Jan Sweetnam
Chief Investment Officer at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Yeah. Hi, Michael. Good question. I think one of the overall factors is there's just so much more capital chasing retail right now, and that's just created more competition for the supply of product that's out there, and that just has pushed the yields down. A lot of that capital is focused on some of the best properties that are available in the marketplace. I just, overall, whether it's in California or whether it's in Kansas City, there's probably more competition today than there used to be. That's on the one hand.

Jan Sweetnam
Jan Sweetnam
Chief Investment Officer at Federal Realty Investment Trust

On the other hand, what we've seen by owning Kansas City, by owning Village Point in Omaha, and really spending so much more time and energy over the last couple of years, in the last 12 months, in the last six months, underwriting these assets and really talking to these retailers and seeing the performance that we have delivered and we can deliver. It feels like even though the yields are a little bit lower going in, we can still drive the 8% or better IRRs. We can drive the growth out there. From sort of our perspective, even though the yields are lower, it feels sort of neutral in our ability to execute, if that makes sense.

Don Wood
Don Wood
CEO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

You know, Griff, let me just add a couple of things to that, because as I'm listening to the conversation and listening to your question, one of the things that comes to mind here is the type of stuff we look for is really unique. It is a really asset-by-asset kind of thing. I know you'd like to say all grocery anchored shopping centers trade at a blank. All lifestyle-type centers trade at a blank, but it really doesn't work like that.

Don Wood
Don Wood
CEO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

When you go back to the conversation that Jan and Wendy had before, it really does depend on our ability to underwrite IRR. Now, there's a limit to going in cap rate, as Jan said, we're not going to be down in a place where it's dilutive to us to get started. That's a key tenet of what it is that we do. When you get one of these larger properties that truly has been under-managed and truly has significant lease-up that you can get to, important, that you can get to over the next five years, I got to tell you, man, when it comes to a mid-age IRR, the going in cap rate is less important. Now, not unimportant, it's got to be accretive, but these are specialty assets. These are the biggest, best assets in the communities that we're talking about there.

Don Wood
Don Wood
CEO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

It's an important distinction. The notion of saying, well, it's 50 basis points tighter or 75 basis points or 25 basis points or whatever it is, it's a broad comment, and not necessarily untrue, but it's on a very small sample size of the type of assets. Those type of assets are very much dependent upon what the underwriting is going to look like over the next five years. I hope that's helpful kind of putting that in perspective. These aren't generally $20 million, $30 million, 100,000 sq ft shopping centers that are pretty generic.

Operator

The next question is from Floris van Dijkum with Ladenburg. Please go ahead.

Floris van Dijkum
Floris van Dijkum
Analyst at Ladenburg

Hey, thanks. I note you have the $200 million mortgage coming due on Bethesda Row, I think, next year. You have an option to extend that. Is that also potentially an asset you could sell a JV interest in? Can you maybe talk about your thought process potentially of partially monetizing an asset like that has less expansion possibilities? Is there enough growth in your view that you want to keep 100% interest in assets like that?

Don Wood
Don Wood
CEO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Thanks, Floris. That's a great question. When we look at how we fund our business plan, it's pretty cool to have a lot of different options, and frankly, more options than most other companies have. One of those things, as you just pointed out, are assets that are very important to the company, where we've done some pretty darn good work over a lot of years for which we do not want to lose control, importantly of that, but could be a source of a very low cost of capital. We need to look at that. While the notion of wholesale joint ventures on the big stuff and blah, blah, that's not going to happen. Sharpshooting as part of the overall capital structure and capital plan, that's pretty cool. It's a pretty cool opportunity.

Don Wood
Don Wood
CEO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Yes, we will be looking at that in the coming months and years as an incremental tool to be able to expand the business plan.

Operator

The next question is from Craig Mailman with Citi. Please go ahead.

Craig Mailman
Craig Mailman
Analyst at Citi

Hey, good morning, everyone. Just want to go back to just bigger picture on the acquisition side of things. Institutional capital just continues to push cap rates down in a space where rent growth has or the ability to push tenants has been a little bit more elusive given fragmented ownership and the importance of some of the anchors. When you're talking to brokers and they're underwriting some of these newer capital sources, are these compressing cap rates in a pretty sticky interest rate environment indicative of just a view that rent growth is going to accelerate across the space? Or is it a hedge on inflation? Or just a byproduct of more accessible capital markets on the debt side? Just trying to get a sense of how anyone's making these numbers pencil on an IRR basis unless they're just accepting lower returns in this environment.

Craig Mailman
Craig Mailman
Analyst at Citi

Just maybe some thoughts on that.

Don Wood
Don Wood
CEO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Yeah, you just asked a macro question to which my answer, I can't help myself, I tend to get to the micro. I get to the particular asset, the particular opportunities to grow the income stream in the asset which I talked about. It is why that on a macro basis, to the extent I think a number of things that you just said are really important. You remember, Craig, that really up until the last year or so, it was all about the grocery anchor shopping center and that center in a bite-sized $40 million-$50 million kind of purchase price that served as a wonderful hedge against not only inflation, but against It was a risk-off move. It makes all the sense in the world. We love those centers. That's great.

Don Wood
Don Wood
CEO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

There is no doubt that with more focus and money on the bigger stuff, that there is, in my view, a bit of a realization that larger assets that are privately held do require capital That capital is often not spent by the ownership, whether that's institutional ownership or a local ownership in some form, that a company like ours or others out there can provide outsized growth with credit. You put money into a shopping center, all money is not equal. You put money into a shopping center with better credit tenants, with better opportunity for growth in highly affluent areas, that's pretty good use of capital in there. It's always considered in the underwriting. It's a combination of everything that you kind of said, but there is a realization that retail real estate is more than triple net leases or grocery-anchored shopping centers.

Don Wood
Don Wood
CEO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

That there are core plus and opportunistic opportunities that are there, that people are more comfortable that there are a few operators that can really extract that value. We're certainly one of them.

Operator

The next question is from Rich Hightower with Barclays. Please go ahead.

Rich Hightower
Rich Hightower
Analyst at Barclays

Hey, good morning, guys. I guess maybe a bit of a similar line of questioning, but, obviously you guys have a pretty deep menu of redevelopment projects going on in the portfolio. I'm wondering, just kind of given the strengths and underlying trends that we've talked about on the call, does that sort of open up, or maybe allow other assets in the portfolio to sort of pass the hurdle to spend that capital, maybe in a way that you weren't considering six months ago, a year ago? Does it change the math on that sort of expenditure as well?

Don Wood
Don Wood
CEO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

I think it does, Rich. I think that's a great question. It's a great observation. The one thing about portfolios, particularly portfolios that have been held for a long period of time, there are periods when things work better, and there are periods in real estate when the math just doesn't work. Your observation is really good. One of the things that is worth saying here is while inflation generally doesn't make it easier to go buy groceries and all this stuff that's read in the newspaper every day, it sure ain't bad for retail. As long as it's controlled and the ability to effectively push rents, the ability to effectively in a supply-constrained marketplace, which this is and has been, does open up other opportunities. We're looking hard at stuff that we haven't looked at because the math hasn't worked in the past.

Don Wood
Don Wood
CEO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

I would be bullish, if you will, on some of those opportunities, finding their way into the business plan over the next 12 months.

Operator

The next question is from Michael Mueller with JPMorgan. Please go ahead. Okay, Michael Mueller, you are now on the podium. Please go ahead.

Michael Mueller
Michael Mueller
Analyst at JPMorgan

Hi. Sorry. I guess following up on the redevelopment question, how do you think the annual spend is going to trend over the next three to five years compared to where you are this year? Do you think we're closer to a material pivot to the upside?

Dan Guglielmone
Dan Guglielmone
CFO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

We could. This is Dan. Good question. We've been kind of analyzing and looking at what the pipeline looks like and what we could add and what things are ready to move forward and where they're penciling. I think over the next, call it six, 12, 24 months, you could see us continue to add more and more projects. Whether they be resi over retail projects that Don alluded to earlier, or whether they're commercial retail-oriented projects, redevelopments that we could add to it. It's probably in the neighborhood in terms of the next 12-24 months that we would consider a $400 million-$500 million of projects that could get started. We're going to be disciplined, and we're only going to pull the trigger if they make sense from a return perspective. Don, anything more?

Don Wood
Don Wood
CEO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

No, as all of these questions are about how do we accelerate growth. That's right, that's the basis of all these questions. The one question that hasn't been asked about are our operating margins. The notion of effectively, what digital innovation, what business processes, what is available over the next few years, how to get income rent started earlier, all of these notions, I do believe that technology will make us more profitable also. Just add that to the list of things about how and why there should be good growth going forward to our business.

Operator

The next question is from Paulina Rojas with Green Street. Please go ahead.

Paulina Rojas
Paulina Rojas
Analyst at Green Street

Good morning. You have talked about targeting properties with really specific characteristics, really high standards. What tends to be the hardest characteristic to meet, the one that makes a center good but not really quite good enough to meet your bar? I ask because sometimes I see properties transact in affluent pockets at much really higher cap rates that you have quoted. I wonder what the breaking point tends to be in your case. Is it perhaps that the market is not large enough, or the lack of flexibility for densification, or something else?

Don Wood
Don Wood
CEO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Good question. Start, Wendy, you probably want to add to this. It's about the details in the leases for the property. When you have a property that has been fully exploited, if you will, even if it's in an affluent area, it works as a wonderful hedge, and that's terrific from a bond perspective. If there's not the growth available by remerchandising that or by adding a redevelopment component, if there's not, then it's going to trade at a higher cap rate. That higher cap rate, if you look at just broadly, can be confusing. Well, why in this affluent area is this property trading at this? Well, because there's no growth. At the end of the day, that's the single biggest thing is where are the leases?

Don Wood
Don Wood
CEO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

That's determined in that marketplace as to what the future of that marketplace looks like and how that marketplace is creating jobs, how that marketplace is creating the ability to create growth and better merchandise. It's hard to put this big wide paintbrush on the issues that way because it is a local business. That's the single biggest driver is what are the in-place rents and what are the opportunities for changing that cash flow stream. I don't know. The position of that asset within that market. We target the best assets in those markets. Sometimes you may be looking at cap rates for an asset that is positioned as the third or fourth-best asset in that market that is not going to command the demand from tenants that we really look to make sure is there and that we can underwrite.

Don Wood
Don Wood
CEO at Federal Realty Investment Trust

You'll see us pass sometimes on assets like that we just don't see long-term there being the opportunity, and that's reflected obviously in the higher cap rate.

Operator

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Jill Sawyer for any closing remarks.

Jill Sawyer
Jill Sawyer
Senior VP of Investor Relations at Federal Realty Investment Trust

Thanks for joining us today, and have a great rest of the summer.

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Executives
    • Jill Sawyer
      Jill Sawyer
      Senior VP of Investor Relations
    • Don Wood
      Don Wood
      CEO
    • Wendy Seher
      Wendy Seher
      Eastern Region President and COO
    • Dan Guglielmone
      Dan Guglielmone
      CFO
    • Jan Sweetnam
      Jan Sweetnam
      Chief Investment Officer
Analysts
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