Kimco Realty Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Participants

Corporate Executives

• David Bujnicki, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations & Strategy
• Conor Flynn, Chief Executive Officer
• Ross Cooper, President & Chief Investment Officer
• Glenn Cohen, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer
• David Jamieson, Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer
• Kathleen Thayer, Senior Vice president

Analysts

• Mike Goldsmith, UBS Group AG
• Craig Mailman, Citi Investment Research
• Floris van Dijkum, Compass Point
• Juan Sanabria, BMO Capital Markets
• Alexander Goldfarb, Piper Sandler & Co.
• Samir Khanal, Evercore ISI
• Haendel St. Juste, Mizuho
• Anthony Powell, Barclays PLC
• Caitlin Burrows, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
• Ki Bin Kim, Truist Financial Co.
• Greg McGinniss, Scotiabank
• Ronald Kamdem, Morgan Stanley
• Linda Tsai, Jefferies Financial Group Inc.
• Craig Schmidt, Bank of America Co.
• Unidentified Participant
• Mike Mueller, JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Presentation

[Operator]

Greetings, and welcome to the Kimco Realty First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded.

It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Mr. David Bujnicki, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and Strategy. Thank you, Mr. Bujnicki, you may begin.

[David Bujnicki, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations & Strategy at Kimco Realty]

Good morning, and thank you for joining Kimco's quarterly earnings call. The Kimco management team participating on the call today include: Conor Flynn, Kimco's CEO; Ross Cooper, President and Chief Investment Officer; Glenn Cohen, our CFO; Dave Jamieson, Kimco's Chief Operating Officer; as well as other members of our executive team that are also available to answer questions during the call.

As a reminder, statements made during the course of this call may be deemed forward-looking, and it is important to note that the company's actual results could differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking statements due to a variety of risks, uncertainties and other factors. Please refer to the company's SEC filings that address such factors.

During this presentation, management may make reference to certain non-GAAP financial measures that we believe help investors better understand Kimco's operating results. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures can be found in our quarterly supplemental financial information on the Kimco Investor Relations website. Also, in the event our call was to incur technical difficulties we'll try to resolve as quickly as possible, and if the need arises, we'll post additional information to our IR website.

And with that, I'll turn the call over to Conor.

[Conor Flynn, Chief Executive Officer at Kimco Realty]

Good morning and thank you for joining us today. I will begin with an overview of the leasing environment and share how we are strategically well positioned for long-term growth. Ross will then cover the transaction market, and Glenn will close with our key performance metrics and updated guidance.

We are off to a great start to the year with solid first quarter results, including over 4.5 million square feet of leasing as we benefited from our combination of high-quality grocery-anchored assets, emphasizing off-price retail and everyday essentials in first-string suburbs that makes us uniquely positioned to benefit from what we believe to be longer-term trends relating to consumers and retail strategies. We accomplished this leasing in the face of high interest rates, bank failures, signs of a weakening economy and troubled retailers. Our dedicated team and resilient portfolio not only withstood these pressures, but outperformed.

First, the consumer. While inflation remains stubborn, the Kimco shopper remains sturdy as we continue to see healthy traffic reported across our portfolio. According to our large national retailers, the demand for essential goods, services and groceries continues to be strong. In addition, the flexible hybrid work environment is creating more opportunity for shoppers to frequent our centers. Finally, omnichannel shopping continues to outperform pure online shopping as optionality is a winning formula by providing consumers the convenience of shopping online and picking up or returning at the local store. Requests to expand our nationally recognized curbside pickup program continue to grow from our entire stable of national, regional and small shop tenants.

In addition to the resilient consumer, leasing demand and the ability to push rents continues at a robust pace due to the lack of new supply and high barriers to entry at our highly desirable locations. The demand for new space is well diversified, with the mix of new deals this quarter, spread among off-price, grocery, sporting goods, fitness, health and wellness, medical and fast casual dining. As part of our focus on attaining the highest and best use of our properties, we also secured 2 new entrants to the Kimco portfolio this quarter: A Tesla dealership in Austin, Texas; and a Market by Macy's in San Diego. Strong leasing supported by this robust well-rounded demand is reflected in our new leasing spreads of 44%, a 5-year high.

Occupancy bucked the seasonality trend of dipping after the holidays and gained 10 basis points, thanks to our team's stellar efforts and our small shop leasing initiatives. During the first quarter, we anticipated some space coming back from underperforming retailers, including Bed Bath & Beyond, who just filed for bankruptcy this past week. This has been widely expected, and we've been well prepared for this outcome as we have actively marketed all of our Bed Bath spaces for some time.

To highlight our successful efforts, we started the year with 30 Bed Bath leases. During the first quarter, we sold 1 location and released 3 boxes, including 2 we recaptured with a mark-to-market spread of 24%. Regarding the remaining 26 Bed Bath leases, we are either in lease or LOI negotiations on 22 locations with a mark-to-market spread similar to what we have executed to date, which exemplifies the strong activity from a diverse pool of retailers looking to expand. The remaining 4 locations are either being marketed for lease or a potential redevelopment candidate. The lack of supply and inability to meet new store targets is a constant refrain from our retailers during our portfolio reviews and remains key catalysts for the lease-up of these locations.

It is also why our retention rates for the portfolio continue to remain well above historical levels at 90% this quarter. With this pace of retention and the strong leasing demand, we believe that over the long term, we should see an improved underlying growth rate for our business. Further enhancing the value of our first string summer locations, is the increased demand for industrial and residential assets.

This competition for land or conversions makes the cost of new retail development even more prohibitive, which will further reduce supply for potential new retail. And when you combine the rising rents in the residential sectors with the competitive redevelopment advantages at our existing locations in the first-string suburbs, the opportunity to add more mixed-use density provides us the long-term opportunity to drive further growth and value creation. In the end, strategically, we are well positioned for what could be a choppy second half of the year and beyond.

With our open air high-quality growth anchored portfolio producing record results, our leverage metrics at all-time lows, along with our significant cash position, we are conditioned for growth, and we'll look to be opportunistic when others cannot in our quest to outperform on a sustained basis. Ross?

[Ross Cooper, President & Chief Investment Officer at Kimco Realty]

Thank you, Conor, and good morning. I'll begin with the market for transactions, which remains restrained, given the volatility in the capital markets and elevated borrowing costs. Transaction volume was down across the board in the first quarter. However, what has remained constant is the significant demand from both institutional and private investors for high-quality, open-air retail. A healthy level of equity capital remains patiently waiting on the sidelines for opportunities to acquire our product type as the property fundamentals continue to improve within this retail sector.

Notwithstanding the improving operating fundamentals, investors are seeking higher cap rates to offset higher cost of capital. At the same time, however, supply remains limited, with sellers holding out for higher pricing unless they face refinancing or other pressure to sell. How long this stalemate lasts is the ultimate question. Despite these broader market conditions, we have found ways to selectively and accretively put capital to work. On the last earnings call, we mentioned the 2 Southern California grocery assets we acquired from one of our JV partners. Subsequent to the call, we were successful in buying out a third grocery-anchored site in Southern California from the same partner. This property is a dual grocery-anchored site with a Smart & Final traditional grocer in addition to a Trader Joe's. We are excited to add these 3 strong performing grocery assets to our wholly owned portfolio despite the market conditions I described.

We also added a new structured investment into our program in the first quarter, an $11.2 million subordinated loan on a Sprouts-anchored shopping center outside of Orlando, Florida. As with all of our structured investments, we retain the right to acquire the asset in the future in the event the sponsor looks to sell. This property is another great addition to the structured portfolio with a very attractive return at a very appealing basis on our investment.

As it relates to dispositions, we previously mentioned the 2 Savannah, Georgia power centers we sold back in January. Prior to quarter end, we sold a third power center in Gresham, Oregon. To my point earlier that it has taken longer to transact, we have been working on this since the fourth quarter of last year and successfully closed at the end of March.

While we don't anticipate a significant number of dispositions in 2023, the sale of these 3 centers reflects our efforts to ultimately own a portfolio consisting of primarily grocery-anchored retail centers and mixed-use destinations in our top major metro markets. All in all, we are in a great position to continue to be opportunistic should current owners start to feel more pressure to transact. Our strong liquidity allows us to move quickly and aggressively on the right acquisitions or joint venture buyouts, and to be financially helpful to owners that need an infusion of capital through debt pay downs or asset repositioning utilizing our structured investment program.

I will now pass it off to Glenn for an update on our financials and outlook.

[Glenn Cohen, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer at Kimco Realty]

Thanks, Ross, and good morning. Our solid first quarter results demonstrate the strength of our high-quality operating portfolio as evidenced by increased occupancy, robust leasing spreads and positive same-site NOI growth. Furthermore, we bolstered our sector-leading liquidity position and improved our leverage metrics with additional proceeds received from our Albertsons investment.

Now for some details on our first quarter results. FFO was $238.1 million or $0.39 per diluted share as compared to last year's first quarter results of $240.6 million or $0.39 per diluted share. Notably, last year's figures include a charge of $7.2 million or $0.01 per diluted share for early repayment of debt. Our first quarter results were driven by strong NOI growth, largely due to higher consolidated minimum rent of $14.5 million. This increase was offset by higher bad debt expense of $7.1 million, as the current period had a more normalized credit loss level as compared to last year, which benefited from credit loss income due to reversals of reserves.

In addition, pro rata NOI from our joint ventures was lower by $3 million, mostly attributable to asset sales and higher bad debt expense. Other factors related to the change in first quarter results were higher G&A expense of $4.8 million and pro rata interest expense of $6.6 million. Although interest expense was higher in the current period, last year included a $7.2 million charge for early repayment of debt. The uptick in G&A expenses was largely driven by higher staffing levels following the Weingarten merger, as well as greater expenses related to the value of restricted stock and performance units awarded. The increase in interest expense stemmed from lower fair market value amortization linked to the previously repaid above-market Weingarten bonds, as well as higher interest rates associated with floating rate debt in our joint ventures.

Turning to the operating portfolio which continues to produce positive metrics fueled by the increase in occupancy and strong leasing spreads mentioned earlier. Same-site NOI growth was positive 1.4% for the first quarter. However, it's worth noting that this figure would have been even stronger at 4.2% if we excluded the impact of $4.6 million of credit loss income from the previous year, compared to $4.3 million of credit loss expense for the current period. Nonetheless, we are encouraged by the composition of the same-site NOI growth, which reflects a 430 basis point increase from minimum rents and reduced abatements, as well as a 100 basis point boost from higher percentage rent and other rental property income, offset by lower recoveries of operating expenses of 110 basis points. Overall, these results demonstrate our continued focus on driving strong revenue growth across our portfolio.

As it relates to our Albertsons investment, during the first quarter, we received a special dividend of $194.1 million, which is included in net income but not FFO. The Albertsons special dividend is considered ordinary income for tax purposes, thus we are evaluating the need to make a special dividend to our stockholders at some point this year to maintain our compliance with REIT distribution requirements. In addition, we sold 7.1 million shares of Albertsons stock, generating net proceeds of $137.4 million. It is our intention to pay the tax on the capital gain from the sale and have recorded a $30 million tax provision, which is also excluded from FFO. This strategic move will allow us to retain approximately $107 million for debt reduction and for accretive investments.

Subsequent to quarter end, we sold an additional 7 million shares of Albertsons stock and received net proceeds of $144.9 million. In the second quarter, we will record a tax provision of approximately $32.7 million for the capital gain component. While it is great that we have significantly monetized this investment, it's worth noting that we also benefited by approximately $0.01 per share of FFO per quarter from the ACI common dividends paid. Going forward, we will no longer benefit from the same amount each quarter given the significant monetization to date. Currently, we hold 14.2 million shares of Albertsons, which has a value of approximately $300 million.

We ended the first quarter with over $2.3 billion of immediate liquidity comprised of over $300 million in cash and full availability of our recently renewed $2 billion revolving credit facility. Our leverage metrics continue to improve with consolidated net debt-to-EBITDA of 5.8 times and 6.2 times on a look-through basis, including our pro rata share of joint venture debt and perpetual preferred stock outstanding. The look-through metric of 6.2 times represents the best level since we began reporting this metric in 2009.

As I just touched on, during the first quarter we renewed our $2 billion revolving credit facility with 20 banks. The facility now has an initial maturity date in March 2027 with 2 6-month extension options, bringing the final maturity date to 2028. This is a green facility initially priced at adjusted SOFR plus 77.5 basis points. The borrowing spreads can increase or decrease up to 4 basis points based upon our success in reducing Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions. Based on our current progress, the borrowing spread has already been reduced by 2 basis points to 75.5 basis points.

Turning to our outlook. Based on our first quarter results, the monetization of Albertsons shares and expectations for the balance of the year, we are tightening our FFO per share range to $1.54 to $1.57 from the previous range of $1.53 to $1.57. We are lowering our lease termination income assumption by $10 million to a range of $4 million to $6 million with more than half already received in the first quarter. Initially, we believe a transaction in the first quarter would result in lease termination income. However, when we reviewed it in more detail, given the complex accounting treatment, we arrived at a different conclusion.

Our previous assumptions remain intact regarding same-site NOI growth of 1% to 2%, which includes credit loss of 75 to 125 basis points. And now we are ready to take your questions.

Questions and Answers

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from Michael Goldsmith with UBS.

[Mike Goldsmith, Analyst at UBS Group]

Good morning, thanks for the questions. My first question is on Bed Bath & Beyond and just kind of the shape of how these closures and then potentially coming back online, how that's going to affect the financials. So does this mean that we should expect kind of 60 basis points of rent coming off and 100 basis points of occupancy coming off? And then over time, we get that back kind of next year, and the $8.5 million of rent kind of comes back in like a $10.5 million. Does that -- and then what would be the timing of when that would kind of comeback online?

[David Jamieson, Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer at Kimco Realty]

Yes, good question. So I would say what you just articulated would be sort of the worst case scenario in the sense that everything went out. Nothing was purchased at auction for a sign, which is an event that is yet to occur. And we anticipate happening in June, end of July. So there could be some impact to that to the positive considering the competitive landscape that is a very real possibility.

In terms of the activity, as Conor articulated, less the 3 boxes that we've already leased, the 26 that remains, 7 of those were rejected in the day 1 motion, where at least with over half and have LOIs on the balance, all of which are single tenant backfills, which helps reduce the conversion and the downtime to get a tenant reopened, so that's positive.

On the balance of the boxes, the majority of those are all also single-tenant backfill opportunities, and we're either at lease or at LOI stage. The handful that Conor mentioned in his script, we are assessing real redevelopment opportunities for those as a potential or we'd look to do a sequel tenant backfill. So we are in a great position from where we see. Obviously, the lack of muted supply, no retail development on the horizon for the years to come. Retailers are really seeing this as the opportunity to grab that market share and expand their portfolios in these key markets.

[Conor Flynn, Chief Executive Officer at Kimco Realty]

Michael, we're a bit ahead of where we thought we'd be. As you saw, we raised the lower end of our guidance, even without the termination income that we anticipated. And a lot of that is attributed to the environment that we're in today for high-quality locations like Bed Bath & Beyond have.

So as you see, the diversity of demand is quite strong, and we're in a good spot to really -- by June, we'll really have a better understanding of which ones are coming back to us, but we're not waiting for that. We're being proactive and lining up replacements with very strong leasing spreads.

[Operator]

And the next question comes from Craig Mailman with Citi.

[Craig Mailman, Analyst at Citi Investment Research]

Conor or Glenn, maybe I want to follow up on that last point. You guys effectively raised guidance to $0.005 at the midpoint, despite having a drag from lease or fees. So it looks like effectively a $0.02 raise. Could you just walk through exactly what's driving that? Because the operating assumptions didn't look like they changed all that much.

[Glenn Cohen, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer at Kimco Realty]

Yes, sure. Again, it's really driven by the rent commencement. So we are a little bit ahead of plan, which is what's driving it. Also, the timing of investment activity and then the impact of what we looked at in terms of bankruptcy situation. So we are a little bit ahead of schedule from what we had budgeted. So we're comfortable with raising at that lower end of the range.

[Conor Flynn, Chief Executive Officer at Kimco Realty]

Yes. I think one of the big drivers, too, for us to get comfortable with raising the bottom end is the retention rate, as I mentioned earlier. That's really driving a significant amount of cash flow growth for us. And when you look at where we thought we'd be versus where we are today, we are ahead of schedule there.

[Operator]

And the next comes from Floris Van Dijkum with Compass Point.

[Floris van Dijkum, Analyst at Compass Point]

Great I've got a question, I guess, in 2 parts. Number one, I'd like maybe if you can walk us through the lower NOI margin and expense recovery for the quarter, and what was behind that? And how does that impact your views towards maybe fixed [indecipherable] or having a pure just on an inflation-adjusted basis, your recoveries struck?

And then the second part is in terms of Philadelphia, I noticed there was -- your Philadelphia portfolio is lagging quite a bit. I think something like 480 basis points in terms of occupancy relative to the rest of the portfolio. Just if you can give us maybe some more details behind that. And if that's specific to maybe potential redevelopments or some other opportunities? Or is that just market has been less good than some of the other ones?

[David Jamieson, Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer at Kimco Realty]

I'll take the second one first, and then I'll kick it over to the rest of the team to address the margin. As it relates to Philadelphia, it's just related to the Kohl's transaction, where we took back two of the Kohl's leases as part of that transaction in Q1, which we knew were already vacant. So that was the add there.

[Conor Flynn, Chief Executive Officer at Kimco Realty]

The rest of the Philadelphia portfolio is quite strong and actually trending at or above when you look at it from the whole portfolio.

[Kathleen Thayer, Senior Vice president at Kimco Realty]

And Floris, just on your NOI margin question and your expense recovery question. If you look at the NOI margins and you actually take a look at the credit loss that's in there and you pulled that out from both periods, your margins are more in line. So that's really the driver on that decrease that you're seeing on the page.

And then when it comes to the recoveries, there were some expenses that we front-loaded for the quarter. But when you look at where we're going to land for the year, we're still comfortable with that same-site NOI of 1% to 2%. So it will level out on the recovery side as the year goes on.

[Operator]

And the next question comes from Juan Sanabria with BMO Capital Markets.

[Juan Sanabria, Analyst at BMO Capital Markets]

Hi, good morning. Just hoping you could talk a little bit about the investment market, what asset values or cap rates you're seeing or what's being transacted. You had a couple of deals both on the buy and the sell side in the first quarter, and how that compares to the mezz lending opportunity that seems to be a growing opportunity set for you?

[Ross Cooper, President & Chief Investment Officer at Kimco Realty]

Sure. As I mentioned in the remarks, I mean, it is a little bit of a stalemate right now. So the transaction volumes are way down. you are seeing certain deals get done in the first quarter. We did see some transactions occur in the 5s, similar to pricing from last year, but they are fewer and farther between.

When you look at sort of the bid-ask spread, it's very deal specific. So as I mentioned, there are buyers that are still looking for higher cap rates and sellers that are holding firm because there's really not any sort of forced situation with lenders or cash flow situation or challenges. So from that perspective, we were successful in acquiring a free shopping centers from a joint venture partner that was looking for some liquidity.

So it's really just about staying opportunistic and ready with the capital, which we have. As it relates to the latest financing and our structured investment program, that is also something that we're obviously very focused on leading one transaction in the first quarter. But again, because there really hasn't been any forced sales or distressed situation as it relates to the lending community, they are a little bit more challenging in terms of sourcing right now. But having last conversations hanging around the hoop, and we're ready to move as soon as those opportunities present themselves.

[Conor Flynn, Chief Executive Officer at Kimco Realty]

So the only thing I would add is that we are seeing pretty significant capital formations for our product. I think for a period of time, certain folks are on the sidelines looking at open airs, specifically grocery-anchored shopping centers. And we're having a lot of inbound requests for dialogue to potentially have new capital at our call for investment purposes.

Obviously, we're sitting with a tremendous amount of cash today. So we're looking at the opportunity set internally, but it is nice to see a significant amount of capital formation for our product.

[Operator]

And the next question comes from Alexander Goldfarb with Piper Sandler.

[Alexander Goldfarb, Analyst at Piper Sandler & Co.]

Hey, good morning. So a question on the depth of demand across your portfolio. Would you say it's pretty evenly spread among anchor, junior anchor, small shop, et cetera and outparcel? Or is one area much deeper and actually more focused on which areas are sort of the lightest in backfill demand, and how you sort of get up if those are spots that you would expand or subdivide. I'm just trying to think about where the areas of the least amount of demand are in space across the portfolio

[David Jamieson, Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer at Kimco Realty]

Sure. Good question, Alex. So I'd say we're seeing pretty consistent demand across the square footage at this time. Historically, sort of that tweeners, 68,000, 69,000 square feet has historically been a little bit lighter than the smaller shops were from 1,000, 5,000, and then the anchor box is 10,000 and over.

But even in that category, we've seen great demand. A lot of people coming out of the malls, whether it be Sephora, and others that are looking to backfill that particular box category has really been a benefit. So we'll continue to push that.

As it relates to the anchor activity, less out the Kohl's impact for anchor boxes this quarter, we would have been up another 20 basis points from last quarter. So we would have been -- instead of 98 would have been a 98.2 [Phonetic]. So we continue to see that. And it goes back to an earlier point that there's just no new development supply that's coming online here in the coming years. And so these rare opportunities where you get availability in good locations, people are going to jump on those and stretch a little bit to make sure they secure it because they don't see anything else on the horizon, and they have to have that growth profile in their book.

[Conor Flynn, Chief Executive Officer at Kimco Realty]

The only thing I would add is that the retailers are getting less rigid on their square footage requirements. So when you look at the typical prototype, whether it's a small shop a mid-size box or an anchor box, typically, it's now opportunistic where they're looking at the space available versus their prototype and making it work, which obviously lends itself to our business. Because if you can backfill the entire space with 1 tenant, the capex load goes down dramatically, and that's what we're experiencing on the Bed Bath boxes.

[Operator]

And the next question comes from Samir Khanal with Evercore.

[Samir Khanal, Analyst at Evercore ISI]

Hey, good morning, everyone. Conor, can you talk about the shop leasing environment and how you think that will fare in this sort of this cycle. We've seen the bank failures here and that impacts the smaller tenants. So how are you thinking about credit environment for the shops as we go into a potential slowdown here?

[Conor Flynn, Chief Executive Officer at Kimco Realty]

The shop space, as you've seen with our occupancy growth, continue to be the bright spot. I mean it's really interesting. If you think about the diversity of demand and what's driving that, it's pretty remarkable. I think we're at a point in the retail evolution where the last mile or the closest retail destination to where you live and where you work has really adopted, I would say, a hybrid retail environment, where it's medical, it's services, it's essential goods and services. It's grocery, it's health and wellness, it's physical.

It really is interesting to see the diversity of demand driving that small shop growth opportunity for us. And I think when you look at the ingredients of where we see the demand drivers, I think it gives us a lot of confidence to say that with this portfolio, we can drive a higher small shop occupancy rate than we've ever experienced before. And again, it's because of that diversity of demand. Now it's going to be interesting if the economy really does get worse and there's a pullback. In some of the small shops that didn't make it through COVID, I would say we're still in a position where we're backfilling those locations with higher credit, better operators. And so I think we're starting from a higher quality, higher credit portfolio of small shops today.

[Operator]

And the next question comes from Haendel St. Juste with Mizuho.

[Haendel St. Juste, Analyst at Mizuho]

Hey, good morning. So Conor, I guess we understand the timing of bad debt is one of the factors that can play a key role, a swing factor in how core growth plays out here in the next year, too. But I was hoping you guys could talk a little bit about the cadence for same-store NOI growth this year. And then as you look ahead, given the snow-related occupancy visibility and the demand that you're seeing, what type of ballpark the same for NOI growth does that -- could that get you to for next year? I think most of us see this as a long-term 2%, 2.5% same for a long business. Curious if you think you can tap the long-term average next year.

[Conor Flynn, Chief Executive Officer at Kimco Realty]

Sure. Thanks for the question. And I think when you look at, again, the fundamentals of our business. Now there's going to be some lumpiness, obviously, quarter-to-quarter with the Bed Bath and maybe some of the other retailers that we're watching and how the auction process plays out, because that will really determine the lumpiness of how much NOI comes off-line. But I do believe, as I said earlier, that the fundamentals of our business are quite strong. And with virtually no new supply and very high retention rates, we should see: A, I think, a longer-term growth rate that's above the historical average; and we're also pushing for higher annual increases. When you look at these bumps we're getting on our small shops, they're higher today than they were the trailing 4 quarters. The same goes with our anchors. They're higher today than they were the trailing 4 quarters.

And if you look back multiple years, they have been trending higher. So that bodes well for obviously a fundamental re-rating of our growth rate going forward. But there's a lot of things that may or may not occur for that to happen. So it's hard to extrapolate what the future is going to hold. But where we stand today, we're very confident about the strategy we put in place. And executing on that strategy is showing up in the internal growth rate and the pricing power that we have today. In terms of the cadence of the same site, I'll turn it over to Glenn.

[Glenn Cohen, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer at Kimco Realty]

Yes. I mean I think if you look at the bad debt component to it, again, we're comping against bad debt income from last year for the current year. So when you look forward, you really have a more normalized -- or we expect to be a more normalized bad debt level.

So I think that, that part at least, should keep us in good shape to be able to grow the same-site NOI growth really organically from the rent bumps that Conor discussed.

[Operator]

And the next question comes from Anthony Powell with Barclays.

[Anthony Powell, Analyst at Barclays]

Hi, good morning. I guess question on percentage rent. I saw that ticked up to close to $6 million in the quarter. Is that a good run rate? And what's really driving the growth in that segment?

[Glenn Cohen, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer at Kimco Realty]

It's a great question. Look, some of it is timing. We've been very proactive on getting sales reports out to tenants, and the collections in the first quarter were higher than what we had originally budgeted. But some of those collections that came in were from tenants that we had budgeted to be in the second quarter.

So you'll see it start to dip down as we go through the year. So the first quarter was a little bit ahead of where the budget was.

[Operator]

And the next question comes from Caitlin Burrows with Goldman Sachs.

[Caitlin Burrows, Analyst at The Goldman Sachs Group]

Hi, good morning everyone. Maybe just a follow-up on the small shop side. I know there's a concern that small shop tenants may be more negatively impacted by tighter lending standards. So what are you hearing from them? Has there been any change in their ability to run their business?

And then at the same time, do you have a breakdown of what portion of the small shop tenants are actually small businesses versus larger national businesses that happen to operate in small space?

[David Jamieson, Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer at Kimco Realty]

Yes. It's a great question, and it's something that we're very closely monitoring because we would anticipate that they would be the ones that would be most impacted by the pullback of local and regional banks and their ability to lend.

Right now, we haven't seen a material impact on -- obviously, on the deal velocity, hence, our Q1 numbers and those businesses' ability to operate. But it's something that we're closely watching and monitoring through the course of this year to anticipate -- see if there's any cracks in the system. But right now, things are holding up pretty well.

[Conor Flynn, Chief Executive Officer at Kimco Realty]

And we do have a breakout in our investor presentation of the small shops that are really more local, versus really the national and regional players. And we are heavily weighted towards the national and regional players.

The only thing I would add is we have better communication than we've ever had with all of our retailers, primarily because of what the pandemic really forced a lot of us to do, which was, again, have constant dialogue with our retailer partners. And handling the PPP program as we did, gaining access to our small shops in the way we have, giving them the opportunity to access capital in times of need, I think we have very close ties now with our partners and our retailers that we believe will hopefully be able to weather this next storm.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] And our next question comes from Ki Bin Kim with Truist.

[Ki Bin Kim, Analyst at Truist Financial]

Thanks. Good morning. Two questions. First, I noticed that you guys started the development on Coulter Place. It looks like it's a preferred equity investment with the Bozzuto Group. I was just curious if you can provide some more color on the structure pricing. And if the income from that preferred equity investment is based on the dollars they put to work? Or is it kind of all upfront?

And second question, going back to Bed Bath & Beyond. I guess what is part of your -- the thinking in your budget? Are you assuming that they all eventually shut down, you get it back? Or also just curious about how that configures your budget.

[David Jamieson, Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer at Kimco Realty]

Sure. I'll take the first one on Coulter. So yes, the Coulter project is our first multifamily activation in our preferred equity structure. As for this up, you'll see that the gross start to yield for that investment will be approximately 5% to 6%, which is consistent with what you'd see historically as multifamily projects developing towards.

As a result of our preferred equity structure, though, we're able to contribute the land as well as our pursuit costs in a preferred yield, and then blended together with some additional contribution to common equity. We're able to achieve a yield that exceeds our current cost of capital, which makes it accretive to us and hit that low double-digit return that we're looking for. So right now, we're excited for Bozzuto is a wonderful partner, very, very qualified and established player in the business, and it's a great property. So it's a good first effort on this structure.

[Conor Flynn, Chief Executive Officer at Kimco Realty]

On the Bed Bath question, we are anticipating getting them all back. I think that's the better way to budget is to just not anticipate anything being sold in the auction process and having the associated downtime and leasing costs with each box. So I think that, again, is incorporated in our budget and our guidance.

[Operator]

And the next question comes from Greg McGinniss with Scotiabank.

[Greg McGinniss, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Two-parter here as well. First, Ross, apologies if I missed this, but could you discuss the cap rates achieved on the acquisitions and dispositions this quarter?

And then for the follow-up on cost of capital. Are you willing to use the low-cost Albertsons cash to offer lower cap rates to sellers and potentially get them off the sidelines? Or how are you thinking about your cost of capital and targeted investment yields?

[Ross Cooper, President & Chief Investment Officer at Kimco Realty]

Sure. I didn't mention that, but I'm happy to address it. The acquisition cap rate on the grocery income centers that we acquired in Southern California, we're funding right to around 6. And when you look at the spread on the dispositions, it was about 150 basis point spread. So that's really a year 1 cap rate.

What we're most focused on is what the growth profile of those assets are. You sign them up, compare it to each other. So we see outsized growth from the grocery-anchored center that we acquired, whereas the power centers that we sold would either be flat or even potentially moving negative. So that's really the focus. When thinking about recycling into growth, high-quality grocery-anchored centers versus the power centers that we sold.

In terms of the low cost of capital from the Albertsons, I mean, it's a great position to be in. Obviously, the hurdles are a little bit lower from the Albertsons capital that was achieving around a 2% dividend yield. Now that being said, really the balance for us between trying to move aggressively and put the capital to work, and being patient for opportunities that we expect will present themselves here in the back half of the year.

So we're not looking to necessarily overpay or set the market just to get people off the sidelines, but we can move very aggressively and quickly if opportunities present themselves that we really like. So it gives us a lot of flexibility with the liquidity position that we have.

[Operator]

And the next question comes from Ronald Kamdem with Morgan Stanley.

[Ronald Kamdem, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

Just one quick question and a follow-up. So the first is just on capital allocation priorities. Can you just remind me how you guys are thinking about stack ranking it? Is it sort of acquisitions in the fixed range? Is it some of the structured investments given tightening lending conditions? What sort of makes the most sense right now if you could sort of flick your wand, what would you ramp up on?

And then the follow-up question is sort of a related Bed Bath & Beyond question. But it seems like you guys are sort of ahead of that, 15% to 20% mark-to-market really interesting. But as we think about sort of what's coming down the line, what's coming next, Party City and things like that, can you just compare and contrast how you guys are thinking about that box size, mark-to-market demand? Anything would be sort of helpful so we can get a sense what that potentially could look like.

[Conor Flynn, Chief Executive Officer at Kimco Realty]

Sure. So on capital allocation priorities, 1, 2 and 3, we always say, are leasing, leasing, leasing. Now you start there. And obviously, the fundamentals of our business continue to shine. Followed by that, the highest return for us are these smaller redevelopments where we can activate parking lots and create a pad parcel or expand an existing shopping center. Those typically yield in the double-digit range. And so we like to activate those as many as possible.

We typically run in the range of $80 million to $90 million a year or so of those projects. And we're looking through the portfolio to try and generate more of those unique opportunities. After that, typically, it's a blend of the structured investment program as well as core opportunities, as well as the preferred equity and the mixed-use redevelopment quite potentially.

You look at the suite of opportunities there, and you try and make sure you blend to a cost of capital that obviously reflects where we are today. We are in a unique position where we have a lot of Albertsons capital to deploy. But as Ross mentioned, we're continuing to be patient there and look for those -- a fat pitch, a unique opportunity to really take advantage of dislocation. And we've done it before, and we'll do it again. We continue to think we're well positioned to be opportunistic there.

Sorry. Repeat the question of [indecipherable]. It was related to the other tenants coming down Party City and the air box size.

[David Jamieson, Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer at Kimco Realty]

Sure. Yes. Part, sorry -- Party City is in terms of bauxite to 14,000 square feet. Right now, we don't anticipate. None of them have been rejected. So we're in pretty good shape there. And then with Tuesday Morning and David's Bridal, Tuesday morning is similar in size, David's Bridal is a smaller nature, more in that under 10,000 square feet.

[Operator]

Thank you -- and that question comes from Linda Tsai with Jefferies.

[Linda Tsai, Analyst at Jefferies Financial Group]

Sorry if I missed it earlier, how much of your full year credit loss expectation of 75 to 125 basis points was realized in 1Q?

[Glenn Cohen, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer at Kimco Realty]

So the credit loss for the first quarter was around 95 basis points. Again, in line with where guidance is and it accounts for the impact of the Bed Baths that we had and Party City and some of David's Bridal.

[Operator]

And the next question comes from Craig Schmidt with Bank of America.

[Craig Schmidt, Analyst at Bank of America]

Looking at the operating goals for mixed use, I guess I was surprised that wasn't going to grow a little bit more from the 13% to 15% given the added multifamily resi units you're projecting. And then as you get past the 2025 goal, may you accelerate the mixed-use redevelopment? I mean you have a pretty extensive list of things you have that you're pursuing entitlements and future projects?

[Conor Flynn, Chief Executive Officer at Kimco Realty]

Yes. It's a good question, Craig. Obviously, we've ramped that program from virtually 0 to where it is today in the last 3 or 4 years. So we have seen continued growth in the mixed-use platform, and we like the fundamentals of really how they drive value to each other.

The retail really drives value to the residential and the apartments because of the amenity base that it provides and the apartments drive a lot of value to the retail because you have a built-in shopper base and the traffic patterns continue to uptick there.

So it is one that we'll continue to monitor. We did activate a pick this quarter, as you saw. We like the opportunity to activate using a capex-light structure. So again, it doesn't weigh down our growth opportunities. We have a select few that are still active right now on the ground lease that are going to be stabilizing later this year. The same goes for the Milton at Pentagon is about to open here. And we're excited about Suburban Square having a mixed-use component with the residential there.

We think we can really hopefully drive a lot of value there. Going forward, we'll continue to obviously hopefully press that goal of 15% from mixed-use and then reevaluate the next -- really the master plan for each asset and how much we can ramp that again, using a capex light structure where we can showcase the growth of the underlying portfolio and still create value for our shareholders longer term.

[Operator]

Thank you. And the next question comes from Alex [Phonetic] with Baird.

[Unidentified Participant, at Kimco Realty]

Hello, thank you for taking my questions. So a quick question on the plan to use the pretty big cash position that's been built up. Should we expect that large cash position and balance will be there throughout the year or at least until the potential special dividend? Or what's the plan there?

[Ross Cooper, President & Chief Investment Officer at Kimco Realty]

Yes. So the plan is really to be opportunistic. And again, we're going to be patient if the opportunity doesn't present itself, and we're very comfortable maintaining the cash position until it does. But in the interim, we're having lots of conversations with all of our JV partners, talking to a lot of brokers and owners that may need capital as the year progresses.

So to the extent that we can utilize that capital accretively, we're very comfortable doing so. Otherwise, we'll just wait for the right opportunity.

[Operator]

And the next question comes from Mike Mueller with JPMorgan.

[Mike Mueller, Analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co.]

Two quick ones here. First, how diversified is the pool of tenants that you're talking to for the Bed Bath releases? And then is it safe to say that you're largely finished with the Albertsons monetizations this year?

[Glenn Cohen, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer at Kimco Realty]

I'll do the Albertsons first. With both transactions that we did, one in March, one in April, we are done for the year those proceeds and the gains from them are about as much as we can do, including the special dividend that we receive relative to our gross income test. So we will hold on to the shares for the remainder of the year, and then look for further monetization in 2024.

[David Jamieson, Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer at Kimco Realty]

Yes. In terms of the diversity, it is a healthy and diverse pool. You have your usual suspects, obviously in the off-price category, grocery interest, furniture, fitness, entertainment uses. And then within each of those categories, you're getting a variety of names as well. So it's nice to see that type of diversity for these boxes.

[Conor Flynn, Chief Executive Officer at Kimco Realty]

Mike, one thing to keep in mind, too, is there are some -- with the off-price wars that are going on right now, and they have a lot of demand for new space, you could see some of them being very aggressive in the auction process because of the unique attributes of the Bed Bath leases, which would allow them to get into centers that they may previously not be allowed to because of use provisions. So it will be interesting to watch what happens there.

[Operator]

And the next question is a follow up from Linda Tsai with Jefferies.

[Linda Tsai, Analyst at Jefferies Financial Group]

Just a follow-up on the off-price wars. Are you seeing rental rate increases result from the officers competing with each other?

[David Jamieson, Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer at Kimco Realty]

Yes. I mean when you have more than 1 bidder at the table, it creates a competitive environment. So obviously, as a result of that, you can see some price increases on rents for boxes.

[Operator]

Okay. That is all the time we have for today's question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the floor back over to management for closing comments.

[David Bujnicki, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations & Strategy at Kimco Realty]

Thank you very much for joining the call today. Enjoy the rest of your day.

[Operator]

[Operator Closing Remarks]