Federal Realty Investment Trust Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
November 2, 2023

There are 11 speakers on the call.

Operator

Hello, and welcome to the Federal Realty Investment Trust Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen only mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Leah Brady, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us today for Federal Realty's 3rd quarter 2023 earnings conference call. Joining me on the call are Don Wood, Federal's Chief Executive Officer Jeff Burkus, President and Chief Operating Officer Dan Gee, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer John Sweetnam, Executive Vice President, Chief Investment Officer and Wendy Cyr, Executive Vice President, Eastern Region President as well as other members of our executive team that are here 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 within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward looking statements include any annualized or projected information as well as statements referring to expected or anticipated events or results, including guidance.

Speaker 1

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 And we can give no assurance that these expectations can be attained. The earnings release and supplemental reporting package that we issued Tonight, our annual report filed on Form 10 ks and other financial disclosure documents provide a more in-depth discussion of risk factors that may affect our financial condition And the results of operations. Given the number of participants on the call, we kindly ask that you limit yourself to one question during the Q and A portion of our call. If you have additional questions, please re queue. And with I will turn the call over to Don Wood to begin our discussion of our Q3 results.

Speaker 1

Don?

Speaker 2

Thanks, Leah, and good afternoon, everyone. It's a good time to own high quality retail centric real estate. Demand exceeds supply for the best stuff and this past quarter's results and in fact the whole year thus far has made that patently obvious. For the 3rd consecutive quarter, we signed comparable leases. In other words, 95% of all the deals done during the quarter.

Speaker 2

The only deals we exclude in our definition of comparable relate to ground up construction for over 500,000 square feet, 553,000 feet exact. For the 9 months of 2023, that's over 1,600,000 square feet of comparable deals, a mark we've never hit before. It's more than the 1st 9 months of 2022, which itself was a record and more than the 1st 9 months of 2021, which itself set a record. You can see it in the occupancy numbers too. While the Bed Bath closings were expected to ended, reduced occupancy in the quarter versus last year by 100 basis points, Our overall occupancy declined just 30 basis points on a lease basis and 50 basis points on an occupied basis.

Speaker 2

That says something about demand. If you dig deeper, small shop occupancy, the part of the business we hear the most consternation about, increased another 50 basis points to 90.7 percent on a lease basis and 80 basis points on an occupied basis. This trend has been a steady and powerful Trend for 2.5 years now. When you look at occupancy possibilities going forward, by looking at our past, it's reasonable to expect another 100 basis points of Small shop occupancy and another 2 50 basis points of anchor occupancy due largely to Bed Bath, Roughly 200 basis points overall in the coming 18 months to 2 years, pending of course on the extent of future bankruptcies that are not obvious to us today. I go through all this to really try to hammer home the obvious health of a business centered around leasing high quality retail centric properties In the first ring suburbs of America's greatest cities.

Speaker 2

While bottom line results are and will continue to be muted By the higher, but certainly historically reasonable cost of capital that's likely here to stay, rents will likely adjust upward over time to that reality, especially with tenants and in locations that are affluent. I hope that higher interest rates don't cloud investors' Appreciation of the strong underlying business fundamentals that exist today and likely tomorrow. So let's talk about rents. 100 comparable deals, which again represents 95% of the deals done this quarter, Certainly representative of the total company, 553,000 Square Feet, starting new rent of $34.51 Final year of old rent, dollars 31.17 That's plus 11% on a cash basis, 21% on a straight line basis. A weighted average lease term of 8.8 years excluding options.

Speaker 2

The average lease term with all options exercised is more like 16 years. The average CAGR of contractual rent bumps of this quarter's leases was 2.5%. TIs per foot So $31.19 when you don't consider this quarter's option exercises $16.67 per foot when you do. Been hearing that our rents are high for the better part of the last 20 years. I guess on a relative basis they are.

Speaker 2

Better properties have higher rents. Better properties have higher tenant sales and profitability too. Frankly, it's obvious. That sustained leasing volume and those economics bode well for the future, especially the contractual rent bumps. 3rd quarter results Benefit from that level of activity over the past 6 quarters.

Speaker 2

FFO per share of $1.65 in the 3rd quarter was ahead of consensus, was ahead of internal expectations and ahead of last year's Q3 by 4% despite far higher interest expense and loss net income. This is a really strong quarter for us. As you know, we're particularly active on the acquisition front during the COVID years of 2021 through 2022. In total, dollars 1,000,000,000 in new additions to the core portfolio during that time, whereby the post acquisition leasing continues to exceed the acquisition underwriting. Similarly, Leasing production in properties that have recently undergone redevelopment and or property improvement plans have also continued to outperform our expectations.

Speaker 2

We also expect that to continue. And while big new acquisitions have slowed given the higher cost of capital, note that in 2023, We've been able to invest over $120,000,000 at 8% with a blended IRR above 10. We did that through, number 1, the acquisition of our partners' 22% interest in Escondido Shopping Center Secondly, the acquisition of the fee in the portion of the Huntington Square Shopping Center that we didn't previously own. And number 3, in October, the fee under Mercer on 1 in Princeton, New Jersey, one of our best performing regional shopping centers over the last 20 years. Smart, accretive capital deployment of real estate very well known to us in each case.

Speaker 2

And as strong as the core shopping center business has been, the large mixed use properties have been even stronger. Retail leased occupancy at 97%, Residential leased occupancy at 98%, office leased occupancy at 97% excluding buildings under development. Powerful traffic counts and tenant sales make these properties the center of the communities in which they operate. They draw customers from distances far more than local neighborhood. And so as not to leave it out, as I mentioned on prior calls, our multi tenant leasing strategy at Santano West has generated meaningful tenant interest That has progressed to advanced lease negotiations with multiple tenants for more than half the building.

Speaker 2

While leases are not executed yet, Our progress here is noteworthy. Strength of our business is grounded in superior demographics, always has been, always will be. More density, higher incomes and real barriers to entry are always important in our business, but never more so than in uncertain times in the economy. Past cycles have proven this out time and time again. With 70,000 households with annual household incomes of over $150,000 Sitting within 3 miles of federal centers, there's simply no large open air portfolio available for the public investor to own than this one, not one.

Speaker 2

Naturally, we're all on the lookout for changes in the strength of the American consumer and their spending habits because as you know, it's remained surprisingly resilient. So we tried to dissect the limited tenant sales data that we have for the 2023 Q3 and compared it to the 2022 Q3. As expected for us, sales were up portfolio wide. Digging a little deeper, our properties with the highest average income surrounding them So quarter over quarter tenant sales that were significantly better than our properties with the lowest average incomes surrounding them. No surprise, but an indicator we're keeping our eyes on in the months and the year ahead.

Speaker 2

As I said upfront, it's a good time to own high quality retail centric real estate. Let me now turn it over to Dan before opening it up to your questions.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Don, and hello everyone. Another strong quarter of bottom line FFO growth despite higher interest costs. Even with the headwinds, stronger POI Driven almost 4% FFO growth both for the Q3 and 2023's 1st 9 months. The $1.65 per share beat consensus $0.03 and was $0.02 above the upper end of our guidance range. With respect to this continued strong performance, we can point to the following drivers.

Speaker 3

Higher property level POI than forecast driven by higher min rents as we got tenants open ahead of forecast And kept tenants in longer. Higher overage percentage rent in specialty leasing, higher Term fees than we forecast as well as lower property level expenses. Despite the offset of higher interest costs and higher G and A, as you can see, We had another very, very strong quarter. With respect to our comparable metric, POI growth was 3.8%. On a cash basis, comparable POI growth excluding term fees and prior period rent was also 3.8%.

Speaker 3

Year to date, through the 1st 9 months, cash basis comparable POI ex term fees and prior period rents Stands at 4.6 percent of the upper bound of our expectations and will result in an increase in 2023's outlook for that measure, which I will touch upon later. This helped contribute to an overall POI growth 7% For the Q3 and 7.5% year to date. Term fees in the comparable pool this quarter were up $2,400,000 versus $1,300,000 in the Q3 of last year. Prior period rent this quarter was down The $900,000 versus $1,700,000 in the Q3 of 2022, basically a wash of these two adjustments. Details for term fees and prior period rent for the quarter are disclosed in our 8 ks.

Speaker 3

Year over year occupancy showed continued progress With our overall occupied metric landing at 92.3% and our leased percentage at 94.0%. Both metrics meaningfully higher than we have forecasted due to strong leasing and our team's efforts to get tenants open and rent paid. Net of the negative 100 basis points occupancy impact from the Bed Bath departures during the quarter, our occupied metric grew by 50 basis points and our leased metric grew by 70 basis points. As a result, our signed not occupied percentage in total stands at over 2 50 basis points or $27,000,000 comprised of roughly $17,000,000 for incremental total rent in our existing portfolio with an additional $10,000,000 of total rent in our non comparable pool where leases are signed and the space is to be delivered. Let me emphasize the strong quarter of comparable retail leasing with 11% cash rollover And 21% rollover on a straight line basis, which was achieved with meaningfully less capital than we've historically seen.

Speaker 3

Despite having a significantly higher share of new leases signed during the quarter, which was largely caused due to mix, As last quarter, we had a high percentage of renewals. Tenant improvements and landlord work per square foot for these new leases came down meaningfully $41 per square foot and resulted in a blended $31 per square foot including renewals. Strong new leasing activity was evidenced by 61 new deals totaling 423,000 square feet Retail leasing representing 75 percent of the volume for the quarter with more than half of this leasing for space that was vacant at June 30, A big driver of the strong occupancy gains in the Q3 net of the Bed Bath departures. Historically, Federal's disclosed leasing volume, rollover and capital metrics have been reflective of arm's length negotiated transactions and therefore have not included option exercise. Options are one way for the tenant and they also do not have any In an effort to continuously improve our disclosure, we have expanded the retail leasing schedules And our 8 ks to include option exercise.

Speaker 3

We had a 100 and we had 482,000 square feet of options exercise this quarter, which incidentally had solid rollover of 9%, but more importantly bring our total reported capital number from $32 per square foot in total down to $17 per square foot when including these ops and exercise. This expanded disclosure can be found on Page 23 of the 8 ks supplement. And note that we have also highlighted what percentage of total leases signed each quarter are comparable. Our trailing 12 month average is 95% by number 97% by GLA, which we believe presents a more comprehensive picture for the investment community, particularly for rollover. Now to the balance sheet.

Speaker 3

At quarter end, we maintained $1,300,000,000 of total available liquidity Comprised of $1,200,000,000 available under our revolver and roughly $100,000,000 of cash. With respect to our leverage, Our net debt to EBITDA ratio held steady at 6 times and we continue to expect it to be back into the 5s for 2024. Our in process $750,000,000 pipeline of active redevelopments and expansions, A competitive advantage for Federal given its scale has only $180,000,000 to spend against our $1,300,000,000 of available liquidity With a large chunk of that remaining figure being leasing capital, which is good news when deployed. This pipeline should continue to drive incremental POI Into 2024, through 2025 and into 2026. Now on to guidance.

Speaker 3

We are increasing our forecast for FFO per share for 2023 up to a range of $6.50 $6.58 up from the previous range of $6.46 to $6.58 Guidance now reflects 2023 FFO growth Over 2022 of 3% to 4%, 3.5% at the midpoint. We have managed through retailer bankruptcies to date extremely well. And As I previously have discussed, we have relatively small exposure to expected near term retailer pullout. Our credit reserves will likely come in lower than the originally fully loaded 100 basis points to 135 basis points Range that we provided with a revised credit reserve at 85 basis points to 95 basis points. The DIP and occupancy we expected this quarter was much less than forecasted as 2 of

Speaker 2

our Buy Buy Baby locations

Speaker 3

and only 1 of our Christmas tree shop locations Went away and were assumed. Coupled with strong performance on accelerating rent commencements, The aforementioned strong leasing volumes for the quarter. From a comparable growth perspective, given a solid 1st 9 months, We are increasing

Speaker 4

the 2%

Speaker 3

to 4% comparable BOI growth range up to 2.75% to 3.75% And the 3% to 5% range for comparable POI growth adjusting for prior period rents and term fees to 3.75% So 4.75%. On a cash basis, adjusting for prior period rent term fees, we're increasing our 3% to 5% outlook up to 4% to 5%. Additionally, as discussed previously at length, we expect to continue to capitalize interest expense for Santana West for the balance of this year and through at least 2024 and have refined our G and A assumption down to $51,000,000 to $53,000,000 for the year. As always, we have provided an updated summary of the key assumptions for our guidance on Page 27 of our 8 ks. With respect to 2024, we will provide guidance in detail on our 2023 year end call in February.

Speaker 3

And with that, operator, please open up

Speaker 1

the line for questions.

Operator

Of course. We will now begin the question and answer session. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Today's first question comes from Alexander Goldfarb With Piper Sandler, please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Hey, good afternoon and I'll do my best to stick to the one question. Don, you guys sold, I realize it's small, but you sold one of your Third Street Promenade assets in Santa Monica. And I remember over the years that that's been sort of one of the highlights that retail has been a highlight for you. I guess things have changed. But Stepping back, are there other areas of the portfolio that used to hold maybe better opportunity And what's happened in the past few years is populations have shift.

Speaker 5

You're now reassessing. So we may see more sales of assets that Previously, we wouldn't have seen you guys sell.

Speaker 2

Thanks for the question, Alex. The answer is a hard no. Santa Monica Third Street is a really unique situation, frankly, in the country. We made a fortune on Third Street. And if I showed you the IRRs from when we owned it till when we sold that building and Frankly, the rest of it, they are really spectacular.

Speaker 2

But there is no doubt that COVID changed Third Street significantly. And yes, there's a downside on The Street. We're not believers in the ability to continue what we have. Now at a different basis, maybe that could make some sense again because it would be resetting starting again. Please don't take Third Street Promenade and extrapolate that to other assets within the portfolio.

Speaker 2

It's a unique one off.

Operator

The next question comes from Steve Sakwa with Evercore. Please go ahead.

Speaker 3

Yes, thanks. Good afternoon. Don, maybe just sticking on the transaction market and looking for opportunities. 1 of your, I guess, peers in the shopping center space is kind of pivoting and putting a fair number of assets on the market for sale. I'm just curious if any of those larger format assets might hold appeal to federal?

Speaker 2

From a sales perspective for us, Steve, the answer to that is not really. I mean, it's the same process that we would normally go through each year. As you know, you can always $100,000,000 $200,000,000 $300,000,000 sometimes of sales depending upon the marketplace and what it is. We don't have I don't see that For us at this point and including looking forward, I'm really happy frankly with the positioning that we have. On the other side in terms of buying, There's going to be a buying opportunity, Matt.

Speaker 2

I'm not sure if it's right now, to tell you the truth, hard to imagine with all the debt coming due and the situation The banks would be in, in the next year or 2 or 3, that there won't be some really nice opportunities that we see, but We'll stick to that time and see it then. Not today would be my answer.

Operator

The next question

Speaker 3

I was hoping you could talk a

Speaker 4

little bit about the Simonite occupied pipeline and the expectations for that NOI to come online And maybe the mix on the timing perspective between the developments, redevelopment slash the kind of normal course assets, Same store pool, if you could just give us a little color on the expectations for that. Thank you.

Speaker 3

Sure. I think that you'll see roughly about 10% of the aggregate number, the $27,000,000 coming in the 4th quarter. I think the balance of it largely will come out over the course of 2024. I don't think, I think it will be fairly front end loaded first half of the year, A little bit more weighted than the back half of the year and it will not be materially different in terms of kind of when it comes online, when you look at everything including The space coming online for the non comparable properties. So largely, call it 10% in the 4th quarter And then the balance in 2024.

Operator

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

Speaker 6

Hey, good evening. I got a 2 parter on guidance here. First is on the implied Q4 FFO per share guidance range, which at $0.59 to $1.67 feels a bit wider than usual. So what could take you to the top or bottom of that range? And with regards to development funding, you quite reasonably took equity funding out of guidance, but maintain disposition expectations.

Speaker 6

So how should we be thinking about funding development at year end and into 2024?

Speaker 3

Yes. Look, we narrowed the range, the implied range there. It is what it is, the $1.59 to $1.67 Is there I think, look, we did an exceptional job this quarter of getting rents started Faster than we expected. We're going to hope to do that again. We've been doing, I think, a good job of keeping tenants in place for longer.

Speaker 3

I think that we'll see occupancy growth in the Q4 given the significant amount of leasing that we had. I think that there's not going to be probably a little wide, The $159,000,000 you probably want to look in a few cents outside of the midpoint there, But I wouldn't read too much into that. I think part of it is Also, we'll see what happens with regards to, we're fine tuning our G and A for the remainder of the year. And I think one of the things that we did really well is We delivered Choice Hotels early, got it in before quarter end And that will be a nice recognition through the entire quarter relative to kind of what we had expected. And then obviously, I think you're going to see the headwinds of interest rates and who knows what happens through the balance of the last 2 months, but obviously we're facing higher interest And we'd expected and obviously the timing and what we do in terms of our refinancing, they dictate some of that.

Speaker 3

Funding development. And then with regards to funding development, we have an undrawn $1,200,000,000 Credit facility, we are continuing to look at in modest levels, Todd alluded to, Continuing to see if we can get some asset sales done. We're very, very well positioned I think from our perspective To be able to we only have $180,000,000 left on our development, remaining $750,000,000 development pipeline. $1,300,000,000 of liquidity at quarter end certainly positions us well over the next call it 5 quarters To get done what we need to get done.

Operator

The next question comes from Michael Goldsmith with UBS. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Good evening. Thanks a lot for taking my question. How does the updated credit reserve guidance Paired to historical levels and related to that on the tenant watch list, you continue to see strong momentum within the small Shop Spacer, does that represent a larger portion of the Tenet watch list than the anchor space? Thank you.

Speaker 3

Yes. With regards to the 85 to 95, Yes, that's kind of in line. We end up around about 100 basis points. So I think we did slightly better, better than historically, Meaningfully better because I think we had less impact from Bed Bath and Beyond than I think we originally had forecasted. But I think that that's been a positive result from us managing the portfolio over time.

Speaker 3

And with regards to the watch list, we just don't have much exposure to any of the names that people are worried about. Names like Rite Aid, Big Lots, Joann, Express represent a de minimis amount of our total rent exposure In the ballpark of about 25 basis points, it's really nothing. And so I think near term we feel pretty good about the watch list. We'll assess that for 2024 and we'll move forward as we get through our budgeting process Through the balance of this year.

Operator

The next question is from Dory Kestin with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

Speaker 7

Thanks. Good evening. You started the call with the expectation of 100 basis points of small shop And then $250,000,000 I believe for Anchor to be gained over the next 18 months to 2 years. Would you expect Your leasing spreads remain comparable to what you've seen of late also over that period?

Speaker 2

Yes. I think I would, Dory, it's a good question. We talk about it a lot and the notion of how to lease up, What tenants, the appropriate level of merchandising, what they will do to the rest of the shopping center, I mean, we are picky

Speaker 3

In terms of how we

Speaker 2

do that. And so the frankly, I think if you lease up too fast, you're probably leaving money on And so the notion of being able to get the right tenant and get paid for that, that's something that's really important to us. And Combine that with the credit, the type of credit of those small shop tenants, the guarantees that we get, We very rarely do something with a first time retailer. It's almost always with a regional player or someone that's got a number Of stores, we get the entire organization most of the time on the lease from a credit perspective. So for me, that's the key part of where we create the most value in the company.

Speaker 2

It is that small shop Stuff that works off of the anchors. And on the anchor leases, I can't empirically say this, but I believe that the terms of the anchor deals that we get Including the bumps that are in those leases and the strength of those leases, I think they're superior. I think they're some of the strongest leases That those tenants do. So it's not just about occupancy. It's about profitability And that balance is something we take really seriously.

Operator

The next question comes from Jeff Spector with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Speaker 2

Great. Thank you. Can you provide an update on any office lease progress at Once Antenna, including there was some news that maybe PwC was looking for a space there? Thank you. Oh, Jeff, Jeff, Jeff.

Speaker 2

No, I cannot name a tenant. Where are my comments? By the way, you just cost me $10 with Melissa. So I said if I made the comments that I made in here, which are real clear with respect to where we are, the deals we have, how Close we're getting, etcetera, but we don't have signed leases yet. I said if I made those comments in there, there wouldn't be a question about the same thing.

Speaker 2

But you are and you cost me $10 I'm going to $1,000,000,000 on that if you don't mind. That's really all I can say about that. You should be optimistic because we sure are In terms of the ability to keep moving forward, but no, I cannot name a sentence.

Operator

The next question is from Hongling Zhang with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Speaker 8

Yes. Hey, I guess a follow-up to the prior question. If we were to think about leasing at Santana West, if you were to get a tenant and would you fully would the capitalized interest So

Speaker 2

we burn off there or would it be a

Speaker 8

proportional amount? We

Speaker 3

expect to continue To capitalize interest in the balance of the year through 2024, as we deliver space to tenants, We would expect that we would be able to match up the reduction in capitalized interest with the rent starts. So that should be expected. Consistent with what we've discussed in the past, there's no changes And our expectation with regards to that number and that policy.

Operator

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

Speaker 2

Hi, there. This is Ravi Vaidyan on the line for Haendel. Hope you guys are doing well. What's your early read for 24 same store NOI. Some of your peers have articulated they expect next year's same store to be above average again.

Speaker 2

Can you talk about that a bit and the levers that you could possibly pull to achieve above average same store level for next year?

Speaker 3

Hey, look, I think as I said in my statement, we are going to give guidance for 2024 in detail On our call in February. With Restart's the same store, we will be growing POI next year. We've said that before. I'll confirm that here. But that's about what I'm prepared to say at this point.

Operator

The next question is from Anthony Powell with Barclays. Please go ahead.

Speaker 9

Hi, good evening. I guess a question on the residential piece of the business. Obviously, multifamily REITs had a pretty tough earnings season. So what are you seeing there in terms of Rents, renewal rates and whatnot and how should that perform in the next few quarters?

Speaker 2

Yes, you should be very positive about that. It's if you think about where our residential is, it's only in 4 places, 4 or 5 places and they're all at the mixed use properties. They have higher rents on in general because of where they are and the rent growth It's generally better because of where they are. We're seeing that particularly true at Assembly In just outside of Boston, we're seeing that equally true in Silicon Valley. And so when you kind of think about the particular Markets that we're in and you think of the cost of home prices and home price and mortgages that effectively go there, renting in At fully amenitized, great locations looks awfully good.

Speaker 2

And that's our business model. So I can't really talk generally About the residential world because I don't know it outside of these mixed use environments in our 4 big projects. I hope that's helpful. Be positive about it.

Operator

The next question comes from Linda Tsai with Jefferies. Please go ahead. Hi. It looks like your weighted average lease term moves around each quarter, but stays pretty consistent in the 6.5 to 7.5 years. I just wonder if there's any desire to drive lower lease terms to capture more upside given low retail supply?

Speaker 2

The only thing I would say to that is, it depends on the deal. And so when you're sitting there and not only when you get Strong starting rent, but you can get strong bumps in there, you want to lock that in. And that's a key part of what it is that we do. In terms of the 8.8 years this time versus 6.5 or 7.5, that's simply a matter of mix. Now there are certainly certain locations where certain things are happening with redevelopment or whatever else where we're purposely Trying to keep it a tighter and shorter period of time and we do stuff like that.

Speaker 2

But overall portfolio wide, yes, I really do Linda, I'd really love you to understand those and look hard at those contractual bumps because they're a real differentiator over the term of the lease.

Operator

The next question is a follow-up from Alexander Goldfarb with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Hey, thank you. Don, as we think about sort of the traditional items Tenant leases that they like, optionality on renewals, co tenancy, use restrictions. Are you starting to see the tenants Give on some of those as availability dwindles and they need there's less space actually at the anchor level. And if you have, can you give some tangible examples of where you've seen tenants make deals today, like the big sort of tough negotiating tenants, where they've made deals today that they wouldn't have made a few years ago Because of the dwindling availability?

Speaker 2

Good question, Alex. It really is. I'm going to turn it over to Wendy to make sure that you get the specifics.

Speaker 7

Alex, so I would say the answer is yes. Overall, we are seeing with the Really, especially from the better specialty brands, they're not able to find the kind of products that they're looking for. And so there is a big demand For some of our Bethesda Row and the Grove, for example, I was just talking to the leasing people for Bethesda Row and we We have a waiting list of 10 to 12 tenants that are trying to get into Bethesda Row in the right format. They'd like to join us. So When I'm hearing about waiting lists, yes, we're able to drive those terms a little bit better than we have before.

Speaker 7

We just it's pretty exciting. We just signed a deal with Bloomingdale's department store to go into the growth and just over 21,000 square feet, A great opportunity. I can't obviously get into the specifics of that deal, but I will tell you from the time we started the lease till we signed it, it was 40 days. So it was a clear desire on their part to get that deal done in a geographic area That we feel pretty strong will not only benefit them, but will benefit our shopping center.

Speaker 10

I would say, Alex, it's Jeff. Keep in mind that we're pretty tough on lease term and we're not necessarily Giving away a lot of the things that you're talking about to begin with. The leverage is definitely, as Wendy said, Shifting to Las Landlord in many respects, given the shortage of space and given our proclivity to be Tough on all terms of the lease, not just the financial terms. We're cutting good deals right now and we're cutting them with great tenants. Yes, really, really positive environment right now.

Operator

The next question is a follow-up from Juan Sanabria with BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Hi, thank you. Just going back to Michael's question from earlier in the call about the implied 4th quarter guide. Maybe Dan, could you provide a little bit of a bridge on the implied sequential deceleration, what those drivers are in FFO from the

Speaker 3

Yes. Look, I think that I think we're probably a little conservative candidly on some of the numbers there. I think we've had a good year, which could impact G and A, which could go up. Those are kind of I think the numbers a little bit of conservatism and probably a little bit of an increase G and A in the final quarter probably is what I

Operator

The next question comes from Nick Joseph with Citi. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Thanks. Yes, just curious kind of the plans and thoughts for Mercer Mall after acquiring the fee interest. I know potential expansion or conversion, so wondering on the timing there and kind of the current thoughts?

Speaker 10

Sure. Yes. Hey, Nick, let me answer the it's Jeff. Let me answer the first part of that question. I'm going to turn it over to Wendy, so she can walk you through some of the things that We've got going on at Mercer, but the acquisition of the fee, which happened in October, was something that we baked into the deal 20 years ago.

Speaker 10

So exercising that option today does not Have any bearing on what we would do with the property longer term. The plans that we have in place for Mercer right now are Yes, we would have progressed with or without that, but we've got a lot of great things going on at the property and it's been a great asset for us. So Wendy, you want to fill in some of the details?

Speaker 7

Sure. We've been working on rebranding the property. So it will be rebranded as Mercer on 1. That's kind of a catchy Feel to it. We are you'll be seeing signage going up on the pylon signs to execute on that Re merchandising and rebranding of the property.

Speaker 7

We have DSW who's going to be Leaner and meaner as they downsize and 2 new tenants coming in right next to them, plus we have backfilled the As you saw with Crate and Barrel, the portion of the Bed Bath and Beyond that we got, I think it was the end of last year. So a lot of exciting things going on at Mercer and a lot of investment in our part where we're able to drive those rents With a good demand in the market and get a return on that invested capital.

Speaker 3

Yes. And just remind folks that that The $55,000,000 investment at 8.7 percent yield. So kudos to the folks who embedded that 20 years ago to allow us to have this really great opportunity to invest capital at a property we own, I think And implied at a current cap rate on it significantly inside of the yield to acquire a portion of the fee under

Speaker 2

Yes, Nick, and I am going to chime in. I know it's a long answer to a simple question about an asset, but Mercer chose So much about kind of what we what's right down the middle of the plate for us. This is a big piece of land. This is a big piece of land that we were able to get control of. Jeff Scott did an amazing job, Frankly, 20 years ago.

Speaker 2

And there's you think about when you talk about us for the long term, we didn't take a chance on whether we were going to own the fee or not own the fee. We had it contractually done. So the timing is now. But if you looked at what happened to that income stream on such a big piece of land, There was so much that was done in that property that was not originally underwritten. It reminds me of things like Pembroke today.

Speaker 2

It reminds me of things like Grossmont Today, the things that we've been able to do that you can't quite underwrite, but because they are dominant community based centers that grew up on a large area, We want to

Speaker 3

keep it

Speaker 2

going. And with what's failing around it, and some of the challenges of the Inside mall space around it, it's looking stronger than ever.

Operator

The next question comes from Hongling Zhang with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Speaker 8

Yes. Hey, guys. I guess as I look at your redevelopment pipeline, Most of your redevelopment expansion projects are expected to stabilize by next year. When should we expect Due to start activating future projects in your pipeline?

Speaker 2

Yes. It's a great question and one that we spend a lot of time around here doing. Obviously, the higher cost of money Means a higher level of return threshold. And so really what it's about for us and this I think is different than most people We do have the ability to do, given the residential entitlements that we have, given the amount of redevelopment on retail properties with An additional residential component, that's something where you've got rates that change every year. You've got year leases.

Speaker 2

And so the notion of being able to get something started for a few years from now and having it move in is much more likely In that category than it is obviously when you're talking about some other piece of real estate. So you'll see more of those redevelopments retail redevelopments that we do on our existing properties That will continue and we'll start we'll pick up again next year. But you'll also see some of the larger stuff, I think, Later on next year with respect to particularly residential opportunities within the portfolio, places that we've already created That retail environment to be additive too.

Operator

At this time, I am showing no further questions. And this concludes our question and answer session. I would now like to hand the call back to Leah Brady for closing remarks.

Speaker 1

We look forward to seeing many of you in the next few weeks. Thanks for joining us today.

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.

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Earnings Conference Call
Federal Realty Investment Trust Q3 2023
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