Alexander’s, Inc. (NYSE:ALX) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Anthony Paolone: And then if I can add one final one. Just on the Mart always find it a little tricky to adjust for taxes and some ins and outs there. Any way to give us a sense as to where sort of like run rate EBITDA per year is at that asset right now?

Michael Franco: Yes. I think, Andy, it’s probably in the low 60 or $60 million neighborhood right now, given the decline in occupancy. And over time, as we build that back up, we think that number will get back to $90 million to $100 million.

Operator: And our next question today comes from Julien Blouin with Goldman Sachs.

Julien Blouin: Glen, you mentioned the Microsoft sublease space at 555 California. Can you talk about your upcoming expirations at 555 Cal, looks like there’s over 50% ABR rolling through ’26, including 274,000 square in ’25. I guess just any sense you have on what those tenants are being, whether these tenants might downsize or give back space?

Glen Weiss: So as it relates to the rollover, the BofA lease, we have extended by 10 years. So that now goes to 35%. So I’m not sure if you’re counting that enough what you’re looking at. But otherwise, I would expect we are in formal negotiation with every tenant expiring between now and ’26 in paper. And I would expect success in our renewal program, as we’ve had historically with tenants.

Julien Blouin: And then I guess, given the comments around the bilateral as you’re looking at I guess, is your current plan to execute on your 350 Park put option given the accretiveness of redeployment in debt repayments in this higher interest rate environment?

Steven Roth: It’s premature to take that question — the transaction that we have on for gives us various options and optionality as it gives the counterparty various options and optionality. So those decisions are in the future.

Operator: And our next question today comes from Vikram Malhotra with Mizuho.

Vikram Malhotra: Just I wanted to clarify, maybe I misheard, did you give us sort of an update on the FFO kind of run rate or the full year FFO expectation? And just given all the moving pieces we’ve just talked about, do you mind just sort of giving us any larger moving buckets we should think about, whether it’s big expirations or other pieces as we model it to ’24?

Steven Roth: As you know, we don’t give guidance. And I think your question goes to guidance. So basically, that’s not a question that we’re going to be able to handle, sorry.

Vikram Malhotra: And then I guess just — you talked a lot about New York being back. And I just wanted to see if we can square that with you sort of — in prior cycles, you’ve always made money kind of at the bottom of the cycle, finding those interesting assets. And I’m just wondering given New York is back, debt markets are challenged, but where are we in sort of that time line or what milestones are you looking for in terms of finally putting capital to the work?

Steven Roth: The — my comment about New York is back was basically about the traffic, the tourism the activity level in the buildings and in the streets. With respect to opportunities to buy assets, that’s totally influenced buyback that interest rates have gone from, say, pick a number 4% to the number 8%. So if interest rates have doubled, then it’s pretty easy to predict that most assets, which have financing on them have probably had in value. So the action will be in the debt as it almost always is, which we’re looking at very carefully.

Operator: And our next question today comes from Nick Yulico with Scotiabank.

Nick Yulico: I was just hoping to get a feel for how capital interest burn off is going to work, the timing of that for PENN 1 and PENN 2 over the next 2 years?

Michael Franco: Nick, I’ll give you a general comment, are. But I think if we want to deal with specific probably better to put it offline. I think we’ve got the number will stay fairly constant this year. This year, I think it’s about a little over $40 million, probably goes down a little bit next year. And then I think it’s $25 million. The PENN 2 is done, a number of decline civically in 2025.

Nick Yulico: And then secondly, I just wanted to ask about the dividend and — it kind of sounds like your strategy right now at the Board’s strategy is to match the dividend to taxable income. And I guess I’m just wondering when you suspended the dividend earlier this year. I kind of feel like you have some potential asset sales in the work and maybe there could be a special dividend that was affecting the decision making. But I’m just trying to understand like going forward, how we should think about this? Why only pay a dividend that is matching taxable income?

Steven Roth: The policy of the company in this environment is to retain as much cash as we can. We think that that’s the preservation of our balance sheet is the number one priority. So basically, what we’re after is to pay a reasonable but may I use the word low dividend to preserve cash.

Operator: And our next question today comes from Ron Kamden with Morgan Stanley.

Ron Kamdem: Just starting with the cash flow statement. I just saw $62 million of cash from operations this quarter, which sort of surprised us. Maybe can you comment, is there sort of any one-timers with working capital or — just trying to figure out why sort of that cash conversion maybe dipped this quarter a little bit.

Michael Franco: Ron, we’ll have to come back to you on that. I don’t have the statement in front of me offhand, but there’s nothing in particular that jumps out from that, but we’ll come back to you on that.

Ron Kamdem: Great. Helpful. And then switching gears back to 1290 Avenue of the Americas, I think last quarter, you sort of mentioned that there was some activity. I think there was even a tenant interest, and it was close. Just wondering what was the update there? How is that progressing conversations going forward, pausing just on 1290 specifically?