American Assets Trust, Inc. (NYSE:AAT) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Abigail Rex: Sure. In the fourth quarter, concessions were minimal. What we saw was that our growth rate for San Diego were $32.24. Our net effective rents were $32.08. So when you look at that on a cost basis, it’s just a little under $200 per unit and we had 85-week leases in the fourth quarter. So a little bit of softening there in concessions that had to be offered in that fourth quarter. So moving forward into Q1, concessions have pretty much dropped. So we don’t — we’re not offering those right now and are just moving forward with gross rents.

Adam Kramer: Got it. That’s, great. And then just one more if I could. Just I think it’s a typical question I probably asked before. But just on capital allocation from here, kind of weighing development versus M&A, obviously you’ve been active in office the last few years office M&A. So maybe just kind of your thoughts there, I mean, I don’t know, if share buyback is something that would be on the table at a point, but we’ll love to just hear kind of the latest thoughts on capital deployment.

Bob Barton: Hi Adam, this is Bob. Yeah, in terms of capital allocation, I mean, right now, we’re just mined in the store. We’re always looking for opportunities. But right now we have not seen anything that makes economic sense. I know Ernest is looking at things daily. We all are. Steve is looking at the markets things are brought to him. I see things and you see things and Adam does as well. But when you run the economics of them, it just doesn’t make sense. And sometimes during the markets like this, it is sometimes in the best interest to just take care of what you got, keep it in pristine condition and push rents as much as you can. We’re big believers in the office sector. But every sector that we have, I mean look at the retail, look at the same-store growth before reserves, look at the leasing spreads on retail that are coming in.

What we have, we believe is gold. And we don’t want to make a bad acquisition, but having said that we also look at every opportunity that is presented to us. And if nothing else we learned from those opportunities that are presented.

Adam Kramer: That’s great. Thanks again, guys. I appreciate the time.

Bob Barton: Thanks Adam.

Operator: This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to, Adam Wyll, for any closing remarks.

Adam Wyll: Thanks again for all that have listened in today, and those that have been stakeholders along the way. We remain encouraged by our operating fundamentals, notwithstanding the challenging economic cycle and volatility in the capital markets today. But we’ll be prepared for any scenario to the best of our abilities. And we’ve been through many cycles before. And our properties, our platform, our balance sheet have successfully guided us through the ups and downs each time. So as Ernest would say if he were here, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” So we’re going to roll up our sleeves. And get back to work. I appreciate it.

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

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