Brixmor Property Group Inc. (NYSE:BRX) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Jim Taylor: Well. I think the – Brian to comment on this, but I think as I mentioned many times, we’re seeing that funnel of potential users continue to broaden really nicely and it includes medical users, it includes health and beauty, wellness and many other categories that are basically realizing that there is a real benefit in having a storefront presence near where the customer lives. One that’s convenient, one it gives them good visibility and frankly one that allows them to benefit from the other traffic daily needs that center generates. So we’re – we continue to be excited and impressed by the breadth of new users and it’s important to understand that just creates more competition, which allows us to drive more rate.

Brian Finnegan: Yes, Jim, you hit on it before us. I’d also add, this has become a really complementary use in our centers. If you think about the operators in the med tail space have been really active, they are often – I often have very strong credit profiles backed by large insurance companies, we signed two leases this quarter and Southeast Florida back buy, UnitedHealthcare, we’re seeing really good activity on the Dennis front. And then if you think about just the merchandising mix of our centers, right, chiropractic, massage, acupuncture that kind of wellness med-tail goes very well with fitness users with apparel operators that are selling fitness type apparel, so we think it’s very complementary. The other thing I would say is, we’ve been freeing a lot of those type of uses up in our centers, going our leases going-forward.

We do have some older leases and where you see that this has become kind of part of the normal tenant mix, is our national tenants where we have older leases where some of these users are restricted had been very accommodating to allowing them, because it does go with just another traffic driver into Jim’s point, just the range of users that are looking for space in the center. So overall, we’ve been pleased with what’s happening in that space and again, it’s just creating more competition for that space.

Operator: Our next question comes from Mike Mueller with JPMorgan. Please proceed.

Mike Mueller: Yes. Hi, I guess people always talk about the calendar shifting and things changing. And I’m just curious with this one that just happened. Are you seeing anything different in terms of the volume of product coming to-market or on the financing front, maybe the financing availability for smaller owners?

Jim Taylor: We do expect more product coming in-market, kind of alluded to it in terms of what we’re hearing in the pre pipelines of many of the brokers and others that represent these private owners. So we do expect it to be more back-end weighted, it takes a while for these processes to roll-through. But It’s really what we see driving the activity are two things. One, the tenant disruption, right? As private landlords may not have the capital or the leasing wherewithal to backfill some of these spaces, as well as refinance requirements. As these private owners can still get financing, but the interest-rate environment is much more different, which impacts their cash distributions to ownership. So we do expect those two underlying market forces to drive more product.

Operator: The next question comes from Tayo Okusanya with Credit Suisse. Please proceed.

Tayo Okusanya: Good morning, everyone. Going back to the question around the watch-list tenants and why you’re not specifically talking about any names? Could you talk about any particular retail categories where maybe on the margin, you may be expecting a little bit more activity versus last year?

Jim Taylor: Entertain us.

Tayo Okusanya: Regards to – sorry, that’s entertainment?

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