City Office REIT, Inc. (NYSE:CIO) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Unidentified Analyst: Okay, great. And then, you know, you’ve highlighted some of the moving pieces on occupancy, there’s some known move outs and movements that may offset each other where occupancy could stay flat head into the rest of the year. As we look into ’24, and possibly what happened with Cascade Station, is there any kind of sense on where occupancy could trend heading into ’24?

Anthony Maretic: Yeah, so we’ll be giving our full guidance, obviously in February, but looking at where levels are today, Cascade Station is one that certainly has — we’re expecting some — there’s some known move outs there. If you exclude that property then we’re effectively expecting the guidance to come out pretty flat.

Unidentified Analyst: Okay, got it. And just one last one is, how are the conversations with some of the lender in order to extend out these loans? Was there a sort of fee that you’ve paid? What with that? And how do you feel confident about the some of the maturities that are coming up next year?

Anthony Maretic: Yeah, sure, I can answer that question. So in terms of the two deals that we completed during the quarter, the execution there was effectively not materially different than when we first did those loans seven years ago, 275 basis over normal kind of fee. There are pressures banks to charge more fees for which we can maybe expect going forward but there was nothing too unusual for that. If we look forward to 2024, beyond Cascade, Central Fairwinds is the next maturity and in June of 2024, that loan is with the exact same lender that we just executed those two extensions this quarter. So we have started discussions on that. We’ve done an appraisal as part of that process, and so I’m hopeful that we can get sort of similar execution on that one.

And then looking further out, the only other one, we have it on a property level loan is FRP and Genuity drive. That is at the end of December 2024. So we still have more than a year out. But nonetheless, we have started discussions on a possible extension of the maturity date. A little early to comment further, but I’m hoping to give an update next quarter on that one. And then the only comment I really want to make is that, we still do have two completely unencumbered properties Block 83, and Raleigh, which we acquired for $330 million in December 2021, as well as City Center in downtown St. Pete, that are also sources of additional liquidity if needed in the future.

Unidentified Analyst: Okay, got it. Thanks. Thanks for the time.

Anthony Maretic: Thank you. You’re welcome.

Operator: Thank you. [Operator Instructions]. Our next question today comes from Bill Crowe from Raymond James. Bill, your line is open. Please proceed.

William Crow: Great. Thank you. Good morning. Did you say you signed the lease with WeWork in Phoenix a year ago?

James Farrar: So no, that was acquired or signed before we acquired the property. WeWork opened that location, I think right before COVID. And so they closed it as soon as COVID happened. And they reopened it approximately one year ago. So it was back in that ramp up mode of building their occupancy.

William Crow: Perfect. Okay. Yeah, misunderstood. Broadly speaking, we still see tenants downsize renewals?

James Farrar: I think it really depends asset by asset Bill. So we’ve been in this almost four years, and so the average lease term in many of our markets is around five. In some of the newer buildings 7 to 10. So we’ve hit quite a few of the vacates or right sizing over the last few years. There’s still a number to go. And the big ones really are more in the suburban properties. I’d say the more urban assets, have a higher utilization, people are back and generally using it at a pretty high level. Those conversations, we’re not seeing as many of the downsizes in kind of big suburban locations, and I’m talking across the industry, where corporate America really hasn’t forced the workforce back en-mass. That’s where you’re seeing a lot more downsizing and vacating.