Tony Malkin: I’m really welcome that question. If you take a look at the — I don’t have the deck in front of me Christina maybe you could cite the page, which shows how the Observatory has performed going back a very long period of time through all sorts of economic upheavals, the SARS epidemic, the obviously what happened with COVID new attractions opening, it’s really a solid performer. And candidly, we intend to continue to do what we do to continue to maintain and build the Empire State Building brand worldwide. It continues to do the great co-branding partnerships that we have. We just did a major one with Disney and Star Wars. We have another one that has a surprise that will come up very shortly which is all set to go.
And all of this is built towards. If you look at Slide 15 the steady performance over time of the Observatory through economic cycles and frankly to improve and enhance our performance in the midst of what has been more competition that again our NOI per cap powers over anybody else who reports.
Blaine Heck: Great. Thanks for that color, Tony. Second question, can you just talk about the expected cadence for same-store NOI throughout the year. Obviously, you guys had a great quarter with 12% in the first quarter, but kept guidance unchanged at negative 1% to positive 2%. Occupancy is expected to stay largely flat to modestly higher by the end of the year. I think you talked about some tougher comps, higher OpEx and some one-time items, but just hoping you can give a little bit more color on what the impact is from each of those on same-store NOI relative to the first quarter and how we might expect same-store to trend throughout the year? Thanks.
Steve Horn: Yes. With regard to same-store NOI you have it right. As far as looking at the comps for the first quarter of 2024 versus 2023. We had the creative buoyed by the lower confidence in 2023 due to the one-time items that I called out in my opening remarks. As far as the less cash rents from the short term rent commencement delays. We look through the remainder of the year, we expect those comps get much more difficult, because you have the one-time items that were positive from 2Q to 4Q start coming and compare against those. We called those out in our last earnings call on to highlight the materiality of those and the timing of that. So that’s all baked into our guidance. So we’ll expect to see that come in on and that’s really leading towards why there was no change in our in our guidance at this point in time.
Christina Chiu : Yes. And overall as mentioned in our earnings release, we assume continued positive revenue growth, and we still maintain 6% to 8% increase in OpEx. So all of that still holds. And Steve just highlighted the factors that drove an outsized 1Q.
Blaine Heck: Great. Thanks.
Operator: Thank you. Our next questions come from the line of Camille Bonnel with Bank of America. Please proceed with your question.
Camille Bonnel : Good morning. Tom, the team has had some clear success in leasing up your buildings around Penn Station, but there are one or two where it doesn’t seem to have gained much traction like 250 West 57th Street and 501 Seventh Avenue. Is there anything unique about the floor plates or how the space is being marketed? Just trying to get a sense of the level of interest you’re getting for these spaces.
Tom Durels : Well, specifically on 250 West 73 and 501 Seventh Avenue, it’s the submarket, the Columbus Circle submarket where 250 is located is a clear is not seeing the same level of activity we’ve seen in the other submarkets. And our 501 Seventh Avenue, we have had some good showings. We have one single full floor that is grateful for. It’s side core and very efficient. I think it’s at an attractive price point with great access to Penn Station. So I’m confident that, that space will move. But I think that aside from that, we’ve got good activity across the board, and that’s the pipeline I spoke to earlier, in which we’ve had really good momentum with ninth consecutive quarters of positive absorption.
Camille Bonnel : I appreciate the additional color there. And Tony called out the pickup in Observatory visitors this quarter. If you normalize for the timing of Easter, is this side of the business tracking in line or above your expectations for first quarter?
Tony Malkin : It’s — this is tracking in line with our expectations.
Camille Bonnel : Got it. I’m curious, since this business has moved to a reservations only model, do you have visibility on what demand looks like into the peak period or in the upcoming months?
Tony Malkin : The vast majority of reservations we receive do not extend that far out.
Camille Bonnel : Okay. Thank you for taking my questions.
Tony Malkin : Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. We have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the floor back over to Chairman and CEO, Anthony Malkin for closing remarks.
Tony Malkin : Again, we’re thrilled with this quarter. We’re thrilled with the continuation of our team points on the board. ESRT is the pure-play New York City REIT, and we have four diverse ways to play it, an office portfolio that is top of our tier and targets the deepest market segment, our observatory that continues to perform our high foot traffic everyday street retail and a growing multifamily platform. We have a future-ready portfolio and an opportunity balance sheet. We are confident in the company’s ability to execute on our goals and drive further growth for shareholders in 2024. Many thanks to our great team who work incredibly hard, and we have every confidence that we will continue to do a great job on behalf of stakeholders.
We thank you all for your participation in today’s call and look forward to the chance to meet with many of you at non-deal roadshows, conferences and property tours in the months ahead, including one we had planned for the fall in Europe. Until then, thank you very much for your interest, onward and upward.
Operator: Thank you. This does conclude today’s teleconference. You may disconnect at this time. Thank you for your participation, and enjoy the rest of your day.
