Plymouth Industrial REIT, Inc. (NYSE:PLYM) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Jeff Witherell: Well, I think it’s more nuanced than that, Barry. Yes, we are seeing deals that, you know, the stock prices have been moving around a lot lately, but not in the too distant past. We have been at a point where we’ve seen a creative deals you know again we’re going to take a hard look at the real estate like we always do the CapEx needs and so on and so forth, so there are deals out there again very bifurcated market some markets we’re still seeing you know multiple bidders and negative leverage and other markets we’re seeing sellers not getting the price they’re looking for, and they’re taking it off the market. We’re also seeing desperate people out there. We have people that are stuck. They have to refinance. They’re not going to put in more equity and they’re going to take pretty much whatever’s out there. So for us it’s really just finding the right real estate as usual and making sure it’s accretive.

Barry Oxford: Right, okay…

Jeff Witherell: But the answer is there’s not a lot of product out there. Let’s — that’s very clear.

Barry Oxford: Yes, but it sounds like you’re waiting for the market to come to you.

Jeff Witherell: That is correct.

Barry Oxford: Yes. Jeff, on supply, are you seeing supply/deliveries seeping into your markets or maybe not as much as the national numbers would indicate?

Jeff Witherell: Well, I think you have to look at it sub-market by sub-market as opposed to just a market. I mean, if you take a market like Chicago, there’s 21 sub-markets in Chicago, okay?

Barry Oxford: Right.

Jeff Witherell: And then really, I think it’s not so much the market, it’s really the size of the building. You know, as Jim said, we have, you know, 70,000 square feet for lease and we have three or four proposals. You can talk to someone that has 800,000 square feet and no one’s been through the building in three months. So I think that’s really what it is. And that’s where all the building was, Barry, right? So as you go out and build new construction, it’s a lot cheaper, made a lot more sense a few years. You’ve got to go out and build million square foot buildings. That was all the rage. People were buying them unleashed at low cap rates, and I think that’s dried up significantly.

Barry Oxford: Right, right. Is that one of the reasons why you’re not interested in doing spec development at this particular juncture also?

Jeff Witherell: Yes, I mean, I think we’ve seen that tenants are taking longer to make decisions. They ultimately do make them, but there’s been a slowdown, so we’re not going to go out and put spec out in the marketplace. I don’t think it’s a smart move.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Mitch Germain with JMP Securities. Please go ahead.

Mitch Germain: Thanks for taking my question. The contractual renewals that Jim, you referenced, are those at market or are they at an agreed-upon level?

Jim Connolly: Agreed-upon level.

Mitch Germain: So that’s already baked into the leases, you know, at signing is kind of what you’re suggesting?

Jim Connolly: Correct. And the leases that we inherited, we don’t typically do that without leases.

Mitch Germain: Okay. That’s helpful. And then Anthony, I think you kind of mentioned the AIG Loan. Obviously it’s on the line now. You’re going to swap a portion of that. I’m assuming the swaps have flexibility for you to pay down without penalty. Is that the way that you’re structuring that?

Anthony Saladino: Yes. We’re going to have a multi-tranche structure across the notional amount so that we preserve flexibility to the extent that we continue to execute on select asset sales and look to further pay down outstanding debt.

Mitch Germain: Okay, but as we think about 2024, obviously we’ll have a little bit of a push higher in rate, because of the change from the composition of that debt from the AIG to the line. Is that the way to think about it?