Vornado Realty Trust (NYSE:VNO) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Michael Franco: Camille I think the good news is we don’t have to do it today. Because it would be very, very difficult to line up construction, financing and very expensive. So with respect to 350 that project is not right yet. It’ll be right in two, three years. But it’s not right today. And so hopefully, the markets are more hospitable than we expect they will be. And I think the same goes with respect to PENN. Again we’re not, I think, Steve comment in last call, the market really is not conducive for new to film today, construction financing is very expensive, if available, which genuinely is not, as banks have pulled back. So I think it’s challenging and again, today it’s not the day, we have to line that up, but in the future the markets should settle down. And with respect to 350 we’ll put on a traditional construction loan at 50% to 60%, and the partners will fund the balance with equity. Most of our equity will come from our land contribution.

Steven Roth: So, we were pretty excited about 350 Park Avenue. Maybe even more importantly, Ken is even more excited about it. Our strategy, there is actually very simple. The land value, our land value will constitute our equity contribution. So our land value will represent the equity. We will not have to put in maybe another very tiny $10 million, $20 million, $30 million of cash to represent our share of the equity. The balance of it should be easily in a normalized market borrow will under a construction financing or permanent financing. The deal comes along with a very substantially sized anchor lease. And so everything is in place. Our land will be our equity and we have an anchor tenant. And so that will is very, very, I think very well conceived.

What’s more, our development teams and construction teams that are hard at work down in PENN will have completed PENN 1, PENN 2, Farley and we’ll swing right into 350 Park. Part of our arrangement is that we are immediately starting the design of the building actually, we’re probably halfway through it. And we are immediately starting the approval process so that in a relatively short period of time maybe not more than two years from now, we would be ready to do construction. But the cash requirements in any kind of a normal financing market are basically almost zero on our part. By the way, it’s going to be a great one.

Camille Bonnel: Yes, really appreciate all the details. 350 Park. Just for my follow up, you’ve done a great job in terming out your maturities, but your leverage on a net debt basis is about 10 times. So can you talk to how you’re thinking about leverage today? And where are your near to medium term targets?

Michael Franco: Our leverage is I think is characterized by a little bit lower than we characterized. Our goal over time is to have less leverage. I think, unfortunately, we don’t have any maturities this year we have a couple of small which are in process of being pushed out. But our preference is to have less leverage. And over time we think that’ll be accomplished through growing earnings, and unlikely some asset sales. So is that going to change in the next 24 months just given the environment? Probably not. But over time we foresee that happen.

Operator: Thank you. The next question is from Michael Griffin with Citi. Please go ahead.

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