American Assets Trust, Inc. (NYSE:AAT) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Unidentified Analyst: This is Antara on for Todd Thomas. Just a quick one from me. Would you mind talking a little bit more about the office portfolio and just describe the leasing environment today? I know occupancy was down a bit further in the quarter, compared to 2Q. So, any sense on whether you’re seeing any stabilization in the near-term?

Ernest Rady: Steve?

Steve Center: We are on the rollover side, we’re down to 7% rolling through the end of 2024 and the suite size or the median suite size is 3,600 feet and 30% of that rollover is already in some form of discussion. We have really good new leasing activity. As I mentioned, we’ve got eight deals out for signature, one of which signed on Friday totaling 55,000 feet of which 52,000 feet is net absorption. And then we’ve got another nine deals in that we’re close to letter of intent on, two of which went to leases yesterday. And the remaining seven, the total of all that is 134,000 feet with about 90,000 feet plus of net absorption. So, we think that the attrition due to work from home or rightsizing is waning. And we think the net absorption from the activity we’ve got right now will outpace any further attrition. So, we think we’ve turned the corner.

Unidentified Analyst: Thank you.

Robert Barton: Net-net our office is well located. Steve has done a great job managing it and the amenitization is really working to our advantage. So, we’re hopeful. We’re certainly not as bad as the public opinion of office goes. I hope I’m wrong. Yes. Thank you for the question.

Unidentified Analyst : And specifically, could you touch on the assets in Portland and in the Bellevue submarkets that lost a little bit of outsized occupancy? What currently trends are there in those submarkets and how do you feel about recovery for those assets?

Steve Center: Starting with Bellevue, suburban Bellevue, first of all, Eastgate is where we experienced most of it and it’s not unexpected. When we bought the asset much of it was leased as commodity office space. We’re making good investments in that property. And the rent spreads that we’ve achieved thus far prove that theory up and we’re going to complete Phase 2 of that renovation mid next year. So, we think that asset will come on strong in 2024 and beyond. City Center Bellevue is actually doing really well. We just went to letter of intent yesterday on the two floors of that building, we’ve got another full floor in leases. So, the CBD is recovering right now and the suburbs follow. So, we think both our I-5 twenty [ph] quarter assets and the I-90 quarter asset, which is Eastgate will follow the recovery in the Central Business District.

Robert Barton: And in Portland.

Steve Center: Go ahead.

Ernest Rady: I’d say Eastgate is one of the best opportunities I’ve ever run across in my career. It’s just a fantastic piece of property. Go ahead Steve, sorry for interrupting.

Steve Center: No worries. And then in Portland, you know we’re doing well. We had a couple of full force come back in the Lloyd District, but we’ve got some good current leasing activity. We have three deals pending at the seven-ten building which we recently completed the renovation of. That will be two-thirds of that building if we close those leases. And then we’ve got some good new activity there. We’re just adding some additional amenities to Lloyd Center tower and we’re actually pretty encouraged by our activity relative to that market. And then downtown, the we have limited vacancy. We got one space back that the U.S. Marine Corps recruiting station, they closed that office. But we’ve got space rolling in 25 that we’ve got multiple suitors for.