Armada Hoffler Properties, Inc. (NYSE:AHH) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Lou Haddad: Again, from a macro level, perhaps from a market-by-market level, we are in the highest growth market that, people continue to migrate to. And so the developers we are dealing with predominantly in Charlotte, Raleigh, Atlanta, Charleston are still seeing unprecedented growth. At some point, you would imagine that, that would change. But we continue to read the headlines about being 5 million housing units short, and particular in the markets that I was talking about. So, for now, it appears to still be office. And as you know, cap rates widened a bit on multifamily but not so much to dissuade people from executing on top quality sites.

Wes Golladay : And then maybe just one more big picture question for the portfolio. You’re going to, you kind of mentioned moving more to the southeast is maybe taking down leverage a little bit. How does this look maybe three years from now? Is it going to be a dramatic shift or is it just going to be at the margin 5% or 10% geographic allocation change and then leverage maybe down a half a turn or a turn? And how should we think over a multi-year view?

Lou Haddad: I’ll take the last part of that first, but I’d look for leverage to go down a between a half and a full turn. Basically, what we want to do is move the portfolio further south on an incremental basis. We love the properties that we own in Baltimore but we want to redeploy some of that capital down south. And so yeah, you’re probably looking at a 10% move maybe as much as 20%.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Peter Abramowitz from Jefferies.

Peter Abramowitz : You mentioned a tenant that is interested in about 40% of the office space at Southern Post. Just wanted to ask about overall demand for the rest of that space potentially kind of what you’re seeing on the ground there. How many prospects you have on, on sort of the overall office component there?

Lou Haddad: Yeah, it’s a pretty healthy prospect list. And now that the buildings are at a point where they can start to be toured, we’re seeing a lot of activity. We’ve got another lease for about 7,000 square feet. So, and then, as you know, the office — I’m sorry, the retail is almost completely spoken for at this point. We’re seeing good activity, Peter. It’s a small amount of office and a very hot sub-market with limited opportunities for any kind of space. So, we’re very excited about what Southern Post is going to do in terms of earnings in 2024.

Peter Abramowitz : And then more question on kind of the macro here. I guess since your last call, the possibility of kind of a soft landing and a quicker recovery has become the prevailing narrative. Any sense of, of how tenants are thinking in terms of their behavior on the office or retail side? Are you noticing any changes and them feeling more optimistic and more willing to take on more space? I guess, any impact you’re seeing? In terms of their decision making?

Lou Haddad: I haven’t seen a whole lot of difference. In terms of retail, that the sales have been off the charts. I don’t want to generalize too much, but I’d say the predominant amount of tenants in our facilities have well surpassed 2019 levels in terms of sales. And I think, the largest issue that that is facing them is staff. Everybody’s still hunting for staff. On the office side, as you might expect, a lot depends on what business you’re in. We’re heavily weighted to architecture and engineering as well as financial services. And those folks all seem to be pretty bullish. You remember earlier this year, we re-upped 250,000 square feet with Morgan Stanley on it for 12 more years at Baltimore. We continue to see T. Rowe Price, expanding into all of the space that they thought would be for additional growth, with their new layouts.