Brixmor Property Group Inc. (NYSE:BRX) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Brian Finnegan: If you look at that business, Greg, it’s not exactly real estate dependent. I think they’re heavily dependent on how the scripts do in those markets. So I think that’s a big consideration as you look at Rite Aid versus some other businesses. Our understanding is they’re not going through a lease auction process like you saw with Bed Bath. They’re looking at marketing both the go forward business as well as a recapitalization of the existing plan. So as we look at it, we didn’t really think anything of it in terms of the strength of real estate, in fact, we’re happy we got them back, because we’re already seeing some great demand on those spaces out of the gate.

Greg McGinniss: All right. Thanks, guys.

James Taylor: Thank you.

Operator: Next question, Jeff Spector with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Jeffrey Spector: Great. Thank you. Good morning. A two-part question. Jim, if you can clarify your comment from the opening remarks on your latest same-store NOI guidance, I think, you lifted that to 3.5% to 4%. And what did you say about – what you could achieve in 2024? And then, I guess the second part would be as we start to focus on 2024, I guess, Angela, are there any one-time benefits or are there any benefits in 2023? We should be thinking about in our models for 2024 that may not reoccur. Thank you.

James Taylor: Jeff, I didn’t comment on specific guidance for 2024, but just look at the momentum that we continue to build and deliver. Look at that sign, but not commenced pipeline. Look at how much we’re commencing a quarter and how much we’re signing. We feel very confident in our ability to continue to outperform given not only that sign but not commenced pipeline, but also what we have in legal and LOI. So that activity continues. And all the while, we’re setting records as the spreads, we’re setting records as the rate, we’re being disciplined with capital. So we like how the plan sets us up to continue to outperform. And, it comes back to, Jeff, as you know, rent basis matters if you want to drive good fundamental growth.

And so, as Brian was alluding to as we’ve recaptured these bankrupt tenants, it’s given us a remarkable ability to bring in a better tenant at a better rent, not only drive growth through that, but drive better follow-on shop leasing. And you can see in our shop leasing, the occupancy records and the rate records that we’re setting. So we feel pretty confident in our ability to continue to outperform, but we’re not giving guidance yet. And I’ll let, Angela, answer the second half.

Angela Aman: Yeah. I mean, I think, Jim did a really good job of laying it out. And I tried to cover some of this in my preparatory remarks. I wouldn’t say that there’s anything sort of one-time or non-recurring in nature, but the things we really pointed to were, as Jim just highlighted, again, the sign but not commenced pool and how significant that is. Obviously, it’s a record high for the company right now, but it’s substantially larger than it was at the same time last year, and that provides a really good foundation for growth as we get into 2024. The things we did note are that the 2023 bankruptcies, obviously, have a continued impact in 2024 and I quantified that as about 50 basis points related to the space specifically associated with the 2023 bankruptcies.

2024, we do expect there’s going to be some ongoing tenant disruption and I mentioned that we’ll sort of quantify our expectations for 2024 bankruptcy on our February call when we provide full year guidance. The other thing I noted in my remarks is that revenue deemed uncollectible is detracting from growth in 2023, but not to the degree or the magnitude we had originally expected it to. We do – we are – our guidance for 2023 at this point is 40 to 60 basis points of total revenue, which is well below kind of the historical run rate of 75 to 110 basis points that we do think that that will be a negative contributor to growth as we get into 2024 just as we sort of revert to normalized levels nothing unusual occurring there, just a reverse into where we’ve been historically.