Creative Media & Community Trust Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCT) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Creative Media & Community Trust Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCT) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript May 8, 2026

Operator: Good afternoon, and welcome to the Creative Media & Community Trust Corporation First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Steve Altebrando, Portfolio Oversight. Please go ahead.

Steve Altebrando: Hello everyone, and thank you for joining us. My name is Steve Altebrando, portfolio oversight for Creative Media & Community Trust Corporation. Also on the call today are David Thompson, our Chief Executive Officer, and Brandon Hill, our Chief Financial Officer. This call is being webcast and will be temporarily archived on the Investor section of our website, where you can also find our earnings release. Our earnings release includes a reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures discussed during today’s call. During this call, we will make forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs of, assumptions made by, and information currently available to us. Our actual results will be affected by known and unknown risks, trends, uncertainties, and other factors that are beyond our control or ability to predict.

Although we believe that our assumptions are reasonable, they are not guarantees of future performance, and some will prove to be incorrect. Therefore, our future results can be expected to differ from our expectations, and those differences may be material. For a more detailed description of potential risks, please refer to our SEC filings, which can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website. With that, I will turn the call over to David Thompson. Thanks.

David Thompson: Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I would like to begin with an update on the strategic plan we outlined on prior calls: strengthen our balance sheet, improve liquidity, and sharpen our focus on premier multifamily assets. We made meaningful progress against those priorities in the first quarter. Over the past several months, we have taken actions to position Creative Media & Community Trust Corporation for long-term stability and growth. During the quarter, we completed the redemption of $243 million of preferred stock into common stock. This was a transformational step for the company that significantly improved our balance sheet and will improve our funds from operations starting in 2026.

We expect the redemption to increase our FFO by approximately $16 million per year and return the company’s capital structure back in line with our long-term targets. Since first announcing our plan to strengthen our balance sheet and improve liquidity in September 2024, the company has redeemed $396 million of preferred stock into common stock. In parallel, we have also shifted our financing strategy toward an asset-based approach. We have completed financings on nine assets and have fully retired our recourse credit facility. As a result, we now operate with minimal recourse debt, significantly reducing risk and improving our flexibility. We also sold our lending division in January 2026. After accounting for debt repayment, transaction expenses, and other related items, this transaction yielded net cash proceeds to the company of approximately $31 million.

Q&A Session

In summary, we believe that we have restored the company to a position of financial health. With a stronger balance sheet, improved liquidity, and a more focused portfolio, we are now well positioned for growth. Going forward, our primary focus is on improving FFO in 2026 and 2027. We believe there are two key levers that will enable us to achieve this. First, we are focused on improving property-level performance across our portfolio. Second, we expect a substantial reduction in preferred dividend obligations. As a reminder, we completed the redemption near the end of the first quarter, so the impact of that action was only minimally reflected in our first quarter FFO. The full benefit of that redemption will begin in the second quarter. In addition, we are continuing to take proactive steps to further strengthen our financial profile.

We are actively working to extend debt maturities on a handful of assets, and at the same time, we will continue to evaluate selective asset sales where we see opportunities to unlock value, improve portfolio quality, or redeploy capital more efficiently. We believe that executing on these priorities is critical to reducing what we believe is a substantial gap between our current share price and the intrinsic value of the portfolio. To put that in perspective, on a cost basis, our undepreciated book value was approximately $147 per share at the end of the first quarter. We believe this highlights the underlying value of our assets and reinforces the opportunity ahead as we translate operational improvements and capital structure efficiencies into stronger financial performance.

Now turning to net operating income and trends for the first quarter. Starting with office, NOI declined approximately $0.6 million year-over-year. This was primarily driven by a one-time benefit in the prior-year period related to a tax appeal we won and which should not recur this year. Excluding our Oak Glen 2 office asset, our office lease percentage was approximately 85.7% at the end of the first quarter, representing a 470 basis point increase year-over-year. In our multifamily segment, performance was notably stronger. Excluding our joint venture properties, NOI increased 64% year-over-year. When including our JV properties, NOI increased modestly, primarily due to noncash changes in appraised values. Occupancy across the multifamily portfolio improved to 89.6% at quarter-end, an increase of 940 basis points compared to the prior year.

Importantly, after several very challenging years in Oakland, we are beginning to see early signs of recovery supported by improving fundamentals in that market. Turning to our hotel asset, NOI declined by approximately $0.7 million year-over-year. This was largely attributable to temporary factors, including renovation-related disruptions early in the quarter and an issue in one of the mechanical systems that temporarily removed a number of rooms from service in March. However, I am pleased to report that the renovation was substantially completed during the first quarter. Over the past two years, we have renovated all 505 guest rooms, along with the property’s common areas, positioning the asset for improved performance going forward. In summary, we continue to see encouraging operating trends across the multifamily portfolio as well as in our Los Angeles and Austin office assets and at the company’s hotel property in Sacramento.

With that, I will turn the call over to Steve to provide additional color on our refinancing activities and property-level performance. Thanks.

Steve Altebrando: The actions we have taken over the past several quarters have significantly improved our balance sheet and will strengthen our funds from operations. We are now well positioned to benefit from improving fundamentals, particularly in our multifamily assets in the Bay Area. Today, Creative Media & Community Trust Corporation owns 621 residential units across two premier Class A assets in the market. After several challenging years, we are beginning to see the recovery gain momentum, supported by a strengthening San Francisco residential market with demand increasingly bolstered by growth in AI-related employment and investment. At the end of the first quarter, our Oakland multifamily occupancy increased to 91.9%, representing an improvement of 860 basis points compared to the end of the first quarter last year.

In addition, we are also seeing concessions ease in the market, particularly at our 1150 Clay asset. More broadly, in the adjacent Downtown San Francisco market, multifamily fundamentals have rebounded significantly. In 2025, rent growth reached 7.6%, the highest growth rate in 25 years, followed by an additional 7% increase in 2026. Vacancy has declined to 4.3%, the lowest level in nearly 20 years. In Oakland, we are also seeing encouraging signs of recovery. Vacancy has declined to 7.8% at the end of the first quarter, down from a peak of approximately 18% in 2021. Importantly, rent growth turned positive in 2025 after three consecutive years of decline and increased by 2.9% in 2026. Turning to Los Angeles, we have made solid progress across our two new LA multifamily assets.

At 701 South Hudson, our partial conversion of office to residential is now 88.2% occupied. As we mentioned on our last call, we received entitlements in 2026 to build an additional 50 units on the back surface lot of the property. We are currently working on predevelopment and anticipate having the option to start that project later this year. At 1915 Park, our ground-up development in Echo Park, we achieved 52.8% leased at quarter-end. This 36-unit project delivered in the fourth quarter is located in a highly desirable, walkable submarket with significant dining and entertainment options. The development is a joint venture with an international pension fund and was built on land adjacent to our office property at 1910 West Sunset. Including our joint ventures, we now have five operating multifamily assets.

Turning to the office segment, we executed approximately 20.162 thousand square feet of leases in the first quarter and continue to see an active pipeline of activity, particularly in LA and Austin. Excluding the company’s one Oakland office asset, our lease percentage stood at 85.7% at the end of the first quarter, representing an improvement of 470 basis points year-over-year. At 11600 Wilshire Boulevard, we recently commenced a renovation program focused on several small suites. We believe this targeted investment will enhance leasing activity and tenant demand. This project is expected to be completed over the next few months. Finally, in our hotel segment, we have substantially completed the renovation of the property’s public spaces, following the full renovation of all 505 guest rooms.

This marks the first comprehensive renovation of the property since its acquisition in 2008 and positions the hotel well for improved performance in 2026 and beyond. We are also evaluating an opportunity to add eight new guest rooms by converting currently underutilized space, which we believe would be highly accretive. Turning to financing, we are actively engaged in three initiatives. At the Sheraton Grand, with the renovation now substantially complete, we believe there is an opportunity to both increase the loan balance and reduce the borrowing spread. At 1150 Clay, we are in active discussions with the lender and anticipate securing a one-year extension on the mortgage as we continue to work to improve the asset’s NOI. Finally, at our Oakland office property, we are seeking an extension of the loan maturity.

However, we cannot guarantee we will reach an agreement with the lender. For context, in 2025, this asset generated $0.8 million of cash flow after debt service. With that, I will turn the call over to Brandon.

Brandon Hill: Thank you, Steve. Good afternoon. I am going to spend a few minutes going over the comparative financial highlights for 2026 versus 2025, starting with our segment NOI, which was $9.8 million in 2026 compared to $11.8 million in the prior-year comparable period. Broken down by segment, the decrease of approximately $1.9 million was driven by decreases of $0.728 million from our hotel property, $0.602 million from our office properties, and $0.59 million from our lending business. Our hotel segment NOI for Q1 2026 was $4 million versus $4.7 million in Q1 2025. This decrease was largely attributable to temporary factors, including a renovation-related disruption early in the quarter and an issue in one of the mechanical systems that temporarily removed a number of rooms from service in March.

Our office segment NOI for Q1 2026 was $6.5 million versus $7.1 million in Q1 2025. The decrease was primarily driven by a decrease in tenant reimbursement revenue at an office property in Oakland, California, and an increase in real estate tax expense at an office property in Beverly Hills, California, driven by a tax refund recorded in the prior-year period. In January 2026, we completed the sale of our lending business, First Western, for a purchase price of approximately $44.9 million. As the lending segment activity was de minimis during the period it remained under our ownership during Q1 2026, related amounts were excluded from segment-level activity. Our lending division NOI was $0.59 million in the prior-year period. Our multifamily segment net operating loss of $113,000 remained fairly consistent compared to the prior-year comparable period.

Below the segment NOI line, we had an increase in depreciation and amortization expense of $1.2 million, primarily due to an increase in tenant improvement amortization at an office property located in Beverly Hills, California, as well as an increase at our hotel property due to renovation projects that have increased depreciable assets. We also had an increase in loss on early extinguishment of debt of $0.705 million, which was incurred in connection with the full payoff of our lending division revolving credit facility during 2026. These were partially offset by a gain on sale of $1.7 million as a result of our sale of First Western during Q1 2026. Our FFO was negative $28.8 million, or negative $58.47 per diluted share, compared to negative $5.4 million, or negative $900.83 per diluted share in the prior-year comparable period.

The decrease in our FFO was primarily driven by an increase in preferred stock dividends of $21.9 million, a decrease of approximately $1.9 million in total segment NOI, and an increase of $0.705 million in loss on early extinguishment of debt, partially offset by a decrease of $1.3 million in redeemable preferred stock dividends. Our core FFO was negative $5.9 million, or negative $11.89 per diluted share, compared to negative $5.1 million, or negative $846.5 per diluted share, in the prior-year comparable period. This decrease in core FFO is attributable to the previously discussed changes in FFO, while not impacted by the increase in loss on early extinguishment of debt or the increase in redeemable preferred stock redemptions, as these are excluded from our core FFO calculation.

With that, we can open the line for questions.

Operator: We will now open the call for questions. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. Showing no questions, this concludes our question and answer session. And the conference has also now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.