STAG Industrial, Inc. (NYSE:STAG) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Bill Crooker: Yes. We own another asset in San Diego which is close to there. We like the market. It’s just, for us, it’s always been entry price there. So this deal, in particular, was a 6.5 cap. And I think was 10% to 15% below market as well and that’s not included in the 6.5%. So for us, a good opportunity to get into that market. And as Mike said, the suite sizes we really like there and it meets the demand. So as those opportunities present themselves in this type of capital market environment, we’re going to execute on if we can.

Jason Belcher: Got it. And then just thinking about all the noise we’re hearing around larger tenants taking longer to make leasing decisions. Just can you help us think about how this affects your largely single-tenant portfolio. And do you think this dynamic could drive occupancy headwinds if it persists into ’24?

Bill Crooker: Yes. So our portfolio is 75% single tenant, 25% multi-tenant, way we underwrite our assets is if it’s a market that is smaller suite sizes, we make sure that our assets can break down if we need to. With that being said, larger assets next year, we have no assets rolling above 400,000 square feet. We have a few that are rolling above 300,000 square feet. But I think for the majority of those, we’ve already renewed them. So for us, our portfolio doesn’t really face those big-box headwinds next year. And again, as I said in my prepared remarks, our average suite size is less than 150,000 square feet. I think it’s 140-ish square feet.

Operator: Our next question comes from Samir Khanal with Evercore ISI.

Samir Khanal: I guess, Bill, on this market rent growth, the sort of high single digits kind of range you’re talking about now. Maybe expand on the demand that’s sort of driving that — is that a function of demand you’re seeing like near-shoring or on-shoring given your markets, maybe the low supply in your markets? I’m just trying to get a bit of a better understanding, given that it’s different from your peers.

Bill Crooker: Yes, it’s a good question. This year, the high single digits, it’s a little over 8% to get a little more specific on that. The demand is coming from a number of various industries 3PLs [ph] have been a big driver. We’ve seen e-commerce tenants continue to be a big driver with respect to nearshoring on-shoring, we’ve had some wins this year. I mentioned in the last call or the call before, our El Paso assets, we had significant demand when we put those assets out to market and we effectively doubled what we thought our asking rents were going to be on those assets. With respect to onshoring, we haven’t seen the direct demand impact our portfolio. But as we mentioned in our investor presentations, it certainly feels like it’s coming.

It’s just hard to measure the exact timing and the significance of the impact to market rent, the positive impact to market rent growth. And then what’s — how our market rent growth compares to our peers and part of it is the demand we just talked about as well as the limited supply. And when you look at the map and where supply is coming online, half of the supply is big box, not competing with our space and a lot of the other supply is in the top, call it, 10, 15 markets. So less supply with continued demand. And I think in the short to medium term, incremental demand from the onshoring.

Samir Khanal: Got it. And then I guess just as a follow-up. I’m sorry if I missed this but I know in the last quarter you talked about these development acquisition opportunities. It sounds like it’s pencils down for kind of the overall acquisition guidance. But I guess, what’s the case with those development acquisitions as well? What are the opportunities you’re seeing [ph].