Cousins Properties - Q1 2024

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Cousins Properties first quarter conference call. At this time, all lines in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on Friday, April 26, 2024. I would now like to turn the conference over to Pamela Roper, General Counsel. Please go ahead.

Pamela Roper (General Counsel)

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to Cousins Properties first quarter earnings conference call. With me today are Colin Connolly, our President and Chief Executive Officer, Richard Hickson, our Executive Vice President of Operations, and Gregg Adzema, our Chief Financial Officer. The press release and supplemental package were distributed yesterday afternoon, as well as furnished on Form 8-K. In the supplemental package, the company has reconciled all non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures in accordance with Reg G requirements. If you did not receive a copy, these documents are available through the quarterly disclosures and supplemental SEC information links on the investor relations page of our website, cousins.com.

Please be aware that certain matters discussed today may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws, and actual results may differ materially from these statements due to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors, including the risk factors set forth in our annual report on Form 10-K and our other SEC filings. The company does not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. The full declaration regarding forward-looking statements is available in the supplemental package posted yesterday, and a detailed discussion of some potential risks is contained in our filings with the SEC. With that, I'll turn the call over to Colin Connolly.

Colin Connolly (President and CEO)

Thank you, Pam, and good morning, everyone. We had a strong start to 2024 at Cousins. To summarize, we delivered $0.65 per share in FFO, which beat Street consensus, and we raised our full year guidance. We reported same-property net operating income growth of 6.6%. We leased 404,000 sq ft with a positive cash rent roll-up of 5.3%. This marks our 40th consecutive quarter with a positive cash rent roll-up. We ended the quarter with net debt to EBITDA of 5.25x, which is among the lowest in the office sector. Importantly, as Gregg will mention in more detail, we received a BBB debt rating from S&P and a Baa2 debt rating from Moody's. Both are solid investment-grade ratings that significantly enhance our access to capital and financial flexibility.

These achievements highlight the strength and resiliency of our leading Sun Belt lifestyle office portfolio and best-in-class balance sheet. Before discussing our priorities at Cousins, I will start with a few observations on market fundamentals. First, the return to work and lifestyle office properties continues to accelerate. Many employers continue to require greater office attendance. Since just last quarter, UPS, NCR, and Truist have all announced a five-day-a-week in-office policy here in Atlanta. More are likely to come. As a result, our parking garages are filling up and demand for our space is increasing. Second, there remains little customer or capital demand for the oldest CBD towers or suburban commodity properties. As a result, office vacancy is highly concentrated in a small subset of buildings. According to JLL, just 30% of office buildings comprise more than 90% of the overall vacancy across the country.

These properties will stagnate until they are repriced and then either repurposed or torn down. The process has already begun. Third, new supply is shutting in. The math for new development just does not work in today's higher cost and higher interest rate environment. Not surprising, groundbreakings have fallen to all-time lows. As a result, the overall inventory of office buildings in the United States is contracting, just as leasing begins to improve. Much like the retail sector last decade, market forces are rebalancing the office market in real time, and there will be divergent outcomes. Lifestyle office will thrive with improving demand and reduced competition, while the lowest quality commodity office disappears. Turning to the capital markets, asset level debt and equity for office remains limited and expensive. As a result, the investment sales market is soft. Conversely, the public markets show signs of improvement.

Liquidity has grown and spreads have tightened, especially in the unsecured debt market. We hope this is a positive early indicator. Cousins remains very well positioned as the cycle improves. Today, we own the premier lifestyle office portfolio in the Sun Belt. Our lease expirations through 2025 are among the lowest in the office sector. Our balance sheet is undoubtedly the best in class. Our strategy has proved resilient, even amid the disruption from the COVID pandemic and the impact of higher interest rates. Strategically, our team remains focused on driving earnings growth through leasing and investments while enhancing our geographic diversification, mitigating future large lease expirations, and maintaining our financial strength. Let me highlight a few of our key priorities. First, we intend to drive occupancy back to stabilized levels in the intermediate term.

As you know, the office business can be lumpy, so this metric can bounce around from quarter to quarter due to a large move-out or a large commencement. The Bank of America expiration in Charlotte next year is an example of this. However, on a multi-year basis, we are optimistic that we can return occupancy in our portfolio back to normalized levels. The return to office, Sun Belt migration, flight to quality, and the flight to capital are all secular trends that will support our efforts. We have multiple competitive advantages, and we plan to grow market share. Second, we intend to allocate capital thoughtfully and accretively on a stabilized basis. We have a track record of identifying creative investment opportunities and funding them with the most efficient sources of capital: debt, equity, property sales, and JVs.

As I mentioned earlier, liquidity and pricing is more advantageous in the public market today relative to private financing. This creates a compelling environment for a REIT like Cousins. Near term, acquisitions appear more likely than development. We will remain focused on Sun Belt properties that are or can be repositioned into lifestyle office. We are in active discussions with several owners and lenders, and are evaluating opportunities across the capital stack. Medium and longer term, the development of market-leading lifestyle office and mixed-use projects will remain a key part of our growth strategy. Our development and redevelopment projects will be meaningful contributors over the next few years and highlight the value of our development platform. In closing, there are many competing forces in today's market. However, we built Cousins to thrive during all economic cycles, and today, we are in a strong position relative to other office companies.

We are in the right Sun Belt markets. We own a trophy lifestyle portfolio with modest near-term lease expirations. We have a fortress balance sheet with minimal near-term debt maturities and great access to capital, and we have a well-covered dividend. I believe we have a unique opportunity and optionality in front of us. Before turning the call over to Richard, I want to thank our employees at Cousins, who provide excellent service to our customers. Their dedication, resiliency, consistency, and hard work continue to propel us forward. Thank you. Richard?

Richard Hickson (EVP of Operations)

Thanks, Colin. Good morning, everyone. Our operations team had a fantastic start to the year, delivering another great quarter. Before walking through our operating results, I want to provide an update on WeWork. As a reminder, we have four WeWork locations totaling 169,000 sq ft in Atlanta and Charlotte, representing 1.1% of our annualized rent. Our expected outcome at each of the locations remains substantially unchanged. At this point, we have completed a modification of our WeWork lease at Terminus in Atlanta, which reduced the location size by 1/3, or 24,000 sq ft, and restructured the rent obligation. We are actively working to do substantially the same thing at 120 West Trinity in Atlanta, where we are 20% owner, and expect to complete that modification shortly.

At our 46,000 sq ft location at 725 Ponce in Atlanta, we are still electing not to negotiate with WeWork and anticipate the lease will be rejected. Interest in that space from traditional office users remains strong. Last, we still expect WeWork will assume The RailYard lease in Charlotte without modification. As a reminder, we have meaningful letters of credit supporting the leases at both 725 Ponce and 120 West Trinity. Now on to our results. For the first quarter, our total office portfolio weighted average occupancy and end-of-period lease percentages were 88.4% and 90.8% respectively. Our lease percentage was essentially unchanged relative to last quarter, and our occupancy increased by 80 basis points. The occupancy increase was driven largely by the commencement of Apache's expansion premises at Briarlake Plaza in Houston.

Looking forward, with WeWork's give back spaces soon to be fully vacated and the recent long-expected move-out of NASCAR at 550 South in Charlotte, we expect occupancy to move slightly lower in the second quarter. However, with our favorable 2024 lease expiration profile and over 500,000 sq ft of signed new and expansion leases set to commence during the balance of this year, we expect occupancy to remain relatively flat in the second half of the year. Importantly, we are projecting our occupancy to end the year higher than at year-end 2023. During the first quarter, our team completed 37 office leases totaling 404,000 sq ft, with a weighted average lease term of 7.1 years.

I'm very encouraged that this quarter represented our highest level of signed activity in a first quarter since 2020. Further, 25 of our completed leases this quarter were new and expansion leases, representing a solid 71% of our activity on a square footage basis. I would also note that expansion activity alone accounted for an impressive 24% of our total activity. We believe this highlights a broader market dynamic that companies appear increasingly confident in expanding their office presence.... This quarter, among the customers that renewed or expanded with us, we recorded a collective net expansion of 95,000 sq ft, and this included eight unique expansions and only one contraction. With regard to lease economics, second generation cash rents increased yet again in the first quarter by a healthy 5.3%.

Our average net rent this quarter came in at $36.06, the third highest quarterly level in our company's history. This quarter, average leasing concessions, defined as the sum of free rent and tenant improvements, were $9.25, which were higher than what we posted in 2023. Despite that, our average net effective rent this quarter came in at $24.20, essentially in line with our full year 2023 results. For some perspective, our average net effective rent in 2023 was the highest in our history, with the exception of only 2021, which included the full building lease for Domain 9.

At the market level, our Neuhoff mixed-use development in Nashville once again contributed to quarterly activity, where we completed a 31,000 sq ft office lease with a leading law firm. We are also in lease negotiations with two additional office users, both strong names in the professional services sector, totaling 51,000 sq ft. We continue to be encouraged by the leasing pipeline at Neuhoff and the project's unique competitive position in the national market. In Atlanta, the team signed 229,000 sq ft of leasing this quarter, which included some important expansions. Notably, we completed an early renewal and expansion of Workday at our newly redeveloped 3350 Peachtree, with Workday more than doubling in size to 113,000 sq ft. This represents an important validation of Atlanta, and specifically Buckhead, as a top place to attract and retain great talent.

At Promenade Tower in Midtown, also newly redeveloped, we were thrilled to complete a 23,000 sq ft expansion of Deloitte, increasing their footprint by nearly 25%. In Charlotte, we signed a 31,000 sq ft of leasing in the quarter, all at our Fifth Third Center building in Uptown. As a reminder, Bank of America occupies 317,000 sq ft at that building and has shared that they would prefer to locate Charlotte corporate employees in properties owned by the bank where possible. Based on that, we view the bank as a probable move-out at their expiration in July of 2025. Fifth Third Center has timeless architecture, a great presence directly on Tryon Street in Uptown, and excellent access and parking.

As a complement to those strengths, we are moving forward with plans to reenergize this property with amenities and upgrades similar to those we have successfully completed at projects across our Sun Belt portfolio. Feedback in the market regarding our redevelopment plans has been very positive, and we are excited about what the future holds for this project. Our Phoenix team completed 66,000 sq ft of leasing this quarter, including a 34,000 sq ft new lease with Pulte Homes at Tempe Gateway. Once again, a great example of strong demand for well-amenitized and newly redeveloped lifestyle office space. This demand only increases our excitement around the redevelopment of our Hayden Ferry project, also in Tempe.

This redevelopment is now well underway and includes a total transformation of the entire exterior hardscape and landscape, two of the three building lobbies and amenities, and also the addition of a new standalone restaurant. Interest in Hayden Ferry overall continues to be strong, but especially in the 200,000 sq ft availability at Hayden Ferry One, created by the departure of SVB Financial. Overall, our leasing pipeline continues to be healthy, and we are encouraged by the trends we are seeing as the year has progressed. The early-stage leasing pipeline, namely initial inquiries and tour activity, is especially encouraging, having noticeably increased just in the past 30-60 days. As always, early-stage demand typically takes multiple quarters to translate into signed leases.

I also want to note that because we have so few expirations through 2026, and therefore likely lower renewal volume to complete, this could translate into lower total volume in any given quarter in the near term. Before closing, I want to reiterate another important market dynamic that Colin has already touched on. That is this growing scarcity of new office development. Per JLL, 7.8 million sq ft of new office space was delivered in the first quarter, the lowest volume of completions in the past several years. In the first quarter, we saw less than 300,000 sq ft of office construction starts nationally, the lowest in nearly 40 years.

As we continue to see an increase in demand for the highest quality lifestyle office product, this shutdown in new office supply should prove very beneficial to owners of the best existing office product. As always, I want to thank our talented operations team, whose skill and hard work have us off to a great start to the year. We look forward to continuing the momentum together during the balance of the year. Gregg?

Gregg Adzema (CFO)

Thanks, Richard. Good morning, everyone. I'll begin my remarks by providing a brief overview of our results, spending a few moments providing some detail on our same-property performance. Then I'll move on to our capital markets and development activity, followed by a discussion of our recently assigned investment-grade credit rating, before closing my remarks with an update to our 2024 earnings guidance. Overall, as Colin stated up front, our first quarter earnings were solid and the economics behind them were encouraging. Second generation leasing spreads were positive. Leasing velocity was excellent during a seasonally slow period, and same-property year-over-year cash NOI was strong. It was also a very clean quarter. There were no unusual or non-recurring items of note.

Focusing on same-property performance for a moment, we added 2 properties to our same-property pool during the first quarter, 100 Mill in Phoenix and Heights Union in Tampa, and this pool now comprises 97% of our total NOI. These new properties have an average age of only three years and average gross rents of almost $50 per sq ft. With these additions, excuse me, we continue to improve the quality of our core office portfolio. Looking at the quarterly numbers, both same-property GAAP and cash NOI increased 6.6% compared to last year. This continues a string of positive same-property numbers that began in early 2022, and importantly, this quarter represents our best same-property cash performance since the second quarter of 2021, and our best GAAP performance since the second quarter of 2017.

Before moving on, I also want to point out the continued positive trend in parking revenues we saw during the first quarter. Overall, total parking revenues were up 10% compared to the first quarter of last year. A strong sign of performance, which continues to exceed our internal forecasts. Turning to our capital markets activity, in January, we entered into a floating to fixed interest rate swap on the remaining $200 million of our $400 million term loan, maturing in March 2025. With this swap, the entire term loan is now fixed at an underlying SOFR rate of 4.48% through initial maturity. Looking at our development activity, the current pipeline is comprised of a 50% interest in Neuhoff in Nashville and a 100% interest of Domain 9 in Austin.

Our share of the remaining estimated development costs is $66 million, which will be funded by a combination of our Neuhoff construction loan and our operating cash flow. Before discussing our updated guidance, I wanted to take a moment to highlight the assignment of an investment-grade corporate credit ratings from Moody's and S&P. Subsequent to quarter end, Moody's assigned a Baa2 rating, and S&P assigned a BBB rating to Cousins Properties LP. Both agencies distributed their write-ups yesterday, so their full thoughts on our credit ratings are available online. Overall, both agencies discussed the quality of our lifestyle portfolio, highlighted by above-average rents, healthy occupancy, and modest near-term lease expirations, as well as our strong balance sheet and conservative financial policy.

In the near term, these ratings allow us to receive more favorable pricing on our $1 billion credit facility and $750 million in outstanding term loans. At our current debt ratings, this saves us about 12 basis points in interest expense. On a longer-term basis, these ratings provide us with another important option to access the capital markets as we execute our strategic plan. I'll close by updating our 2024 earnings guidance. We currently anticipate full year 2024 FFO between $2.60 and $2.67 per share, with a midpoint of $2.635. This is up $0.015 per share from the original guidance we provided in February. The increase is primarily driven by higher parking revenues and termination fees.

The increase in termination fees is due to a customer at our Northpark property in Atlanta, with the lease expiration in 2027, notifying us of their intent to move out in early 2025. They didn't provide notice until March, so the impact on our first quarter results were immaterial. Concerning WeWork, although negotiations continue, the math is generally settled and included in our guidance. We believe there is no downside risk in our assumptions and a small upside potential. Our guidance remains clean. There are no significant one-time, non-recurring items and no property acquisitions, property dispositions, development starts, or capital markets transactions. If any of these do take place, we'll update you accordingly. Our guidance also continues to not include any payment of our unsecured claim in the SVB bankruptcy case, which we currently estimate to be just under $10 million.

The exact amount and timing of recovery against this claim is not yet known, but unsecured SVB bonds are currently trading around $0.50 on the dollar, so we anticipate there will eventually be significant value in this claim. Bottom line, our first quarter results are excellent, and we are increasing our earnings guidance. We now forecast full-year positive FFO growth in 2024, a rarity among public office companies. Our best-in-class leverage and liquidity positions remain intact, and we have added one more valuable tool to our capital markets toolbox. With that, let me turn the call back over to the operator.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, should you have a question, please press the star followed by the one on your telephone keypad. If you'd like to withdraw your question, press star two. If you're using a cellphone, please listen before pressing any keys. One moment, please, for your first question. Your first question comes from Blaine Heck, from Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

Blaine Heck (Executive Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Great, thanks. Good morning. So you guys had a strong start to the year from a same-store NOI perspective, with 6.6% in the first quarter. And I know you guys aren't gonna give guidance, but I guess just directionally, how should we be thinking about the rest of the year? And any color you can give on the, the drivers of same store as we progress through 2024 would be really helpful.

Gregg Adzema (CFO)

Sure. The biggest driver of NOI on a same-property basis during the first quarter was increased occupancy in Austin at 300 Colorado, Colorado Tower, and San Jacinto, and we had some free rent burn off at 100 Mill in Tempe. On top of that, we had some timing of lower real estate taxes, and so you rolled all that together, and it added up to a really strong first quarter. That won't replicate itself for the balance of the year, but the numbers will remain positive for the balance of the year.

Blaine Heck (Executive Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Great. Thanks, Gregg. The second question, Colin, you know, last quarter, you talked about a goal of getting above 90% occupancy in the intermediate term. I think you said stabilize this quarter, but you hesitated to put a more specific timeline on that, which is understandable. But just a couple of questions there: Has anything changed with respect to your view of the timing on that goal, especially with the upcoming termination at Northpark? And just generally, you know, does that stabilized or 90% goal include all of the properties in your portfolio, excluding Neuhoff and any other ground-up developments you may start? Or is that, you know, exclusive of renovation or redevelopment properties, too, like Hayden Ferry and potentially Fifth Third, when BofA comes out?

Colin Connolly (President and CEO)

No, Blaine, it... Nothing's really changed at all, with our goal to drive occupancy back up to stabilize levels. And you mentioned a 90% metric. I mean, really, our goal here at Cousins is to drive that back up to more normalized levels of past cycles, and we've reached occupancy as high as 92%-93%. Given the quality of the portfolio that we own, the repositioning's that we have done, and the strength of the markets that we're in, we're confident that we can do that. It'll likely be a multi-year process. We've got some... You know, ultimately, you always have some gives and takes.

We've got a, you know, larger expiration next year, but we also have a significant amount of signed, but not yet commenced leases. But over time, given the strength of our lifestyle Sun Belt portfolio, we do believe that we can push occupancy back to normalized levels. And as those developments and redevelopments stabilize, those will certainly help our efforts to get back to those normalized levels.

Blaine Heck (Executive Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Got it. Thanks, guys.

Colin Connolly (President and CEO)

Thank you, Blaine.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from John Kim from BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

John Kim (U.S. Real Estate Analyst)

Thank you. Just given the strength of parking on your results, can you just provide more color on what percentage of rental revenue comes from parking? Maybe the components of the 10% increase this quarter, how much of that was occupancy versus rate driven?

Gregg Adzema (CFO)

Hey, John, it's Gregg. So I think you're right to point out that the best way to look at parking is a percentage of total revenues versus in an absolute basis. And our portfolio has changed pretty dramatically over the past few years. In the first two years of the COVID pandemic, 2020 and 2021, I mean, we sold almost $1.5 billion worth of properties and reinvested half of that in our development pipeline and half of that in new acquisitions. So the composition of the portfolio has changed pretty dramatically. So the best metric to kind of compare today versus pre-COVID is a percentage of total revenues. And when you take a look at that, pre-COVID, parking represented kind of between 7% and 8% of our total revenues. Today, it's a little over 6%.

So we think there's still a little room there. That's not to say we're going to get back to exactly 7%-8% going forward, because, as I said, the composition has changed. But, but we're certainly not exceeding it. And that 6% that I just gave for the first quarter has worked its way up over the past couple of years. I mean, it bottomed out somewhere around just, I think, just under 5%. So we've been grinding it up slowly every quarter, and as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we've kind of exceeded our internal expectations almost every quarter. So it's a, it's a positive, it's a positive trend. Remind me of the second part of your question, John.

John Kim (U.S. Real Estate Analyst)

I was just wondering if, as far as further upside, is that gonna be rate driven, or can you continue to drive occupancy higher?

Gregg Adzema (CFO)

Yeah, it's a-

John Kim (U.S. Real Estate Analyst)

- in parking?

Gregg Adzema (CFO)

Yeah, the improvement that we've seen in parking is a combination of both rates and volume, and the mix is probably, give or take, 75-25: 75 volume, 25% rate.

John Kim (U.S. Real Estate Analyst)

Okay, that's helpful. And then on occupancy, how do you see that progressing in 2025? I mean, that is... You gave really good numbers around this year. Next year, you have 8.5% expiring. You mentioned B of A is likely to not renew. Time Warner's looks like that's expiring as well. But yeah, how do you basically see occupancy as far as any early indication of how that goes next year?

Colin Connolly (President and CEO)

Yeah. Good morning, John. It's, you know, we're gonna avoid providing 2025 guidance, but, you know, as I mentioned, we do have a multi-year goal to continue to push occupancy upwards to more stabilized levels. And we do, as I said, have a, you know, handful of expirations that will provide a small headwind. But again, I think the quality of those properties as we reposition and redevelop those, as we look over, you know, a couple of years, we feel like we can start to drive that occupancy to more stabilized levels.

John Kim (U.S. Real Estate Analyst)

... I guess maybe a better way to ask that is, how much of that 8.5% do you think are gonna move out?

Gregg Adzema (CFO)

Well, again, there, there's kind of one specific discrete expiration of over 300,000 sq ft. So that'll obviously skew the overall retention level. But we've had, you know, pretty strong, consistent retention levels over the last couple of years that you would expect given the quality of the lifestyle properties that we own. But that specific move out will provide a bit of a headwind. But again, we've got great plans to reposition that property and begin the lease up. And I think that'll allow us, as we get towards the end of 2025 into 2026, to, you know, perhaps after we take one step back, hopefully two steps forward.

John Kim (U.S. Real Estate Analyst)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from Anthony Paolone from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Anthony Paolone (Executive Director)

Thanks. Good morning. If I could ask one just related to that last question John talked about. As it relates to the BofA space next year, given the redevelopment plans, will that come out of service, the space or the building? Just like, should we even think about those being in the occupancy stats?

Gregg Adzema (CFO)

Tony, we're still finalizing our redevelopment plans there. So, you know, give us a little bit more time to finalize it, and we'll let you know. But we're gonna be as we've been all along, we're gonna be transparent. We're not, we're not gonna, you know, try to hide anything. If, if we pull it out of service and we do a significant redevelopment, we will. But we haven't, we haven't gotten to that point in the redevelopment plans yet to make a decision.

Anthony Paolone (Executive Director)

Okay, got it. Then just, Gregg, staying on you. You got the IG ratings now, anything contemplated on that front in the near term, or is there anything kind of that you're thinking about in guidance to give you room to do something on the public bond side?

Gregg Adzema (CFO)

So, yeah, we're really pleased with how that came out, considering kind of the overall macro environment at the moment. But we did it as a kind of a proactive step. You know, we've had the same balance sheet for the past decade at least, so we haven't not had an investment-grade rating because we couldn't get it. We haven't had an investment-grade rating because we didn't feel like we're in a position to advantageously use it. But we are now, and that's why we proactively got it. Even with no impending debt maturities, as Colin said in his opening remarks, we really have got a lot of optionality in our debt maturity schedule right now.

No significant maturities until the summer of 2025, and even then, we've got enough capacity in our credit facility if we had to really push the first refinancing out to the summer of 2026. That's not to say that's what we'll do, but we've got the optionality if need be. What this investment-grade rating gives us is the ability to be very opportunistic and to pull the trigger quickly when the capital markets present an opportunity, and that's what we intend to do.

Anthony Paolone (Executive Director)

Okay. And if I can just sneak one in for, for Colin. You've talked about just the idea of opportunities emerging out there for a little while now. Just any further color on, on what you think a transaction might look like if it's something going in with, you know, a high current yield or, or an asset that needs to be turned around or geographically? Just any other brackets on what seems to be emerging would be helpful.

Colin Connolly (President and CEO)

Yeah. No, appreciate the question, Tony. I'd say we've got a, I'd say, a very clearly defined strategy, here at Cousins to invest in high quality, lifestyle office, in the Sun Belt that either currently is or can be repositioned into lifestyle with a, I'd say, a very clear focus on driving accretion, in our financial results and, ultimately complementing the existing, lifestyle portfolio that we have. So we're out looking at a lot of different opportunities. I'd say we are certainly, in this environment, applying our creative instincts to look at all sorts of transactions, as I mentioned earlier, across the capital stack. But ultimately, our focus will be on lifestyle office within the Sun Belt and with a focus on near-term accretion.

Anthony Paolone (Executive Director)

Okay, thank you.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from Camille Bonnel from Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Camille Bonnel (Director Equity Research)

Good morning. Nice job on the investment-grade ratings. Gregg, I believe each quarter you reset your budgets against the SOFR curve. Just given how much the curve has shifted and uncertainty around the timing for the next rate cut, what are you factoring into guidance today, and how much of an impact did that have with your updates?

Gregg Adzema (CFO)

Thanks, Camille. Good morning. It's a great question, considering the volatility that's happening in the short end of the curve right now. So we, at the beginning of the year, as I explained in the last quarterly conference call, we were using the Fed dot plots in our forecast. And so, at the beginning of the year, the Fed had three rate cuts in 2024. As you know, the Fed meets next week, and odds are they'll probably change that. But we've gone ahead and kind of proactively changed our internal assumption to two rate cuts in calendar year 2024. That being said, you know, we're low leverage to begin with, and then 15% of our leverage is floating rate. So the impact on that in calendar year 2024 is minimal.

For example, if they had no rate cuts, for the balance of the year, that would only impact our earnings by about $0.005, so not significant at all.

... And a lot of the, you know, I think that other companies have struggled with that change in assumptions, where they've assumed more rate cuts and those rate cuts haven't come to fruition. The, when we obtained the investment-grade debt rating, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, it had a positive impact on the pricing grid for the floating rate debt that we do have, the term loans and the credit facility. So really, they offset each other, and that was one of the reasons that we didn't have any impact on our guidance from a reduction in the assumption around rate cuts for the balance of 2024, is because it was offset by a better pricing grid.

Camille Bonnel (Director Equity Research)

That's very helpful. I understand it might be early in the process, but what kind of downtime are you expecting on the space at Northpark? How do you feel this building is positioned in its submarket, and is it something that can be easily marketed or needs some CapEx?

Colin Connolly (President and CEO)

No, the space up at Northpark is really terrific space. It was relatively recently built out for a innovative tech company here in Atlanta, and so that space shows terrific, it's effectively move-in ready, if we were to find the right user. And just for a little bit of broader perspective on Northpark, that sits in the Central Perimeter. It's right at a great highway intersection with MARTA access on the property. There has been a large highway improvement project just outside our front door for the last three, four years, and that project is now wrapping up. And I think that will position Northpark really well.

The space is terrific, and we already have the opportunity to get out there and start showing that space.

Camille Bonnel (Director Equity Research)

Thanks. And I just wanted to ask on the lease expiration front, since you don't have much more to address near term, but 2025 has picked up for the factors you highlighted. Are your leasing teams seeing any shift in tenant mindset to push forward on early renewals? Or are people still waiting till the last minute before they make decisions? Thank you.

Colin Connolly (President and CEO)

So yeah, great question, Camille, and we are starting to see some shift in the mindset of our customer base, and I think that's very encouraging, and it's certainly encouraging as we think about occupancy in 2025 and moving into 2026, which a lot of decisions today will really, you know, impact that timeframe. But we are seeing more, I'd say, particularly large companies that had been on the sideline, now starting to think about their long-term real estate needs, and I think doing so with a view that they're gonna be in the office more often than not. So that has been a very positive trend. And we're also seeing some signs of life from an in-migration perspective.

Companies once again considering moves, typically hubs or large regional offices, once again in the Sun Belt. I'd say one other trend that we've taken note of over the last 60-90 days, is some companies that we had leased space with over the last 12-24 months, who had perhaps contracted, now coming back and looking for more space as their return to office efforts hit a positive inflection point.

Camille Bonnel (Director Equity Research)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from Steve Sakwa from Evercore. Please go ahead.

Steve Sakwa (Senior Managing Director)

Yes, thanks. Not to beat a dead horse here on the occupancy. I know Richard had said that occupancy would be flat in second half, but that occupancy year-end 2024 would be above 2023. I just wanna make sure, though, are you talking about spot occupancies or average occupancies? I don't think you guys disclose spot occupancy, so just making sure I understand kind of which metrics you guys are talking about exactly?

Richard Hickson (EVP of Operations)

Yes, Steve, this is Richard. That would be weighted average occupancy, as we report occupancy, versus end of period, or spot, is how we report our lease percentage.

Steve Sakwa (Senior Managing Director)

Gotcha. Okay, thanks. And then, maybe Colin, you know, there was news that Oracle's moving its headquarters from Texas up to Nashville. That site that they have is, you know, directly across the river from your Neuhoff project. I'm just wondering, are there any near-term benefits from that move, or are you seeing, you know, maybe other derivative benefits potentially from them coming into the market? And you know, the tenants that you did talk about, that you've got leases out for, are those existing Nashville tenants, or are those new to market tenants?

Colin Connolly (President and CEO)

Yeah, great question, Steve. And obviously, we were thrilled to see the announcement from Oracle earlier this week that they would indeed, in time, make what had already been announced as a large regional hub in Nashville their global headquarters. And you know, that project sits just across the Cumberland River from our Neuhoff project, and they are, in fact, going to start construction on a pedestrian bridge over that river to connect directly into the downtown Neuhoff side of Nashville. So I think that's gonna be a huge positive for Cousins, a big positive for Neuhoff, and we are starting to see some of those derivative benefits.

You know, Oracle's move has been underway for multiple years, and we are seeing more potential customers, professional services companies in particular, as well as other healthcare-oriented investment firms look to locate themselves in close proximity to Oracle. And I think the leasing that we're doing right now and underway are gonna be kind of direct benefits of that recent announcement.

Steve Sakwa (Senior Managing Director)

Great, thanks.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from Nick Thillman from Baird. Please go ahead.

Nick Thillman (Senior Research Analyst)

Hey, good morning. Richard, you touched on 500,000 sq ft of signed leases yet to commence. I was wondering if we could get an update on, like, timing of when those leases are gonna commence. Is that inclusive of Domain 9? And for Domain 9, like, sort of move-in timing, does that kind of just be pro rata, kind of equally weighted through 2025 first quarter stabilization?

Richard Hickson (EVP of Operations)

Yeah. So the 500,000 in 2024 is weighted mid 3Q of this year, but it does not include Domain remaining phases, 'cause those both occur or commence in 2025.

Nick Thillman (Senior Research Analyst)

That's helpful. And then maybe just touching a little bit on new to market kind of requirements. You guys touched on it already a little bit, but what markets are you seeing kind of the most activity for tenants kind of looking to enter these markets? And are any of them a little more sluggish?

Colin Connolly (President and CEO)

It really is, I'd say, consistent across the Sun Belt. We're seeing examples, really in all of our markets of companies, moving from places like the West Coast, the Northeast and the Midwest into places like Texas and Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina. It is pretty consistent. I'd say it's very encouraging. While there are announcements like Oracle moving a global headquarters, I'd say what we're seeing, more predominantly are regional hubs, like the Workday announcement, you know, here in Atlanta, where they went from approximately 50,000 sq ft to 100,000 sq ft, in very short order. And I'd say a lot of that is the same themes that we've been discussing here at Cousins for the last 10 years.

It's the quality of the workforce in the Sun Belt, the low cost, the ease of doing business. After you know, a little bit of a pause during the last 12-24 months, we're starting to see that rebound.

Nick Thillman (Senior Research Analyst)

Thanks.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from Brendan Lynch from Barclays. Please go ahead.

Brendan Lynch (Director)

Great. Thanks for taking my question. Gregg, maybe you could go into a little bit more detail about the same store expenses that were, I think, down year-over-year, where most of your peers are facing tax increases and insurance headwinds. So maybe you could just give us a little bit more detail on what you're seeing in your portfolio.

Gregg Adzema (CFO)

Sure. The largest driver to the same property expense number this quarter was property taxes, and inside of the property tax line item, the largest component was Texas property taxes. And if you recall, I think it happened in the third quarter of last year, they put on the ballots a reduction in the property tax rate in the state of Texas, and it passed overwhelmingly. And so we had, up until that time of that vote, been accruing at the old tax rate in Texas, and as soon as that vote happened, we accrued at the new tax rate in Texas. And so the year-over-year comps, last year's first quarter, old tax rate, this year's first quarter, new tax rate. And so you had some adjustments.

If you pulled out property taxes in total from our same property performance in the first quarter, that 6.6 cash number turns into a positive 5.4% cash number on a year-over-year basis. So it had an impact, but it was not the sole impact, and we still had a really good quarter even without that property tax adjustment.

Brendan Lynch (Director)

Great. That, that's helpful. And should we think about any other potential tax adjustments in the second through fourth quarter of this year, or is it just in the first?

Gregg Adzema (CFO)

No, the biggest impact by far was in the first.

Brendan Lynch (Director)

Okay, thanks. That's helpful. And maybe could you also talk about tenant improvements per square foot? Looks like those increased a fairly significant amount year over year. So just any color that you can share there would be helpful.

Gregg Adzema (CFO)

Sure. Yeah, the TIs did increase versus last quarter and certainly versus 2023. I'd say that the context with that, in this particular quarter, we did accomplish a lot of leasing in first-generation kind of shell space. And at Neuhoff, obviously some of that new development activity showed up, and those tend to be higher per square foot per year TI packages. But otherwise, we view TIs and concessions as hopefully stabilizing at this point on a broader basis.

Brendan Lynch (Director)

Great. Thanks for the color.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from Dylan Burzinski from Green Street. Please go ahead.

Dylan Burzinski (Senior Analyst)

Hi, guys. Thanks for taking the question. Just, just I guess on the acquisition pipeline today, are you starting to see more opportunities arise? And I guess, just as you sort of think about the near-term pipeline, I mean, do you guys expect to start to see capitulation on behalf of sellers? Or do you expect this to sort of be an elongated process?

Colin Connolly (President and CEO)

Well, I think it's already been an elongated process to date, and I'd say that's fairly typical of most cycles. But we are starting to see, I think, more actionable opportunities. And as I said, the overall property sales market has remained a bit tepid, but we are starting to see some signs of life in the debt market, which I think is a catalyst. And I also think the, you know, recent pickup in leasing activity, which ultimately requires leasing capital to be another catalyst for transactions. And so, they are becoming, I hope and believe, more actionable in the near term.

And again, at Cousins, we're gonna continue to apply our kinda creative skills to, you know, source and find opportunities that could be very traditional in nature, as well as some that are a little less traditional. But all, again, with a focus on investing in Sun Belt lifestyle office and with a priority on kinda near-term accretion, if possible.

Dylan Burzinski (Senior Analyst)

As you guys sort of think about markets, I mean, is there a potential to put capital to work in markets that you're not currently in? And if so, how do you guys kinda think about that process? You know, would it require a higher going-in yield to sort of make that decision?

Colin Connolly (President and CEO)

We're gonna stay focused on our Sun Belt markets. Again, I think they, you know, we believe that there are been long-term secular trends in migration trends that will continue to favor the markets that we're invested in. So we'll stay focused within the Sun Belt. There's a market or two within the Sun Belt that we're not invested in today that we continue to monitor. But I also think as we look at the company more broadly, we do wanna continue to enhance our geographic diversification within the Sun Belt. And so, you know, certainly there's some markets like Dallas and Charlotte and Nashville and Tampa and others that over time we'd like to increase our exposure to those markets and are very constructive on them long term.

Dylan Burzinski (Senior Analyst)

Thanks.

Operator (participant)

Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, should you have a question, please press star one. Your next question comes from Upal Rana from KeyBanc. Please go ahead.

Upal Rana (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Great. Thanks for taking the question. Richard, you know, could you give us some color or details on the leasing pipeline you mentioned in your prepared remarks? Any numbers or any types of tenants or general demand commentary will be helpful. Thanks.

Richard Hickson (EVP of Operations)

Sure. It continues to be healthy across the board, frankly. Atlanta has been a great outperformer for us for a while now, as you know, and it continues to be really solid. But, the only thing I'd point out is that Austin continues to be slower, but we are seeing, maybe not on a square footage basis, but certainly in the number of transactions in our pipeline, late stage for certain, and Austin is improving. So still soft there, but overall broad-based. And there isn't really one industry that I'd call out, at this point, that's driving the lion's share of our pipeline. It's well diversified.

Upal Rana (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Great. That was helpful. You know, Gregg, could you give us some color on what gets you to the high end or low end of your guidance? You know, any moving pieces or timing in particular that, you know, gets you to either end?

Richard Hickson (EVP of Operations)

Sure. You know, we tightened the range, so, you know, now that we're one quarter into the year, there are less moving pieces. But, you know, as we sit here and look at that, as is often the case, the two things that could most, and I don't think it's unique to our company at all, are interest rates and leasing assumptions. And in both instances, you know, we've got... I've already talked earlier in this call about our interest rate assumptions, and we obviously have some leasing assumptions as well. And I, I believe that they're on the conservative end of our typical range of leasing assumptions. So, so we don't see, you know, a lot of risk in the range that we've provided, but those are the two biggest moving pieces inside that range.

Upal Rana (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Okay, got it. That's all for me. Thanks.

Richard Hickson (EVP of Operations)

Thanks, Upal.

Operator (participant)

There are no further questions at this time. I will turn the conference back over to Colin Connolly for closing remarks.

Colin Connolly (President and CEO)

Thank you for joining us on our first quarter earnings call. We appreciate your interest in Cousins Properties. If you have any follow-up questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to our team. Have a great weekend.

Operator (participant)

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.