Douglas Emmett - Earnings Call - Q1 2025

Executive Summary

• Q1 2025 delivered a clean top-line and EPS beat, with revenue at $251.5M vs S&P Global consensus $246.5M (+2.0%) and GAAP EPS $0.24 vs consensus -$0.055, aided by a $47.2M consolidation gain; FFO/share was $0.40 vs consensus $0.388, a modest beat.*
• Leasing momentum continued: 753K sf signed (276K new, 477K renewals), “best quarter in more than two years” for >10K sf tenants; straight-line rent spreads +0.9% while cash spreads -12.6% as larger-tenants skewed averages; multifamily stayed essentially full at 99.1%.
• Guidance update: 2025 net income per diluted share revised up to $0.07–$0.13 (from prior -$0.17– -$0.11) while 2025 FFO/share held at $1.42–$1.48; assumptions unchanged (Same-Property Cash NOI -2.5% to -0.5%, interest expense $260–$270M).
• Balance sheet/financing actions: closed $127.2M 4.99% resi loan (2030 maturity) and refinanced $335M office loan to effective fixed 4.57% (2032); management expects average cost of debt to rise 100–200 bps vs pre-COVID 3%.
• Stock catalysts: sustained large-tenant leasing (>10K sf), conversion of signed leases into occupied space, Studio Plaza lease-up outperformance, progress on 10900 Wilshire JV development, and forthcoming refinancing prints; watch macro/tariff risks and sequential in-service occupancy dips noted by analysts.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

• What Went Well

  • Large-tenant demand returned: “best quarter in more than 2 years” for >10K sf tenants; positive absorption achieved.
  • Studio Plaza outperformed: lease-up “surpassed expectations”; remodel to complete later 2025 with some leases commencing later this year.
  • Financing progress at attractive rates relative to office sector: effective 4.57% (2032) and 4.99% (2030) fixed outcomes; balance sheet cash $525.7M.

• What Went Wrong

  • Cash re-leasing spreads compressed (-12.6%) on larger-tenant mix and difficulty exceeding 3–4% contractual bumps; straight-line spreads only +0.9%.
  • Same-Property Cash NOI essentially flat YoY ($151.4M vs $151.8M), reflecting office headwinds; office cash NOI down YoY.
  • In-service occupancy/lease rate showed slight sequential softness as noted by analysts, underscoring lag from signed to occupied space.

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to Douglas Emmett's Quarterly Earnings Call. Today's call is being recorded. At this time, all the participants are in a listen-only mode. After management's prepared remarks, you will receive instructions for participating in the question-and-answer session. I will now turn the conference over to Stuart McElhinney, Vice President of Investor Relations for Douglas Emmett. Please go ahead.

Stuart McElhinney (VP of Investor Relations)

Thank you. Joining us today on the call are Jordan Kaplan, our President and CEO, Kevin Crummy, our CIO, and Peter Seymour, our CFO. This call is being webcast live from our website and will be available for replay during the next 90 days. You can also find our earnings package at the Investor Relations section of our website. You can find reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures discussed during today's call in the earnings package. During the course of 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 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 actual future results can be expected to differ from our expectations, and those differences may be material. For a more detailed description of some potential risks, please refer to our SEC filings, which can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website. When we reach the question-and-answer portion, in consideration of others, please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. I will now turn the call over to Jordan.

Jordan Kaplan (President and CEO)

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. Leasing during the first quarter of 2025 was quite successful. We achieved positive absorption across our total office portfolio. We signed over 300,000 sq ft of new leases. New leasing to tenants over 10,000 sq ft was well above our historical averages. Our Class A office portfolio has maintained stable in-place and asking rental rates despite this higher vacancy market. As we convert Studio Plaza to a multi-tenant office building, our leasing there is well above expectations. In addition, looking ahead, I am encouraged by our below-average office expirations in 2025 and 2026. Our multi-family portfolio enjoys very full occupancy and robust revenue growth. This reflects the appeal of our high-end residential communities and the affluence of our coastal submarkets, where the need for quality housing only seems to accelerate.

We are working on four solid avenues for restoring and then exceeding our pre-pandemic FFO, with good progress on all four fronts: leasing up our existing office portfolio, redeveloping our 712-unit Barrington Plaza residential property, converting our Studio Plaza office building to multi-tenant use, and acquiring additional office and residential properties. Of course, higher interest rates remain a drag on income. As we roll through refinancing our existing debt portfolio, I suspect that our cost of debt will increase between 100 and 200 basis points from the 3% average we enjoyed before COVID. My hope is that the higher cost of debt is matched with rental income growth as the economy recovers and the market reflects the slowdown in new development. At present, our office leasing pipeline remains healthy, and our multi-family demand continues to be strong, but we are keeping a weather eye towards the broader economic landscape.

Recent volatility in national policies affecting the public markets could pose even greater challenges if they lead to a slowdown in office leasing or, worse, tip the economy into a recession. Whatever happens, our operating platform is built to weather storms. Our conservative financing strategy, diversified tenant base, and focus on the best supply-constrained markets gives us a strong foundation to manage through periods of turbulence. With that, I'll turn the call over to Kevin to discuss our investment activities.

Kevin Crummy (Chief Investment Officer)

Thanks, Jordan, and good morning, everyone. We are making good progress toward developing the new residential building at our recently acquired property in Westwood. We still expect that JV's total investment to be approximately $150 million-$200 million over a three- to four-year period, including the cost of acquisition, construction of the new residential building, and upgrades to the existing tower. As Jordan indicated, our Barrington Plaza residential redevelopment, including installing new fire life safety equipment, is on track. In addition, the lease-up and repositioning of Studio Plaza into a multi-tenant office building has surpassed expectations. During the quarter, we closed a non-recourse, interest-only $127.2 million loan secured by one of our residential properties that will mature in April 2030. The interest rate is fixed at 4.99% per annum. We used part of the proceeds to pay off a $102.4 million loan.

We also refinanced a $335 million secured office loan with a non-recourse, interest-only loan at an effective fixed interest rate of 4.57% that will mature in March 2032. With that, I will turn the call over to Stuart.

Stuart McElhinney (VP of Investor Relations)

Thanks, Kevin. Good morning, everyone. During the first quarter, we signed just under 800,000 sq ft in our total portfolio, including over 300,000 sq ft of new leases. We also had our best quarter in more than two years for new leases over 10,000 sq ft. The overall value of new leases we signed in the quarter increased by 0.9%, with cash spreads down 12.6% as larger tenants skew the averages and make it hard to beat the contractual 3%-4% annual rent bumps in our existing leases. As we sign more leases over 10,000 sq ft, we expect to see an increase in leasing costs and a widening of our lease-to-occupied spread.

However, even with more large leases and a higher proportion of new leases last quarter, our average leasing costs of only $6.17 per sq ft per year remain well below the average for office REITs in our benchmark group. Our residential portfolio remained essentially fully leased at 99.1%, with strong demand. With that, I'll turn the call over to Peter to discuss our results.

Peter Seymour (CFO)

Thanks, Stuart. Good morning, everyone. Compared to the first quarter of 2024, revenue increased by 2.7%. FFO decreased to $0.40 per share, and AFFO decreased to $62.3 million. Same property cash NOI was essentially flat. Our results this quarter reflect the acquisition of 10900 Wilshire, as well as the January 1st consolidation of a previously unconsolidated joint venture which owns two Class A office properties totaling 400,000 sq ft. At approximately 4.5% of revenue, our G&A remains low relative to our benchmark group. Turning to guidance, we expect our 2025 net income per common share diluted to be between $0.07 and $0.13, and we continue to expect our FFO per fully diluted share to be between $1.42 and $1.48. For information on assumptions underlying our guidance, please refer to the schedule in the earnings package.

As usual, our guidance does not assume the impact of future property acquisitions or dispositions, common stock sales or repurchases, financings, property damage insurance recoveries, impairment charges, or other possible capital markets activities. I will now turn the call over to the operator so we can take your questions.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. In consideration of other participants, please limit your queries to one question and one follow-up. Our first question comes from Steve Sakwa from Evercore ISI. Please go ahead.

Steve Sakwa (Senior Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Yeah, thanks. Good morning out there. Jordan, I was just wondering—hi, I was just wondering if you could provide a little bit more color or detail on kind of the leasing and the larger tenants that you the over 10,000 ft. I suspect that maybe your smaller tenants are maybe less impacted by sort of all the tariff uncertainty, but I'm just curious, like the pace of leasing that maybe you saw throughout the quarter, and did you see any real change between January, February, March on the smalls and the larger tenants?

Stuart McElhinney (VP of Investor Relations)

Hey, Steve, it's Stuart. So pleased to see the new leasing increase this quarter. We had good demand kind of across all the industries. The over 10,000 guys also really strong last quarter, which was great to see. Diverse industries in that set as well. We saw legal, we saw real estate, fitness, all those guys coming in. I'd say the core portfolio is still performing really nicely, and those last three quarters in a row that we've seen improvement over 10,000 sq ft.

Jordan Kaplan (President and CEO)

They got us kind of up to the positive territory, which made a big—remember we were saying to you, we need to get positive absorption, and we need these guys to come back, and they're getting us there.

Steve Sakwa (Senior Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Okay, thanks. Obviously your apartment portfolio did far better than we had thought. I know you added two assets into the same-store pool this quarter, but could you just maybe speak to kind of the pricing trends that you're seeing in multi-family and how much of the NOI growth was driven by rent growth versus, say, occupancy gain? I guess, what are your expectations for rent growth moving forward on the multi-family assets?

Jordan Kaplan (President and CEO)

Yeah. One thing to be super clear on is we have not changed our asking rents from the time before the fire to now, which is being, frankly, closely monitored by the state, and you can check, and we have not changed our asking rents. Although we have people that are moving, and of course, they might have been at a lower rent, and now it is the asking rent of before the fire and now. That is obviously making a difference, and we are very full. When I say very full, I will say that probably in my career, I have had a few times that people call and want to get a unit here and there, but in general, nothing like now. I get a call a week or almost every couple of days from people saying, "I need to get into your LMLA building.

I need to get into Shores. I need to get into Champagne. Can you find me a unit, etc.? I mean, I'll put you on the list. I mean, it is very full. Did that answer your question, Steve?

Steve Sakwa (Senior Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

I was just curious. I guess you're saying that with the restrictions, you can't actually push rent. Maybe this is just a function of below-market leases moving up to market rent at this point, but I guess the SOEs stay in place through the end of this year.

Jordan Kaplan (President and CEO)

You can move rents 10%. We're probably being a little more cautious, but we're big, and we want to be clear of where we stand. As I said, I mean, we literally have not changed our asking rents from before to after. Now, you probably were facing before, no fire, no nothing. You were looking at a pretty big roll-up. The market was very strong and strengthening before the fire. I'm not sure that you can attribute the fire to a lot of this. You can probably just—and maybe there's even more coming. I don't know that answer, but I know this. We probably were moving our asking rents in a pretty good way up until the fire. We stopped at that point, but we're getting those rents, and we're very full.

Stuart McElhinney (VP of Investor Relations)

Steve, I'll add the two buildings that came into the same store were 1132 Bishop in Hawaii and Landmark L.A. in Brentwood, both of which are performing really well. Having those in there helps.

Steve Sakwa (Senior Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Got it. Thanks. That's it for me.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. The next question comes from Nick Yulico from Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Nick Yulico (Managing Director)

Thanks. Hi, everyone. In terms of the debt refinancing that got done in the quarter, the $335 million secured office loan, looks like there was an extension on that. Can you just talk a little bit more about the rate that you got? It seemed pretty good for an office loan and how we should think about being able to get sort of a similar rate for other office debt that you're dealing with maturing over the next year.

Jordan Kaplan (President and CEO)

I'm glad you liked the rate. I got to tell you something. Those loans are very hard to get. Very hard. I mean, going out and refinancing the office portfolio has been really a rough run. We're getting it done, and thankfully we have great relationships, and that's probably helping us a lot, and I'm glad you liked the rate. I thought it was pretty good. I wasn't getting knocked over by it. In general, I tried to say in my prepared remarks that looking at what's going on, because we're working on debt, we start with stuff that's two years away, and we're working on a lot of stuff right now. It's one of the big agenda items around here.

I'm kind of starting to see a little bit of light at the end, and I tried to give you guys that information and said we ran for a long time at about a 3% average in terms of our debt, and I think now we're going to be 100 basis points-200 basis points up on that. I think we're kind of coming out in that range. I mean, we'll see. We have more to do, but we're coming out in that range.

Nick Yulico (Managing Director)

All right. That's helpful. Thanks. The second question is just on the absorption comment, which I know that applied to the total portfolio. If we look at the in-service portfolio, actually sequentially, the lease rate was down a bit. Occupancy was down a bit. Is the message here that new leasing volume still needs to pick up a little bit more in order to show absorption in the in-service pool? I also was not sure if there was any early termination of space issue you were dealing with in the quarter that may have affected those numbers. Thanks.

Jordan Kaplan (President and CEO)

No, there was not anything like that. I think you are kind of right. I mean, we have our in-service portfolio, which shows the occupancy, the in-service portfolio, but then at the same time, we are saying, "Hey, but the great news is we have positive absorption because we are taking credit for the stuff that is not in the in-service portfolio," which is true. I will tell you, these are tiny moves, getting to positive and negative on these things. I am not going to tell you going forward what is going to happen. I have concerns about the economy. You heard that in my prepared remarks. At this moment, we are feeling pretty good, and we are doing a lot of leasing across in-service, out-of-service, and all the rest. We are feeling pretty good about what is going on.

Nick Yulico (Managing Director)

All right. Thanks, Jordan.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. The next question comes from Connor Mitchell from Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

Connor Mitchell (Equity Research Analyst)

Hey, thanks for taking my question. I guess first, Jordan, you mentioned some of the macro uncertainty and tariff turmoil. Have you guys seen any tenant fallouts or leasing deals kind of fallout from import or export-related businesses?

Jordan Kaplan (President and CEO)

So far, so good. I really tried to say that right in the prepared remarks by saying, "Look, we already know this is affecting the stock market. Stock market is jumping around like a cat." Have we seen it roll to our tenants and impact our tenants? Not yet. Even worse, which is obviously a fear, is does this roll into some version of stagflation or just recession? Like I said, we're watching for it, but have not seen it.

Connor Mitchell (Equity Research Analyst)

Okay. I appreciate the color on that. On the acquisition of Westwood and then the related developments, did you guys mention any timing on the start of that development?

Jordan Kaplan (President and CEO)

We are already working on plans. We're going. I hope that the timing is that we get the building built in the next three to four years, completed. Three, hopefully. We're going. It's by right entitlements, and in our business plan of buying it, it was to build it.

Connor Mitchell (Equity Research Analyst)

Okay. Great. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. The next question comes from Rich Anderson from SMBC Nikko. Please go ahead.

Rich Anderson (Managing Director)

No. Wedbush. Anyway, in terms of your comment around absorption, it sounds like leasing velocity exceeded your expectations, but would you say that the cash releasing spread underperformed your expectations, the down 12%, which together net to sort of inline performance on a dollar basis? Is that the right way to think about it, or do I have that wrong?

Stuart McElhinney (VP of Investor Relations)

Hey, Rich. No, I do not think that we are disappointed with the spreads or surprised by the spreads. The spreads are going to jump around. Obviously, it is dependent on the mix of leases that get done. We did some larger leases, and you had some longer leases rolling off. Longer leases have higher bumps in them. We focused on the straight-line spreads, which are still positive, which is great.

I think in this market, you should expect the spreads to be in the territory they've been, and they'll be a little volatile quarter to quarter.

Rich Anderson (Managing Director)

All in meeting your expectations, you would say, or exceeding your expectations when you take into account the pace of leasing, the velocity?

Jordan Kaplan (President and CEO)

The comment about exceeding expectations, just as an aside, related to Studio Plaza and the leasing there. Put that to the side. I want to add that it does, and we've said this in a variety of ways over the last few quarters, and I had it in my section. I am surprised we haven't seen much of a change in rents considering the vacancy in the market. I understand the reason for it, and I understand where the vacancy is and how it's operating and tenants need to be where they want to be and all of that. I know there hasn't been a lot written about this. I've talked about it, but I'm impressed that we are holding rates so well that we've stayed flat on the straight line, meaning leases we did in a pretty good market, 2019, 2018.

We're still holding that rate now. It certainly isn't the same market. I think it's a testament to the fact that there's no new construction. It's a testament to the fact of the quality of buildings that we have. I see that in New York, the higher quality buildings are also holding rate and doing better. We're experiencing that there. I mean, I can't speak for the B&C product that's in the market. I think they're suffering. People want to be in the buildings, and they're well run and managed and kept clean and nice and with good amenities and all the good stuff. It's making more of a difference than I ever really thought that it would in terms of holding rate and being a place that people want to end up at.

Rich Anderson (Managing Director)

Okay. All right. Sounds good. Jordan, you made a comment in your remarks, interest costs up 100 basis points-200 basis points, and you hope that NOI follows along at some point. Your guidance for same-store cash NOI is, call it 1.5%, 2% negative. That is not happening now. Is this interest expense view like a sort of flash in the pan? That is what is going to happen this year and into next year, and then you commence the catch-up on the NOI line as long as we do not fall into some sort of major recession. Is that sort of your three, four-year outlook when you look at those two competing measures?

Jordan Kaplan (President and CEO)

One thing is leasing out the portfolio. That is just straight, perfect increases in NOI. Another thing is as the economy recovers, which we have seen in the past, you have to be around for a long time. Because there is no new development and as companies recover, things tighten up and you see an acceleration in rental rates. It is that acceleration in response to whether it be inflation and where interest rates are. It is that acceleration in rental rates that I am hoping will offset interest rates. Now, interest rates may also come down. I do not know what will happen there. I know that for now, the reason I made that comment is because we are centered in the process, literally, of doing a lot of refis. We are refining some stuff that is farther out. We are doing a lot of that kind of work, which we will announce when it closes.

I can see where we're headed. We're about to move a bunch of stuff out, quite a period of time, and I can see where we're going to end up. I know I'm going to end up in that, generally, I believe, in that range that I gave you for at least the next few years. Now, if the market also improves and rental rates go up, it should offset that. That was the point I was trying to make.

Rich Anderson (Managing Director)

Okay. All right. Fair enough. Thanks very much.

Jordan Kaplan (President and CEO)

Thanks.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. The next question comes from Peter Abramowitz from Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Peter Abramowitz (SVP of Equity Research)

Yes. Thanks for taking the question. Just wanted to dig a little more into the comments around Studio Plaza. When you say leasing is surpassing expectations, is that just sort of in terms of demand and interest in the asset? Have you actually gotten anything signed there? Just maybe kind of expectations around timing of when you think you could be close to full occupancy again.

Jordan Kaplan (President and CEO)

All three. Leasing demand, the amount of leases we're signing, and the speed at which we'll reach a very reasonable occupancy level.

Peter Abramowitz (SVP of Equity Research)

Got it. I guess if you were to handicap when a reasonable occupancy level could be achieved, when do you think that is, I guess, for modeling purposes?

Jordan Kaplan (President and CEO)

I do not want to make a prediction about it beyond giving you that color because I have made other predictions that have been thrown back at me. I can give you my feel about it, and we have usually been right on those fronts. I was very nervous going into it in the market and everything we are hearing about the studios and everything else. This building has—they are doing it. I do not know what to say. The team's doing a great job of leasing it. This building has not been available for a long time. It is a sought-after location and an extremely high-quality building. We have done a really beautiful redo or remodel of all the common areas. It is working. I mean, it is attracting tenants. I am super pleased about it because I was nervous. Now I am happy.

Stuart McElhinney (VP of Investor Relations)

Peter, that remodel work should be done later this year. Hopefully, we'll have some of the leases that we've signed already commencing later this year as well.

Jordan Kaplan (President and CEO)

I think you can.

You have some of that on our website.

Peter Abramowitz (SVP of Equity Research)

Appreciate the color there. One more. Could you comment on entertainment industry demand, I guess, in light of some of the challenges of the last two years or so, sort of how that's shaping up today?

Jordan Kaplan (President and CEO)

We really have only that one building in the media district. We have not been like a big landlord to the entertainment industry historically, other than the vendors like the agents and whatnot. We renewed a giant lease with one of the big agencies. You know that we are having a good experience in the media district. I do not think we have enough interaction to comment more largely on overall demand. We are not in, obviously, the studio business, which is where a lot of the discussion revolves.

Peter Abramowitz (SVP of Equity Research)

All right. Thanks for the color, Jordan. Appreciate it.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Upal Rana from KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Upal Rana (Director and Equity Research Analyst)

Great. Thanks for my question. Just on the recovery in L.A. post the fires, how's that progressing broadly? Has there been any shifts in demand that you have noticed either by the size of tenants, industry, or sub-market? I know you already commented on the residential side, but just curious how it's going on the office side. Thanks.

Jordan Kaplan (President and CEO)

I know we've been asked a lot or people have proposed that we should see there's billions of dollars moving into the market. That I'm definitely seeing. Now, that should translate to additional office leasing. I understand why people feel that'll happen, whether it be architects or contractors or whatever it is that want to be here and near where all this construction's going on. I mean, it's not just houses. It's streets and utilities being installed and tons of stuff. I anecdotally only know of one or two small leases, and I can't tell you we're seeing that flood at this moment, but maybe it takes time to formulate.

Upal Rana (Director and Equity Research Analyst)

Okay. Great. Thank you. What went into the decision to consolidate the JV?

Jordan Kaplan (President and CEO)

We redid the agreement with our partners and extended it out substantially. It is hard to call it a decision one way or another. The terms of the agreement dictate whether it is consolidated or not consolidated. Under the new agreement, obviously, we are a very large owner, and there are other terms in there that dictate that under the accounting rules now, it is consolidated. I cannot tell you I was thrilled about that. It gave us additional interest expense. It is kind of phantom because they act like you bought it. You want to talk?

Peter Seymour (CFO)

Yeah. It's Peter. When we go through the consolidation process, I mean, obviously, it affected a lot of line items on the consolidated P&L, not to mention the gain that we had to take, which rolls through net income. Overall, probably slightly negative impact to interest because we had to also fair value the debt when we put it on the balance sheet. It's obviously at a great interest rate. We'll see some amortization roll through interest expense. Maybe about a penny impact or so overall included in our guidance.

Upal Rana (Director and Equity Research Analyst)

Okay. Great. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Seth Bergey from Citi. Please go ahead.

Seth Bergey (Senior Analyst)

Hi. Thanks for taking my question. I was just kind of curious, would you look to do kind of future acquisitions with a JV partner or fully owned? Where do you see the opportunity today? Is that kind of on the multifamily side or the office side?

Kevin Crummy (Chief Investment Officer)

It's definitely—this is Kevin here. It's definitely on the office side is the result pricing has backed up slightly, but not to the degree that the office market has backed up. The 10900 acquisition raised a lot of eyebrows with some of our partners and other people that we've been talking to overseas about the opportunities. We are going to focus on finding high-quality office buildings in our market so that we can apply the operating platform to and create some value. Our partners are very intrigued by what they're seeing.

Seth Bergey (Senior Analyst)

Great. Thanks.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Jenna Gallen from Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Jenna Gallen (Analyst)

Thank you. Maybe digging a little bit deeper into that, kind of curious around your capital allocation thinking between these opportunistic acquisitions with the—for the property, could you also think about third-party management and then redevelopment like in Studio Plaza or share buybacks?

Jordan Kaplan (President and CEO)

Okay. Obviously, we've already committed to rebuild, and we're leasing up Studio Plaza. So consider that one done. Now, you're asking me about share buyback versus acquisitions?

Jenna Gallen (Analyst)

Yeah. And whether they would be with partners or on balance sheet.

Jordan Kaplan (President and CEO)

We have bought back shares. I think we bought back $115 million, something like that, $115 million or something like that. It is done. I do not like issuing stock, and I do not like tinkering with our stock because I do not think we have been great at predicting where the price is or any of that. I mean, sometimes it is so extreme that we do it. We have a group here, and we all talk about it. You have to really be really in a clear thing. In terms of doing acquisitions, I mean, I think we have an opportunity to buy stuff directly. If we do not include our partners in our acquisitions, we are going to lose the partners because they are going to look at us like we are cherry-picking.

They're going to go, "Oh, yeah, you come to us when you do not want to do the deal because we obviously have money to do deals. You do not come to us when you really love the deal." In general, everything we buy, we give them an opportunity to come in. Historically, they have. I would expect to continue that way.

Jenna Gallen (Analyst)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of John Kim from BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

John Kim (Managing Director of U.S. Real Estate)

Thank you. Can I just follow up on Steve's question on the multifamily growth? You had 7.7% same-store revenue, not much of a pickup in occupancy. You don't have a lot of turnover in the assets, so you can't really push rents to market. So were there one-time items in the first quarter that don't carry on for the rest of the year?

Stuart McElhinney (VP of Investor Relations)

No, John, no one-timers. We did have an increase in occupancy year over year in the same-store pool. That was a contributing factor. We do have pretty good turnover. We do have some rent-controlled units in Santa Monica that turn over less frequently. The rest of the portfolio, besides those, turns over at a pretty good normal rate. We had occupancy contributing, as Jordan said, we're very full, and good rent growth.

Jordan Kaplan (President and CEO)

I think what is being missed—and maybe I'm misleading by saying we haven't raised rents since the fire—but rents have been really moving up. Just sticking even at that new number with the roll that's now happening over the last few months is rolling through in terms of the 7%-8% that you're referring to. I think that's probably the primary cause.

Peter Seymour (CFO)

Yeah. I mean, it's Peter. The same-store includes all of last year and rent growth over the course of that year.

John Kim (Managing Director of U.S. Real Estate)

I know you don't give guidance on same-store to multifamily, but high single digits, is that a good assumption?

Jordan Kaplan (President and CEO)

It has been, but we don't give guidance on.

John Kim (Managing Director of U.S. Real Estate)

Okay. Switching gears, can I ask about Warner Center and the new Rams Village development proposal? If you're involved at all as far as potentially selling assets to the organization or maybe overall how that impacts the office market in Warner Center?

Jordan Kaplan (President and CEO)

It's very good for the market in Warner Center. The stuff that Kroenke and Otto and that crowd is doing is outstanding. We're certainly in communication with them and hugely in favor of the things they're doing and supportive.

John Kim (Managing Director of U.S. Real Estate)

You're not looking to sell any assets to their organization?

Jordan Kaplan (President and CEO)

Historically, we do not talk about deals. By me saying yes or no, you go, "Oh, you only talk about them when it is yes or no." We really do not talk about it. I mean, when we do a deal, we will definitely announce it.

John Kim (Managing Director of U.S. Real Estate)

A few years ago, I think this was a market that you were looking to potentially exit. I'm wondering if that's still on the cards or if this changes your view of your long-term ownership.

Jordan Kaplan (President and CEO)

I don't think I ever said I was trying to exit this market. That's not correct. I mean, I don't know if that was out in the world, but it didn't come from me.

John Kim (Managing Director of U.S. Real Estate)

Okay. Thank you.

Jordan Kaplan (President and CEO)

All right.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Dylan Burzinski from Green Street. Please go ahead.

Dylan Burzinski (Senior Analyst)

Okay. Thanks for taking the question. Most of my questions have already been asked. I guess just can you touch on sort of the acquisition pipeline and if things are sort of accelerating as it relates to sellers willing to come to market and part ways with their properties?

Jordan Kaplan (President and CEO)

What do you think?

Kevin Crummy (Chief Investment Officer)

I think that people's Westside assets are the family jewels. People will do as much as they can to hold on to those assets. We do not have a lot of distressed bank opportunities, but there are some core funds and other people who have more portfolio pressure that might end up selling some of their Westside assets because they do not have liquidity in their other markets.

Jordan Kaplan (President and CEO)

It is certainly not a flood, that is for sure.

Right.

Dylan Burzinski (Senior Analyst)

Okay. That's helpful, guys. Thanks.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Our next question comes from Anthony Paolone from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Anthony Paolone (Executive Director)

Yeah. Thanks. Just first one on Studio Plaza. Apologies if I missed this, but what is the lease rate at this point at that asset?

Stuart McElhinney (VP of Investor Relations)

Tony, we're not tracking individual buildings or leases that way. So we haven't provided a rate.

Anthony Paolone (Executive Director)

Okay. When you talk about your leasing or the new leasing in the quarter, the difference between the over 300,000 and I think the 275 or whatever for the in-service, is it safe to assume that the rest of it was Studio Plaza or is there something else outside of the in-service?

Stuart McElhinney (VP of Investor Relations)

Yeah. We've got two buildings not in the in-service portfolio. It would be Studio Plaza and then the new acquisition in Westwood.

Anthony Paolone (Executive Director)

Okay. Got it. And then just the other question, you did a couple of debt deals in the quarter. I guess next up is the 2026. Any thoughts as to when you are those on deck for near-term or because I would imagine they'll have some implication on earnings for this year?

Jordan Kaplan (President and CEO)

Yeah. That's what I was alluding to. We're working on a lot of debt right now, and we do start early on stuff. Yeah, you're right. That's why I'm able to give you my prediction.

Kevin Crummy (Chief Investment Officer)

Just to remind you, Anthony, we typically like to do a seven-year loan that's swapped for five years and leave ourselves a two-year runway. Those 2026 expirations, that's the floating-rate debt that you're seeing. We're working with our lenders right now to figure out new deals, and we'll announce them when we close them.

Jordan Kaplan (President and CEO)

I tried to give you guys a feel for it because I said in my prepared remarks, I think we're going to be up 100 basis points-200 basis points over the 3% rate that we enjoyed pre-COVID.

Anthony Paolone (Executive Director)

Right. But just to make sure I understand, because you have been pretty clear that you want to get those done this year, and you kind of gave us those brackets. But you did not put those in your guide, right? We would have to kind of think about that separately.

Stuart McElhinney (VP of Investor Relations)

That's right. We don't put future refinancings in the guidance. So we'll do.

Jordan Kaplan (President and CEO)

The guidance has a bump in it at the rate of floating and the curve, just like you guys could also figure out.

Anthony Paolone (Executive Director)

Okay. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Jordan Kaplan for any closing remarks.

Jordan Kaplan (President and CEO)

All I can say is thank you for joining us, and we'll speak to you next quarter. Goodbye.

Operator (participant)

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.