Tanger - Earnings Call - Q1 2025

Executive Summary

• Q1 2025 was steady operationally: FFO/share rose to $0.53 (+2–4% vs LY depending on Core) on 2.3% Same Center NOI growth, while GAAP EPS fell to $0.17 due to a $4.2M non‑cash impairment tied to the April sale of Howell, MI.
• Occupancy dipped seasonally and from remerchandising timing (95.8% vs 98.0% in Q4), but leasing momentum stayed robust with the 13th straight quarter of positive blended rent spreads (+14.1% TTM) and stronger traffic into April, per management.
• 2025 guidance: FFO/share unchanged at $2.22–$2.30; GAAP EPS trimmed to $0.91–$0.99 solely for the impairment; SSS NOI growth, G&A, interest expense and capex ranges maintained.
• Balance sheet remains conservative post Pinecrest acquisition and Howell sale: Net debt/Adj EBITDAre 5.2x, interest coverage 4.6x; dividend was raised 6.4% to $1.17 annualized (declared April 9).
• Near‑term stock drivers: sustained positive rent spreads and traffic, dividend increase/coverage (53% of FAD), and clarity on backfilling vacates (e.g., Forever 21), versus optical occupancy pressure from remerchandising timing.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

• What Went Well

  • “Another quarter of strong financial and operating results,” with Core FFO/share at $0.53 and Same Center NOI +2.3% YoY, aided by higher rental revenues and ancillary revenues.
  • Leasing momentum and pricing power: 13th consecutive quarter of positive blended cash rent spreads (+14.1% TTM; re‑tenanting +33.2%, renewals +12.3%), and 56.7% of 2025 expirations already executed/in process by April 30.
  • Management reiterated a confident tone on value channel demand, digital activation, and traffic strength in April: “Traffic…has been strong,” with targeted real‑time promotions through optimized digital capabilities.

• What Went Wrong

  • Occupancy fell to 95.8% (95.9% same center) from 98.0% at YE, reflecting seasonality and deliberate remerchandising downtime between old tenants exiting and new tenants taking possession.
  • GAAP EPS was pressured by a $4.2M non‑cash impairment for Howell, MI (sold in April), reducing Q1 EPS to $0.17; management cut GAAP EPS guidance accordingly while keeping FFO unchanged.
  • Same Center NOI was held back by higher snow expense and a prior‑year refund benefit; percentage rent is a small and variable contributor (~3% of revenues last year), limiting upside from sales volatility.

Transcript

Ashley Curtis (VP of Investor Relations)

Good morning. I'm Ashley Curtis, Assistant Vice President of Investor Relations, and I would like to welcome you to Tanger Inc.'s First Quarter 2025 Conference Call. Yesterday evening, we issued our Earnings Release as well as our Supplemental Information Package and Investor Presentation. This information is available on our website, tanger.com. Please note that the call may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, and actual results could differ materially from those projected. We direct you to our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a detailed discussion of these risks and uncertainties. During the call, we will also discuss our non-GAAP financial measures as defined by SEC Regulation G.

Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are included in our Earnings Release and in our Supplemental Information. This call is being recorded for rebroadcast for a period of time in the future. As such, it is important to note that management's comments include time-sensitive information that may only be accurate as of today's date, May 1st, 2025.

At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Following management's prepared comments, the call will be open for your questions. We request that everyone ask only one question and one follow-up question. If time permits, we are happy for you to re-queue for additional questions. On the call today will be Stephen Yalof, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Michael Bilerman, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Investment Officer. In addition, other members of our leadership team will be available for Q&A. I will now turn the call over to Stephen Yalof. Please go ahead.

Stephen Yalof (President and CEO)

Good morning. I'm pleased to report that Tanger has started 2025 with continued positive momentum, delivering a robust first quarter that builds on our outstanding performance from last year, and we are reaffirming our full year's same-center NOI growth and core FFO guidance. Our first quarter core FFO increased to $0.53 per share, driven by a 2.3% rise in same-center NOI. Strong revenue growth was partially offset by higher snow expense in the quarter and certain expense refunds that benefited our results in the first quarter of 2024. Traffic, particularly over the past two months, has been strong, and we are encouraged by this positive momentum leading into our very important summer selling season.

Sales for the trailing 12-month period averaged $455 per sq ft for the total portfolio, up from the prior quarter and year, due in part to the execution of our strategy of merchandising, replacing less productive tenants, and evolving our portfolio. We ended the quarter with occupancy of 95.8%, which reflects an anticipated seasonal decline from year-end and further reflects our strategy to add new in-demand retailers and uses, replacing poorer performers. Much of this modest decline in occupancy is the result of timing between old tenants leaving and new tenants taking possession. We continue to expand into new categories and welcome new brands as we diversify our offerings and create environments that encourage more frequent visits, extended stays, and drive increased spend across a broader customer profile and age range. Our strategy is resonating with our widening shopper demographic.

Although executing this strategy may yield lower near-term occupancy, we are delivering solid same-center NOI growth while positioning our portfolio for continued growth in coming years. Leasing activity remains solid. We executed 2.5 million sq ft over the trailing 12-month period, representing nearly 550 transactions. Renewals executed or in process through April 30, 2025 totaled 57% on space scheduled to expire during 2025, compared to 47% over the same period last year. With our 13th consecutive quarter of positive rent spreads, our brand partners continue to show confidence and invest in expanding their presence within our Tanger centers. Ancillary revenues continue to grow as our tenants and other national consumer brands see the value of utilizing our platform to reach sought-after shoppers.

Additionally, as we've continued to optimize our digital capabilities, we are gaining enhanced customer insights and analytics that enable us to partner with our retailers to deliver targeted, real-time promotions that best resonate with shoppers, ultimately driving increases in both traffic and sales performance. We continue to execute on our external growth strategy. As previously announced, during the first quarter, we acquired Pinecrest, a lifestyle center in Cleveland, which followed the purchase of The Promenade at Chenal in Little Rock in December. In recent years, we've made significant strides in differentiating our platform to maximize growth potential within our existing portfolio while capitalizing on value-creating opportunities through strategic expansion.

Our first quarter results reflect the ongoing execution of this strategy to elevate and diversify our centers with the retailers, restaurants, and entertainment that shoppers want. As uncertainty grows within the broader macro environment, we remain confident in Tanger's positioning and our differentiated model. First and foremost, we've established a field-like organization that we believe provides for the ideal combination of scale and flexibility. We prioritize how we show up every day for our retailers and our shoppers, and by staying close to them, we remain nimble against an evolving consumer landscape. Additionally, Tanger's value positioning continues to resonate with consumers.

Today, we will launch our Tanger Deal Days campaign. In partnership with our retailers, this marketing initiative will reinforce the value and great brands' messaging at Tanger centers, leading to our Summer of Savings launch in June, where every day of summer offers back-to-school sales, encouraging our guests to shop earlier in the season. Our high-quality assets are strategically located in metropolitan areas that serve both tourist destinations and local communities, which continue to benefit from demographic tailwinds and employment growth, validating our market positioning, value proposition, and expansion strategy.

We maintain unwavering confidence in our ability to deliver compelling value to both retailers and consumers. Our well-positioned, conservatively leveraged balance sheet, combined with our consistent generation of strong free cash flow, provides stability and the flexibility to pursue opportunistic growth. On behalf of the entire Tanger team, I want to thank Dave Henry for his nearly 10 years of service on the Tanger Board, including his time spent as our Lead Director. Dave will be retiring from the Tanger Board after our annual meeting next week. I also want to extend my sincere appreciation to our dedicated Tanger team members, retail partners, loyal shoppers, and financial stakeholders for your ongoing support and confidence. I'd now like to turn the call over to Michael.

Michael Bilerman (CFO and CIO)

Thank you, Steve. Today, I'm going to discuss our first quarter financial results and balance sheet, and then provide an update on our outlook for the remainder of the year. In the first quarter, we delivered core FFO of $0.53 a share compared to $0.52 a share in the first quarter of the prior year. Same-center NOI increased 2.3% for the quarter, driven by higher rental revenues from the continued strong retailer demand and leasing activity, as well as the ancillary revenues that we derived from our portfolio and platform. As we had anticipated and discussed in our last call, our first quarter same-center NOI growth was impacted by higher snow expenses this year and certain expense refunds that we received in the first quarter of last year.

In February, we completed the acquisition of Pinecrest in Cleveland for $167 million, using cash-on-hand and draws in our line of credit. We have also further improved our portfolio through the recent sale of a non-core center in Howell, Michigan, in April for $17 million. In conjunction with this sale, we recognized a non-cash impairment charge of $4.2 million in the first quarter. Our balance sheet remains well-positioned for stability and funding of our internal and external growth initiatives with low leverage, largely fixed-rate debt, ample liquidity through our lines of credit and undrawn forward equity, and the additional free cash flow we produce after dividends. At quarter end, our net debt to adjusted EBITDAre was 5.2x, and it was even lower with a full 12 months of EBITDA from the recent acquisitions and sale of Howell.

From a liquidity perspective, we ended the quarter with $16 million of cash, $481 million available on our unsecured lines of credit, and $70 million of proceeds that are available from the potential settlement of our forward ATM agreements. Additionally, in April, we refinanced the mortgage of Tanger Outlets Memphis, increasing the borrowings by $10 million and extending the maturity date from October 2026 to April 2030 with no change to the interest rate. Our next significant debt maturity is in September of 2026. We also continue to manage our interest rate exposure, entering into $75 million of new forward-starting swaps that will begin next February when $75 million of swaps expire. These new swaps fix SOFR at 3.3%, which is down 20 basis points from the maturing swaps at 3.5%. These new swaps will expire in April of 2028.

In April of 2025, the Board of Directors approved a 6.4% increase in the dividend from $1.10 to $1.17 per share on an annualized basis. The dividend remains well covered, with a 53% dividend payout ratio as a percentage of our funds available for distribution in the first quarter. Now, turning to our guidance for 2025, we are updating the EPS outlook to account for the non-cash impairment charge that I discussed earlier related to the Howell Center disposition. From a core FFO perspective, we continue to expect core FFO of $2.22-$2.30 per share, which represents growth of 4%-8%. We continue to expect same-center NOI growth to be in a range of 2%-4%, and we've maintained our ranges for interest expense, G&A, and CapEx. For additional details on our key assumptions, please see our release issued last night.

We're also excited to continue to engage with our financial stakeholders at conferences and property tours, as there is no better way to get an appreciation for Tanger and how we are executing on our strategy than by touring our centers and meeting with our teams. We'll be hosting a tour of Tanger Outlets Charleston on May 8th in connection with Wells Fargo's Real Estate Securities Conference. We are attending BMO's North American Real Estate Conference in New York on May 13th. We'll be touring Bridge Street Town Center in Huntsville, one of our recent lifestyle acquisitions, on May 14th in connection with Evercore ISI's Multi-REIT Property Tour. We'll also be at ICSC from May 19th through May 20th.

We'll be hosting a tour of Tanger Outlets National Harbor on May 28th as part of BofA's D.C. Retail Tour. We'll be presenting at Nareit's REITweek in New York from June 3rd to the 5th. Finally, we'll be touring Tanger Nashville on June 11th with BMO, and we hope to see many of you over the next few months. With that, Operator, we can take our first question.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. We'll now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we pull for questions. Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Andrew Reale with Bank of America. Please proceed.

Andrew Reale (Equity Research Analyst)

Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. It would be helpful to hear your thinking on what the impact to temp occupancy could look like if this macro uncertainty persists. Maybe can you just talk about how temp tenants behave during previous downturns or periods of uncertainty?

Stephen Yalof (President and CEO)

Good morning, Andrew. Thanks for the question. Look, for Tanger, temp occupancy is a strategy, and it always has been. I think some of the best examples of temp occupancy, particularly in our portfolio, are our pop-up stores. Understanding the outlet business, which is our primary business, outlet retailers, there's a lot of barriers to entry before you get into the outlet business. First of all, a lot of these brands do not know how much excess inventory they're going to have. If they're using it strictly as a clearing model, they're going to want to make sure that they pop up first, try to see how much velocity there is, how much product they can move, how long it's going to take before they'll sign up for a long-term lease.

In the case of temp tenants in the pop-up arena, we've been speaking to a number of retailers that are very interested in being in the outlet business. They're speaking to us about possibly going in on a short-term basis to understand what the outlet business is, how it can help their brand, how it could get their shoppers to convert into their ecosystem, get to understand their brand at a price point that they can afford going in. It's just a great tool, a great strategy. We've used it, and we've talked about it for a number of quarters in the past. Vineyard Vines started that way, UGG started that way, and we've turned those into long-term retailers across our portfolio today.

Andrew Reale (Equity Research Analyst)

Okay. Thank you. Maybe just as a follow-up, just curious if you've had any recent conversations with retailers about inventory expectations for the second half of the year. Just curious if they've shared any thoughts or if you have any thoughts on their ability to source inventory for back-to-school or the holidays. Thank you.

Stephen Yalof (President and CEO)

Yeah. As you probably are aware, we're in front of all of our retailers on a regular basis. We're speaking to our top retailers. Inventory so far, what we're hearing is that there has not been much of an inventory issue. Again, in the outlet channel, we'll see a lot of that excess inventory will flow through our channel as new inventory will go into the full-price arena. What we're doing, though, this summer is, in anticipation of perhaps some retailers who might consider getting their sales going earlier in the season, we're promoting our back-to-school sales starting with June 1st.

As we said earlier, today, we launched Summer Deals, new promotion across our channel, but we're starting with a campaign starting as early as June 1st, much like our November Black Friday sales started on November 1st this year, just to get the customer who's thinking about getting into the stores earlier and starting to build their baskets much earlier. We're also doing the same thing with back-to-school shopping, which is typically an event that we host at the end of the summer. We're going to start to pull that forward to the beginning of the summer so that if folks are concerned that there might be less inventory or less choice and selection available to them, later, they can stock up and buy those products earlier.

Andrew Reale (Equity Research Analyst)

Okay. Thank you.

Stephen Yalof (President and CEO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Todd Thomas with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please proceed.

Todd Thomas (Managing Director of REIT Research and Lead Equity Research Analyst for Industrial, Retail, Self-storage, and Gaming (REIT))

Hi, thanks. Good morning. First, I wanted to ask about occupancy. I realize the occupancy impact from seasonality is largely a 1Q phenomenon, but do you anticipate an additional impact related to proactive re-merchandising or any additional vacate activity in the second quarter that you can speak about? Should we expect occupancy to begin building back next quarter from here? Do you have a target for year-end occupancy that's embedded in the guidance?

Stephen Yalof (President and CEO)

If you think about our current run rate of occupancy, a lot of that, to your point, Todd, is definitely in the re-merchandising. We were just talking earlier about LEGO, which is going to take—we had a legacy tenant in our Huntsville, Alabama Shopping Center that shut. Lego opens up in two weeks. We had our first Marc Jacobs, so we've done a number of Marc Jacobs deals. Our first Marc Jacobs store just opened up at an old legacy tenant location in Washington, D.C. I think one of the bigger impacts is Main Event, which will be taking over a space that was recently vacated by Wayfair in Deer Park. I think there's a lot of that timing noise in those numbers, I think, as we continue to merchandise, and that's our re-merchandising. I think that's an important part of our strategy.

I mean, if you take a look at our rent spreads, Todd, we're over 30% on retenanting. We're over 10% on renewal. In a lot of instances where we have the opportunity to replace a poorer-performing retailer with a much better somebody new to the portfolio, somebody that will grow with us across our portfolio, we're going to take advantage of that. I think the fact that there's very little new retail space coming online in the United States right now, particularly in the outlet space, we have a unique opportunity to take advantage of the fact that there's retailer demand for our space, and we're going to try and reposition as much of that space as we can to set ourselves up for the long game and for the future.

Todd Thomas (Managing Director of REIT Research and Lead Equity Research Analyst for Industrial, Retail, Self-storage, and Gaming (REIT))

Okay. Are you able to provide an update for FOREVER 21 or any updates around timing to recapture some of that space? Are you able to share any backfill plans and timeline for that?

Stephen Yalof (President and CEO)

Sure. The Forever 21 store closures, we'd anticipated for quite some time. We've been in constant communication with that brand. When we knew that they were going to be closing stores, we had already had lined up some temp replacement for most of those spaces. Now, as you probably know, those retail stores, there were nine of them, about 100,000 sq ft. From a rent point of view, they're relatively low-rent payers. Our temp rent replacements will not be a material decline in what they were currently paying. We think that there's a tremendous amount of upside in all of those boxes. As I said to you earlier, I mean, there's not a lot of new space available on the market right now. There is increased demand, particularly from retailers that are not only willing to pay much higher rents, but also doing much better sales performance.

Todd Thomas (Managing Director of REIT Research and Lead Equity Research Analyst for Industrial, Retail, Self-storage, and Gaming (REIT))

Okay. If I could just sneak one more in here. I understand the value proposition of the outlet channel, and I think you mentioned that some of your retailers, they clear excess merchandise. I think you were referencing a lot of the pop-ups, and I know a bunch of others do too. A lot of retailers, I think some of the bigger apparel chains in particular, I believe, have separate made-for-outlet channels. I was just wondering if you have a sense for that product, whether they plan to pass through higher prices to customers at the outlets. I was just wondering if you could talk about that a little bit as we move further into the year and the impact from tariffs might change sort of the pricing or value proposition dynamic a little bit at some of your centers.

Stephen Yalof (President and CEO)

Yeah. I think the retailers, particularly in the outlet space, use those stores for a number of different reasons. If you take a look at the biggest athletic footwear player in the marketplace, every product in that store is excess inventory. There is no manufacturing for that business. There are other brands that do do some manufacturing for that business. My feeling is retailers in the outlet space can change pricing relatively quickly. So where in their full-price businesses, their plans are probably far more set to meet budgets during the course of the year, in the outlets, if they have excess inventory flowing into their channel, they can move those goods by quick price and promotion. I am not familiar with all the retailers' pricing strategy as it relates to outlet and going into the next quarter and the back half of the year.

I do know that they are going to be using that business extremely strategically because it's going to be the opportunity for them to move through excess inventory. If goods aren't flowing into the stores right now, goods are going to be late hitting some of their full-price businesses. They're going to want to have to turn that inventory into cash. The best way to do it is in front of a consumer that wants to shop value. That's who the 125 million people that shop Tanger Outlets, that's who that customer is.

Todd Thomas (Managing Director of REIT Research and Lead Equity Research Analyst for Industrial, Retail, Self-storage, and Gaming (REIT))

Okay. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Steve Sakwa with Evercore ISI. Please proceed.

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

Yeah. Thanks. I guess I just wanted to ask maybe on Nashville, it's the most recent center you've opened that was built. Maybe a little surprise that it kind of ranks, call it middle of the pack, if you will, within the portfolio. Just curious, any thoughts you've had kind of on that center since it's opened as you kind of think about the merchandise mix and maybe what's worked and maybe what's been disappointing?

Stephen Yalof (President and CEO)

I think a lot of shopping centers take a couple of years to build. Even the best centers in the country have taken 10 or 15 years to get to the sales productive volumes where they are right now. We always say when we open a center, we don't build it for opening day. We build it for the generation. The important part of that is we learn. We put a number of retailers in that center right off the bat, some local. It just didn't work. We also have replaced a number of retailers. We just opened a Kate Spade store, and they were one of the most recent retailers to come into that shopping center. They're doing a great business there. We've merchandised that center with a number of food retailers as well.

We think that National Foods is doing extraordinarily well, but one of our best food performers is a local restaurant chain that has several stores in the Nashville area. I think we have the opportunity to move some of these retailers around. I think we also, one of the things that we did was some of the stores are just a little bit too big. In a 300,000 sq ft shopping center where we have about 65 stores, we probably could have had 75-80 stores in that shopping center. If that were the case, we'd be far more dense, and the sales productivity for each of the stores would be much greater because of it. I think that those are sort of the early reads on Nashville. We're extraordinarily pleased with the business. We think the local community is definitely shopping that center.

We're starting to see that tourism traffic pick up with our tourist traffic initiatives. We're in this for the long game. We think that center will be a really important part of our business as we go forward. The center, if you've seen it, beautiful-looking shopping center, it is definitely the model for what centers will and should look like going forward.

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

Okay. Thanks. Maybe secondly, you guys obviously sold Howell, probably not high dollar value. I don't know if you have provided a cap rate on that, but just how do you think about the kind of lower-tiered part of the portfolio today? I guess I'm thinking centers 28 to 33 and just ultimate monetization of those and redeploying that capital.

Stephen Yalof (President and CEO)

Sure. First of all, let's take Howell separately. All of our centers cash flow positively. All of our centers, particularly the outlet shopping centers, are filled with national credit retailers. Howell was built a long time ago. It was built at a time when outlet shopping centers were 50 or 75 mi away from regional malls. In many of our geographies, those markets have grown up, and it has become extraordinarily important to those communities. Population has built. Demographics have built. Other uses have developed around it. In the case of Howell, that was slow to come. A lot of the retailers that have since replaced national outlet retailers are more local in nature, perhaps not the same credit. That is not the business that we're in.

We elected to sell Howell because that center is definitely going to take on a different life under new ownership. As an outlet center, that's our focus. We're in the national tenant, high credit, high rent paying, fixed rent business, and I think Howell moved away from that. As far as other shopping centers, there are very few centers that actually fit the Howell bill. I think that a number of our centers are really important in the communities, and we think there's great upside in that part of the portfolio. That does not mean if there's an opportunity to sell a center because it's a deal we can't pass up. Currently, there's nothing on our list that we are looking to dispose of. I think we've got a lot of upside in our portfolio going forward.

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

Thanks [audio distortion].

Stephen Yalof (President and CEO)

Operator, if there's a follow-up, we can't hear the question.

Operator (participant)

Steve, your line is unmuted. It looks like you lost him there.

Stephen Yalof (President and CEO)

Okay. He can reach you if he's got a follow-up question.

Operator (participant)

All right. Our next question comes from the line of Emili Berisha with BMO. Please proceed.

Emili Berisha (Equity Research Associate)

Good morning, and thank you for taking my questions. I wanted to ask you on the Howell asset, what was the cap rate on the disposition? Was this removal already contemplated in the prior guidance? Can you please speak to its impact on your same-store results this quarter? Thank you.

Michael Bilerman (CFO and CIO)

Thanks, Emili. The Howell sale in the original guidance was not contemplated. It is currently in the updated range that we have maintained. As Steve talked about, it is really not a cap rate type of transaction. It is embedded in the non-same-center pool. There is a certain amount of NOI that comes out when we deploy the cash proceeds to repay our line. That is where we are. The second part of your question, Emili, I missed. Can you just repeat it?

Emili Berisha (Equity Research Associate)

Yes. I wanted to ask you about the impact on your same-store results this quarter of the disposition of the Howell asset.

Michael Bilerman (CFO and CIO)

Howell is in the non-same-center pool. It is out of the same-center NOI. Howell was our smallest asset, less than 1% of NOI. That NOI has been trending down, and certainly our view towards the future was where the contraction was. We had 2.3% same-center NOI. If Howell were to include it, it would drop less than 10 basis points to 2.2%.

Emili Berisha (Equity Research Associate)

Okay. Thank you. Same-store NOI, do you feel more comfortable at the lower end of the guidance range for 2025? Or should we expect the same-store NOI to accelerate through the rest of the year?

Michael Bilerman (CFO and CIO)

Our guidance is 2%-4%. We talked a lot when we provided that guidance that the range has differing assumptions related to credit, our downtime, our rent spread, sales. There are a lot of variables that go into it. We continue to feel comfortable in that 2%-4% range. There are a number of things that can help us as we move through the year. As we report our second quarter, less of the uncertainty will be removed, and we will be able to update that guidance over time.

Emili Berisha (Equity Research Associate)

Okay. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Craig Mailman with Citi. Please proceed.

Craig Mailman (Director and Equity Research Analyst of Real Estate and Lodging)

Hey, good morning. Just wanted to circle back. I know you guys mentioned timing lags as a driver of the occupancy decline. Specifically, Huntsville saw an occupancy dip. I know Steve even mentioned LEGO is going to open there. Could you guys just talk about what drove the sequential decline and what the backfill timing is going to be? Just more broadly, on that asset, I know you guys bought an 8% cap going in and talked about yield upside over time with the remerchandising you guys have done so far. Where are you in the process of that? Where does the yield today sit pro forma, maybe some leases you have on the come versus the initial 8% cap?

Michael Bilerman (CFO and CIO)

Thanks, Craig. It was an 8.5% cap going in. We talked about additional growth over time. A lot of that growth is coming from that remerchandising activity that you're starting to see coming through and that we're talking about. We mentioned that LEGO store, but the big part of the occupancy was that former Bed Bath & Beyond box, which was 30,000 sq ft. That 30,000 sq ft we had temped for a bit. We have some leases out for that space, and we'll be really excited to tell you once those are signed and what those are.

That 30,000 sq ft was 625 basis points of Huntsville's occupancy and almost 25 basis points of that sequential occupancy decline combined with that Main Event that Steve talked about at Deer Park. Our expectation is we're going to continue to bring newness, and we're really excited about the retailers that are coming into Huntsville, both from a specialty perspective as well as a food, beverage, entertainment perspective.

Craig Mailman (Director and Equity Research Analyst of Real Estate and Lodging)

I did not mean to shave off 50 basis points there. I guess just the other part of the question, where is that 8.5% cap going to go pro forma, kind of what you guys are underwriting for the Bed Bath backfill, plus the LEGO and some other things that have gone on? What is the uplift you have seen so far versus what you think could happen over the next in the medium term as other leases roll?

Michael Bilerman (CFO and CIO)

What we talk about a lot in our acquisitions is we want those acquisitions to be greater growth than what our core portfolio is. Otherwise, we're not creating value. We had a first year, which we talked about being 8.5%. As these things come in, we'll continue to see growth in this year, year after, and the year after that. We are very optimistic about what type of yield-on-cost as we also invest some capital that this asset will be able to drive very solid return for our stakeholders.

Craig Mailman (Director and Equity Research Analyst of Real Estate and Lodging)

Okay. Just maybe a second question here. We've seen the discount channel kind of get an influx of higher-income consumers. Have you guys tracked that or seen any of that trade down in sort of the core tendency or core client base that you guys have had over the last three, six, 12 months, whatever timeframe you would look at it?

Stephen Yalof (President and CEO)

We're definitely paying attention to the customer. As you're aware, we have a loyalty program that we continue to build. We continue to sign up new members. We continue to communicate with those customers. They opt in for the program, so they share with us their purchasing activity. We're seeing where they're coming from, and we're seeing what they're buying. We're tracking that customer. We are seeing a new customer. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that we're also trading up our tenant base. Some of these older legacy brands that have lost some market share or haven't reinvested in their business get replaced with new brands to the channel. We're bringing out a new customer for that too.

I think that higher demographic, wealthier customer that's finding the products that they like in the outlet channel at everyday value pricing is a great draw. Let's not forget that Generation Alpha, that young consumer that's now coming to our center also for a number of brands that we've merchandised for them. I think immediately of Sephora, which is a brand that this younger customer is lining up for. Brands like Miniso, who we've done a number of stores with them as well, younger customers seeking those brands too. We look to merchandise our shopping centers for the consumer to make sure that they come and visit us more frequently, stay longer when they're there. When they do, obviously, they build bigger baskets, and we get better sales.

Craig Mailman (Director and Equity Research Analyst of Real Estate and Lodging)

Great. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Caitlin Burrows with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed.

Caitlin Burrows (VP of REITs Equity Research)

Hi. Good morning, everybody. Maybe following up on some of the previous points from earlier in the call, I think one concern is that there won't be enough excess inventory to then bring product to outlet centers. I was wondering, do you know how much of your tenant product is made for outlet, how that might have changed over time? Is that a concern of yours? Do you hear anything about this from your retailers yet?

Stephen Yalof (President and CEO)

We haven't heard any concern yet. I think that the retailers are probably thinking that they're going to rely far more heavily on outlet than perhaps you're suggesting. If you go back to the COVID case, just as an example, the post-COVID 2021, Tanger saw the highest sales performance on a per-square-foot basis than we've ever seen in our portfolio. As we're moving back towards those numbers, I think a lot of the reason was because lack of inventory flow and the timing of when that inventory started to flow, it missed the full-price selling season and therefore found itself into the outlet channel. I think we're far more optimistic about the flow of inventory to the outlet channel. As we've been speaking to our retailers, I think they echo that they're not as concerned either.

Caitlin Burrows (VP of REITs Equity Research)

Got it. You are saying kind of like there might be uncertainty in the nearer term on those flow of inventory, but eventually it will come. Maybe the timing will be wrong then for full price, and that will benefit outlets.

Stephen Yalof (President and CEO)

I think so.

Caitlin Burrows (VP of REITs Equity Research)

Okay. Got it. I guess in light of the new uncertainty that feels like it would be impacting your business, but happy to hear if that's not the case. Could you guys just go through how leasing was in 1Q? The earnings release showed that was pretty good. More importantly, how it progressed over April and kind of your outlook for ICSC.

Stephen Yalof (President and CEO)

Yeah. I think we're optimistic about leasing. I mentioned earlier in the call, there's not a lot of new space being developed in the country, and there's a lot of demand from retailers. There are a couple of ways to facilitate the demand. One is to replace older, less-performing retailers with new retailers that want to be in the space. Or, when leases roll, asking retailers to downsize and optimize.

I mentioned earlier, as we talked about Nashville, I was asked what mistakes we might have made in Nashville. I said, I don't think we densified that 300,000 sq ft shopping center enough. I think one of our leasing team strategies right now is to right-size stores to maximize productivity and create more space in our existing productive shopping centers that ultimately will drive more rent, drive more variety, drive more types of uses, and give us the opportunity to bring in the brands that are looking to get into our channel.

Caitlin Burrows (VP of REITs Equity Research)

Got it. Any other details you or I do not know if Justin's there can give about the April leasing?

Justin Stein (EVP of Leasing)

Sure. Thanks, Caitlin. Bottom line is the fundamentals of our business are strong. The open-to-buys are there. We talked last quarter about all the tenants that have the open-to-buys, and they are looking out not only in 2025 and 2026, but 2027. All of our deal committees that we have had in the first quarter, including April, were amazing. You may have noticed that we are way ahead of our renewals for this time. We are about 56%-57% complete. The reason we jumped out ahead is because of all these open-to-buys and new brands that are looking to come into our portfolio so we can focus on that new business. The April committee was strong both from a renewal standpoint and a new business standpoint. We are really optimistic about the balance of 2025 and looking into 2026.

Caitlin Burrows (VP of REITs Equity Research)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Hong Zhang with JPMorgan. Please proceed.

Hong Zhang (VP of Sell Side)

Yeah. Hey. I guess you talked about moving the back-to-school sales to June. I was wondering if there was anything seasonal to call out in terms of revenues or expenses from the shift.

Stephen Yalof (President and CEO)

I want to talk about... Michael, you want to talk about the revenue expense? I'll just address the campaign because I think it was a really smart idea on behalf of our marketing department. There's a lot of noise in the marketplace. As Caitlin mentioned, perhaps the back half of the year, if there was going to be some shift in terms of product delivery, we thought it would just be smart if we had a call-to-action, particularly to drive customers into our centers far more early as far as any sort of financial shift. Can you talk about that?

Michael Bilerman (CFO and CIO)

Yeah. If you think about the impact, a lot of our revenues are fixed and growing. And that's where we talk about on a quarterly basis where our operating expenses, given that they're highly variable, will impact that year over a year, right? We saw that, obviously, in the first quarter with the snow expenses and last year having the expense refunds. We saw that in the fourth quarter where we had larger marketing spend in the fourth quarter of 2024 relative to 2023.

There may be some timing of that marketing spend throughout the year as we promote different strategies, but it does not have a meaningful impact overall to that year range that we have given of 2%-4%, which obviously started the year lighter just given that comp from last year where we continue to be optimistic about our same-center range. We are cognizant of the macro factors, but all of that is embedded into our guidance.

Hong Zhang (VP of Sell Side)

Got it. I guess on the marketing spend, it sounds like you wouldn't necessarily be more lean on the marketing channel more this year just given the economic uncertainty around tariffs and everything.

Michael Bilerman (CFO and CIO)

I mean, it's not a significant driver. I mean, it's an important aspect of our business that we drive traffic. And it's our teams that are coming up and creating the creative and all of the programs that we have to drive traffic and sales for our retail partners and for the consumers.

Hong Zhang (VP of Sell Side)

Cool. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Vince Tibone with Green Street. Please proceed.

Vince Tibone (Managing Director of U.S. Malls and Industrial Research)

Hi. Good morning. Could you discuss trends in foot traffic since the tariff uncertainty heightened on April 2nd and consumer confidence took a hit? I'm just curious if you noticed any material changes in consumer behavior or shopping patterns in the past few weeks.

Stephen Yalof (President and CEO)

What's interesting is January and February traffic, largely in part to weather, and January being a relatively slow month for shopping as it is, were a little bit more lackluster. We saw the build of traffic start to occur towards the end of March. Consistent with the announcement of traffic, our April traffic numbers have been extraordinarily positive. I've heard another of peer REITs in their reporting earlier this week echo the same thing. April traffic to our centers has been extraordinarily strong.

Vince Tibone (Managing Director of U.S. Malls and Industrial Research)

Oh, that's great to hear. Then somewhat related to that is how should we think about the sensitivity of NOI in your portfolio to changes in tenant sales? Percentage rents have been declining, but my sense is that's a function of you prioritizing fixed rates over, excuse me, fixed rents over variable rents during renewals, no issues with sales. Just given the uncertain backdrop here, tenant sales grew 2% in 2025 versus, let's say, fallen 2% in 2025, for example. How much does that actually impact NOI for the full year?

Michael Bilerman (CFO and CIO)

Sure. Thanks, Vince. When you look at our overage rents, what's been happening is we've been sweeping a lot of that overage rent into fixed rents as we prioritize. You look at the overage rent in totality, it's only running about 3% of our total revenues. That sensitivity in the current year is part of why we have a little bit of a wider range in our business. It's not significant enough. What we're finding is you can look at the overall sales productivity of the portfolio as we've executed re-merchandising strategy, portfolio up to $455 a sq ft. All of that's driving higher rents, which is much more impactful to our NOI than changes in overage from changes in sales.

Vince Tibone (Managing Director of U.S. Malls and Industrial Research)

No, I mean, that all makes sense. Is there any—quantify it? I mean, maybe not in the exact example I laid out. You see what I'm trying to get at. Because there's operating leverage, if you will, with the overage rents. If you hit the breakpoint or do not, that could influence how much you receive. That is not something I'm overly worried about, just trying to understand kind of upside, downside, quantitatively due to sales. I understand it's hard to provide, and it depends on the tenant and nuance.

Michael Bilerman (CFO and CIO)

The range contemplates a range of outcomes relative to that overage rent piece, as you know, right? To get over the breakpoint, there are options, right? Because you do not get anything up until the breakpoint, and then once you get over the breakpoint, you move up. We have a range for that line item relative to our numbers. Last year, percentage rents were $17.5 million in the consolidated portfolio.

Vince Tibone (Managing Director of U.S. Malls and Industrial Research)

Okay. No, that's fair. Thank you.

Michael Bilerman (CFO and CIO)

Thank you, Vince.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Omotayo Okusanya with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed.

Omotayo Okusanya (Managing Director and Head of US REIT Research)

Yes. Good morning, everyone. I wanted to talk a little bit just about the jewelry category. Just a lot of conversation around diamond prices being down 30%-40%. I think Signet actually may have warned on earnings earlier on this year. Just kind of how should we be thinking about in light of one of their biggest—the pricing of one of their biggest products coming down so meaningfully?

Justin Stein (EVP of Leasing)

Hey, this is Justin. Thanks for the question. The jewelry category has been fairly strong for us, and we've been doing a lot more business with brands like Pandora. Signet is a major player in our portfolio. They're thinking about their merchandising and how they're targeting their customers a little bit differently. We're seeing positive trends in that category, and we're happy with what we see.

Omotayo Okusanya (Managing Director and Head of US REIT Research)

Okay. That's helpful. Michael, in terms of the swaps, the SOFR lines that expire in August rather than the February swaps, how should we be kind of thinking about that, just kind of given you do have this unique opportunity right now to get attractive pricing on swaps given the unusual shape of the forward curve?

Michael Bilerman (CFO and CIO)

Yeah. Thanks, Tayo, for the question. When you look at our swap activity, page 16 of the Supp, we have a $325 million term loan that we have swapped from floating to fixed using the swap strategy. Those swaps, we had $75 million that were going to mature on February 1st of next year that we were able to effectively now put forward starting swaps that will reduce what we have fixed at SOFR at 3.5% down to 3.3%. That August $75 million is currently at 3.7%. We will look at opportunities just to manage our interest rate exposure to push out those swaps to maintain that term loan is effectively fixed. We will look at those opportunities over the course of the balance of the year to address any interest rate exposure that we have.

Omotayo Okusanya (Managing Director and Head of US REIT Research)

Thank you.

Michael Bilerman (CFO and CIO)

Thanks, Tayo.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. With that, this concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.