Michael J. Franco
President and Chief Financial Officer at Vornado Realty Trust
Thank you, Steve, and good morning, everyone.
Though 2023 was a challenging year, our core office and retail businesses proved to be resilient. Our overall New York business same-store cash NOI was up a healthy 2.8% for the year and was up 2% in the fourth quarter compared to last year. Comparable FFO, as adjusted, was $2.61 per share for the year, down $0.54 from 2022, largely due to increased interest expense, which is in line with the expectations that we previously communicated.
Fourth quarter comparable FFO, as adjusted, was $0.63 per share compared to $0.72 per share for last year's fourth quarter, a decrease of $0.09. Overall, the core business was flat and the entire decrease in the quarter was driven by increased G&A and lower FFO from sold properties. We have provided a quarter-over-quarter bridge in our earnings release and in our financial supplement. We recorded $73 million of non-cash impairment charges during the fourth quarter, primarily related to joint venture assets that we intend to exit in the next few years. It should be noted that in accordance with NAREIT's FFO definition, this impairment charge is not included in FFO.
Now, turning to 2024. While forecasting remains challenging in the current economic environment, we expect our 2024 comparable FFO to continue to be impacted by higher interest rates and be down from 2023, which already seems to be in the market. We project a roughly $0.30 impact from higher net interest expense due to extending hedges at higher rates on our variable debt.
Additionally, there will be a dinged earnings as we turn over certain spaces, primarily at 1290 Avenue of the Americas, 770 Broadway, and 280 Park Avenue. This is temporary, as we have already leased up a good chunk of this space. But the GAAP earnings from these leases won't begin in 2024. We expect 2024 will represent the trough in our earnings and for earnings to increase meaningfully from there as rates trend down and as income from the lease-up of PENN and other vacancies comes online.
Now, turning to the leasing markets. New York is clearly leading the leasing charge nationally as the city continues to experience strong employment growth. 2023 leasing in Manhattan ended on a strong note and as we entered 2024, market conditions are more favorable than any year since the pandemic ensued in March 2020, providing support for the continued recovery in the Class A office market. The economy is healthy. Most employers are back in the office at least three days to four days per week. Competitive sub-lease space is thinning and the market for higher-end space is tightening, fueled by a decline in the new development pipeline.
Now that companies have greater clarity on their space needs, tenant demand is growing, which is translating into more leasing transactions. With new supply evaporating, tenants are increasingly focused on the highest quality redeveloped Class A buildings near PENN Station and Grand Central Station, as they seek to attract and retain talent. Activity in the best buildings has been strong, with vacancy at less than 10% and rents rising.
Our best-in-class portfolio has been a major beneficiary of this trend and the stats bear out this, that we consistently outperform the marketplace, as Steve mentioned earlier. In 2023, we leased 2.1 million square feet at average starting rents of industry-leading $99 per square foot with 1.2 million feet at triple-digit starting rents. Importantly, we made significant strides in addressing our upcoming vacancy and tenant roll at some of our most important assets, with leases with the following important customers.
Citadel at 350 Park Avenue; PJT Partners and GIC at 280 Park Avenue; King & Spalding, Selendy and Gay, and Cushman & Wakefield at 1290 Avenue of the Americas; and Shopify at 85 Tenth Avenue. Additionally, at PENN 1, we maintained strong momentum with another 300,000 square feet of deals, highlighted by new leases with Samsung and Canaccord Genuity. Just as a reminder, since we started our redevelopment efforts in the PENN District, we have leased over 2.5 million square feet of office at average starting rents of $94 per square foot, a significant increase from what these buildings achieved previously.
Our fourth quarter activity led the overall market's leasing volume upturn as we completed 17 leases, comprising 840,000 feet at starting rents of $100 per square foot. Even with our very strong close to 2023, our leasing pipeline heading into 2024 is robust. We currently have almost 300,000 feet of leases in negotiation, with another 2 million feet in our pipeline at different stages of negotiation, including a balanced mix of new and renewal deals.
Turning to the capital markets now. While the financing markets for office remain very challenging as banks continue to deal with problem loans, we are starting to see some stability with the Fed potentially cutting rates in 2024. Fixed income investors are constructive again on high-quality office, and unsecured bond spreads for office have tightened significantly over the past couple of quarters. That being said, we are still ways away from a healthy mortgage financing market in office, and most office loans will have to be restructured or extended as they aren't refinanceable at their current levels.
More broadly, lenders have no appetite for construction financing across most property types, which should keep a lid on new supply. Conversely, the financing market for retail is now wide open now that the sector has bottomed. As always, we continue to remain focused on maintaining balance sheet strength. Even in this challenging financing environment, our balance sheet remains in very good shape with strong liquidity.
We are actively working with our lenders and making good progress pushing out the maturities on our loans, which mature this year. Our current liquidity is a strong $3.2 billion, including $1.3 billion of cash and restricted cash, and $1.9 billion undrawn under our $2.5 billion revolving credit facilities.
With that, I'll turn it over to the operator for Q&A.