AutoNation Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
February 27, 2024

There are 15 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the Innovative Industrial Properties Incorporated 4th Quarter and Full Year 2023 Earnings Call. All participants will be in listen only mode. Please note this event is being recorded. I'd now like to turn the conference over to Brian Wolf, General Counsel. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you for joining the call. Presenting today are Alan Gold, Executive Chairman Paul Smithers, President and Chief Executive Officer David Smith, Chief Financial Officer Catherine Hastings, Chief Operating Officer and Ben Regan, Chief Investment Officer. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that statements made during today's conference call may be deemed forward looking statements within the meaning of the Safe Harbor of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and actual actual results may differ materially due to a variety of risks, uncertainties and other factors. Please refer to the documents filed by the Company with the SEC, SEC, specifically the most recent reports on Forms 10 ks and 10 Q, which identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward looking statements. We are not obligated to publicly update or revise any forward looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Speaker 1

In addition, on today's call, we will discuss certain non GAAP financial information such as FFO, normalized FFO and adjusted FFO. You can find this information together with reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure in our earnings release issued yesterday as well as in our 8 ks filed with the SEC. I'll now hand the call over to Alan. Alan?

Speaker 2

Thank you, Brian, and welcome, everyone. We are pleased to discuss our results for the full year 2023 and recent activity as we enter into our 8th full year of operations. The Company performed well in 2023 and has continued to execute year to date, demonstrated by 1, annual AFFO per share growth of 7% 2, increasing our annual dividends declared each year since inception in 2016 3, committing capital totaling $119,500,000 during 2023 4, executing new leases and LOIs to release 5 properties representing over $140,000,000 of invested capital and 5, further enhancing our liquidity position and strong balance sheet with the closing of a new $45,000,000 revolving credit facility. For the year, IIP generated total revenues of $310,000,000 and adjusted funds from operations of 256,000,000 dollars increases of 12% and 10% over 2022, respectively. I would note that these growth results were achieved during a time when we strategically determined to reduce our investment activity in light of macroeconomic uncertainties and significant increased cost of capital.

Speaker 2

That financial performance allowed us to continue to grow our dividend, with $7.22 of common stock dividends declared over the course of 2023, annual dividends increasing each year since inception. Our most recent dividend declared in Q4 of $1.82 per share was at the midpoint of our Board's target dividend payout range of 75% to 85% of AFFO. We have one of the strongest and most experienced teams of real estate professionals in the cannabis industry, a high quality portfolio and a conservative and flexible balance sheet with a 12% debt to total gross assets, no variable rate debt, no debt maturities until May 2026. We further enhanced our balance sheet position during Q4 with introduction of a revolving credit facility and then recently upsized that facility earlier this month, which David will touch on further. On the investments front, we are very pleased with our execution on re leasing initiatives as well as the opportunities we are seeing to selectively close our new investments, which Ben will discuss in more detail.

Speaker 2

From a regulatory perspective, as we noted in our prior call, we continue to follow closely the potential rescheduling of cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substance Act. Of course, there are significant benefits to this, the most important of which, from our perspective, is the potential lifting of the confiscatory 280E federal tax is imposed on regulated cannabis operators and Paul will discuss our thoughts in more detail. I will now turn the call over to Paul to discuss licensing, regulatory and industry dynamics. Paul?

Speaker 3

Thanks, Alan. Licensing, before discussing overall market Thanks, Alan. Licensing, before discussing overall market developments, I'd like to provide an update on the properties leased or previously leased to Parallel, Green Peak and Kings Garden. As we have noted in the past, I think it is worth repeating here. We are of course 1st and foremost focused on maximizing the value of each of our properties and having tenants with strong teams that can manage their businesses successfully through the inevitable ups and downs with the industry.

Speaker 3

As we discussed in detail previously, Green Peak was placed into receivership in March of last year and we subsequently regained possession of the Summit Building, a cultivation and processing facility under redevelopment and turn back the Harvest Park cultivation and processing facility to us, but we expect the buyer of the remaining Green Peak Receivership Estate to assume the leases for the other 3 retail locations with no changes to terms. As you also know, we filed actions against parallel for possession and damages at our Texas and Pennsylvania properties and regained possession of those 2 properties in March

Speaker 4

October of last year, respectively.

Speaker 3

We are actively exploring the Pennsylvania property, a consent order was issued in October awarding us damages of $15,500,000 of which we collected $1,700,000 in Q4. And in late September, as we previously disclosed, we regained possession of the remaining 4 properties previously occupied by King's Garden. As Alan noted, we are pleased with our re leasing efforts to date for these properties and Ben will provide further detail in his prepared remarks. Growth of the overall cannabis industry in the U. S.

Speaker 3

Continues to remain strong with BDSA projecting cannabis sales to increase approximately 10% in 2024. BDSA estimates U. S. Cannabis sales were $29,500,000,000 in 2023 representing approximately a 12% growth from 20 22. Although unit pricing for regulated cannabis products has been under pressure in certain states at the wholesale level for some time now, indoor cannabis cultivation continues to command significant sustained premiums versus greenhouse and outdoor counterparts.

Speaker 3

Several factors affect unit pricing including basic supply demand dynamics, lack of meaningful enforcement in certain states on illicit non licensed cannabis sales by state and local law enforcement authorities, taxation and general macroeconomic conditions. From a state market perspective, we continue to see divergence in performance and dynamics with new markets experiencing high growth while some mature markets become increasingly competitive, especially after an extended period of price compression and the aforementioned challenges in competing with the illicit markets. For example, 2023 saw strong rollouts for adult use sales in Missouri and Maryland and Ohio legalized adult use in November with sales expected to commence this year and Ohio expected to be one of the fastest growing markets in the near future. On the flip side, while New York introduced its adult use program more than a year ago, it remains constrained by limited retail availability and a thriving illicit market, though there are efforts in the state to ramp up enforcement efforts. For additional perspective, BDSA put out recent estimates that illicit competition drives more than 3 quarters of total sales in the New York market and that there were roughly 50 active adult use retailers in the state earlier this month versus over 2,000 illicit retailers.

Speaker 3

Capital availability. Another continuing theme from our prior calls is the impact that the tightening of financial conditions has had on capital availability for the cannabis industry. As with other industries, the cost of capital and capital availability have fundamentally changed for cannabis operators over the course of the past few years, with Viridian Capital Advisors reporting that both U. S. Operator capital raising and mergers and acquisitions activity in 2023 were at their lowest levels since before 2018.

Speaker 3

The funding environment continues to be challenged right now. That said, we've seen a significant bounce in many publicly traded MSO stock prices since the announcement by the Department of Health and Human Services that are recommended to the DEA a reclassification of cannabis from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3. Federal legislation. On the federal legislation front, we are closely watching for progress on the DEA's evaluation of the HHS recommendation to reschedule cannabis to Schedule 3. Most importantly, such a reclassification is expected to end the 280E tax treatment, which has imposed an extreme unsustainable tax burden on regulated operators for years.

Speaker 3

We expect such a change to be a great win and potentially significant positive catalyst for the industry, immediately providing meaningful improvement in many operators' financials. To give you a sense of magnitude for this potential adjustment, a recent Veridian analysis estimated that removal of 280E burdens could reduce the 12 largest publicly traded operators collective tax burden by $700,000,000 annually providing for a rational tax structure for these operators many of which faced effective tax rates of well over 100% under the 280E regime. I'd like to now turn the call over to Ben to discuss our portfolio and leasing activity in the Q4 and into 2024. Ben?

Speaker 5

Thanks, Paul. For my prepared remarks, I plan to highlight our leasing progress for our vacant and under development assets. We took back possession of our Summit in Michigan in March of 2023 while it was under redevelopment. We signed an LOI for the asset in Q3 less than 6 months after repossession and

Speaker 4

executed a lease

Speaker 5

in Q4. We anticipate completing redevelopment completing redevelopment of the 201,000 square foot project in Q4 of this year and are looking forward to our new tenant moving in and activating the building. In addition to the lease for the Summit building, we've also executed LOIs for both our McLean and 19th Avenue properties in Southern California. We are working diligently through lease negotiations on these assets and will provide updates as we progress. These two assets along with Summit represent over 120 dollars 1,000,000 of invested capital and we are very pleased with the demand we saw for the space and the speed in which we are able to get each asset under LOI or lease.

Speaker 5

Also, as Paul noted, Green Peak is expected to move out of our Harvest Park property on March 1st. We saw significant interest in the asset since the announcement of Green Peak's departure and executed a letter of intent earlier this month ahead of Green Peak's move out date. Lastly, we signed a lease last month for 1 of our 3 vacant retail assets in Michigan. We are continuing to market release the remaining 2 retail assets as well as our North Anza and Del Sol assets in Southern California, the total of which is less than 1% of our total invested capital. Regarding our San Bernardino property, as noted on previous calls, we are exploring a potential mixed use development of the property and will continue to provide updates on progress on future calls.

Speaker 5

For our land site in San Marcos, Texas, we continue to explore options for that site where vertical construction has not yet commenced. And at our Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania asset, Parallel wound down its operations in late October and we were awarded a consent judgment for possession and damages at that time as Paul noted and collected about $1,700,000 on that judgment in December. As we now have control of the asset, we are actively exploring leasing options for the property. Regarding new investment activity, we have continued to selectively close on new opportunities supporting our tenant partners and their growth initiatives in key markets. As we previously reported, we amended our lease with Goodness Growth in New York in Q4 providing additional funding to complete the development of the expanded cultivation and processing facility and increasing rent accordingly.

Speaker 5

As Goodness Growth previously disclosed and we noted in our last call, the company is exploring the sale of its New York operations including the operations at this facility. We also executed a lease amendment with PharmaCann to provide additional construction funding of $16,000,000 for our New York asset as PharmaCann executes on its strategy to expand production capacity after being awarded an adult use production license late last year. We are pleased with the demand we are seeing for our assets across markets and the significant leasing progress we have made in the last year, while also continuing to source attractive new investment opportunities which we will continue to pursue on a very selective disciplined basis. With that, I'll turn it over to Catherine.

Speaker 6

Catherine? Thanks, Ben. For this call, I'll describe our property portfolio and tenant roster in addition to our rent collection statistics and updates on our development projects. As of December 31st, we owned 108 properties across 19 states, comprising 8,900,000 rentable square feet, including 1,400,000 square feet under development or redevelopment. Of these 108 properties, 103 properties are included in our operating portfolio, which was 96 percent leased at year end with a weighted average remaining lease term of approximately 14.6 years.

Speaker 6

Our portfolio continues to be well diversified with no one tenant representing more than 16% of our annualized some of the largest and most experienced operators in the industry with our leased operating portfolio comprised of 90% multi state operators and 62 percent leased to public company tenants. The total amount of capital invested and committed across our operating portfolio equates to $2.75 per square foot, which we believe remains significantly below replacement cost. Moving on to rent collection, we collected 100% of contractually due based rent and property management fees from our operating portfolio in Q4. Rent collected for the quarter included approximately $800,000 of security deposits applied for the payment of rent in connection with an amendment with ForeFront at 1 of our Illinois properties. As we indicated in the past, this property has been under development since August of 2021 and has experienced significant delays to get permanent power delivered to the building, which is needed to get it operational.

Speaker 6

We recognize this hardship and in January this year restructured Forefront's Illinois rental obligation to reduce the base rent due through September 2024 and increase their obligation thereafter, allowing for better alignment of Forefront's future Illinois rental obligations with their ability to generate revenue from the property, while also extending the term of all 4 leases we have with Forefront. We're also pleased to report that the building did finally get permanent power in January, and we look forward to this project's completion in the near future. Q4 rent collection included approximately $7,000,000 collected in December 2023 from Parallel pursuant to a consent judgment awarded in our favor and applied to rent due from Parallel for October 2023 at 1 of our Pennsylvania properties, which Parallel vacated on October 31st. As David will next, the full $1,700,000 from Parallel increased our revenue for the 4th quarter, but only the 700,000 dollars impacted our Q4 rent collection statistics. Overall, for the full year 2023, we collected 98% of our contractual rent on our operating portfolio.

Speaker 6

As for the 1st 2 months of 2024, we collected 100% of contractually due base rent and property management fees from our operating portfolio. We also continued to fund draws for improvement allowances or construction development to our operators under our leases. As we previously noted on prior calls, these improvements are critical for the efficient production of quality cannabis products at scale. In Q4 of 2023, we funded $21,000,000 for building improvements and construction activities at our properties. Recently, several projects received their operational status, including Battle Green in Ohio, with several other projects projected to complete this next quarter.

Speaker 6

And with that, I'll turn it over to David. David?

Speaker 7

Thank you, Catherine. For the Q4, we generated total revenues of $79,000,000 a 12% increase from Q4 of last year. The increase was driven primarily by an increase in tenant reimbursements versus the prior period as well as activity in prior periods for the acquisition and leasing of new properties, additional funding of building improvements provided to tenants at certain properties that resulted in base rent increases and contractual rental escalations. The $79,000,000 of revenue for the 4th quarter included approximately $800,000 of security deposits applied for payment of rents or $0.03 per share and $1,700,000 or $0.06 per share received as partial payment from the consent judgment against Parallel for its failure to pay rent at 1 of our Pennsylvania properties previously leased to Parallel. For the 3 months ended December 31, 2023, we recorded net income attributable to common stockholders of 41,000,000 or $1.45 per share.

Speaker 7

Adjusted funds from operations for the Q4 was $64,000,000 or $2.28 per share, an increase of 8% compared to the Q4 of 2022, driven by increased tenant reimbursements, revenue generated by properties acquired in prior periods, contractual rent escalations and revenue earned on additional CapEx investments at existing properties. AFFO for the Q4 was down $0.01 per share versus the Q3 AFFO of $2.29 with a decrease primarily due to our taking back the remaining 4 properties that Kings Garden occupied until late September. Regarding Kings Garden, as mentioned on last quarter's call, results in the Q3 included $1,700,000 or $0.06 per share of rent from Kings Garden applicable to those 4 properties, which was partially offset by $400,000 in payments made by Kings Garden in the 4th quarter pursuant to a consent judgment issued in our favor. On January 12, we paid a quarterly dividend of $1.82 per share to common stockholders of record as of December 29, an increase of $0.02 per share versus a 3rd quarter dividend of $1.80 As Alan noted, our dividend remained covered by our AFFO during the quarter with a payout ratio of 80%, which is in line with the Board's targeted payout ratio of 75% to 85% of AFFO.

Speaker 7

Turning to the balance sheet. At year end, we had approximately $2,600,000,000 in total gross assets and roughly $304,000,000 in fixed rate debt. Our debt outstanding as of today consists solely of $300,000,000 in unsecured bonds not maturing until May 2026 with the holders of the remaining $4,000,000 of exchangeable senior notes having exchanged their notes in full earlier this month for a mix of cash and common stock or received cash payment at maturity. We continue to maintain credit metrics that are among the best in the entire publicly traded REIT industry with a debt to gross assets ratio of less than 12% and a debt service coverage ratio in excess of 16 times. On the liquidity front, we ended the 4th quarter with over $175,000,000 of total liquidity comprised of our cash, short term investments and availability under our revolving credit facility.

Speaker 7

We closed on this credit facility last October, which at that time was a $30,000,000 3 year facility. I'm pleased to report that just this month, we were able to increase our capacity by $15,000,000 to provide us 45,000,000 in total availability. We are well positioned as we continue to maintain a conservative and low leverage balance sheet, generate positive free cash flow and have now added another liquidity option for the company with the closing of this credit facility in the Q4. Finally, as a result of the investment activity that Ben mentioned, we opportunistically tapped our ATM program on a limited basis, issuing 101,000 shares of common stock for $9,600,000 in net proceeds. With that, I will turn it back to Alan.

Speaker 7

Alan?

Speaker 2

Thanks, David. I'd like to note the following in closing. Now into our 8th year of operations, I'm proud of what our team of dedicated professionals has accomplished over that time. With our property footprint, team expertise, balance sheet position, and strategic focus, I believe we are well positioned for the journey ahead serving a dynamic industry with a continued long term growth trajectory. With that, I'd like to open it up to questions.

Speaker 2

Operator, could you please open the call up for questions?

Operator

Thank you. Our first question comes from Tom Catherwood from BTIG. Please go ahead.

Speaker 8

Thank you and good morning everyone. Paul, you had previously talked about and kind of mentioned that you expected weaker operators to exit mature markets over time. And there was an article out this week that spoke to a year over year decline in active U. S. Cannabis licenses in 2023 despite expansions of states like Maryland, New Jersey and Illinois.

Speaker 8

How has this tightening impacted your markets? And are you expecting more consolidation in 2024?

Speaker 4

So, Tom, this is Alan. First, I'd like to say that we are really very proud of our current tenant base and our current portfolio and the geographic diversification of our properties. We think that we have some of the strongest tenants in the industry. And we believe that the growth that we exhibited in 2023, a 7% year over year growth, is something that is replicable and we look forward to continued growth in 2024. But now I'm going to turn it over to Paul to answer the

Speaker 9

But I think it's important to note that our tenant base is as you know primarily indoor growers. So what we're seeing a lot of the consolidation is some of the states that have more outdoor grow and greenhouse grow. So we're very happy with the performance of our operators. And if we do see some consolidation in some of the bigger states with Michigan and California, as we've noted in the past, we think that's only a positive. 90% of our tenant base are MSOs as you know.

Speaker 9

So we think we're really well positioned going forward.

Speaker 8

Really helpful. Then we're trying to piece together a couple of items. Since 3Q, you've put more capital to work than you did over the prior two quarters. David, you mentioned tapping the equity markets your interest and maybe comfort level in pursuing additional investments this year?

Speaker 4

So again, Tom, this is Alan. I mean, I think that we are cautiously as we were in 2023, keeping the same sort of view in 2024 being very cautious, but opportunistic. We believe that we have been able to drive strong returns for our shareholders and are going to continue to do so. And that we believe that the strength of our existing tenants continues to be exceptional. And we look forward to a bright 2024.

Speaker 4

But now I'm going to let Ben talk about our portfolio and our pipeline.

Speaker 10

Hey, Tom. Appreciate the question. The pipeline, we're seeing a lot of attractive new opportunities. And when we really think about driving revenue growth going forward, there's the pipeline where we're seeing opportunistic transactions out there that we can take advantage of. And I also want to highlight the 460,000 square feet of leasing and LOI activity we had out of our development portfolio as well as another 128,000 square feet within our operating portfolio that we have under lease or LOI in the last year.

Speaker 10

So not only the new transactions that we can pursue, but nearly 600,000 square feet of leasing activity between our new

Speaker 4

leases and LOI in the last year, I

Speaker 10

think will continue to set us and LOI in the last year, I think will continue to set us up well for continued revenue growth going forward.

Speaker 8

Appreciate that color. And then last one for me, Ben and Paul, I know you both touched on New York and the challenges that it has had, but sentiment from MSOs seems to be improving in the market. I think PharmaCann announced plans to increase headcount by nearly 3x in the state. And obviously, you've made incremental investments over the last few months in New York. What are you seeing on the ground in the state?

Speaker 8

And how do you expect the market to evolve going forward?

Speaker 10

Yes. Thanks, Tom. I think we're seeing we're happy to see the additional retail licenses being issued. There's certainly been some historical challenges, but we very much like the position that our tenant partners are in the state. To your about PharmaCann, we feel there's a tremendous amount of value in that asset in particular.

Speaker 10

A lot of the cultivation in the state is either outdoor greenhouse as Paul touched on. That is one of the very few high quality indoor facilities in the state. And I think it sets PharmaCann up very well to take advantage of the wholesale opportunities that we're going to see. It's projected to be one of the top markets in the country, perhaps not growing as fast as some had hoped in previous years, but we're really seeing some improvement, seeing the improved sentiment from the MSOs, as you mentioned, people that are very bullish on the state, want to get into the market, they recognize the potential there. And we're very happy to support our tenant partners on their growth initiatives in that state.

Speaker 8

Appreciate all your thoughts. That's it for me. Thanks everyone.

Speaker 11

Thanks, Tom.

Operator

The next question comes from Scott Fortune from Roth MKM. Please go ahead.

Speaker 12

Thank you. Thanks for the questions here. Just kind of want to dig a little deeper in that probably for Ben in that as you talk with your tenant partners, we see most of them really focus on cost efficiencies and improving yields within kind of their cultivation facilities to drive their profitability and margins as the prices compress here in some of these markets. But two things, 1, better ops and improves your tenants cash flow generation, which is important for the tenant health. But more importantly, second, what is IPA's, your help or your involvement in improving these facility efficiencies and improving yields?

Speaker 12

And do you expect to see kind of facility improvement needed more moving forward here to be successful in a normalized lower pricing environment for them? And just a little follow-up on that would be kind of while demand kind of volume for cannabis remains very robust, kind of where you are you seeing pricing stabilize in your tenants in these key states to kind of further strengthen that tenant health from that standpoint? Sorry, long winded question there, but just want to dig deeper into that.

Speaker 4

All right. So Scott, this is Alan. So first, from the very beginning, our business model and business plan was to provide capital to some of the smartest and best growers in the country. And we've done that. We have a very strong portfolio.

Speaker 4

And as it's been noted earlier that over 90% of our portfolio are MSOs. And matter of fact, over 62% of our tenants are public, public tenants. And the majority, if not are public tenants and the majority, if not almost all of them are now cash flow breakeven and or EBITDA breakeven or positive. And the business model is to provide them capital so that they can create very efficient spaces and that they are the ones who are focused on the efficiency of their operations. And as you can see that they've been the ones doing that work and continue to do that work and are I think doing a very good job of keeping up with the technology and the efficiencies to be able to deal with pricing pressures and the macroeconomic issues that the broader economy is exhibiting.

Speaker 4

So I think that that would be how we would look at it. Now as to I don't know if Paul or Ben want to talk about the overall pricing pressures on wholesale pricing. But just keep in mind that as both Paul and Ben have reiterated that we deal with indoor grow primarily facilities and products and or have tenants that deal with those type of products as opposed to the outdoor grow products that is exhibiting the most pricing pressure.

Speaker 10

Hey, Scott, this is Ben. To follow-up on Alan's comments on pricing, I think we've been very pleased to see the stabilization, particularly some of the markets people have been focusing on historically being California and Michigan. And the sentiment there has certainly gotten better and I think that's evidenced by the leasing success we've had in those two markets. I mean a good chunk of the nearly 600,000 square feet of leasing activity we mentioned was both in Michigan and California. And most recently, the Harvest Park facility that Green Peak intends to move out of after they announced that we received a tremendous amount of interest, multiple offers and we're able to successfully put that under LOI before Green Peak even moved out of the building.

Speaker 10

So I think that really speaks to the way operators on the ground of those markets, their confidence going forward in the pricing stability in the markets overall.

Speaker 12

Got it. I appreciate that color. And maybe a follow-up on this discussion. In 'twenty three, we saw a year of re trenching by your tenants. Obviously, CapEx for most of the major MSOs that you work with came off anywhere from 30% to 50 percent and kind of similar expectations, although earnings are coming up here shortly kind of for 2024 as far as the CapEx.

Speaker 12

But what are you hearing from your tenants kind of moving forward? If we get federal relief, obviously, you highlighted that the cash flow from the tax savings will be generated by this MSOs that could be passed through the pricing, but also they are looking to grow, right? And just kind of give a sense for that your tenants and what you're hearing from them as far as regarding sales leaseback opportunities going into later in 'twenty four into 'twenty five compared to the last 2, 3 quarters versus kind of their CapEx expectations? Just kind of the temperature around your tenants from that standpoint improving?

Speaker 4

All right. So this is Alan again. And first of all, I think that I think as we've stated, we believe that 2024 is going to look kind of similar to 2023. We believe there is still tremendous demand for our capital and the type of capital that we provide and there are significant opportunities as we've also shown that we've been able to opportunistically take advantage of some investment opportunities most recently and which has allowed us to generate that above average growth year over year. So we still think that that's that is out there, but we're being cautious.

Speaker 4

And I think, Ben, you would agree that we're I think even the tenants out there are remaining cautious.

Speaker 10

Yes. I think that's fair. I think we will be very strategic and disciplined in investing additional capital. I think as Alan mentioned, 2024 looking like 2023 where we were able to source very accretive attractive opportunities, support our tenants, grow our portfolio and intend to continue to do that in the future.

Speaker 12

Great. And then one go ahead.

Speaker 4

I'm sorry. Maybe, Paul, you talked about the overall industry growth rate and

Speaker 13

Yes.

Speaker 9

I think it's when you talk about relatively slower years in 'twenty three and maybe going forward 'twenty four, we can't lose back that we had a 12% increase in the overall market in 2023 and looking forward in 2024 it's projected to have a 10% increase. So those are not insignificant numbers. And I think we look at potential states coming on primarily Florida and Pennsylvania, perhaps with the adult use programs this year is really exciting. And I think that's not lost on a lot of our operators especially in those states. So they're excited.

Speaker 9

And there's that excitement I think even if you put aside the rescheduling conversation. So we see significant growth with or without rescheduling. And so our operators are excited about that. Also we have the year last year Oklahoma, Minnesota, Delaware, Ohio, they passed their programs and we're looking at 24 to have some development in those. So those states new potential states for adult use are pretty exciting for the industry.

Speaker 12

No, I agree completely. Ohio, Minnesota and Virginia are all expected to really come on board too. And last question real quick just from a housekeeping side of things. Congrats on kind of pre leases and LOIs in place, but just follow-up on the amended leases you had from 2023. Are those now being fully paid back as they increased towards the pro rata payback was supposed to start January 24, is that starting going forward here?

Speaker 4

So I'll have Cat address that, but just it goes to the strength of our tenants and how while there was some need to provide some additional relief, I think things seem to be proceeding very well. Cat?

Speaker 6

Yes. We were pleased to really see the limited deferrals that we had issued to some of our tenants last quarter, and they've all started paying rents again, cash rent, holistic, Temiscope and Forefront were the 3 tenants that we'd offer that program to, and we're happy to see them start paying cash rent again.

Speaker 12

Great. Thank you for all the detail.

Speaker 9

Thanks,

Operator

The next question comes from Alexander Goldfarb from Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

Speaker 14

Hey, good morning out there. A few questions for me. First, just thinking about the spaces that you guys have recaptured and then re letting, how much NOI is coming back online this year from the spaces that you recaptured last year or previous and that you've now backfilled and have tenants that are opening up this year? Just want to get a sense for how much NOI that is on an annualized basis and then when that NOI will come online this year from an earnings perspective?

Speaker 10

Yes. Hey, Alex, this is Ben. Yes, I would just say that each situation is going to be different. Some of the deals that we mentioned are under LOI. We are diligently working through lease negotiations.

Speaker 10

But it's a real estate company that takes some time. So I give you an exact number as to when that revenue will commence given the status of negotiations. But again, I think we as a company are very, very happy with not only the amount of leasing activity, the pace of leasing activity, the quality of the tenants that we've been able to source to backfill these properties. And I think it's been a tremendous amount of progress that we've made. But as to specific timing, we will continue to report and provide updates as we can throughout the year.

Speaker 14

Okay. But Ben, along those lines, is there a sense of how much in aggregate NOI there is? Or is it sounds like this is this leasing that you guys have done really is more of a 2025 impact? Just trying to get a sense because you clearly have been busy, you spoke positively about some of the markets that have stabilized and the intensity of the leasing in California and Michigan, which is a good thing. Or just trying to see when we should expect it to hit the bottom line and it almost sounds like it's more of a 25.

Speaker 9

I mean, I without and

Speaker 10

we don't want to get into providing guidance. We don't want to get into specific deal terms. I would say that we're very happy with the returns that we're getting on our investment in each of these assets in each case. Again, these things take time and we'll work through LOIs, work through leases and get tenants in the space, get them up and running and get them revenue generating as fast as we can to continue to provide drive revenue growth and provide value to our shareholders.

Speaker 14

Okay. Next question is Paul, I think it was you who spoke about the difference in pricing and how your indoor product is commanding a premium, outdoor and hot house product is under pricing pressure. And then I guess separately, there would be the illicit market. I'm going to go back to a theme that I've you and I have spoken about before, especially with Fentanyl. Are you seeing it sounds like the market is finally coming around to understanding the regulatory benefits of the product that's grown in your facilities?

Speaker 14

Is that the case? And do you think that gives you a leg up versus the illicit market? Or does the cannabis market remain purely price driven and therefore people don't pay don't put a volume premium on the quality that you guys provide versus what's going on in from the illicit market or other sources?

Speaker 4

Yes. So Alex, this is Alan. Before I turn it over to Paul, I just want to to remind you and all the listeners that we don't touch the plant. We don't sell a single

Speaker 14

Yes, yes. I didn't yes, sorry about that, Alan.

Speaker 4

Yes. And but our tenants who do who are working in the work in the product, I mean, perhaps Paul you want to talk about that? Yes. So yes we've talked about

Speaker 9

this Alex and you're right that a product grown in a controlled environment is vastly superior to a product that's grown outdoors and is subject to everything outdoors including pests and variances in the weather. So you just start with the idea that when you can control the growth you get a better product. And that's certainly true for the medical product which can be manipulated and sent away during the growth to address very certain medical conditions. So medical product really needs to be grown indoors. When you talk about the quality of the adult use product, it is also similar because you can really maintain potency consistencies in the indoor environment.

Speaker 9

And that's very important I think for consumers. And when you talk about the illicit market, certainly a risk that people do take, consumers take buying it off the street corner is you don't have consistency of product. And that's very important. And you don't have the quality controls with

Speaker 4

the testing. So, yes, I

Speaker 9

do believe that in regulated cannabis environment for the product. But people are people and there is a price driving quotient too. And I think some of the states that really did create an artificial pricing structure based on taxing are coming around it. And California is one of them and figuring out that when they over tax a product it makes it really hard for the consumer to buy it. So we're very optimistic that the states will come around and pricing will be more in line where it should be.

Speaker 9

And yes, the indoor product will remain the choice of informed consumers. Okay. And just safety.

Speaker 14

Okay. And then just a final question is on the 280E, given the administration sort of pro cannabis mindset, is there anything that's going on within the discussions or the process that gives you pause that it may not happen? Or is this merely going through a typical governmental timeline and it's got to go through X months, X process, whatever, but this will happen. I'm just trying to figure out if there's any holdup or if this is just typical government process and the news came out a while ago and now we just have to sit around and wait out the shot clock?

Speaker 4

This is Alan and before I turn it over to Paul and I'm sure Paul is going to say the same thing. It's just our job is not we're not politicians, we're not in the government. The political process takes a long time And we're operating our business with a very strong and solid balance sheet that will allow us to deal with any different tailwinds or headwinds that may come from any actions that occur in the broader economy or the broader market?

Speaker 9

Yes. Obviously, we're kind of reading what you're reading and there's a lot of guesswork going on as to when there'll be an announcement, what the announcement will be, but it's guesswork. What we do know is the DEA did confirm that it is conducting its review. So that's a fact we know. So that's a very positive thing I think.

Speaker 9

So we're going to stay tuned. And if history is any indicator, the DEA does typically follow HHS regulations, but that certainly doesn't mean they have to. So we'll see. But we are optimistic like the rest of the world, but anything can happen. So thank you.

Speaker 14

Okay. Thank you very much.

Speaker 4

Thank you.

Operator

The next question comes from Eric De Laers from Craig Hallum Capital Group. Please go ahead.

Speaker 13

Great. Thank you for taking my questions. First one, a bit of a high level question for me. Just kind of understanding the mechanics behind the rent collection statistics. So, just kind of wondering if you can help me understand what happens, sort of mechanically to those statistics when a tenant stops paying.

Speaker 13

We have some defaulted properties, some development properties, some operational properties not fully leased, some security deposits being applied towards rents, but then rent collection statistics remain at 100%.

Speaker 4

So could you maybe just walk

Speaker 13

us through the mechanics of what happens to your rent collection statistics when a tenant stops paying? And then maybe to help with modeling, is there a simple way to quantify the difference between the rents you're collecting from tenants in a given quarter versus what you would be collecting if your portfolio was 100% operational, 100% leased, 100% rent collection. Yes, there's a way to quantify sort of the rent that you're actually collecting versus the total potential rent to be collected, I think that'd be helpful. Thank you.

Speaker 4

So I mean, in general, I mean, we think that we have a very strong portfolio and one and we are operating very similar to what other real estate companies do. If a property and some of the properties that we happen to give back, we're in a development state. We put them in a development portfolio because there's work that has to be done. It's very hard to lease a property that is not completed or needed or needs additional work to actually get it in a lease statement. But if it was a fully completed

Speaker 9

asset,

Speaker 4

then it would stay in our operating portfolio and it would affect our leasing statistics. An example of an asset not that went into our development portfolio was the San Marcos, Texas I think, Ben, what do we collect on that?

Speaker 10

Yes. So our basis in that asset is about $8,000,000 and we collected over $6,000,000 in rent from the tenant during their occupancy.

Speaker 4

But it's still just land. And in order for us to re lease it, we'd have to either build it out or find a tenant who wanted to actually complete the fully designed projects that was designed by Parallel at the time. So that's why that's in our development portfolio and not part of our operating statistics.

Speaker 13

Okay. And is there a way to sort of help us calculate or quantify the difference between sort of total rents potential and then what you're collecting, especially at some of these development properties and other lease properties potentially start collecting revenue or I guess collecting rents in 2024? Just kind of trying to help quantify the potential impact here given rent collection statistics remain at 100%.

Speaker 4

It is something that we'll have to get back to you offline, if you don't mind on that. If you can Sure. That would be the best. All right. Thank you.

Speaker 4

All right.

Speaker 13

No problem. And then just last question for me is just kind of a bit of a housekeeping one. So the property expenses and tenant reimbursements, is this still these property expenses, are these still being 100% reimbursed? And so in the instances where there is a difference between property expense and the amount reimbursed, it's just kind of a timing issue? So that's, I guess, my first question here.

Speaker 13

And then the second one is, how should we think about this going forward? It's increased each quarter for the past 2 years here. Is this related to a specific tenant or a specific property? Will this begin to decrease at any time? Just any kind of insights into how to model these property expenses would be great.

Speaker 13

Thank you.

Speaker 11

Yes, sure, Eric. This is David. So one item I'll just clarify in your comment. So the net expense that we've had throughout this year from Q1 to Q3 has actually gone down, not gone up versus what you said. But separately, I think you're alluding to going from Q3 to Q4, we did see an increase in the overall net expense.

Speaker 11

So in other words, reimbursements we received from tenants, less the taxes and insurance that we paid. That was driven by the properties we took back from Kings Garden in September and Parallel Pennsylvania in October. So we did have elevated property expenses in Q4 just because we are on the hook for those expenses. That being said, given what Paul and Ben mentioned on the re leasing activity that we've had, those will go down over time just given again the substantial releasing efforts that we've announced today with our results.

Speaker 13

Yes. Sorry, maybe just to clarify here. So I'm referring to the first line item in the expenses, the property expenses, which have increased each quarter here. And my understanding was that those were basically those are also reflected in revenue and that they were simply kind of reimbursements that you recognize the expense of and then got reimbursed. So, I don't know if that helps clarify my question, but I was just looking at that first line item of property.

Speaker 11

Yes. If you're looking at just that line item, that's correct. But those can also go up. You're going to see inflationary increases in insurance and property taxes. But to your point, Eric, the actual reimbursement from the tenants, that's coming through the revenue line as well.

Speaker 11

So you really need to net those 2 together. But they can be episodic to your point, depending on when those come through for the taxes insurance. So there can be a timing difference as well.

Speaker 13

Okay. And then I guess just kind of last thing on this. Like overall, I mean these have been increasing each quarter. Is this what we should expect to continue going forward? Just give I mean assuming inflation steady inflationary environment, I guess, I'm just trying to understand that first expense line item and how you think about that going forward?

Speaker 11

Sure. Yes. I would just go back to my prior comment on that, Eric, where you did see the expenses increase from Q3 to Q4. And again, that was driven by taking back properties from Kingsguard and Parallel. So as those properties get released with the releasing activities that Ben had mentioned, you'll see some of those come down over time.

Speaker 13

All right. Thank you. Thanks, Eric.

Operator

This concludes our question and answer session.

Speaker 4

I would

Operator

like to turn the conference back over to Alan Gould for any closing remarks.

Speaker 4

Thank you. And I'd like to thank all the stakeholders for your continued support. Thank all the team here at Innovative Industrial Properties for their continued hard and fantastic work. Thank you all. And with that, we'll sign off.

Speaker 4

Thank you all.

Operator

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

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Earnings Conference Call
AutoNation Q4 2023
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