Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the First Capital REIT Q2 2023 conference call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question and answer session. At that time, if you have a question, please press star one on your device's keypad. I would now like to turn the conference over to Allison. Please proceed with your presentation.
Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. In discussing our financial and operating performance and in responding to your questions during today's call, we may make forward-looking statements. These statements are based on our current estimates and assumptions, many of which are beyond our control and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. A summary of these underlying assumptions, risks, and uncertainties is contained in our securities filing, including our Q2 MD&A, our MD&A for the year ended December 31, 2022, and our current AIF, which are available on SEDAR and our website. These forward-looking statements are made as of today's date, and except as required by securities laws, we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any such statements.
During today's call, we will also be referencing certain financial measures that are non-IFRS measures. These do not have standardized meanings prescribed by IFRS and should not be considered as alternatives to net income or cash flow from operating activities determined in accordance with IFRS. Management provides these measures as a complement to IFRS measures to aid in assessing the REIT's performance. These non-IFRS measures are further defined and discussed in our MD&A, which should be read in conjunction with this conference call. I'll now turn the call over to Adam.
Thank you very much, Allison. Good afternoon, everyone, thank you for joining us for our conference call. Starting with the quarter, our results were in line with our expectations and were underpinned by continued strength in leasing across our high-quality grocery-anchored portfolio. Same property NOI grew once again, lease renewal lifts were the second highest we've had on record. A quarter doesn't make a trend, the fundamentals underpinning leasing demand are very solid and poised to persist for the foreseeable future. Significant population growth, a strong labor market, virtually no new supply, higher replacement costs, strong top-line sales growth, and margin protection from our tenant base have all reinforced these fundamentals. This is very beneficial as we look ahead with respect to demand and rental rate growth for our portfolio. Owning such high-quality assets helps us to attract the best people.
Our leasing personnel have never been more talented, and they are armed with new tools from our technology investments. We're working on some very exciting transactions in our leasing department that we look forward to sharing soon. This is particularly important given the tenant turnover opportunities we're working on as well, which is a normal part of our business and an important one for the growth that it provides. As we've communicated prior, after a nice increase in Q1, our occupancy dipped in Q2 as a result of two specific spaces. One was a Walmart location paying only a single-digit gross rent per square foot, and accordingly, the repositioning of the space is an opportunity for FCR.
Walmart vacated in June, and our leasing team was able to backfill half of the space during the same month with a short-term tenant that will allow us to collect a little bit of rent while we work through several permanent prospective tenant options. The other contributor was our single Nordstrom Rack location at Yonge and Bloor in Toronto. Now, there are several very exciting opportunities at play at this property. I had mentioned last quarter that we were surprised by the news of Nordstrom's departure, given the productivity of the single location we had. I'm pleased to report that leasing demand has been very strong. I'll spend the balance of my remarks today on our top strategic priority, which is our enhanced capital allocation and portfolio optimization plan.
Following the plan announcement in the latter part of last year, feedback was overwhelmingly positive that this is the right plan for FCR. Alongside that affirmative feedback was also a degree of skepticism related to whether the plan could be successfully executed, given macro factors. We certainly recognized the environment at the time. However, given the quality of our assets and the capability of our team, we had conviction in our ability to execute. We are now several months into the plan, and notwithstanding, the macro environment has certainly not improved, we've made a lot of progress. Part of our plan is designed to surface unrecognized value that we have created in numerous low-yielding assets. None of the assets identified for sale are multi-tenant grocery-anchored retail properties.
Most of them represent density that has been zoned by FCR. All of them have seen our short to medium-term value enhancing goals achieved. The plan includes the sale of CAD 1 billion of these assets by the end of 2024. The capital raised is being redeployed into more impactful uses. When we announced the plan, our expected allocation of the proceeds was roughly CAD 400 million to reduce debt, CAD 400 million into development, and CAD 200 million into other uses, including NCIB repurchases and near-term value-creating investments that are consistent with our real estate strategy. Today, we expect debt to be reduced by more than CAD 400 million. Development expenditures to come in less than CAD 400 million.
In terms of the remaining CAD 200 million, part of it has been redeployed to accretively buy back units, and we also made an exemplary acquisition in Q2 that Jordie will speak about. The sale of the properties under our plan has the rare and impactful effect of improving both our balance sheet and our earnings for FFO per unit at the same time. Over the last few months, we have made great progress with roughly CAD 460 million of announced sales, equal to 46% of our target. Pricing has been strong, representative of a 17% average premium to IFRS NAV. Our optimization plan remains well on track, which will continue to deliver higher FFO with less debt. With that, I will now pass things over to Neil.
Thank you, Adam, and good afternoon to all of our call participants. As is customary with my remarks, I will be referencing the quarterly conference call presentation, which is available on our website at fcr.ca. Let's start with slide six. Q2 funds from operations of CAD 63.8 million increased by CAD 2.6 million year-over-year. FFO per unit was CAD 0.30 for the quarter. This was an increase of approximately 8% from CAD 0.28 earned in Q2 of 2022. Excluding other gains, losses, and expenses, Q2 FFO per unit was, to be precise, CAD 0.295. This is an increase of 1% relative to CAD 0.291 generated in Q2 of last year. Overall, the results were very much in line with our internal expectations.
Touching upon the key components of Q2 FFO, to start with, net operating income of CAD 107.8 million increased slightly from CAD 107.2 million in the prior year. The key factors behind the NOI growth included: firstly, higher base rents contributed CAD 1.1 million. Secondly, higher variable revenue sources contributed an incremental CAD 800,000. Offsetting these sources of growth was approximately CAD 1.3 million lost NOI related to dispositions from the past 12 months. Finally, I'll note that NOI was adversely impacted by a CAD 1.7 million straight-line rent write-off related to the early departure of Nordstrom Rack at One Bloor. This is a non-cash charge that flowed through to hurt FFO per unit by approximately CAD 0.008.
Q2 same property NOI increased by CAD 2.2 million year-over-year, equating to growth of 2.2%. Again, for a bit of context, Nordstrom departed One Bloor in the first week of June. The 25 days of lost rent in the quarter hurt same-property NOI growth by approximately 40 basis points. Bad debt expense for the quarter was nil. This was a CAD 300,000 year-over-year improvement on a same asset basis. Moving further down the FFO statement, interest and other income of CAD 5 million increased 14% year-over-year. Drivers were higher cash balances and higher interest rates, and an increase in leasing fees. These factors were partially offset by lower interest income from lower loans receivable.
On that front, loans and mortgages receivable totaled approximately CAD 116 million at June 30th. They carried a weighted average interest rate of 7.9%. Net loan receivable repayments during the quarter were CAD 13 million. Corporate expenses were CAD 9.9 million in the quarter. This was in line with the expectations that we provided with our Q1 conference call and is a similar figure to the Q1 2023 expenses, excluding non-recurring costs. For additional information purposes, slide seven details SCR's six-month results and comparatives. Slide eight includes the components of other gains, losses, and expenses. Turning to slide nine, let's touch upon operating performance metrics. The portfolio rounded out June 30th with an occupancy of 95.9%. This was 30 basis points lower than Q1's 96.2%.
Q2 activity included 144,000 sq ft of tenant possessions set against 230,000 sq ft of closures. We indicated on our Q1 call that we had a 91,000 sq ft Walmart lease expiry in Edmonton that was coming in Q2, and we expected Nordstrom would vacate its 40,000 sq ft store as well. This accounted for almost 70 basis points of portfolio vacancy, occupancy was down in the quarter, as we indicated it would be. It also exceeded our earlier expectations. This was due to generally strong leasing performance, as well as the June 30th backfill of a portion of that former Walmart space with a 47,000 sq ft temporary tenant. Moving to leasing on slide 10.
Q2 renewal volume of 510,000 sq ft was consistent with the volume in Q2 of 2022, including new leasing for future possession. Total activity at FCR's share was 784,000 sq ft. Q2 lease renewals were affected at an average increase of 14% when measuring the first year renewal rent of CAD 20.49 per sq ft, relative to a rent of CAD 17.98 per sq ft in the final year of expiring leases. As at a reference, this was the second highest leasing spread on record. As referenced in slide 10, the in-place portfolio net rent per sq ft was CAD 22.97 at June 30th. This was a CAD 0.09 decrease during the quarter. A decrease in portfolio net rent is very much a rarity in FCR's business.
In fact, this was the first since 2016. To provide a bit of context, the early closure of Yonge and Bloor adversely impacted net rental rate by CAD 0.14 per sq ft. The rent on the former Nordstrom Rack space was nearly four times the FCR portfolio average. Moreover, included with the Q2 hotel sale, there was a small amount of higher rent commercial space, and this disposition also trimmed CAD 0.04 per sq ft from the net rent on a portfolio basis. Regardless, the key takeaways are simple. The small decrease in net rent per square foot is an anomaly, and it's in contrast to strong leasing momentum across the business. We also expect it will prove temporary and that re-leasing efforts will yield an equal or greater future increase in net rent per square foot.
On a trailing four-quarter basis, Q2 net rent remained CAD 0.25 per square foot or 1.1% higher. Rent escalations and renewal lifts generated more than CAD 0.40 per square foot within that growth. Slides 11 and 12 provide distribution payout metrics on an FFO, AFFO, and ACFO basis. These are mostly for informational purposes. They provide an indication as to how we view and measure cash generation and sustaining CapEx within the business. For calendar 2023, we continue to expect approximately CAD 40 million of sustaining CapEx, including leasing costs. The comparable figure in 2022, by the way, was CAD 37 million. Advancing to slide 13. Net asset value per unit at June 30 was CAD 23.13, representing a decline of 1.5% from CAD 23.48 at March 31.
During the quarter, FCR recorded net fair value decreases on investment properties of approximately CAD 105 million. The quarterly valuation process covered 96 individual assets with an aggregate value of CAD 3.6 billion. These properties were subject to cash flow updates, yield changes, or a combination of both by our valuations team. The major components of the Q2 fair value change included the following: firstly, a CAD 104 million loss on revisions to capitalization rates and discount rates. These covered 55 properties where yield changes were asset-specific based on market transactions and/or assessments related to risk or potential liquidity in the context of current market conditions. Secondly, a net CAD 12 million loss was recorded in relation to updated cash flow models for 39 properties.
Finally, regarding recent disposition announcements, there were two properties where fair values were marked higher by $12 million in order to reflect their contracted sales prices. Regarding the latter, our Q2 press release referenced $91 million of new dispositions. You know, one of those two transactions is to occur on a structured two-stage basis, and another was firmed up after our Q2 books had closed. Therefore, we expect to record additional fair value increases of approximately $14 million related to those announced dispositions. On a portfolio basis, FCR's June 30th weighted average stabilized cap rate of 5.3% was approximately 10 basis points higher from March 31st.
Now, taking a step back, as interest rates have risen and the investment environment has evolved over the past 5 calendar quarters in particular, our valuation work has resulted in an increase of approximately 30 basis points in FCR's weighted average portfolio cap rate. These changes have driven approximately $500 million of fair value markdowns. This equates to a downward adjustment to the portfolio's total value of slightly more than 5%. I might add, the impact translates to more than $2 per unit. Turning to Q2 capital deployment, as summarized on slide 14, we invested $50 million into property and residential development, and $14 million into portfolio CapEx and leasing costs in the quarter.
Our larger project-level investments included Cedarbrae , Yonge and Roselawn, and Stanley Park, all located in Toronto and Kitchener, and 200 West Esplanade in North Vancouver, where this purpose-built rental property has recently been branded as Victor. We also invested CAD 55 million in mid-May to purchase the land beneath Centre Commercial Maisonneuve in Montreal. This investment secured our long-term ownership of this highly productive open-air shopping center. In a few minutes, Jordie will provide some added color on the investments. As we look out over the balance of this year, we currently anticipate calendar 2023 development CapEx to be within the CAD 140 million-CAD 160 million range. Also, for the year, we expect all other capital expenditures, including leasing costs, to be approximately CAD 70 million. Turning to slide 15.
There were a couple of notable financing initiatives this quarter. Firstly, we arranged a new CAD 183 million secured construction facility for our 138 Yorkville project. Including the LC facility, FCR's 33% share of that loan amounts to approximately CAD 63 million. During Q2, we drew CAD 41 million on the facility, primarily to repay our CAD 33 million share of the existing land loan, which matured during the quarter. Secondly, in June, we extended the maturity of our CAD 450 million unsecured revolving operating facility by one year to June 2028. This extension provides FCR with five years of access to this key source of liquidity. Finishing up with some key debt metrics. During the quarter, we reduced net debt by more than CAD 50 million to CAD 4.2 billion.
Q2's primary sources of cash included CAD 122 million from property dispositions, CAD 41 million from retained FFO and working capital, and CAD 13 million of net loan receivable repayments. These sources were relative to CAD 119 million invested into ongoing portfolio investments and the Maisonneuve acquisition. Trailing four-quarter EBITDA remains steady on a gross dollar basis, and with the lower debt balance, the net debt to EBITDA multiple decreased to 10.3 times from 10.4 times at the Q1 . Within trailing EBITDA, FCR continues to bear the burden of activist-related costs, which we won't fully lap until the Q2 of next year. Excluding these costs, net debt to EBITDA was 10.1 times for the three months ended June 30th.
The REIT's unencumbered asset pool of CAD 6.3 billion remained unchanged from Q1, while the liquidity position has continued to grow. At quarter end, FCR had undrawn revolving credit facilities of approximately CAD 800 million and more than CAD 130 million in cash. Through the months of August and September, we expect to close upon asset sales that will yield close to CAD 100 million of additional cash. This concludes my prepared remarks. I'll now turn our session to Jordie to provide commentary on our optimization program plan and our entitlements program.
Thanks, Neil. Good afternoon. Today, I'm going to provide you with a brief update on our enhanced capital allocation and portfolio optimization plan and the advancements made on our entitlement plan. Let's begin with an update on dispositions, as we're really pleased with both the cadence of and the values that we've realized from our plan. This quarter, we sold CAD 122 million from previously disclosed assets. We also entered into binding agreements to sell an additional CAD 91 million of assets. The aggregate proceeds from all of these sales represent a meaningful premium to our pre-mark IFRS value. Included amongst these assets for which we have a binding agreement to sell is the remainder of our Place Panama lands. This property is a 4.6-acre residential development site on the south shore of Montreal in Brossard, Quebec, that we recently rezoned.
The purchaser waived all of their conditions in late June. On closing, will pay us cash proceeds that equate to a 30% premium to our IFRS value. We had acquired Place Panama several years ago. It was a well-located but aging retail strip center situated adjacent to a key South Shore bus terminal in Brossard. We saw its potential for intensification, as freestanding retail was no longer the highest and best use for the property. In 2018, we submitted a master plan of rezoning application. On expiration of the last of the property's lease encumbrances, we then demolished the single-story structure. You will recall, in Q4 2020, upon completion of the rezoning, we sold the first phase of Place Panama for CAD 30 million.
We retained the balance of the lands until we completed the purchase of an adjacent parcel of land and finalized the required development approvals for the 989,000 sq ft of remaining zoned density. With the assembly complete, the approvals in place, and the adjacent recently completed REM station open, we are now able to realize on this residual value that we have created. In Q2, we also entered into an unconditional agreement to sell the Yonge-Davis Center for CAD 31 million cash, based upon a sub 4% going-in cap rate. The purchaser of the property waived conditions at the end of June of 2023. This unanchored retail property is located in the GTA in the northern half York region. It's been a stable asset in our income-producing portfolio since being acquired nearly two decades ago.
Given its location along the North Yonge Street Corridor and its official plan designation, the property also possesses long-term intensification potential. In this regard, the property is currently classified as a long-term development site in the FCR pipeline. Limited supply in the GTA have escalated both demand and pricing for these hybrid-type assets. The sale of this low-yielding, non-core property serves to further advance our plan. As Adam mentioned, the use of proceeds being raised from our plan can be reinvested in a variety of ways that will be impactful in the immediate term. This may include the acquisition of grocery-anchored shopping centers or other investments. Centre Commercial Maisonneuve, an asset we purchased this past quarter, is a prime example. While rare, given our deep relationships, our existing large market position, and our industry knowledge, we can, from time to time, source and execute on these impactful investments.
For context, Maisonneuve is an 8.5 acres urban site located 20 minutes from Montreal's downtown core. It's improved with a single-story, 114,000 sq ft open-air shopping center, leased to 7 tenants, including Loblaws, Canadian Tire, TD Bank, and Metro-owned Brunet Pharmacy. Collectively, these 4 tenants represent 97% of the center's income. Maisonneuve is a center in which we have a long history, and its acquisition is a result of an opportunity that we also created. FCR owned a leasehold interest in the site since September 2003, pursuant to a 65-year emphyteutic lease. This lease was set to expire without any further renewal rights in 2023. The tenant leases expired contemporaneously with the emphyteutic lease. Considering their pending expiration, the tenant leases were all meaningfully below market.
The owners of the freehold interest believed that the property was more valuable as a residential site, so they planned to sell it to a developer. Without tenure, the retailers would all be forced to give up their established, extremely productive, and very difficult to replace locations on the island of Montreal. We were highly confident that based on the retailers' performance, that the property's highest and best use was that of an operating shopping center. We negotiated an option to purchase the center based on its vacant land value. We successfully negotiated revised lease terms at market rents with all the existing tenants, which tripled the average rent per square foot of the center. As a result, the property's value is meaningfully more than our purchase price, and we're earning a commensurately attractive NOI yield.
As part of our $1 billion Portfolio Optimization Plan, we've identified 6 million sq ft and $400 million of value that we'll generate from the sale of density in our portfolio. To date, we've submitted for entitlements on over 16.7 million sq ft of incremental density, representing 70% of our 24.2 million sq ft pipeline. We expect to submit applications for an additional 1 million sq ft of incremental density in 2023. In terms of our progress with respect to these applications, our zoning bylaw amendment for Staples Loki was recently approved. The application contemplates over 500,000 sq ft of incremental density on the property. Here in Toronto, our application for Shops at King Liberty was also approved by Community Council in June and by City Council in July.
Once the appeal period expires, this zoning amendment approval secures permission for 850,000 sq ft of incremental, predominantly residential density in Liberty Village. With these approvals in hand, there should be an opportunity to more fully reflect this as-of-right density in our future IFRS values. We expect that an additional 385,000 sq ft of this pipeline could be entitled by year-end in 2023. As set out in our disclosures, only 7.7 million sq ft of our 24.2 million sq ft pipeline is carried on our balance sheet at approximately CAD 76 per sq ft. As our entitlement program advances, it will translate into meaningful NAV growth on our balance sheet, and like Panama, a large portion of this zoned density will be sold.
... However, even after the sale of this density set out in our plan, we will still possess over 17 million sq ft of incremental density in our residual pipeline, leaving us with meaningful opportunities for future growth. To conclude, we continue to execute on our entitlement ladder and on our enhanced capital allocation and portfolio optimization plan. As we sell these low and no yielding assets, the proceeds are being reallocated into nearer-term accretive opportunities, which should continue to positively impact our operating metrics and our business. And with that, operator, we can now open it up to questions.
Thank you. We'll now take questions from the telephone lines. If you have a question and you're using a speakerphone, please lift your handset before making your selection. If you have a question, please press star one on your device's keypad. You may cancel your question at any time by pressing star two. Please press star one at this time if you have a question. There will be a brief pause while the participants register for questions. Thank you for your patience. The first question is from Lauren Kalmar from Desjardins. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good afternoon, FCR team. You guys obviously had a pretty good showing on the, on the rental lift side of things. I was just wondering, was there, you know, was there anything kind of one time in there that drove that, or are we sort of looking at the new normal of high single digit, low single digit rent growth going forward?
Hi, Lauren, it's Adam. There was nothing out of the norm in this group of renewals. There was one or two larger fixed-rate renewals that were flat that kind of brought it down, notwithstanding it was above average. We, we do have those periodically. You know, for clarity, the mezzanine leases that we entered into were treated as kind of new leases, not renewals, so those did not impact it. You know, George referenced the tripling of the rent. It was very much normal course leasing and a reflection of, you know, the current environment. I never get too hung up on any one quarter, which we've said many times, but what we're seeing underlying those renewals, are fundamentals that we would expect to generally remain in place for the foreseeable future.
Okay. Then are you guys seeing fundamentals get to the point where now with tenants that you had previously had fixed-rate renewals, which I'm assuming typically are anchors, that, that you can now flip those options to be market renewals, or, or is it, are we still not there yet?
We have not entered into a new lease with a fixed-rate option in many, many years. I think a function of the strength of our portfolio, the productivity potential of our spaces, and I, I would say also the sophistication of our leasing team has put us in that position many years ago. You know, we-- the fixed-rate option, landlord's best outcome is neutral on those, but it could be negative. As a result, we have not agreed to a fixed-rate option for many, many years. The ones we have are generally ones we've inherited through the acquisition of properties and, and consequently, leases. That has not been an issue for us for, for many years in terms of, we have not issued them or agreed to, to any fixed-rate options for a long time.
Okay. Just maybe flipping over to Nordstrom. I know, I think as Neil has mentioned, there's a lot of exciting stuff going on over there. Is there a thought, like, to do it as a, you know, to split it up to, to facilitate leasing a little bit quicker, or, or would you rather do it as one single, one single lease?
Yeah. We're, we're, we're at a very interesting time. I was the one that, that commented that demand's been very strong, which is nice because I also mentioned last quarter, we were surprised to get the space back. We, we've got options for both. I'm going to reserve my, my opinion on where we think we land. We think it's pretty close, but we do have options for the full space. We do have options to, to put more than one tenant in the space. What's very clear at this point is that if these materialize, it will add a material amount of value to the property. That's really what we're most focused on versus getting a tenant in place in the quickest fashion.
Obviously, time is a factor in understanding the value and NOI impact, but ultimately, we're focused on putting the right tenants in from a qualitative perspective and also from a quantitative perspective, but with, you know, with a, a more medium and long-term view in mind.
Fair enough. Maybe just lastly, are there any other large known non-renewals coming up, or are we sort of through those now?
Certainly nothing in 2023, that we're aware of at this point.
Okay, perfect. I'll turn it back.
Thank you very much, Lauren.
Thank you. The next question is from Dean Wilkinson from CIBC. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Afternoon, everyone. Maybe this could be Neil, maybe Adam. Your cash balance is approaching its near all-time high. We saw sort of, geez, when we all got sent home and put into lockdown. What are you guys thinking about CAD 250 million cash sort of sitting on the balance sheet, and, and, and where's the nearest use for that? I'm assuming it's paying debt, or is there something else you've got in mind?
Hi, Dean, it's Neil. You know, the, the good news about cash today is there's a very little penalty to carry it. We're earning between 5.5% and 5.9%, generally on our cash. You know, in this environment, we obviously believe that more liquidity versus less is important. It is important as it relates to, in particular, our debt maturity schedule. You're probably going to ask the question, we, we do have a CAD 300 million maturity at the end of October.
Mm-hmm.
To, to date, you know, we really have been focused on maintaining a significant amount of liquidity to make sure that we have the appropriate flexibility to deal with that maturity. I would say, having said this, we're also, you know, thinking about how we balance some longer term considerations on that front. You know, the first is that unsecured debentures are, and we believe will continue to be, a very important element of FCR's overall capital structure. You know, the second is candidly, that our debt ladder has become a little shorter than we'd like it to be. Of course, that's really a function of asset sales and debt repayments, and FCR's net debt has been in a declining trend for four years now, albeit, you know, more pronounced over the last two years in particular.
You know, on average, over four years, we've been not turning out as much new debt as there has been debt coming due. Building the liquidity position is clearly to give us a lot of flexibility in advance of the October 31st maturity. Our current line of thinking is we may also choose to refinance a portion of that maturity with a new debenture offering.
Okay, I shouldn't read that as a bet on directionality of interest rates, though?
We're not that smart.
You and I both. Q3 will be, I guess, the one where we really notice the, the hotel, sale. Can you just, Neil, remind me of what % of hotel NOI or EBITDA came in Q3 from a yearly basis?
Yeah. So directionally, you're, you're spot on, Dean. Great seasonality to that business. Everybody loves Yorkville and a, and a patio through the summertime and film festivals, an important event into the fall. You know, between the hotel and the restaurant, they would earn roughly at our share, about 0.5 of their NOI last year in the Q3 .
Okay. Well, maybe there's no, maybe there's no film festival this year, so you dodged that one. That's it for me. I'll hand it back. Thanks, guys.
Thank you, Dean.
Thank you. The next question is from Sam Damiani from TD Cowen. Please go ahead.
Thanks, good afternoon, everyone. First question for me is just on the, the density values. Obviously, great to see the Panama sale and some other transactions over the last several months. Just, when you look at the interest rate environment today, what is the market for density land here in the GTA? Do you expect to monetize more in the near term?
Hey, Sam. Well, the short answer is it depends. It depends on the location, it depends on the size, and it depends how quickly a developer can be shovel-ready. You know, size is not helpful, so generally, the smaller, the better. Fortunately, the density we own is exceptionally well located on major transit routes, often at, you know, key intersections. That's why we've had the success we've had thus far. There certainly continues to be a market for the types of properties we're selling as we continue to demonstrate. You know, it's not a surprise that private capital has been the dominant buyer pool of everything we've sold to date under the plan.
It's also not a surprise, given our description of the composition of the market, that every single property that we sold has had a single buyer with no other property as part of those transactions. Single transaction for each property. The stuff we're working on continues to be very reflective of that. You know, we continue to find the right buyer for the right asset, and again, given the strength of the quality of the portfolio that we're selling, the lack of housing demand in the locations we're in, notably Toronto, this is clearly where the most immigration inflow is, is, is going to. Everyone's familiar with the shortage of housing demand, and so, you know, the stuff we're selling certainly falls into that vein.
Okay. Then shifting on to, to Yonge and Roselawn, may you just clarify, you know, what, what is the status there? Are you guys proceeding, you know, full steam ahead, or is it still kind of exploratory stage of the development, on that project?
Our intention is to go forward full steam ahead. As you know, we brought in an institutional Dutch investor relatively recently for a 25% interest. The pro forma works unlike many that we've looked at. Our intention, though, is to sell down our interest further prior to commencing full construction.
Is that something we should expect in the short term, Adam, or is that still to be, to be determined?
The, the property will be ready, you know, for full-on construction commencement over the next six months. You should expect that if we proceed and continue to do that, that we will sell down our interest further within that timeframe, Sam.
Okay. Last question for me is on Cedarbrae , a redevelopment that's underway. Just wondering what the status on backfilling the vacancy there is, if you could update us there?
Yeah, we've had a number of tenants that have taken possession. That space that was under redevelopment, there was a big chunk of it that transferred to IPP this quarter. If you want more specific details, we're gonna have to get back to you.
Yeah, it's Sam, it's Neil. At right at June 30th, we transferred roughly half the space. I believe it was either 74,000 or 76,000. Yeah, 73,000, I think, correct. 73,000 of roughly 140,000-ish. So that, that will be an income generator through the back half of this year.
Is there much space still left to lease at that project, or are you pretty well through it?
We're almost entirely through it.
That's great. Thank you. That's it for me.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. The next question is from Gaurav Mathur, from IA Capital. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. I'm just looking at the leasing activity and the net rental rate increases. Could you talk to, you know, the tenants in the market that are currently looking for space and, you know, any concerns in your current tenant profile that may cause any concerns?
Yeah, certainly from a location or geographic perspective, we cannot speak to any trends. We're seeing a lot of consistency across all of the markets that we're operating in. In terms of where the demand is coming from, it, it is very broad-based, and it's broad-based across virtually all of First Capital's necessity-based tenant categories. We're doing new deals with grocery, pharmacy, various restaurant formats, fitness, medical, banks, personal service providers, you know, like nail salons and, and the like. It, it really is across the board. For some time now, the, the demand is strong, even in larger space, but particularly small shop space. There's, there's not only strong demand, but a lot of depth.
You know, in terms of, you know, watch categories, you know, we haven't seen any indication yet. The small business tenant category is one that there's been a lot of, certainly, media coverage that would indicate some stress in that type of tenant profile. Again, we have not seen it at all as of yet. We take great comfort in the fact that demand is deepest for that type of space in FCR's portfolio. I would say at this point, it's something to watch, but certainly not something we've seen evidence of at this point.
Okay, great. Just one last question on that. You know, you, you did highlight that you don't see any major non-renewals in 2023. Would it be safe to say that would be the same case for 2024 as well?
For, for the most part, it's a bit early to, to make that statement across the board, given, you know, it covers the next 18 months. It's not uncommon for us to have some non-renewals in any given year. I would say, you know, as we get closer to 2024, we'll provide more of an indication. At this stage, you know, it would be a very small in terms of number count.
Okay, great. Just last question on, you know, your refinancings. We know that there's CAD 300 million coming up, but Neil, just very curious to understand how you're thinking about refinancing versus repayments here, under the current financing regime?
Hi. well, I think we have discussed, you know, our thoughts for the balance of this year, already.
Mm-hmm.
I would say as we look out through 2024, in particular, you know, based upon our, our asset disposition program and our liquidity position, again, we think we're going to be in a net debt repayment position and, and one of some consequence. Certainly, the level of new financing that we anticipate initiating will be less than the amount of debt that's maturing. I don't think FCR is in a particularly different position than pretty much the entire sector, insofar as obviously, when we are refinancing, we are doing it at higher rates than the debt that's maturing. You know, you can model that out in terms of it is a headwind to FFO growth.
Okay. Okay, great. Thank you for the color, gentlemen. I'll turn it back.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from Tal Woolley, from National Bank Financial. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon.
Hi, Tal.
Just a question on credit facility extensions versus cutting a new deal. Is there anything changing in the way pricing is happening that would make you lean towards doing a one-year extension or versus trying to get a new facility in place?
Tal, the short answer is there really isn't anything that's changing. Most of these pricing grids are effectively driven right off of your credit rating, and they've been, you know, pretty stable. Yeah, no, no, nothing to talk about as a consequence on that front.
Okay. Just thought I'd ask, wasn't sure if it changed in this environment or not. With respect to the pace of dispositions, you know, you've come out, you know, you're almost halfway through. How do you sort of see the next tranche kind of unfolding? When should the market be expecting those?
Well, there's 2 things that we'd say about that. Number 1, the, the composition of the assets being sold have started to shift, which we've been talking about quite some time. If you look at the, we'll call it the initial tranche, there was a slightly heavier weighting to low-yielding ITP assets. Think of the hotel, think of the apartments that we sold in Liberty Village. When you look at the, the, the latest round, it's more weighted to density sales. That, that's important because both, both types of assets drive our objectives forward, but we get more bang for our buck by selling density that typically has no yield in place. It's a lot more impactful in terms of the FFO accretion and the debt-to-EBITDA impact for every dollar sold.
Jordie kind of outlined some of the great progress that's occurred in our entitlements program. You know, we're gonna that's gonna bear a lot of fruit, and that fruit is gonna flow through our, our, our disposition program. You should expect that the second half of the dispositions have a higher weighting of density in them, and you've started to see that transition, and that's going to continue. You know, we've been very clear that, you know, we have CAD 1 billion to sell, and it's gonna take roughly two years, and we feel like we've gotten off to a very good start. We're looking for premium pricing that reflects the quality of the assets. So far, we've been able to achieve that.
I mentioned it's taken, you know, more transactions to get this done than one may think, in the sense that every single property represents one and only one transaction. We're, we're doing a lot of deals, and we're going to continue to do a lot of deals. We're gonna spread this out, you know, to cover, you know, we believe we'll get more done this year. We believe we'll get less done over the balance of this year than we will next year, so it is a well-staggered program. I think the pace you've seen is pretty indicative of how we're approaching it. You know, we're less than halfway through time-wise, and we're roughly halfway through, in terms of the total plan.
We'll get a little bit more done this year, and we expect to get, you know, call it ±40% done next year. That was our indication as we headed into the year. We were fortunate that we got close to CAD 200 million done before this year started. We said people should expect the balance to be roughly split between 2023 and 2024. That remains our view today.
Okay. Just on the Maisonneuve transactions, if I'm thinking about how the accounting would move in my head for the land lease, you'd expect a little bit more NOI and then a little bit more interest cost as an offset? When do the higher rents actually start flowing through the PNL?
Yeah. Cal, the simplest way to think of it is, it was a depleting asset that disappeared off the balance sheet. You know, the day before the land lease expired, we carried it at, you know, CAD 10 kind of thing. Then we effectively purchased a fully stabilized existing shopping center for CAD 55 million, including transaction costs.
Okay.
It's fully occupied. It's paying rent the day we closed, and it's kind of as simple as that. You know, to Adam's point, in terms of the renewal leasing spreads, has nothing to do with Maisonneuve. We effectively treated Maisonneuve as if it was a fresh acquisition.
Okay.
To your, to your point, about the, the, you know, a big uptick in NOI, right? You know, we referenced tripling of it, and obviously, we've got the interest expense to recognize. All of those came together at the exact same time, and it was towards the end of the Q2 , mid, mid-Q2 .
Got it. Then I guess, like, you know, my other, my other question would be like, if we look at, you know, your, your enhanced capital allocation program, one of the goals out of there was to turn, you know, sort of 4% kind of FFO growth ex OGLE over the next couple of years. Like, how comfortable are you still feeling about that target in light of everything that's come to pass in the economy?
Yeah, we're feeling like we are still going to deliver that. We said that by, you know, come the end of 2024, our debt-to-EBITDA will be lower than 10. At this stage, we're, you know, we're very comfortable with that. We said that our FFO would be north of $1.20, and we're very comfortable with that. What's changed since then is interest rates have increased to a level higher than we were expecting at the time, and our leasing activity has also been better than we expected, and so that's largely offset the increase in rates.
Okay. All right. That's great. Thanks, everybody. Appreciate it.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. The next question is from Pammi Bir, from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Hi, everyone. Maybe just coming back to the Nordstrom Rack space. You alluded to some, I guess, pretty substantial valuation. Now, what sort of rents do you think you could achieve on that space? Maybe, I don't know, either absolute or maybe relative to what Nordstrom was paying. Over what time frame do you expect that space will get backfilled?
Yeah. We, we were clear at the time what Nordstrom was paying, which is roughly CAD 85 a square foot on a blended basis over a 40,000 sq ft. We said that that lease had been signed close to a decade ago, and that we felt market was much higher, or we said it was higher. You know, right now we've been trading paper with, with multiple tenants. It is very clear that market rent today for that space is meaningfully higher. You know, we'll reserve any further comment on that till we get transactions fully completed, and hopefully, that's what we're talking about next quarter, and we can give you a little more color. Timing is dependent on a couple of things.
It appears that we will likely have to prepare some of the space for the new tenants. We think there's a decent chance that tenants take possession sometime towards the end of this year, early next year. When they commence rent will be a period after that. There will be some continued downtime from a cash rent paying perspective. We're very encouraged at this point with respect to what rental rates are from a market perspective. You know, certainly, we've seen evidence today that they are higher than we would have initially thought. Again, we were surprised to get the space back, as we noted, so it's not like we were out there trying to find tenants for that space before. That's where things stand now.
We'll reserve further commentary until we're fully complete on the leases we're negotiating.
Okay. To the extent you can maybe add any color, just on the, the tenants that you are talking to, are these more, you know, Bloor Street type tenants or more FCR bread-and-butter type tenants?
We're, we're talking to both. I'd say at this stage, the likelihood of who ends up in the space would be more similar to FCR-type tenants across our broader portfolio versus that particular note.
Okay. Then just lastly, one, maybe, on the, on the Walmart space at, I think it was Westmount. How long is that tenant, that short-term tenant in place for? Can you maybe talk about the re-leasing prospects there?
Yeah, we've, we've got the tenant in place for roughly a year. We think that's an adequate time frame for us to solidify the longer-term plan. Yeah, well, that, that's all I'd have to say on it, unless you have any other questions about it, Tom.
No. No, that's it. Thanks very much.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you. As a reminder, you may press star one if you have a question. The next question is from Jenny Ma from BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks. Good afternoon. Just wanted to-
Jenny, nice to have you back.
Thank you. It's great to be back. I want to touch on the disposition activity that, Adam, you talked about earlier. You mentioned that the timing may have slowed down a bit, but I'm wondering, in light of the very recent interest rate moves we've seen, have you seen any impact on the pricing of density and development land, or are the assets that you're selling sort of close enough to shovel-ready that it's less of an issue?
Yeah. Well, I really appreciate the question, particularly because it provides evidence I wasn't totally clear. We have not slowed down. Things have gone at least as well as we had hoped. All I was referencing is, we've said from day one, this is going to be a staggered two-year program, and that, that remains the case today. It's not only the comments I referenced earlier as to why, but we have assets identified in the plan, for example, that are density assets that we have not secured full zoning yet. Jordie referenced one that we just got, which is Staples Lougheed. There are others that are imminent, that we will get this year.
We will not sell those assets until we secure the zoning, to ensure the zoning risk is entirely priced out of the, of the property. So that's part of why some of the assets will be sold next year. The, the pace is right on track. We don't feel like it's slowed down. We've gotten off to a good start, but it will span well into next year, which we always anticipated. What I would say is, the June Bank of Canada increase, and this is very much on the margin, but I would say that added a tinge of negative sentiment to the property markets. Not enough of a negative tinge to, to have any assets that we've tried to sell, not sell.
In fact, so far, every single asset we've tried to sell, we have sold. I, I cannot tell you that we would have gotten $1 more in purchase price for the things that have waived more recently. We think it's the same price. As an overall sentiment, it probably, in our view, got again, on the margin, a bit more negative after the June increase, not the July increase. Again, we have negotiations underway today with other potential dispositions, and it feels similar in terms of the depth, the pricing, you know, as to what it would have been even a few months ago.
Okay. The buyer profile, is that typically domestic developers, the usual suspects, or is there anything interesting from that group?
... no, it, it, it is, it is almost all domestic. You know, with the exception of the Dutch investor that came into our Yonge and Roselawn project, the balance are domestic. It's been private capital. One of the transactions that we more, more recently entered into has a private capital, a developer that's got pension, a large Canadian pension fund, financial capital behind them. Yeah, the, the, the buyer pool for the stuff we're selling has been dominated by private investors. You know, lots of equity that they're putting in, so well capitalized, very experienced, you know, amongst the, the higher quality names of developers in the various markets that we're operating in.
Okay, great. That's helpful. Just switching over onto the debt side, maybe, Neil, you can comment on what kind of spreads you're seeing on secured versus unsecured debt, and where along the curve you might see some interesting opportunities. Are you inclined to keep it short for the time being, or are there opportunities to maybe term out some debt longer?
Hi. Hi, Jenny. You know, as you know, the curve is inverted in terms of Government of Canada rates, but spreads tend to widen out as you go up the curve. You know, in that five, seven, eight -year range, there's actually not a great deal of difference in the nominal cost of financing in the unsecured market. Certainly, in our bond spreads, once you get out to 10-year indicated terms, the spread does widen at that level to the point where the nominal cost also goes up. And in, and in very round numbers, I would say the cost for us in terms of the differential between unsecured and secured spreads is about 100 basis points today.
Okay. It hasn't moved much in the last while then? Pretty, pretty widespread still.
The short answer to that is yes. I would say, if it's any consolation, we have seen some, I would say, relative spread gains vis-a-vis our peers, in particular in the last three to four months. You know, I'm optimistic that that is a, a function of us leaning into our commitments on a number of fronts that we've, we've made. You know, we, we call our optimization plan debt objectives. We call them objectives, but we really see them as commitments to our bondholders and our equity holders. I think we've got a good path of progress established that we intend to, to continue along.
Okay, great. That was very helpful. I'll turn it back.
Thank you. This concludes today's question and answer session. I would like to turn the meeting back over to Adam.
Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you everyone for your interest, in First Capital and your attendance for our Q2 conference call. We look forward to providing you with more progress and updates on our business in the future. Have a great afternoon. Thank you.
Thank you. The conference has now ended. Please disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.