Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Morguard Real Estate Investment Trust fourth quarter for the year ending December 31st, 2021 conference call. At this time, all lines are in a listen-only mode, and following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. As a reminder, this call is being recorded today, Thursday, February 17th, 2022. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Andrew Tamlin, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Andrew Tamlin, CFO of Morguard REIT. Welcome to Morguard REIT's fourth quarter 2021 earnings conference call. I'm joined this afternoon by John Ginis, Assistant Vice President of Retail Asset Management, Tom Johnston, VP of Western Asset Management, Tullio Capulli, VP of Eastern Asset Management, along with Rai Sahi, CEO and Chairman of the Board. Thank you all for taking the time to join the call. Before we jump into the call, I would like to point out that our comments will mostly refer to the fourth quarter for 2021 year-end MD&A and financial statements, which have been posted to our website. I refer you specifically to the cautionary language at the front of the MD&A, which would also apply to any comments that we make on this call.
Overall, we are pleased with the fourth quarter results, which showed improved same asset metrics over last year, improvements on receivable collections, and progress on some significant financing activities. Net operating income for the year declined slightly to CAD 122 million in 2021 from CAD 123.8 million in 2020, while FFO increased slightly to CAD 69 million in 2021 from CAD 67 million in 2020. NOI for the fourth quarter was down as compared to 2020 due to higher bad debt provisions from the uncertainty around the Omicron wave and the sale of Wonderland Corners in the third quarter of 2021. Same asset net operating income for the fourth quarter improved in all asset classes from a year ago, with the exception of multi-tenant Office asset class, which declined slightly due to higher vacancy costs.
This represents the third quarter in a row where we have seen improvements in the same asset metric. We have seen continued declines in interest expense, which declined another CAD 400,000 this quarter. On a year-over-year basis, interest expense has declined CAD 3 million, or almost CAD 5 million over a two-year period. These declines are due to the lowering of the weighted average interest rate on our mortgage portfolio from 3.8% last year to 3.6% this year. This lower interest rate was the result of the large amount of refinancings in both the latter half of 2020 and in 2021, all at lower rates. Total debt is CAD 53 million lower at the end of this year as compared to last year as well. Notwithstanding the improved results, there are still challenges, particularly in our enclosed mall portfolio.
Our two Ontario enclosed malls, St. Laurent and Cambridge, were closed for portions of 2021 due to Ontario lockdowns and are still subject to COVID restrictions, such as mask mandates. We are hopeful that the strong rollout and take-up of vaccines by both Canadians and Ontarians, that we will soon see the end of lockdowns and related COVID restrictions. Rent collections have been strong, particularly in the Office, community strip, and Industrial asset classes, which are functioning normally. Rent collections from enclosed regional centers range from 90%-100%, depending on the asset and the location of that asset. While we are still working on rent solutions for certain Retail tenants, the majority of the remaining Retail rent arrears represent Ontario tenants.
From an industry perspective, we are seeing most of the uncollected rents coming from tenants that have been most severely impacted by lockdowns, such as gym operators, beauty services, and food service tenants being at the top of this list. As these tenants have reopened across Canada and restrictions have eased, we are optimistic that we will see continued improvements in our cash collections as we move forward into 2022. The rent arrears and deferrals at December 31st, 2021 totaled CAD 9 million, which is down from CAD 12 million at third quarter and CAD 20 million if you go back to the first quarter. The allowance for doubtful accounts assigned to these arrears totaled CAD 5 million, or approximately 60% excluding sales taxes.
Our bad debt reserves were higher at the end of the year due to the Omicron wave that was happening at the time and the related restrictions that went along with it. While collections did take a bit of a dip due to Omicron, they are now back to levels we saw in the fall before the Omicron wave. More than half the arrears outstanding are from the two malls in Ontario which have seen the most lockdowns under COVID. We are still working on rent solutions for these arrears, and we expect these balances to continue to decline over the next quarter or two as these solutions are put in place and documented. Turning to FFO.
The improvement in FFO for the year is due to an extra CAD 2.8 million in lease cancellation fees and the improvement in interest expense. The REIT's PCME or operating capital reserve was established to be CAD 4.6 million per quarter for the year, which is approximately 75% of normal levels. We spent approximately CAD 15.5 million of the CAD 18.5 million annual 2021 reserve. Our Retail occupancy levels at December 31st were in line with a year ago at 94%. Our Office occupancy levels have slipped to 87% from 89% a year ago, as we have seen some tenants look for other solutions upon their lease expiration. Our current occupancy level for all asset classes of 91% is only slightly changed from the start of the pandemic, which was 93%.
This speaks to the fact that in most cases, we've been able to keep tenancy at our assets. We are still seeing declines in traffic patterns across most of our enclosed malls from pre-pandemic levels. However, this has not always meant declines in sales. Instead of folks coming to malls to window shop or lounge at the food court, we are seeing much more targeted traffic whereby folks are coming and going in an efficient manner. Looking at financing, there was a mortgage up-financing renewal completed during the fourth quarter. The security was an Office building in Vancouver and brought an additional CAD 35 million in up-financing proceeds at an interest rate of 3.1% for a 10-year timeframe.
We are pleased with the completion of the renewal of our convertible debentures in December 31st, December, given the impact that COVID has had on our Office and enclosed mall asset classes. There was a small pay down of CAD 16 million for a new principal amount of CAD 159 million. The interest rate is now set at 5.25%. Now for an update on our leasing efforts. For 2022, there are 620,000 sq ft in Retail GLA coming up for renewal. More than half this space represents anchor tenants which have already renewed or are expected to renew. In fact, there is no space greater than 10,000 sq ft, which is not expected to renew in this year.
Further, almost half the 390,000 Office GLA coming up for renewal in 2022 represents government tenants which have already renewed. Management has had continued ongoing discussions with the provincial government tenant at Petroleum Plaza in Edmonton, which came up for renewal on December 31st, 2020, a year ago, and is now in overhold. While they have verbally told us that they expect to renew, they have unfortunately still been focused on their response to the pandemic, which has taken priority. At this point, we are still looking at later in 2022 in order to get this completed. Turning to financing and liquidity, the trust has CAD 185 million in liquidity at the end of the fourth quarter and CAD 350 million in unencumbered assets.
This liquidity position has increased from CAD 142 million a year ago. The trust is continuing with the Save-On-Foods development job at Pine Centre, which entails the re-tenanting of the old Lowe's premises into a new 38,850 sq ft Save-On-Foods grocery store. Demolition of the existing former Lowe's premises is now complete, and we are arranging for sub-trades and materials deliveries. This is expected to be completed in fourth quarter 2022. The addition of grocery further complements the strong anchor tenant profile at this mall and has advanced leasing discussions with some discriminatory tenants looking to come into this marketplace. Wrapping up, while the economy and by extension some of the REIT's assets are going through their challenges, we remain positive about a number of aspects of our business.
There are absolutely some short-term challenges with our enclosed malls, but most of them remain dominant in their geographical area. Our strip malls, which are largely grocery anchored, have shown resilience in collections. Beyond our Retail assets, we have high quality Office buildings in Canada's largest markets with a high degree of government Office tenants. We continue to be positive about our business and the objective of building value for our unitholders. We look forward to continuing to execute our strategy and thank you for your continued support. We will now open the floor to questions.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press the star followed by the one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press the star followed by the two. As a reminder, if you are using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. One moment please for your first question. Your first question comes from Jonathan Kelcher of TD. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Good afternoon. First question, just on the, I guess you had about CAD 590,000 of lease termination income in the quarter. Can you maybe give us a little bit of color on that? Was that just one lease or several leases?
It really was a bunch of smaller tenants. There wasn't anything in particular, Jonathan. Yeah, nothing specific to highlight on that.
Okay. Any lease termination income that you emailed out for Q1?
Yeah, yeah. No, there's nothing significant that we're aware of, Jonathan.
Okay. On Petroleum Plaza, that's obviously being held over now 13, 14 months. Do you get the existing rent in place or is there? If they renew, is there any sort of change on that?
It's in overhold. As part of that, we're collecting the old rent. But from an accounting standpoint, we're actually booking the rent that we believe will be negotiated at the end of the day. It's a smaller amount just because of the geography of where the asset is. We've made our best stab at what we believe that rent will be when it's all negotiated and said and done. But unfortunately, it still is dragging on, I guess you would say. You know, we believe there's no real risk. They, you know, they're obviously still occupying the building, and they have verbally told us numerous times that, you know, they're going to get to it, but it just has not hit their to-do list just yet.
Okay. I guess just lastly on the leases, I think you were at 183,000 sq ft of leases that you've done on government space. Was that done at sort of expiring rents? Did you get some uplifts or roll downs on any of that?
It's a bit of a mixed bag. Some of both. I would say it's small uplift when you add them all up.
Okay, thanks. Oh, one last thing. What do you expect to be using for your CapEx reserve for 2022?
It'll be higher than 2021. We're just gonna be going through that review to see whether it's appropriate to go back to the full amount in 2022.
Okay, thanks. I'll turn it back.
Thank you.
Your next question comes from Pammi Bir, RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Thanks, Linda. Hi, everyone. Just on the Retail leases that you mentioned you've already addressed for 2022. Again, similar line of thinking with respect to Jonathan's question on the spread, but can you comment on how some of those renewal spreads have come in?
Well, the anchor tenants themselves are really just the status quo from a rent perspective, so there's not really any uptick on those. John, do you wanna maybe just comment on what you're seeing as far as the rest of the marketplace?
Yeah. Thanks, Andrew. Hey, Pammi. Andrew's right. Usually with large format anchors and enclosed shopping centers or strips, they almost invariably have options tied to the leases. Where they come up for renewal, they exercise options. Notwithstanding some of these deals that might have them at fair market, Andrew's right, we try to hold the line because they're deemed anchor tenants. With respect to the balance of smaller bay inline CRU, we're still in a situation where we are, you know, transitioning through a pandemic, so it'll be interesting to see how these negotiations go in 2022. We've been, you know, hit pretty hard over the course of the last two years with respect to our income.
Our hope is that as negotiations proceed for the balance of this year for the smaller bay stuff, there's actually this time more rental uplift as part of renewals.
Okay. I guess maybe just elaborating a bit, you know, you mentioned in your remarks, Andrew, that you know you continue to work through some solutions with some of the Retail tenants, you know, over the course of, I presume, you know, this year. Then layering your comments on with respect to the anchor renewals flat and some of the work you're doing on the small bay space or the smaller CRU space, what does that sort of translate to in your mind of what the Retail same property NOI may look like from a trends or, you know, directionally for this year?
I would expect it'll be pretty similar to the past few quarters, Pammi. I mean, you know, I think the strips have done reasonably well. There's, you know, been growth there for quite some time. You know, with the malls, there's been kind of smallish type growth, but it's there. I would probably say it's gonna be pretty consistent for the past few quarters.
Got it. Last one for me, just on the, you know, on the fair value markdowns in the quarter. Again, the malls were once again taking the brunt of it. Does it feel like the, you know, the write-downs there are kind of done at this point? Or, you know, is, you know, again, coming back to some of your commentary on the outlook for the year ahead, is there perhaps the possibility that you may have to take some additional charges there?
It's really tough to say, Pammi . You know, I don't think we don't foresee any material changes from a fair value perspective. There will always be tweaks, but it's really tough to kind of forecast where that's going.
Appreciate that. I will hand it back. Thanks very much.
Your next question comes from Jenny Ma of BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Thanks, and good afternoon. Just to follow on Pammi's line of questioning at the end there with the fair value write down for the malls. What was the trigger for that? Is it changes in your assumptions on occupancy, rental rates? You know, is it a result of some rent collection data points that you've gotten or a bit of a combination of the above?
Hey, Jenny, it's John responding to your question. Over the course of the last eight quarters, we've obviously taken a scrub on our Retail malls, and there's been various parameters that we've adjusted to feed into fair value changes on our balance sheet. For the last quarter, it's obviously smaller than what you see in past quarters, but that has more to do with adjustments to projected rents on inline space than discount rates or cap rates, et cetera.
Okay, great. I'm just wondering with the rent collection at the two Ontario malls. You cited the Omicron impact of that on the rent collection. The malls have been allowed to remain open through the last set of restrictions, if you will. Is it, is the rent collection issue confined to maybe some smaller tenants that might have had some revenue issues because of the reduced capacity? Is it just a carryover of some tenants that you've had trouble collecting from? Like, any color there in terms of what the actual impact was from the last lockdown or the last set of restrictions?
Probably a bit of both, Jenny. You know, food court tenants are still struggling, so, you know, I think that they're probably at the top of the list as far as tenants that we're monitoring and, you know, we're seeing issues with. You still got some, you know, some gym operators that, you know, that have restrictions as well. You've got some, you know, beauty salons and personal service tenants as well. So, I mean, those are the ones that we're monitoring and, you know, we're seeing issues with from a rent collection standpoint. But, you know, they're not material at the end of the day. We're still in the 90%-100% range at all of our malls.
You know, I wouldn't say that it's anything to get too excited about.
Okay. I guess it's a little too early to tell at this point, but with restrictions easing up then presumably there'd be a correlation to your collections then going forward.
We would think so, yes.
Okay. Lastly, with regards to the government tenant at Petroleum Plaza, do you know if the tenant is actually utilizing the space? Like, are the employees actually going into work? Do you have any color on that?
Tom, maybe you could field that one if you could.
Sure. Hi, Jenny. It's Tom Johnston in Vancouver. Generally, yes, there's two towers. Basically the, not that it matters to get into the detail, but the north tower is fully occupied by energy, and they have been generally busy. Again, in the province of Alberta, they've had health restrictions and protocols in place that have not allowed employees to go into the Office. It really depends on what the protocols are in place at the province. They've definitely been impacted by that. Then they have the south tower as well, and there's been different ministries that have been, and departments that have been moving in and moving out, but really not affecting occupancy levels. Again, I would just summarize it. It really depends on the health restrictions.
Now, as you're aware, the province of Alberta is lifting those. We, you know, we anticipate that there will be staffing levels will increase at the asset.
Okay. I'm just trying to get a sense of whether or not work from home is something that's taken up, you know, at a pretty big level and what that ultimately means for actual physical Office utilization as you renegotiate or continue discussions on the lease this year?
I mean, it's hard. Like everyone, it's definitely a wait and see what happens with, you know, flexible work environments and et cetera. It is a wait and see. As we anticipate that because those buildings are spoken for relative to the different departments that they will reoccupy.
Okay. I appreciate that it's difficult to tell. I think that's the answer we all want. You're saying there are some people coming in and out depending on restriction levels.
Yeah.
Okay. Great.
Yeah. Like I say, those are lifting, so we expect like in all of our properties in Alberta, we expect occupancy levels to start rising.
Okay, great. Thank you very much.
Yeah.
Once again, ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one now. There are no further questions. I will now turn the conference back over to Mr. Andrew Tamlin for closing remarks. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you. I'd just like to thank everybody for joining the call and look forward to speaking with everybody next quarter. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude your conference call for today. We would like to thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines.