Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Nexus REIT 2021 third quarter results conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Kelly Hanczyk, Chief Executive Officer, for opening remarks. Please go ahead.
I'd like to welcome everyone to the 2021 third quarter results conference call for Nexus REIT. Joining me today, as always, is Robert Chiasson, Chief Financial Officer of the REIT. Before we begin, I'd like to caution with regard to forward-looking statements and non-GAAP measures. Certain statements made during this conference call may constitute forward-looking statements which reflect the REIT's current expectations and projections about future results.
Also, during this call, we will be discussing non-GAAP measures. Please refer to our MD&A and the REIT's other securities filings, which can be found at sedar.com for cautions regarding forward-looking information and for information about non-GAAP measures. The 2021 continues to be a game-changing year for the REIT as we continue to rapidly execute on our strategy of becoming Canada's next pure-play industrial REIT.
For the third quarter, we closed on CAD 95.5 million of industrial acquisitions and subsequently closed on another CAD 286 million. We are preparing to close at the end of the week on a CAD 19.7 million strong covenant industrial distribution center in Alberta with a 10-year lease term, which will be acquired at a very attractive cap rate.
We continue to have a very active pipeline of deal flow, and you can see from our balance sheet we have the liquidity to be able to execute on a significant amount of additional industrial acquisitions. Our occupancy for the quarter was up slightly from last quarter. In the industrial portfolio, our vacancy continues to mainly be a 25,000 sq ft industrial space at 41 Royal Vista Drive in Calgary.
The good news is that we're in final negotiations on a deal that is scheduled to commence in January. At Place 400 in Saint John, New Brunswick, we have had some modest success in some of the 26,000 sq ft that came back to us on April first. We have leased 6,514 of that now, and we continue to have additional groups inquiring. We've actually targeted this property for a disposition in early 2022. In Richmond, B.C., we are continuing with the redevelopment of an approximately 60,000 sq ft building for two tenants.
Timelines have been extended from what we originally anticipated as we ran into some supply chain issues with the delivery of steel trusses for a complete new roof over one of the two tenants and for the delivery of the main chiller plant for the ice surfaces. We are now in possession of the chiller and hope to have it installed and connected this month to allow rental payments to begin for one of the two tenants in December on approximately 34,415 sq ft at CAD 34.25 per sq ft. The space for the second tenancy, which is 26,319 sq ft at CAD 33 a foot, should hopefully be complete by the end of December or January. This tenant's rent will commence once they take possession of the space.
It is effectively an all-new build for this space. As mentioned previously, upon completion, our NOI will increase by approximately CAD 165,000 per month. We're also close to having building permits in hand to add an additional 74,000 sq ft to the project, which once complete, which would hopefully be in about a year, we'd expect this to create approximately CAD 21 million in value creation.
Montreal, we continue to work with the developer on the sale of some excess land at Les Halles d'Anjou. The developer is moving along quickly. Still, with their approvals from the city, it looks positive that we'll close this transaction in April, beginning of April, which will allow us to realize our first payments from the developer. We'll receive two of our payments in April and one in about a year from now.
In London, we are working towards adding 150,000 sq ft-200,000 sq ft at one of our properties beginning next year. We're currently in the planning and costing phase of this project. We have 16 acres at another site that we are beginning to clear to get ready to develop in the near future. Vacancy in London is at an all-time low, with little new build scheduled in the near future, so it bodes well for us with some development activity there.
On the disposition front, we have three of our suburban Montreal office properties and two smaller retail properties under contract or under PSA negotiation. These would be expected to close in January. We've targeted four additional properties for sale in the early new year, which would be a combination of retail and office. I will now hand it over to Rob Chiasson to give greater detail of the REIT's financials.
Thanks, Kelly. Subsequent to completing the CAD 35 million offering in March and a CAD 103.5 million London acquisitions, where we paid approximately 65% of the purchase price by issuing Class B LP units and subsequently balancing out our capital structure, we completed approximately CAD 95 million of cash deals through to the end of Q3, and we also completed a CAD 44 million unit deal.
We began to see the positive impact of deploying our capital in Q3, and we'll see further benefit in Q4 and Q1 as further capital is deployed to acquire properties. On August 23rd, we completed a CAD 112 million offering. Approximately CAD 55 million of those proceeds were deployed on October 1st to complete the CAD 230 million acquisition of the Loblaws distribution center portfolio.
Per unit measures and our payout ratio will improve in future quarters as all of this capital is put to work. We ended the quarter with CAD 63 million of cash, full availability of CAD 45 million in credit facilities, and CAD 63 million of unencumbered properties. We're currently under contract or in negotiation to sell five office and retail properties, as Kelly mentioned, for an aggregate sale price of CAD 45.7 million.
We're busy deploying our available capital on a strong pipeline of potential acquisitions. In Q3, we saw further fair value gains on our properties, and in particular, the carrying value of our Richmond, B.C. property was written up by CAD 11 million based on an appraisal received in the quarter. We also realized some gains on our Ontario industrial portfolio and a small increase in our Old Montreal office portfolio.
Same-store NOI was down in the quarter, primarily as a result of the two vacancies Kelly mentioned, a 25,000 sq ft industrial vacancy in Calgary and a 26,000 sq ft space in an office building in Saint John, New Brunswick, which came back to us at the end of April. As Kelly mentioned, we're making progress on releasing these spaces. Our debt to GBV was 36.6% at quarter end due to cash on our balance sheet from the August offering and due to having completed acquisitions in the quarter without placing mortgages on these properties. I'll now turn it back over to Kelly.
Thanks, Rob. I'm now going to open up the line to any questions that you have.
Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. We will pause for a moment as callers join the queue. Our first question comes from Li Chen of iA Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Thank you and good afternoon. Just a quick question from me just regarding the Richmond property. In the context of the significant portfolio repositioning done this year, I was just wondering if you could give us a sense of optionality and timeline related to the asset, more specifically in terms of intensification.
Yeah. We're in for permit on the 74,000 sq ft addition, which quite frankly is a pretty big value creation opportunity for us. Once we're in the ground and starting and going along, I think we're going to take a look at potentially adding additional square footage to the site. There'd need to be some zoning variants, but we could add industrial square footage on a second-tier drive up.
We're contemplating that, and it's fairly large square footage. I think we'll evaluate it over the next six months. Then at the end of the day, if this project, if we choose not to do that, it would be one that eventually we'd probably look to sell, if it doesn't fit our industrial strategy per se.
It does have an opportunity perhaps that we can add significant square footage. I don't know if anyone knows, but the price of land and the value of land in B.C., in Richmond in particular, things are going for almost CAD 9 million an acre. the ability to build up and do tiered industrial, it's kind of exciting. As we go along next year we're gonna look and evaluate the opportunity further.
That's great. Thanks, Kelly. That's it for me. I'll turn it back.
Thanks, Li.
Our next question comes from Brad Sturges of Raymond James. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon. I guess, starting with the leasing side, you said good news in Calgary in terms of leasing up some vacant space. How would you know, how would the new rents compare to the previous rents for that space?
Yeah, it's below what we had before, at the end of the day, and I think we'll see rental flow start to come in in January, where it ramps up by probably April. We're still in negotiation on it, so I don't 100% know where it's going to pan out yet.
You know, I guess you had a pretty strong liquidity position to end the quarter, but lots of acquisitions announced, still pending close quarter-plus. You highlighted some of the asset sales, you know, on a kind of more pro forma basis. Where do you see liquidity and leverage being once all the contemplated transactions close?
Yeah. We've got a number of properties that are under LOI or PSA. I would say that we have liquidity to close most all of them. All of them, I guess. We do have some that are, you know, we have quite a long pipeline in terms of acquisitions. But the ones that were in LOI, signed LOI and PSA, we do have liquidity close. We probably push our debt to GBV up somewhere around 53.5% or something like that, closing on those if we did it by leveraging up some of the unencumbered assets and placing mortgages. Yeah.
Beyond what's been announced from an acquisition point of view, Kelly, y ou know, are you still seeing a balance, I guess, between deals you can do within cash versus deals that you would potentially issue stock to vendors? Or do you see that strategy transitioning a bit from, you know, historically, what you've been able to achieve from an acquisition point of view?
I think it's transitioning, you know, with the great cost of capital for us and when we were struggling to raise equity. Most of the ones we're looking at right now are cash deals. You know, the portfolio that family still owns, you know, upwards of four million sq ft. We could see additional product come in there over time, and those would tend to be unit deals.
That would be our pipeline there. You know, everything I'm seeing right now and what's happening in the market, it's a lot of guys want cash, but I still think that our units, the unit deals that we were doing are still relatively attractive for others. I don't think you'll see an end to that. It'll just become a smaller percentage of what we do.
Right. Last question, just in terms of acquisition strategy. You know, you've been getting a little bit more active, I guess, from a primary market perspective. You know, how do you see the balance between primary market, secondary market, transactions?
Yep.
As you high grade more towards higher quality higher growth markets?
Yeah. The things that we have under contract right now and that we're going to close on are all pretty high quality assets. It's a mixture of, you know, where some lower cap rate mixed with some higher cap rate. We're closing on one this week that's actually quite a high cap rate. You know, it's a balance for me. We wanna high grade the portfolio, get some exposure to some of the, you know, the major markets, but we don't wanna blow our brains out, either. It's a mixture of both, where, you know, high quality assets, you know, we will target some of those and then also high quality assets that might be in that tier two market but have a better cap rate.
We kind of look at a blend there. I think if you were looking at it, I'd say it's probably 50/50, maybe 60/40, where 40% is the more attractive, you know, Montreal, et cetera, et cetera. I think at the end of the day, we will make some headway in those markets, but we'll always be active in the other markets where we're seeing better cap rates.
Yeah. Makes sense. Thanks a lot.
No problem.
Thanks. Bye.
Our next question comes from Kyle Stanley of Desjardins. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Good afternoon, guys. Just maybe along the lines of, you know, you mentioned the acquisition that you're supposed to close at the end of this week. You mentioned a favorable cap rate. Would you be able to just provide, you know, a range that we might be able to expect there?
I think that one.
Yep.
Was in the 7% range.
Yeah, that's in the sevens.
Okay, great. Thanks. With regards to the four London-based assets that, you know, you're supposed to be closing on early 2022, do you have, you know, a timeline there just for modeling purposes?
Sorry.
The four London. I think it's January 4th`.
It should be January 4th or 6th. It's one of the first days of the month.
Okay, great. Thank you.
Sure.
There's another asset that they're adding an addition on that we close later on next year, at the end of the year, hopefully, if they're done. That one's that'll be a fantastic asset because that one they're adding 175,000 sq ft of brand new distribution addition on there. When we take it will still have the ability to put another 100,000 sq ft on it if it requires. Still has expansion availability to it. Fantastic deal.
Okay, great. You said hopefully by the end of next year, if it-
Yeah. I hope that they're gonna be able to have it complete and turned over to the tenant by the end of next year. That's the schedule right now.
Okay. Fantastic.
Which I think was disclosed in the prospectus, some press release when we did an offering back in August.
Okay, thanks. Just looking at your lease expiries next year, I believe there's 535,000 sq ft. Off the top of your head, do you know the proportion that will be related to industrial assets? Is there an expectation or do you have an idea of what the mark-to-market opportunity could be there?
Yes. A good chunk of that is actually in the London portfolio, and I'll maybe let Kelly speak to it a little bit, but there could be some good opportunities there.
Yeah, they're significant. In a lot of the stuff that expires, we're sitting at about CAD 7 gross. I think that will be CAD 7-CAD 9 triple net on renewal there. I believe, if I'm not mistaken, there is one of our buildings in Saskatchewan, in Regina, that comes up next year, and that one has some fairly significant mark-to-market increase as well that could be significant. Early stages on that one, but I think next year will be a pretty decent year on the industrial side of things on the renewals.
Okay, great. The last one for me. We saw your IFRS cap rate compressed by 10 bps sequentially. I'm just wondering, you know, do you see more compression within the existing asset base? You know, is there more valuation work to be done, you know, into year-end and into 2022?
Yeah. I think in particular in Western Canada, we're starting to see some movement and some competition for assets. Yeah, I think there could be more valuations and or revaluations. We're certainly seeing a lot of competition for product in Ontario that's driving cap rates down as well. Yeah, we certainly could have additional revaluations at year-end.
Okay, great. That's it for me. Thanks, guys.
Thanks, Kyle.
Our next question comes from [Julian Chen] of BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning, guys.
Hey, Julian.
Just wanted to clarify, sorry, go back to the previous question on the pro forma leverage. I heard the 52%. Is that just after the closing for what you disclosed for October and November, or does that include some of the other things that are in the pipeline right now?
That includes undisclosed stuff.
Okay.
That's under PSA. Everything that we've, you know, everything that we're working towards tying up, we could close on all of that.
Right.
Yeah.
Okay. Can you just remind us again where, kind of your target leverage would be that you're comfortable with?
Actually, our target leverage would be below 50%, somewhere in 45%-50%. We'll likely get there shortly after. You know, I don't know for sure that we'll be able to close on everything in the pipeline, but if we did, we have the cash to do it and put our debt to GBV at around 53.5%. We may not get that high, and if we do, we'd look to then subsequently bring it back down.
Okay. I guess, you know, with just the October and November acquisition so far, would your leverage kind of be in the mid-to-high 40s% right now, excluding the stuff that's in the pipeline that you could not disclose?
I've modeled it as of today, but, you know, we completed the London deal, or sorry, the London one on October first. That was a CAD 230 million deal with CAD 172 million in mortgage financing.
Mm-hmm.
We completed the Wilton Grove deal, which was the unit deal. You know, those being the main transactions that would need to be modeled out to get to today's debt to GBV.
Right. Okay. I guess, you know, obviously you mentioned that the acquisition pipeline remains very strong, which is encouraging. I guess, are there any particular preferred markets that you guys are targeting right now?
Yeah, I mean, we're all around London, southwestern Ontario, you know, the Cambridge, Hamilton, that whole side of things. Montreal, we're fairly active in trying to do some things. Edmonton and Calgary, definitely. Still looking at Saskatchewan and Winnipeg as well. Those are the markets we're targeting right now.
Got it. Okay. I guess earlier you mentioned, you know, the just acquisition cap rates kind of range. What would you say would be on the higher end of the cap rate range for some of the acquisitions you're looking to underwrite, and what would be the cap rate at the lower end of what you guys are looking at right now?
I'd say it's gonna be a mixture of between, you know, 4.2%-6.75%. I think that's 6.757%.
Okay.
is what we're targeting and things that we're looking at. A mixture.
Okay. That's very helpful. Thank you very much, guys. I will turn it back. Thank you.
Our next question comes from Saif Kotak, a private investor. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Congratulations on the quarter. I was just noticing that your normalized AFFO payout ratio has been increasing. Last year it was around 80%, and now it's crept up to about 96%. Just hoping to understand how you guys thought about the AFFO payout ratio going in the future, because I know you have closed some recent deals where you issued more class B units, which would have the dividend obligation as well. Just trying to see how you guys are planning on funding that going into the future. Thanks.
Yeah. As mentioned, we did a CAD 35 million offering in March, and then we did the London portfolio deal in April 1. The London portfolio deal was a CAD 103.5 million deal where the vendor took back about 65% of the purchase price in units. It's sort of the inverse of our capital structure. But it did allow us an opportunity to put credit facility on three of the properties. That gave us access to CAD 40 million, which we could then use to acquire further properties. That combined with the offering that we closed at the end of August all had, you know, the impact of reducing our per unit measures and increasing our payout ratio.
As we execute on these acquisitions that are in the pipeline, we'll see the payout ratio come down into the low 80% and likely below that into the 70%. It really just the payout ratio has been a little bit higher just due to undeployed capital. We'll see that come back down and we'll continue our trend of reducing our payout ratio year-over-year.
Do you have any guidance on when we would start to see that sort of come down, in the next one, two, three years?
Well, it'll be in the next one, two quarters. We'll see it starting to come down as we continue to execute on acquisitions that we have.
All right. Sounds good. Thank you.
Thank you.
This concludes the question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Hanczyk for any closing remarks.
All right. Thank you everybody for attending, and we will see you next quarter.
This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.