Comstock Holding Companies, Inc. (CHCI)
NASDAQ: CHCI · Real-Time Price · USD
17.48
+0.48 (2.82%)
At close: May 6, 2026, 4:00 PM EDT
17.36
-0.13 (-0.72%)
After-hours: May 6, 2026, 4:10 PM EDT
← View all transcripts

Investor Summit Virtual Conference

Mar 25, 2026

Chris Clemente
Chairman and CEO, Comstock Holding Companies

We're here today to tell you about Comstock and walk you through our Q4 2025 investor presentation, which can be found on our investor relations website at comstock.com. The image on the cover of this presentation is our Reston Station development in Northern Virginia. I don't know if you can see it, but our buildings in the background here are part of Reston Station. This is one of the most prominent transit-oriented developments in the entire Mid-Atlantic region. It will grow as we complete development over the next several years to cover 90 acres surrounding the Metro station and contain approximately 10 million sq ft of development. The reason we're excited to speak with you today is simple.

Comstock is a debt-free real estate operating platform that's producing consistent growth and scaling into new high-value verticals while still trading at a valuation that we believe does not reflect the durability and the potential of our model. I'm going to hand it over to Chris Guthrie, our CFO and EVP, for the standard disclosures, and then we'll jump right in.

Chris Guthrie
CFO and EVP, Comstock Holding Companies

Thanks, Chris. Slide two contains our standard forward-looking statement disclosures. Please note that actual results may differ materially due to the variety of risks and uncertainties. In addition, development pipeline measurements are based on available information as of today, and all square footage figures are subject to change. We also reference non-GAAP measures such as adjusted EBITDA. Reconciliations and definitions are provided at the end of the deck on slide 26. Please review our SEC filings included in our 2025 Form 10-K for further detail on our business and risk factors.

Chris Clemente
Chairman and CEO, Comstock Holding Companies

Okay, here's our roadmap for today. We'll start with a quick overview of Comstock and the leadership team. We'll walk through the investment thesis, basically explaining why you should think about investing in Comstock, and then we'll move into the 2025 results. We'll then spend meaningful time on our two strategic platforms for growth and the managed portfolio that is described in the investor presentation. We'll close with supplemental sections including leadership, corporate structure, services, and financial reconciliation. Comstock is the premier commercial developer and real estate services provider in the D.C. region. We focus on mixed-use and transit-oriented properties in high-growth corridors in the Washington, D.C. region. We've been operating since 1985. Four decades of acquiring, developing, operating, and selling millions of square feet across residential, commercial, and mixed-use assets.

Our managed assets include the Reston Station development that is visible behind me and Loudoun Station, which is another mixed use large-scale mixed-use development at a Metro station just a few miles west of here near Dulles Airport. What's critical to understand about Comstock is how we make money because we're not a traditional real estate developer. We don't build projects by taking on debt. We don't just build these buildings and sell them or hope to sell them at a profit. We manage, operate, and develop real estate on behalf of asset owners that have long-term vision that aligns with our real estate operating model.

We get paid fees to use our development expertise garnered over the last 40 years to create places that people want to rent office space and apartments and retail spaces, and the fees that we get paid to do that add up to significant revenue. I'll point out here that, quickly, that the revenue that you see under the public company CHCI is only a portion of the overall story because the assets that are generating significantly more revenue than the fees we generate are not owned by the public company, and we'll explain that as we go through the material today. We manage, operate, and develop those assets on behalf of asset owners that include Comstock Partners, a separate privately held entity which we'll also provide additional details on.

The good news is for Comstock, the public company, we take virtually no capital risk, and we have highly predictable recurring revenue because of the long-term asset management agreements that govern the properties that we have in our portfolio. There are three ways that we earn fees. First, through asset management associated with the long-term agreements. We act as the operating partner for the properties in our portfolio. We make the strategic decisions. We oversee development. We manage the capital deployment and drive asset value. Our most significant agreement is the 2022 asset management agreement with Comstock Partners, which covers our anchor portfolio and includes cost-plus protection for CHCI on all of the assets in the anchor portfolio.

Second are property management. Through three vertically integrated subsidiaries, CHCI Commercial, CHCI Residential, and ParkX Management, we handle the day-to-day operations of the office, retail, residential properties in our portfolio, leasing, tenant relations, maintenance, building operations. Every building we manage generates a recurring fee stream because we operate them as if we own them. The third subsidiary I mentioned, ParkX Management, is our parking and property services subsidiary. It manages parking garages and provides security services, concierge services, valet services, porter services, and janitorial services across our portfolio, and in many cases, for third-party unrelated companies or property owners. ParkX has grown dramatically in the last several years. We started that subsidiary in 2020 with three garages under management.

Today, it manages 34 garages and provides services on upwards of 75 properties around the Washington, D.C. region, and has revenue growth over the last year alone of 123%. On top of these three recurring streams, we generate supplemental fees when transactions occur, a new lease, a new financing, a development milestone, a refinancing, which happens quite often in the commercial real estate sector. Those are episodic but meaningful, averaging over $4 million a year since 2022, and projected to grow further as we continue to expand our portfolio through property acquisitions and development of the pipeline included in our anchor portfolio. The bottom line is that our business model allows us to grow revenue by growing our portfolio. The more assets, the more services, the more fee streams, and all with minimal capital required by CHCI.

That's what really sets us apart from our peers and enables Comstock to maintain a debt-free balance sheet. I founded Comstock in 1985, and I've led the transformation from a home builder into the commercial developer and real estate services company that we are today. I'm also the controlling shareholder of CHCI and the managing partner of Comstock Partners, LC, which I mentioned earlier, is the owner of the anchor portfolio. The separate private entity that owns the anchor portfolio enables us to keep all of the assets off the books of CHCI and therefore enables us to maintain a debt-free balance sheet as compared to the REITs and other commercial developers that load their balance sheet with the assets and with the debt associated with those assets.

Before we go further, I want to make sure everyone understands how we're structured because it really is different from most companies that you'll encounter in the real estate sector. Once you understand it, the business model will be clearer. The Comstock organization is essentially the two entities that I've mentioned. Comstock Holding Companies, Inc, the public company that operates and develops assets, and Comstock Partners, the private company that is essentially a family office investor in real estate. Comstock Partners has no employees. What it does have is the assets, and specifically the anchor portfolio, which represents a large percentage of the properties that we currently manage. These are the two mixed-use developments that I mentioned, Reston Station and Loudoun Station, are the largest mixed-use transit-oriented developments in the Mid-Atlantic.

They sit on a combined area of about 140 acres directly next to or surrounding metro stations. These properties are in the Dulles Corridor, so anybody coming in and out of Dulles Airport, which is the main international airport in the Washington region, become familiar with our properties because they are noticeable as you drive down the road to and from Dulles and that connects Dulles Airport to Washington, D.C. The operating entity is Comstock Holding Companies. As I mentioned, it trades on Nasdaq under the symbol CHCI. It has the team, the platform, the subsidiaries, and the expertise to provide the services that we provide to the anchor portfolio and to institutional property owners.

The way to think about this is that Comstock Partners is the asset owner and CHCI is the operator. We get paid fees as discussed to develop and operate and produce long-term stabilized properties for the investors, the institutional investors, and the owners of Comstock Partners, which include Dwight Schar. He is our strategic partner since 2018. Dwight Schar built NVR into a massive business using a similar fee-based asset-light model. We applied that model to CHCI when we completed the transformation of our company from home building into a commercial developer and asset manager, and it's working well.

When investors ask why we structured our operation this way, it's because of the proven track record and the proven model that Dwight deployed at NVR for many years, which led NVR to the top of the home building, the residential home building industry. Both Dwight and I are significant shareholders of CHCI, and we co-own the anchor portfolio through Comstock Partners, thereby aligning incentives between the individual owners of the anchor portfolio as well as the public shareholders. Chris.

Chris Guthrie
CFO and EVP, Comstock Holding Companies

Okay, this slide, this slide captures the why. Why Comstock in three buckets. We're a dynamic and resilient business model. We have proven expertise and a scalable growth platform. First, our model. It's fee-based, asset light, and debt-free. Our long-term asset management agreements generate reliable fee income and supplemental revenue and include a cost-plus downside protection for our most significant assets. In plain terms, it's in a difficult environment, the cost structure on our most significant assets is protected. Critically, because we don't hold assets on our balance sheet, we are largely insulated from the typical valuation swings that affect most public real estate companies when interest rates move or cap rates expand. Second, our expertise. Four decades of experience in titling, developing, managing complex projects across the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern U.S. We have a real track record. Third, our scalability.

Predictable revenue streams create visibility into earnings and provide a foundation for stable growth, while an expanding managed portfolio and development pipeline drive profitability. From a financial perspective, the core advantage of this structure is that it generates cash with minimal balance sheet volatility versus traditional development-heavy models where capital is tied up in projects and exposure to market cycles is direct. We have none of that. Let's quantify the model. Revenue grew 23% on a cumulative average growth rate, and adjusted EBITDA grew at 31% CAGR from 2020 through 2025. That's consistent compounding growth across a five-year period that includes a pandemic, rate cycle increase, and significant market volatility. Let me walk you through the revenue stack because it matters. The dark blue on the base of the chart is our cost-plus revenue.

That is the protected floor from our 2022 asset management agreement covering the anchor portfolio. This layer includes cost-plus production on our most significant assets, which limits the downside risk and supports earnings visibility. On top of that sits the non-cost plus asset and property management fees, which grow as the portfolio grows and stabilizes. Then you have two episodic but meaningful upside layers. First, supplemental fees, which are leasing fees, financing fees, acquisition fees, development and construction fees, and management fees. These fees averaged approximately $4.4 million per year from 2022 through 2025. Second, we have incentive fees on stabilized and newly delivered assets. These average approximately $3.4 million per year over the same period. The architecture is unique. A protected recurring base, a growing recurring layer tied to portfolio expansion, and meaningful episodic revenue upside.

All of this is supported by a clean balance sheet that keeps us agile. We expect the trajectory to continue in 2026 and beyond as the portfolio grows and the pipeline delivers. Now let's talk valuation, because this is where the story gets more interesting. As of December 31st, 2025, we traded at 6.4x adjusted EBITDA. Our peers, including JBG SMITH, Boston Properties, Brandywine, Cousins Properties, and others, averaged 14.2x. We are trading at less than half of our peer multiple on EBITDA. On a balance sheet, we carry zero debt. Peer average is over $4 billion because of the assets they carry on their balance sheet. Our net cash as a percentage of market cap is 43%. Peers are at a -218%, driven by leverage.

Since 2020, our stock is up 493% while peers are down. ROE, or return on equity, of 24% versus a negative for our peers. EBITDA has increased on an average of 31% over the period and peers are flat to up slightly. Just to be clear on the methodology, these metrics are straight averages across the peer set listed on the slide, measured as of December 31. However you look at it, financial valuation metrics growth, we are outperforming peer groups by a wide margin and trading at significant discount. We think the market is still valuing us like a lower owner operator and not a scalable fee-based platform. Our job is to keep compounding results and close the gap. Quickly touching on our financial results.

For our full year 2025, our revenue was $63 million, up 23%. Net income, $17 million, up 17%. Adjusted EBITDA of $13 million, up 16%. Assets under management grew to 92 assets, up 28% year-over-year. To help frame sustainability, our recurring base remains the majority of our revenue, and in Q4 also benefited from higher supplemental activity. Exactly the kind of upside our model is designed to capture when leasing and transactions accelerate. The recurring foundation doesn't go away. The supplemental layer is additive when conditions are favorable. The word on the revenue mix, which the pie chart illustrates, 44% from asset management, 23% from ParkX, 19% from property management, and 14% from supplemental fees. The diversification is important. No single revenue stream dominates, and the base is largely recurring.

Operationally, our stabilized commercial portfolio is 93% leased. We executed eight commercial leases in Q4, totaling over 400,000 sq ft, with 600,000 sq ft leased for full year. Residential managed portfolio is also 93% leased, with well over 600 units leased to date. ParkX continues to be a standout. Revenue increased 123% versus prior year, with 45 new contracts in fiscal year 2025, including 19 in Q4 alone.

Chris Clemente
Chairman and CEO, Comstock Holding Companies

Our newest luxury residential tower at Reston Station began delivering in Q4 of 2025 and will be completely delivered by Q2 of 2026. Each delivery like this expands our recurring property management fees and supplemental fee streams going forward. Now I want to touch on what we do outside of the anchor portfolio. Our institutional venture platform is designed to pair our operational expertise with the vast capital resources of institutional partners that co-invest in real estate opportunities with the goal of producing strong risk-adjusted returns. We view the institutional venture platform as a long-term growth engine that complements our development operations and our development pipeline of the anchor portfolio. We intend to scale the size of the institutional platform to match the scale and size and valuation of the anchor portfolio.

Taken together, as we build out the anchor portfolio, and as we continue to acquire buildings, stabilize buildings through the institutional venture platform, we expect to expand our assets under management to be approximately 20 million sq ft covering that would be valued at about $5 billion-$6 billion within the next five to seven years.

Chris Guthrie
CFO and EVP, Comstock Holding Companies

Assets acquired under the institutional venture platform are typically structured as joint ventures with a majority equity partner that recognizes our vertically integrated operating platform and track record. We bring the expertise, and they bring most of the capital. Let me walk you through a concrete example of how these deals work, because I think it shows that the economics are very compelling to CHCI. When we identify an opportunity, CHCI would put in 5%-10% of the equity. An institutional partner comes in alongside us to fill the majority of the equity, and a lender would provide the debt. We are not the primary capital provider. We are the operating partner. Here's what CHCI earns for bringing in the expertise. From day one, we collect an acquisition fee when the deal closes.

We earn ongoing asset management fees and property management fees. Both are recurring, both growing as the asset stabilizes and appreciates. On top of that, we earn supplemental fees as transactions occur, refinancing a major lease. When the asset is ultimately sold, CHCI is eligible to receive a promoted interest, what the industry calls carry, based on performance above an agreed-upon hurdle rate. If we deliver meaningful results above that threshold, which our track record suggests we can, CHCI participates meaningfully in the upside well beyond our pro rata ownership stake. When you add it all together, the fees earned over the whole period and plus the promoted interest at exit, we estimate CHCI's return on invested capital on a typical IVP deal is in excess of 30%. That is the power of the model.

We put a small amount of capital, and we run the asset the way we know how to run assets. When we earn a return, it looks much more like a fund manager than a passive equity investor. We are disciplined on how we underwrite IVP investments, focusing on strategic portfolio alignment and structured growth potential. The return profile for CHCI has three components, recurring fee revenues from the services we provide, the promoted interest at exit, and long-term capital gains from the assets on hand.

Chris Clemente
Chairman and CEO, Comstock Holding Companies

Our most recent institutional venture platform transaction is a 400+ unit transit-oriented apartment building in Rockville, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C. We closed this acquisition with Benefit Street Partners, a subsidiary of Franklin Templeton. The platform will be the focal point throughout 2026, where we intend to, or expect to acquire several buildings with institutional partners as we seek additional low risk, high value opportunities for our public company. Additionally, we recently announced the launch of our data center platform, a logical expansion of the institutional platform that focuses on low risk, high reward joint venture opportunities in one of the world's most in-demand asset classes. Two tracks are currently in motion in the data center platform.

First, in Oklahoma, we have a joint venture with Jericho Energy Ventures, a Canadian public company that's in the gas mining, industry. We've entered this joint venture covering a portfolio of land to be entitled for large-scale data center campus development. The strategy leverages our development expertise and operating team's experience with Jericho's control of approximately 18,000 acres of subsurface land and mineral and energy rights. Direct access to abundant natural gas enables low cost behind-the-meter power solutions that are faster to market than grid-dependent alternatives, a meaningful competitive advantage in data center development currently. We made a small initial capital investment in JEV, that's Jericho Energy Ventures, to further align our interests as strategic partners. Second, we are working in the Mid-Atlantic region as well on data center opportunities.

We have an asset management agreement with a Comstock Partners subsidiary to provide data center development services for Comstock Partners-owned land parcels located directly in the path of data center expansion. The strategy here is straightforward. We handle the entitlement work, arrange the power supply agreements, and ultimately deliver what the market calls powered land, fully entitled power-ready sites the data center operators and hyperscalers are actively seeking. When we sell the land to the end user, the hyperscaler, the limited capital required from CHCI provides a tremendously high return on invested capital.

Chris Guthrie
CFO and EVP, Comstock Holding Companies

We've already negotiated or we're negotiating a purchase and sale agreement on behalf of Comstock Partners with a leading data center campus developer who will acquire those parcels upon securing entitlements and power supply agreements. Expected in 2027. The asset management agreement provides CHCI with a significant profit share upon successful land sale, plus additional fee-based revenue for development services from 2027 through 2030. The way to think about the data center platform overall is disciplined. We focus on sites where entitlements and power can be secured. We structure our participation to be fee driven with limited capital exposure, and we participate in upside as milestones are achieved.

Chris Clemente
Chairman and CEO, Comstock Holding Companies

Our goal is to capitalize on accelerating demand for data center capacity driven by the artificial intelligence, while leveraging our core development and management strengths to deliver significant returns from this rapidly growing sector. Now let's focus on the foundation, our managed portfolio, which is driving both near-term and long-term growth. As of December 31, 2025, we managed 92 operating assets. As the projects under construction deliver and our pipeline continues to advance, we expect to grow to approximately 105 managed assets at full build-out. Operational scale today is we have 15 commercial buildings totaling approximately 2.6 million sq ft, seven residential communities with over 1,700 units representing approximately 2 million sq ft. We also manage a JW Marriott hotel with 248 keys or hotel rooms, 34 parking garages, and 26,000 parking spaces.

In ParkX, there's also 35 security and other locations, where we provide services for security and generating approximately 8,000 billable hours per week. Under construction, as mentioned, the BLVD Haley residential tower began delivering in the fall of 2025, but it will be completed in the spring of 2026. Our anchor portfolio pipeline consists of several commercial assets that will add at least 1.5 million sq ft of commercial properties, five additional residential communities with approximately 2,300 additional units, and one additional hotel with about 240 rooms. At full build-out, as I mentioned earlier, over 10 million sq ft is the anchor portfolio with a roughly $5 billion asset value under management. Each new asset, as you've heard us discuss today, expands the recurring management fees.

Each lease, each financing, each refinance event creates supplemental fees on top of that. The one difference between the anchor portfolio and the institutional platform is that most institutional investors have a seven- to 10-year hold horizon. Those assets create additional exit fee, disposition fees on exit for the public company here.

Chris Guthrie
CFO and EVP, Comstock Holding Companies

Looks like we may be out of time.

Moderator

Yeah. We do have to wrap it up, guys.

Chris Guthrie
CFO and EVP, Comstock Holding Companies

Yes. Thank you.

That's okay.

Moderator

Any final words?

Chris Guthrie
CFO and EVP, Comstock Holding Companies

Yeah.

Chris Clemente
Chairman and CEO, Comstock Holding Companies

Oh, okay. We'll close with a quick summary of what we've covered today, and if we've missed anything because we've run a little bit long, please feel free to reach out or to view-

Chris Guthrie
CFO and EVP, Comstock Holding Companies

Go on the website.

Chris Clemente
Chairman and CEO, Comstock Holding Companies

our website and the investor deck. Comstock is a fee-based, asset-light, debt-free platform with strong, consistent growth in revenue and EBITDA. Diversified recurring income streams and managed portfolio with substantial embedded growth through assets under construction and deep development pipeline extending through 2030 and beyond. We have zero debt while our peers carry an average of $4 billion in debt for similar portfolios. We trade at 6.4x EBITDA while peers trade at about 14x EBITDA. While we grew adjusted EBITDA at a 31% CAGR since 2020 while peers grew at about 5%. Our stock is up almost 500% since 2020 while peers tend to be down. We believe that we are early in a multiyear scaling story. The platform is built, the assets are irreplaceable, the pipeline is visible, and the team is in place.

We think the market is still valuing us like a levered owner/operator, not a scalable fee-based platform with a pristine balance sheet. We'll keep working on growing the company and hopefully we'll see you guys at some of the conferences we attend and/or in our annual shareholder meetings.

Chris Guthrie
CFO and EVP, Comstock Holding Companies

Thank you.

Chris Clemente
Chairman and CEO, Comstock Holding Companies

Thank you for your time today.

Moderator

Thank you and, you know, we appreciate your time and have a great day.

Chris Clemente
Chairman and CEO, Comstock Holding Companies

Thank you.

Chris Guthrie
CFO and EVP, Comstock Holding Companies

Bye. Thank you.

Powered by