Good afternoon. Welcome to Bank of America's 2026 Global Real Estate Conference. I'm Jana Galan, BofA's office REIT analyst. We're pleased to have with us from Hudson Pacific Properties, Chairman and CEO, Victor Coleman, President, Mark Lammas, CFO, Harout Diramerian, EVP of Leasing, Art Suazo, and Investor Relations, Laura Campbell. I'll turn it over to Victor for opening remarks, and then we can jump into Q&A.
Thank you for having us. It's always a pleasure to attend this conference. It's an interesting time for Hudson. We've come out of, I think, much more of a challenging window into a much more of a positive window. For those of you who are less familiar with the story, I'll give you a brief update as to who we are. We're a leading owner and operator and developer of top-tier office real estate across our high barrier markets on the West Coast, which includes San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Vancouver. We also run a studio platform that's unique among public companies. We're the only REIT that has a studio platform in it, and we're the largest independent studio owner and operator in Los Angeles, and we have a relatively new studio that we opened a year ago almost here in New York.
As of Q2, our portfolio has about 46 properties in it, combined about almost 14.5 million sq ft. High quality tenant base, investment grade, blue chip companies, and about 50/50 mix of tech and AI on one side, and inclusive of media and then diversified fire-related tenants, including legal government, retail, financial business services, healthcare, et cetera. Our top tenants to the portfolio include, from no particular order, City and County of San Francisco, which we just signed almost a 1 million square foot lease with, Google, Netflix, Amazon, and then a whole host of other tech and tech related media and related companies. Today, the story's really been consistent. In the last 10 months we've talked about, throughout our earnings calls and throughout our projections of the company, where we were and where we're going.
We were at one point in late 2019, a 92% lease company, and we went all the way down to 75%, and we said by the end of this year, we have an eight handle. We're already at 82%. We expect to be at 85%. By the end of 2027, we expect to be back up to [90%+]. The year so far for us has been record in leasing. We had our largest leasing quarter last quarter at 1.3 million sq ft, and we are looking at sort of our same-store cash NOI growth right now from an NOI grew to 7.5% and our Core FFO also grew up 30%.
As we sit today, one of the office companies that all of us have gone through different times and challenging times, but from our standpoint, we have the largest growth potential and we are proving it out quarter- over- quarter. Every market that we are in on the office side, we are ahead on leasing, we are ahead on all fundamentals, in every single market with the exception of North San Jose, which we are about to go ahead to market after this quarter. On the studio side, we purchased a few companies. We slimmed those companies down. We were running a negative in those businesses at almost $20 million a year. We said by the end of this year, we would be at 0. We are on track for that. We have gone from 20 negative approximately down to $4 million negative.
Given the current composure of the studio business, which we can get into and talk about, we just extended our loan that is expiring, our Hollywood Media Portfolio loan, which is predominantly operated and tenanted with Netflix to an extension that was very beneficial to us and to the tenant. We are working through an extension on that tenant as we sit right now. I think overall, mindful that the company itself has gone through some rougher times. The wind has definitely turned to our back. We have capital today of almost $900 million of untapped credit facility interest. Our interest expense is lower by almost 20%, and we have about $200 million of dispositions in the company right now. With that, I think I will send it over to you, Jana, and we can go into some questions.
Great. Maybe following up on the leasing, second quarter activity was phenomenal, highlighted by the 1455 Market lease with City and County of San Francisco. Just kind of curious on any new or emerging themes across tenants, sectors, sizes, or sub-markets.
Sure. I will start and then Art can jump in. I think the first theme is that what we are seeing is a consistent flow of tours which correlate into interest level, then correlates into LOIs and then to leases. Our pipeline right now is about 2.4 million sq ft. We have consistently gone at 500,000 sq ft a quarter. As you mentioned, I said earlier in my comments, 1.3 million sq ft last quarter. We have a couple of large deals that we are working on right now, but our core really throughout the whole portfolio is our average size, 20,000 sq ft-30,000 sq ft tenants. Interestingly enough, in the portfolio trending is the term of the leases have gone up. They were really hovering in the high 40 months range, and we are over 63 months now. Concessions are constant. We have not seen any spike in that.
Obviously with cost of tenant improvements have gone up like everybody else, but not insurmountable, and lease terms are offsetting that. More importantly, our mark to market rents are all trending in the right direction, which is above market. We seem to be at a pretty good space, clearly in the Bay Area. We have the most activity we've had, I think, in the history of the company. But now that's sort of falling onto some great activity in Seattle. We're starting to see that 18-month window that we said was different between the Bay Area and the Pacific Northwest, we're seeing that. I would say we're fortunate in Los Angeles. We're, I think 93% leased in Los Angeles or in our assets there in the office, but Los Angeles is much slower. The activity is really specific to few markets and asset quality only.
But overall, leasing has been a real surprise. I think we set some lofty goals, and we've achieved them and exceeded them.
Yeah. Directionally, we're in a great place. Victor Coleman mentioned we're close to 2.4 million ft of deals in the pipeline, which has maintained, certainly over the last three quarters. If you think about it, we had a quarter of 1.3 million sq ft of gross leasing last quarter. We're still at close to 2.4 million ft. Why? Because the tour activity remains at peak levels for us. We're 2.1 million ft of tours a quarter, which is up 20% year- over- year. Again, it's those tours that are driving the activity into the pipeline and through the pipeline into execution. We've been seeing this for, I'd say, we've seen the momentum growing for some time now, but we've experienced it over the last four quarters. We have four quarters of positive absorption in our portfolio. We moved occupancy 740 basis points over the last year.
We're doing all the right things. We're executing on the ground. As the team continues to aggressively pursue the tour activity, I think we're going to see more of that growth into the future. Because over the next three years, expirations are at a reduced level, you're going to see more absorption in the years to come.
Maybe just touching on potential larger expirations that you would want to call out or known move-outs over the next year and kind of just status of discussions on renewals.
Yeah. The large expirations over the next, call it the next year and a half or so. We are about 75%-80% coverage, which means if it is a known vacate, we are in negotiations already to backfill the space. The largest of which going forward is Redfin at Hill7 in Seattle. They are 112,000 ft. They are downsizing in half. We are in negotiations at Hill7 to keep them or at Washington 1000. So one way or the other, we are going to keep their tenancy at 50,000 ft.
The large expirations coming up in San Francisco, which is Twilio Inc. at the end of the year, which is 83,000 sq ft, and Salesforce in April of 2027, which is also 83,000 sq ft, which are full floors at Rincon Center. We are 100% covered. We are in late stage negotiations with the tenant right now for those spaces.
The large spaces are certainly accounted for and kind of deep into negotiations. Beyond that, the smaller tenancy, we are doing a good job. We are probably at about 65% covered on the smaller tenants looking forward into 2027. That is a good number considering a lot of the smaller tenants do not communicate their needs until three to four months out.
I would just make one clarification. We have one large tenant in an asset in San Francisco, that has left the building, and it comes due now. But we are selling that asset, so it looks as if it will have a vacancy, but that asset is under contract to be sold.
Yeah, you might see that as Dell for 83,000 sq ft at Hill7, and that's the tenancy that Victor is referring to.
Thank you. Then maybe touching on Seattle a little bit more. It's great to hear that the tour activity's definitely picked up, and we heard similar commentary from some of your peers. Curious if you could just talk to some of those positive trends there and also L.A., where it's been stops and starts.
Yeah. We'll start in Seattle. I mean, listen, right now, Seattle [Puget Sound] has had three consecutive quarters of positive absorption, but that has predominantly been around Bellevue and Bellevue's success. Now that Bellevue is pretty much leased, there's two buildings that have any material vacancy. It's really shifted into core Seattle. Core Seattle has had its first quarter of positive absorption last quarter. We did talk about this window of 18 months between the Bay Area and Seattle, the labor force, the overlap of tech, AI, and then ancillary businesses. Now we're seeing that come to fruition in Seattle. Seattle's biggest downturn in the past was sublease space, and now the majority of the high-quality space is off the market. Our assets are seeing, like our peers, the high-quality assets. They're seeing tremendous amount of flow.
Just to name a few, you've got Sound Transit for almost 200,000 sq ft. You've got Apple for 150,000 sq ft. You've got REI for about 150,000 sq ft. You've got Disney for 200,000 sq ft. These are large tenants all looking in Seattle. That's just going to help absorb the process. We have what we believe is the nicest, newest asset. We know it's the newest, so I have to say it's the nicest in the market, which is Washington 1000. We signed our first lease in that asset. We've got almost 250,000 sq ft of leases in coverage that we're working on. We have not [underwrit] stabilization until second quarter next year?
No, by the end of the year.
End of 2027. It looks like we will be ahead of that pace, which is nice. I think the prime markets in Seattle, which is Denny, South Lake Union, and Pioneer Square, are seeing this attractiveness back to where it was in 2019 and 2020. Negativity in Seattle is the political environment. Despite what that is going on, unlike San Francisco, even with Matt Mahan in San Jose, those markets are pro-business. I think Seattle wants to attract the labor force, and tech and AI is directionally moving that way. As you heard by the tenants that I talked about, they are not all tech tenants. They are not all AI tenants. It is nice to see that Seattle is gaining the traction that we always thought was going to happen. It is maybe a little later than we had hoped, but it is better late than never.
Los Angeles is a city that has so much going for it from a standpoint of revenue coming in. We just finished World Cup like everybody else in the country did. We have Super Bowl in February. We have the Olympics in 2028. We have infrastructure plays that are going on right now. There is just this groundswell of Los Angeles should come back. Right now, though, you look at L.A., and it is really three strong markets in Los Angeles that are leading the pack. It is no particular order, but Beverly Hills, Century City, and Brentwood. We are 99% leased in an asset that I have owned twice now since 1998. Never even remotely close to that level in Brentwood. It is a multi-tenant building, and we are seeing the highest rents we have seen in that asset of all time. Same story is repetitive in Century City.
Same story is repetitive in Beverly Hills. Then you start looking at some of the ancillary marketplaces like the Valley, whether it is Woodland Hills, Encino, Studio City, Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena. I do not even talk about downtown because downtown is downtown, and we all know what the value is of those assets. They have never really moved. You look at Westwood, you look at Santa Monica, you look at even parts of Culver City that has really done very well because of Apple and Amazon. Other than that, the growth has not been there. Los Angeles has some massive headwinds, but we still feel that at the right moment in time and with what is happening, hopefully with the revival of the entertainment business over the long term, Los Angeles should attract business, and it should definitely attract media and tech and hopefully some AI.
The bright spot in industry is robotics and aerospace. With SpaceX and all the robotic companies, you are seeing a little momentum around El Segundo. I think it is early, but I do think there will be some follow on around that.
Great. Then maybe just a little bit deeper on L.A. and your large tenant, Netflix, recently bought some studio space. Just curious how discussions are going with them, how they are thinking about their space needs, and maybe it is the need for more space for kind of the sports or live streaming, particularly with Olympics and other things coming up.
We just extended our loan, our Hollywood Media loan. As everybody knows, we extended it for 15 months. It was a collaboration of Blackstone and Hudson Pacific Properties, and our servicer which was a win-win-win across the board. The terms of that were extremely beneficial to us, in that it was no difference in interest rate. We have 1.1% over SOFR. We had a small reserve, which we had already had cash, so nobody wrote a check. There is a minimal cash flow sweep because there is some free rent burn off with Netflix. This enables us to continue our conversations with Netflix. They have not closed on a studio deal. They have put it off, so that deal is not closed. It is now put off till the end of October at the earliest. It will not impact our conversations with Netflix.
I do not want to get into the details of the conversation, but they come with an expiration in 2031, and even if they were to move 100% out of our property, they could never be completed to wherever they want to go by 2031. So worst case scenario, they are going to have to renew for at least one of their option periods, which is five years. That is the absolute downside. From our standpoint, the rent is already baked in at market. There are annual increases in the rent, and there is a restoration clause. That being said, we are in complete dialogue with them on multiple facets in multiple areas. In the next 15 months, we will be able to address that, I think, effectively. We are confident that the resolution is going to be a win-win for both sides.
Congratulations on the extension of the Hollywood Media Portfolio loan and the terms. I know that was a major priority of the team. Can you talk to the balance sheet a little bit and talk about how you are thinking about the next kind of key priority items over the next few quarters?
We have about $200 million in potential sales proceeds coming through in the next several quarters. We have an untapped credit facility of almost $900 million. It will be two assets of size that will be fully leased and unencumbered that we could switch out for debt. We will have the access to high yield markets in our bonds. I think as a company, we want to maintain the flexibility of having both secured and unsecured debt, so we are committed to that. We are working on a couple of strategies right now, but as you know, if you follow our bonds, our bonds are trading at very good levels, so we are not in a rush.
I had said earlier this year, I reiterate our last call, in earnest, we will start talking about replacing the first two tranches of 2027, which is November of 2027, then four months later in 2028, the $750 million. Just what I mentioned, we have the ability to full capacity to replace those outright without issuing any more bonds if we wanted to go the direction of what I just talked about. I think it is going to be a combination. As a company, we are working earnestly, and Harout is taking the lion's share of the responsibility to get us rated at least another notch up from where we are today, and we are confident we can get that done before we have to go back to the bond market.
We have flexibility, we have optionality, and we are in a very good position to make the right determination as to which direction we are going to go in. I think we are confident that something will work in our favor on a multitude of one of those plans that we can execute on, and I think it will be beneficial.
Great. Can you help investors level set expectations around the CapEx and TI spend associated with the leasing that is being done? And walk us through the timeline to positive AFFO.
Yeah. I think, listen, the capital that is going to be outlaid is directly correlated to good news on leasing. The leases that we are doing all have increases, so you are going to see a pretty nice sequential jump in FFO immediately on a straight line basis, and then you are going to see a pretty impressive AFFO jump by the end of 2027. The direction that we are looking at is pretty much all baked in. For us to get to that 90% number at the end of 2027, that is not baked in yet.
In terms of how we are projecting for the rest of this year and then for the majority of next year is all going to be correlated on leasing. The direction of our capital outlay is going to be directly correlated to how the structure of the company's FFO and AFFO is going to come into play.
As I said, I don't think anybody has as much mark-to-market movement as well as FFO growth that we do just because of where we came from, our basis by which we were. We are pretty excited about that and the execution. The variability on that is going to be cost of construction and time delays. We can't control either one of those, but we will be in a position, we think, to execute on the leases that are in place and the ones that we are about to sign to get these tenants in as soon as possible. We have got the tools to do so. It is just going to be dependent upon where the economy is and the construction costs and labor costs around that.
Let's see if any questions. Maybe switching gears to the studio business and just latest color on the number of days shooting and-
Yeah. Let's talk a little bit about it. Listen, I think the studio business has gone from a real high on our portfolio to a real low, and I think now it is rebounding the other way. It cannot get much worse, I will be candid. So it can only go up from here. We had a strike that was exactly three years ago, so it came into play, and it is just permeated throughout the industry. I can say on that basis, all three unions that were potential strike unions have all settled for the next go around.
For the next years, there is not going to be any impact in terms of strike or impediments along that way. Specifically to, before we sort of get into the Quixote side, specifically to the actual industry itself, both California and New York have implemented a tax plan where I think it is working.
It is not working to the level and the expediency that I think some would have liked because the majority of both those plans are below the. Is not New York below the line too, or as well?
They allow above the line, but it is capped above the line.
Yeah. Everything in California is below the line, and in New York it is partial above the line. In California, it is not. This federal bill that is being proposed right now is a bipartisan bill. It is getting great traction. We are very close and affiliated to it. It will be a 20% federal tax benefit on all production in the United States. It can be increased to 30% on a couple of levels. One is if you are an independent production, it can go an extra 10%- 30%. Two is if you are a show that was filming in the United States that went somewhere else and now comes back, you get the extra 10%. That is above and beyond the state of California and the state of New York's tax incentives that are in place today.
It is an additional 20%, potentially 30%, but most importantly, it is on both above and below the line. That is going to be very helpful. It has already seen some traction, and it is just another external source that will help, I think, jumpstart the industry that is not going anywhere. The industry is definitely going to continue to survive. The majority of these production companies are spending an inordinate amount of time and money on live content, and live content is shot in studios, and that is enhancing for us.
Quixote is a business that I had mentioned that we were losing almost $20 million a year on it. We curbed that now to right around $4 million, and we think that we are going to be closer to about break even by year-end or somewhere around then. We have made a massive amount of headway. We are not stopping there.
We think that the business, as mentioned, we are sort of the last man standing in the operational side of that business. We are going to have opportunities come our way. How much we are going to jump into it, somebody is going to do well with that business. I think we will have a part of it because of our portfolio and what we currently own today. Our ownership of our Sunset studio portfolio is 97% leased or something like that, right?
Yeah. Hollywood.
Our New York portfolio here is 100% leased. We are doing well beyond what market conditions are, and we have got the stability to continue on. I do think that, as I mentioned earlier, it cannot get worse than it is today. The upside is at least somewhat brighter.
Maybe if you could talk a little bit about the right sizing of that business, and how you are achieving from a $-20 million to potentially positive down the line.
Well, what we did first and foremost is we closed our offices in Atlanta, in Albuquerque, and in Louisiana. All of our business lines there, we shifted our transpo vehicles to New York and Los Angeles. We are growing the businesses here in New York because New York right now, the show counts are fairly impressive and they continue to grow. Los Angeles show counts are really right around that 70 number, and we kind of have to get to that 80+ number, closer to 90, to have some real profitability. Hopefully with these tax breaks and with the momentum shifting right now, we can get there in the next year or so. We are anticipating that. Quixote had some leases that we had in place. I think the number Mark is 70% of those are taken care of, [60%-70%].
Yeah. When it is all said and done, we will be down to six leases down from close to 20.
The majority of that is already done. We got a couple more to go, and that is what has helped really enhance the transition between a negative cash flow and flat to break even top.
Yeah. We like to think about it at head count too.
Yeah.
Head count's quite a bit lower than it used to be. Yeah.
Great. Any questions on the studios? Maybe jumping back to Washington 1000, which sounds like you have a lot of interest. I think on the second quarter call you discussed about nine deals totaling roughly 350,000 sq ft in various stages. I think you mentioned you did sign your first lease there.
Yay.
Congratulations. Just the timeline to converting more of those into signed deals.
We have got another lease that we are out for signature, so we will be at two. We have got about another 250 behind that is in negotiation. Behind that wall you talk about what is filling the pipeline is tour activity and discussions, and there is another six, seven tenants that are single floor, and the floors are 36,000 sq ft. Single floor to three floors that are very much interested in touring the asset. We feel really good. It is not just [Washington 1000]. We talked about the lift in the market. There is another 250,000 sq ft that we are negotiating on in Pioneer Square. We are feeling the lift. We felt it for three quarters now in Seattle in our portfolio. We have had positive absorption for three quarters. This last quarter alone, we moved occupancy 350 basis points.
We are doing all the right things on the ground and it is starting to pay off.
Yeah, we took a look at Pioneer Square in March, and it looks fantastic. Great to hear that it is getting that reception by tenants.
Mm-hmm. Thank you.
Maybe just before we go into the rapid fire questions, just curious, big picture, where do you see the biggest opportunities over the next year? You clearly talked about kind of the leasing and occupancy improvements. Anything else that you are very excited about in terms of driving the business?
Well, listen, I am excited to talk about good news. That is sort of the first and forefront. But yeah, leasing for sure is the number one bellwether for the company and quite frankly, for all the office REITs that is out there, and we just have a really good traction here. What people are not really talking about, and it will come up as time goes by, but the correlation between no new product, there is no new construction in any of our markets of anything. I think the entire industry is less than 1.5% of new product coming out throughout all of the United States. So you are really going to see best in class assets lease and have higher valuations.
If you look at the company's makeup today, we are probably 75% Class A, 25% Class B, but the value of the portfolio on a per foot basis to where we are trading at today is sub $400 a foot. I think it is closer to $360 or $370 a foot. Replacement costs today on construction, when construction will start, will be between $1,000 and $1,200 a foot. We all talk about NAV and we all talk about replacement costs. You do not have to get to the full amount of replacement costs to see true valuation shift. If we are at $360 or $400 even, and you get to $700 or $800, that is double the valuation, and you are still 50% away from being where true replacement costs are. That is where this discrepancy is.
When you are starting to see market rents get to a point of where they were in 2019 and 2018 and 2020, and you are seeing the growth and the absorption levels get to where we were at 92% at our peak, or maybe 93%, and we are going to be at 90%, that nine handle in a little over a year from now, there is a massive discrepancy as to where valuations are currently in place and where they are going to go. It is not just us, it is every office REIT.
It is quite frankly, every office company that is out there. It is our time to come back to some level of normality. I am not saying it has got to be massive cap rate compression, and I am not saying it has got to be massive price per square foot and valuations. It just has to get normalized, and that is what we are excited about.
And then maybe just touching quickly on the transaction market. You guys have been actively marketing some assets, had some very interesting transactions like with Riot Games, and soon to close, you mentioned $200 million. If you could just talk to the breadth and depth of buyers, the types of profiles.
Yeah. So we did our Riot Games deal. That was an owner user. We just closed a deal with a 1031 exchange person. We've got another deal with a representative with an owner user that's a build to suit for them. We've got a development opportunity, which we did a convert for 508 units, and the buyer is going to come and build a multi on a resi basis. We're looking at that same model with two other assets, one in Palo Alto and one in San Francisco, that we're going to entitle, and probably sell. We've got an asset that is about to close in about 10 days from now with a New York buyer who's an opportunistic buyer who came to the marketplace.
The breadth of buyers and the breadth of depth that we've come to the marketplace, and let's just be candid, they're not exactly our best assets, has been pretty diverse. And I think we're happy with it. Somebody had asked me a question earlier today of the deals that we've closed or the deals that are about to close. Has there been any retrading with the way the rates have gone in the 10-year, et cetera? And the answer is no. To date, we really have had none. The only one that potentially could come back is the development play, and that's going to be correlated on returns. And so we would think that even though they've gone somewhat hard on that asset, not to the extent, we're not going to lose a deal, but that may be the only one.
The market still is not frothy enough, but we've found our way with potential buyers that have performed, and at the end of the day, that matters.
I guess, how do you think of those, on a price per square foot compared to where
Well, let us say this. We have exceeded the range of what we. In every asset we have sold, we have exceeded the range of what we thought we would sell it for. That is the good news. Our book value is different than our sale value, but our sales, our NAV value, we have exceeded it every single one that we sold with the exception of one. I think we have executed exceptionally well, and we have done a lot. I think it shows to the asset quality of the markets we are in and our ability to transact. Obviously, it is not going to be to where book value is because some of these assets we bought some time ago, and it is close, but some we bought also in the late teens, and they were a lot higher.
Great. Anyone, one last chance?
Just one quick one. Thanks for the time. Appreciate you being here. Just on your conversation with the rating agencies, what are they most looking to see to maybe give you that bump up next beyond, is it leverage? Leasing momentum has been pretty strong. What are the specific points?
They always start with leverage, right? They always look at net debt, EBITDA. I feel like probably not saying anything that's too surprising, sometimes the goalposts move. They're just generally negative on office. Even though we're hitting our expectations and doing everything we're saying we're doing, the path to getting higher notches seems to move sometimes. That makes that conversation challenging. All we can do is execute, and that's what we're doing. They bring up, "Oh, we have concerns about upcoming maturities." Okay, no, we're addressing that. Ultimately, we're doing everything we can. We should be getting momentum in that direction. They just need to stop moving the goalposts.
Great. Before we finish up, we have three rapid-fire questions that we've been asking all the REITs today. Number one, if long-term rates stay higher for longer, which has the biggest impact on your sector's earnings: higher refinancing costs, lower transaction activity, or less new supply?
Higher refinancing costs.
Over the next three years, will third-party capital become a more important source of growth for public REITs than balance sheet capital?
100% third-party capital.
For your sector, will 2027 same-store NOI growth be higher, the same, or lower than 2026?
Well, for Hudson, it is definitely going to be higher, significantly. For the sector, I hope it is higher.
Great.
Because it follows suit. Yes.
Well, thank you so much. We appreciate your time.
Thanks, everybody.