Earnings call: Clipper Realty reports record revenue in Q1 2024

In the first quarter of 2024, Clipper Realty Inc . (NYSE: NYSE:) reported record revenue and net operating income, signaling a continuation of positive trends from previous quarters for its residential properties.

The company’s rental revenues remained at record levels, with new leases exceeding prior rents by 6% across the market-based portfolio. Clipper Realty’s properties, including Tribeca House in Manhattan and Clover House in Brooklyn, are nearly fully leased, with occupancy rates at 98%.

The company also highlighted its successful operation under a new agreement with New York City’s Housing and Preservation Department for Flatbush Gardens, which has led to enhanced rental income for assisted tenants and the elimination of real estate taxes for the property.

The earnings call also noted the progress of the company’s development projects and addressed the impact of the high interest rate environment on tenant demand.

Key Takeaways

• Clipper Realty’s revenue and net operating income reached record levels in Q1 2024.
• Residential properties are nearly fully leased with a 98% occupancy rate.
• New leases are signing at rates 6% higher than previous rents.
• Flatbush Gardens benefits from a tax abatement and enhanced rental income under a new agreement with NYC.
• The company’s development projects are progressing well, with Pacific House at 100% lease and 953 Dean Street construction ahead of schedule.
• Clipper Realty’s operating debt is 92% fixed with an average interest rate of 3.87%.

Company Outlook

• Clipper Realty anticipates continued operational improvements through 2024 and 2025.
• The company is focused on optimizing the Article 11 transaction at Flatbush Gardens and completing the 953 Dean Street development.
• Management is managing leasing issues in New York and exploring other growth opportunities.

Bearish Highlights

• The high interest rate environment could impact tenant demand for rental versus purchase options.

Bullish Highlights

• Strong renter demand continues, with overall rents stabilizing post-COVID.
• Development projects like Pacific House and 953 Dean Street are contributing positively to cash flow and are ahead of schedule, respectively.

Misses

• There were some temporary concessions at Tribeca House that partially offset rental income increases.
• Slightly lower commercial rental income due to lease changes at the Aspen property.

Q&A Highlights

• No questions were asked during the Q&A session of the earnings call.

Clipper Realty’s financial performance in the first quarter of 2024 reflects a robust residential real estate market with high occupancy and increasing rents.

The company’s strategic operations, including advantageous agreements with the city and well-managed development projects, position it favorably in the current economic climate.

Despite challenges such as high interest rates, Clipper Realty’s fixed operating debt and diverse portfolio suggest resilience and potential for sustained growth.

InvestingPro Insights

Clipper Realty Inc. (NYSE: CLPR) exhibited a strong start in Q1 2024, with record revenues and robust operational performance. To provide investors with a deeper financial perspective, InvestingPro offers the following insights based on real-time data and expert analysis.

InvestingPro Data:

• Market Cap (Adjusted): 167.46M USD

• P/E Ratio (Adjusted) for the last twelve months as of Q4 2023: -12.16

• Dividend Yield as of the latest available data: 9.62%

InvestingPro Tips:

1. Clipper Realty’s net income is expected to grow this year, which could signal a positive shift for investors looking at the company’s future profitability.

2. The company pays a significant dividend to shareholders, with a current yield of 9.62%, making it an attractive option for income-focused investors.

These InvestingPro Tips are just a glimpse of the comprehensive analysis available. For more detailed insights and to access additional tips that could guide your investment decisions, visit InvestingPro at https://www.investing.com/pro/CLPR. Remember to use the coupon code PRONEWS24 to get an additional 10% off a yearly or biyearly Pro and Pro+ subscription. Currently, there are 8 more InvestingPro Tips available for Clipper Realty Inc., offering valuable information for both current and potential investors.

Full transcript – Clipper Realty Inc (CLPR) Q1 2024:

Operator: Good day. And welcome to Clipper Realty Quarterly Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] It’s now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Larry Kreider. Sir, the floor is yours.

Larry Kreider: Thank you, John. And good afternoon and thank you for joining us for the first quarter 2024 Clipper Realty Inc. earnings conference call. Participating with me on today’s call are David Bistricer, Co-Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer; and JJ Bistricer, Chief Operating Officer. Please be aware the statements made during the call that are not historical may be deemed forward-looking statements and actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including those disclosed in the company’s 2023 annual report on Form 10-K, which is accessible at www.sec.gov and our website. As a reminder the forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this call May 7, 2024 and the company undertakes no duty to update them. During this call, management may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures including adjusted funds from operations or AFFO; adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization or adjusted EBITDA; and net operating income or NOI. Please see our press release supplemental financial information on Form 10-Q posted today for a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures with the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures. With that, I will now turn the call over to our Co-Chairman and CEO, David Bistricer.

David Bistricer: Thank you, Larry. Good afternoon. Welcome to the first quarter of 2024 earnings call for Clipper Realty. I will provide an update on our business performance and some new developments, after which JJ will discuss property level activity, including leasing performance, and Larry will speak to our quarterly financial performance. We will then take your questions. I’m pleased to report that we are reporting record revenue and net operating income continuing the positive trends from previous quarters for our residential properties. Renter demand continues to be strong in all our properties and overall rents are stabilizing as COVID-era rents are replaced with current rents. In the first quarter, new leases exceeded the prior rent by 6% across the entire market-based portfolio, and our portfolio were 98% lease. At the Tribeca house in Manhattan, the Clover House in Brooklyn, new leases were over $80 per square foot. Overall rental revenues remained at record levels $78 at Tribeca, $81 at Clover House, 40% better than the $63 at the end of December 2021. At Flatbush Gardens, we continue to be pleased by our results. Since last July, we have operated under the full year agreement, according to the Article 11 of the Private Housing Finance Law with New York City’s Housing and Preservation Department, which eliminated for that property real estate taxes of the property and provided for enhanced rental recoveries for assisted tenants. This should allow us to profitably operate after providing for our commitments for property improvements, tenant assistance, and higher wages. We are meeting all our commitments and beginning to meaningfully receive and enhance rental income for assisted tenants. Operationally, we are also very pleased with our new ground-up development, known as Pacific House, at 1010 Pacifics in Brooklyn, is nearly fully stabilized and meaningfully contributing to cash flow. It is now 100% leased, yielding the projected 7% cap rate. Property is located at Prospect Heights, about one mile from the Atlantic, Barclays (LON:) Center Hub. Property is 175 units, 70% free market, and 30% affordable, which allows us not to pay any taxes. At nearby to 923 Dean Street’s ground -up development, construction is proceeding ahead of schedule. We completed the superstructure ahead of schedule and expect to complete construction in time for 2025 leasing season, utilizing the $12.3 million construction loan that we closed down last quarter. We bought the land in 2021 and 2022, on which to build the nine-story fully-amenitized residential building, the 160,000 square feet of rentable square feet, 240 units, 70% free market and 30% affordable, and 8,500 square foot commercial center. At 250 Livingston Street, where I previously disclosed New York City notified us of their intention to vacate the premises in August of 2025, we are seeking solutions and pursuing opportunities supported by cash flows from other properties. Of course, we will keep you informed of our progress regularly, after the continuing high interest rate environment, we believe the higher rates make for higher tenant demand for our rental product versus the purchase option. We are also buttressed by the relatively long duration of debt at our operating properties. Our operating debt is 92% fixed, an average of 3.87 interest rates. The average duration is 5.2 years, non-recourse subject to limited standard carve-outs and is not cross collateralized. We finance our portfolio on an asset-by-asset basis. With respect to inflation, we looked at the short duration and high demand for our residential leases to allow us to cover increased operating expenses. With regard to our first quarter of results, we are reporting record quarterly revenue to $35.8 million, record of NOI at $20.2 million, and AFFO of $5.9 million, as a result of the strong leasing and cost reductions I just mentioned. These results represent improvements over the first quarter last year as JJ and Larry will further detail. I will now turn the call over to JJ who will widen up then on operations.

JJ Bistricer: Thank you. I am pleased to report that our residential leasing performance at all our properties continues to improve while rent approaches full stabilization and full recovery following the end of the COVID period. At the end of the first quarter, all our residential properties had very high occupancy averaging 98% and rents are continuing at record levels while still recording increases over previous levels. Overall, new lease and renewal rental rates in the first quarter exceeded previous rents by over 6% at our residential properties. We expect leasing to remain very strong in the foreseeable future as demand remains high and the overall rental housing supply remains constrained as widely publicized. We are continuing to increase rents even after the COVID pandemic, lower rates have turned over. At Tribeca House, we have maintained lease occupancy at over 97% and increased overall average rent per square foot to $78 per foot versus $63 per foot near the end of the pandemic. At our Clover House property, lease occupancy is over 97% and average rents are nearly $83 per square foot. At our recently completed Pacific House property, we are 100% leased with a blend of free market and rent-stabilized tenants, and rents are now fully stabilized, with free market rents above $78 per square foot, and operating cash flows achieving the projected 7% cap rate in the original underwriting. Similarly, our other residential properties at 10 West 65th Street, Aspen, and 250 Livingston Street continue to perform well. Average lease occupancy for these properties has been above 98%, and average rental rates have increased 6% from a year ago. Lastly, at the large Flatbush Gardens property, we continue to be pleased with our performance operating under the new Article 11 agreement made with the Housing Preservation Department of New York City on June 29th of last year. We received the full abatement of real estate taxes beginning last July, have begun completing the capital projects we committed, and have begun placing formerly homeless residents. We have also begun to meaningfully obtain the enhanced reimbursements on the Section 610 of the Private Housing Finance Law for tenants receiving assistance as we fill vacancies with formerly homeless residents and renew leases with assisted tenants. These benefits should steadily increase over the next couple of years and allow us to profitably improve the property. We are also getting increases for non-assisted tenants where increases have been permitted on the rent guideline boards for the last couple of years at the 3% level per annum. As a result, overall average rents for the property are increasing, rising to $26.80 per square foot at the end of the quarter versus $26.17 at the end of the first quarter last year. Rent collections across our portfolio remain as expected at seasonally high levels. The overall collection rate in the first quarter was over 100% bolstered by seasonally high first quarter collections at Flatbush Gardens and month end prepayments at Tribeca House. Looking ahead, we remain focused on optimizing our occupancy, pricing, and expenses across the business expeditiously completing our development projects and fully implementing the Article 11 transaction to the best position ourselves for growth. I will now turn the call over to Larry, who will discuss our financial results.

Larry Kreider: Thank you, JJ. For the first quarter, revenues increased to a record $35.8 million from $33.7 million last year first quarter, increasing by $2.1 million or excluding the impact of Pacific House that came online in the second quarter and increased to $0.4 million. NOI this quarter was $20.2 million and increased to $3.1 million from last year or $1.5 million excluding the impact of Pacific House. AFFO this year was $5.9 million, an increase of $1.4 million from last year or $0.9 million, excluding the impact of Pacific House. For the first quarter, residential revenue increased to $26.1 million by $2.1 million, or $0.4 million, excluding the impact of Pacific House. This increase was primarily due to the higher residential rental rates for all properties from continued strong leasing previously discussed, partially upset by some temporary concessions at Tribeca House. Bad debt expense was $0.2 million better than last year, reflecting improved collections at all properties despite lower ERAP reimbursements at Flatbush Gardens. The slightly lower commercial rental income was caused by a couple of leases at the Aspen property, one of which has been replaced. On the expense side, key year-over-year changes quarter-on-quarter were as follows. Property operating expenses increased by $0.5 million year-on-year or $0.3 million excluding Pacific House primarily due to higher payroll requirements at Flatbush Gardens to comply with wage requirements under the Article 11 transaction, partially offset by lower utility costs. Real estate taxes and insurance decreased by $1.4 million in the first quarter year-on-year or $1.2 million dollars excluding the impact of Pacific House primarily due to $1.8 million from the elimination of real estate taxes at Flatbush Gardens, partially offset by $0.3 million of routine increases in real estate taxes at the other properties and $0.2 million of insurance cost increases. General and administrative expenses increased by $0.3 million in the first quarter year-on-year primarily due to higher compensation expenses taken as cash, partially offset by lower audit fees. Interest expense increased by $1.6 million in the first quarter year-on-year or $0.4 million excluding the impact of Pacific House due to elimination of capitalized interest for Pacific House which came in service in the second quarter last year. With regard to our balance sheet, we have $21.9 million of unrestricted cash and $18.3 million dollars of restricted cash. In the first quarter, we had no new debt activity other than draws under the Dean Street property construction loan we closed in the third quarter of 2023. Today, we are announcing a dividend of $0.095 per share in the first quarter, the same amount as last quarter. The dividend will be paid on May 30, 2024 to shareholders of record at May 21, 2024. Let me now turn the call back over to David for concluding remarks.

David Bistricer: Thank you, Larry. We remain focused on efficiently operating our portfolio. We look for your current operating improvements to continue through 2024 and ‘25. We look forward to optimizing Flatbush Gardens’ Article 11 transaction, 953 Dean Street developments, and other growth opportunities, managing the New York leasing issues at [inaudible] through properties, and capitalizing on other opportunities that may present themselves. I would now like to open the line for questions.

Operator: We currently have no questions in queue.

David Bistricer: Thank you for joining us today. I look forward to speaking with you again soon.

Operator: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This does conclude today’s conference call. You may disconnect your phone lines at this time. And have a wonderful day. Thank you for your participation.

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