Kimco Realty Corp

NYSE:KIM

Earnings Call Analysis

Company Tightens 2023 FFO Guidance Upwards

The company saw a positive same-site Net Operating Income (NOI) growth of 2.6% in the third quarter, which could have been 3.1% without the impact of prior period collections. The growth was driven by higher minimum rents and other rental revenues, partially offset by credit loss normalization. Year-to-date same-site NOI grew by 2%. The firm strengthened its balance sheet, with a net debt to EBITDA of 5.5 times, an excellent liquidity position of over $2.4 billion, and cash and credit resources exceeding $400 million. The company anticipates further interest rate hikes, hence issued a new $500 million bond to manage this. It faced headwinds from reduced lease termination income and fair market value amortization but managed to soften their impact. Consequently, it has refined its 2023 FFO per share guidance upwards, from $1.55-$1.57 to a tighter range of $1.56-$1.57.

Resilience Amid Economic Challenges

Despite facing an economic environment burdened with high interest rates, notable tenant bankruptcies, and unstable debt and equity markets, the company exhibits a robust shopping center sector with consistent, strong operational results. These achievements are particularly notable in light of their success in nearly offsetting over $0.06 per share in non-cash accounting headwinds compared to the previous year. This positive outcome is attributed to minimal market supply, solid demand across various tenant types, and a resilient consumer base, allowing the company to raise its same site net operating income (NOI) outlook and the lower end of its Funds From Operations (FFO) guidance.

Lease Signings and Occupancy Performance

The company's lease activity remains vigorous, with 457 leases covering 2.1 million square feet signed during the quarter. Small shop occupancy reached a historic peak of 91.1%, while the company's strong leasing spread, particularly a 34.9% new lease spread and an 8.8% renewal spread, underscores its portfolio's pricing power. Occupancy slightly receded to 95.5% mainly due to strategic store recapture, but signs point to sustained tenant demand and a robust signed-but-not-open spread indicating substantial future rent not yet cash flowing. These positive trends in operational dynamics foster enthusiasm for the company's impending RPT transaction and overall growth strategy despite the economic headwinds and the likelihood of sustained higher interest rates.

Strategic Financial Management and Positive Outlook

The company's financial prudence is evident in their endeavors to mitigate balance sheet risks and maintain a strategy focused on generating free cash flow. Conservative financial management has resulted in strong liquidity over $2.4 billion, proactive handling of upcoming 2024 bond maturities with a new bond issuance, and an intention to be self-funding. This disciplined approach supports the company's reported third-quarter FFO per share of $0.40, highlighted by a 2.6% same-site NOI growth and a resilient year-to-date same-site NOI growth of 2%. Consequently, the company's guided FFO per share for 2023 has been narrowed to $1.56 to $1.57 with credit loss assumptions and same-site NOI expectations improved to reflect the portfolio's strength. Reflecting confidence in its financial performance and prospects, the board announced a 4.3% increase to the fourth quarter common dividend, rising to $0.24 per share.

Earnings Call Transcript 2023-Q3

[Operator]

Good day, and welcome to the Kimco Realty Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to David Bujnicki, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Strategy. Please go ahead.

[David Bujnicki, executive]

Good morning, and thank you for joining Kimco's quarterly earnings call. The Kimco management team participating on the call today includes Conor Flynn, Kimco's CEO; Ross Cooper, President and Chief Investment; Glenn Cohen, our CFO. Dave Jamieson, Kimco's Chief Operating Officer; as well as other members of our executive team that are also available to answer questions during the call. .

As a reminder, statements made during the course of this call may be deemed forward-looking, and it is important to note that the company's actual results could differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking statements due to a variety of risks, uncertainties and other factors.

Please refer to the company's SEC filings that address such factors. During this presentation, management may make reference to certain non-GAAP financial measures that we believe help investors better understand Kimco's operating results. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures can be found in our quarterly supplemental financial information on the Kimco Investor Relations website.

Also, in the event our call was to incur technical difficulties, we'll try to resolve as quickly as possible, and if the need arises, we'll post additional information to our IR website. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Conor.

[Conor Flynn, executive]

Thanks, Dave, and thanks, everyone, for joining us this morning. I'm going to lead off today with an overview of the macro environment, summarize our operating performance for the quarter, and provide an update and some color on our strategy for navigating through these uncertain economic times. Ross will cover the transaction market, and Glenn will close with our financial metrics and updated guidance.

Despite the headwinds of high interest rates, some high-profile tenant bankruptcies, shaky debt and equity markets and the on again, off again predictions of an impending recession, underlying shopping center sector fundamentals remain robust. More importantly, our portfolio continues to produce strong operating results as we have been able to nearly overcome from an FFO perspective, over $0.06 of noncash accounting-related headwinds relative to last year in an environment marked by virtually no new supply, strong demand from new, recurring, traditional and nontraditional anchor and small shop tenants, along with the resilient consumer, we continue to produce strong operating results.

Indeed, our third quarter results were stronger than anticipated enabling us to raise our outlook for same-site NOI while raising the bottom end of our FFO guidance for the remainder of the year. A few more third quarter highlights. We signed 457 leases totaling 2.1 million square feet during the third quarter. Our small shop occupancy reached an all-time high of 91.1% as demand for our portfolio continues.

Our strong positive leasing spreads is 34.9% for new leases and 8.8% for renewal and options reflects the pricing power of our high-quality portfolio. Of note, our combined spread of 13.4% is the highest in 6 years. As anticipated, our anchor occupancy dipped 50 basis points quarter-over-quarter to 97.2% due to the recapture of the remaining Bed Bath & Beyond boxes. We re-leased 7 Bed Bath boxes this quarter at a positive spread of 54%. Our remaining 12 Bed Bath boxes are all in negotiations and continue to benefit from the favorable supply and demand dynamic for well-located retail.

Our overall occupancy is off only 30 basis points to 95.5%, notwithstanding the headwinds described. We are encouraged by the continued push by tenants to secure the right real estate with the right landlord. This continued strong demand is perhaps best evidenced by our signed but not open spread, which actually widened out this quarter to 320 basis points representing about $52.2 million of rent that is not yet cash flowing. It is these operating dynamics in our own portfolio that continue to build our team's enthusiasm for the pending RPT transaction.

While we remain excited about our portfolio, the headwinds I noted earlier cannot be ignored. As a result of the dramatic rise in the 10-year treasury due to persistent inflation, in all likelihood, we will remain in a higher for longer interest rate environment for the foreseeable future. To mitigate balance sheet uncertainty and maintain a stance of derisking our exposure to market forces we do not control, we proactively address our near-term debt maturities. Glenn will provide more details on how we plan to maintain optionality and flexibility.

We also continue to prioritize generating free cash flow. We are laser-focused on expediting store openings and rent commencement dates, while reducing expenses that are not income producing. Free cash flow growth will allow us to be self-funding and help produce strong organic internal NOI growth as we move ahead.

In summary, we continue to build a company, team and portfolio that is resilient and able to drive growth in challenging times. We believe we are well positioned to execute and take advantage of the additional opportunities that will inevitably arise as we continue to work to optimize shareholder value. Ross?

[Ross Cooper, executive]

Thank you, Conor, and good morning all. It was a busy quarter for Kimco on all fronts, including the transaction side of the business, while the macro backdrop continues to be volatile, the dislocation that has begun to emerge clearly benefits well-capitalized owners and operators, those with the scale and liquidity to not only weather challenging times, but take advantage of them.

With rates continuing to rise and financing more difficult to obtain, creativity and utilizing unique advantages is how to win in this environment. To that point, in August, we capitalized on an opportunity to acquire a dominant grocery-anchored lifestyle center in 1 of our top markets. Stonebridge at Potomic Town Center is a 500,000 square foot trophy asset in Washington, D.C. Metro, with all the attributes we look for in the property, starting with the best-in-class grocer in this case, Wegmans with exceptional sales.

The market also has excellent demographics with over 115,000 annual household incomes and over 110,000 people in a 3-mile radius that also pulls from a trade area that stretches upwards of 40 miles due to the tenancy and regional locations. The property will allow us to layer in our platform to create additional value and cash flow growth, both from upgrading specific tenants and rental levels over time.

Additionally, the asset includes over 50 acres of land providing us with the optionality to densify with mixed use in the future. Historically, this is an asset that every institutional owner would be chasing and would likely have a premium cap rate attached to it due to all the positive attributes. However, with financing tight and for a large deal size, Kimco stood out with its ability to close all cash on the $172.5 million purchase price, which allowed us to negotiate a cap rate north of 7% for our newest Signature Series asset.

During the quarter, we also announced the merger with RPT Realty. This is another clear example of utilizing our platform to negotiate a highly favorable cap rate for a well-regarded portfolio of primarily grocery-anchored centers. Similar to the timing on the Weingarten transaction, we view this as another unique window during which the competition is limited and we can take advantage. As it relates to structured investments, there has been a noticeable uptick in discussions and potential opportunities in the past 30 to 60 days.

Admittedly, we expected these conversations to ramp up earlier in the year but it seems to be happening at a more significant pace as of late. Conversations are taking place with operators facing debt maturities, groups looking for capital to transact on unique one-off opportunities as well as institutional investors facing redemptions that are looking at recaps.

We're being very selective in where we participate, but we expect this part of our business to grow as we move forward. All in all, we are excited about the activity during the quarter and our ability to utilize our position and sector-leading liquidity to remain active when others are on sidelines. We will continue to be extremely judicious with our capital but be ready to move opportunistically. And now off to Glenn for the financial highlights for the quarter.

[Glenn Cohen, executive]

Thanks, Ross, and good morning. Our third quarter results continue to demonstrate the strength of our high-quality operating portfolio highlighted by robust leasing spreads and positive same-site NOI growth. Importantly, our strong liquidity position and leverage metrics position us to effectively handle the macroeconomic headwinds resulting from stubborn inflation and the higher interest rate environment. Now for some details on our third quarter results. was $248.6 million or $0.40 per diluted share as compared to last year's third quarter results of $254.5 million or $0.41 per diluted share. .

Our third quarter results produced an increase in pro rata NOI of $3.3 million. The key components of the increase were higher consolidated minimum rent of $12.6 million offset by lower LTA income and straight-line rent of $4.7 million. In addition, bad debt expense was higher by $2.8 million as the current period had a more normalized credit loss level compared to last year, which benefited from $600,000 of credit loss income due to reversals of reserves.

Overall, credit loss was at 71 basis points as a percent of revenues for the 9 months, at the favorable end of our 75 basis point to 125 basis point credit loss guidance assumption. Pro rata interest expense was also higher by $10 million, comprised of $8 million from the consolidated portfolio and $2 million from our joint ventures. This was due to lower fair market value amortization resulting from the early repayment of Weingarten bonds in the third quarter of last year and higher interest rates on the floating rate debt in our joint ventures. Also included in FFO for the third quarter 2023, are $3.8 million of costs incurred in connection with the announced RPT merger and a net benefit of $4.8 million associated with the final liquidation of the Wangard pension plan.

Moving to the operating portfolio. Leasing activity remained brisk throughout the quarter, as Conor mentioned. Same-site NOI growth was positive 2.6% for the third quarter. And if we excluded the impact of prior period collections, it would have increased to 3.1%. The primary drivers of the same-site NOI growth are higher minimum rents contributing 290 basis points and other rental revenues adding 40 basis points. These increases were offset by a more normalized level of credit loss impacting same-site NOI growth by 90 basis points.

Overall, these results demonstrated the continued strength of our well-located portfolio and brings our year-to-date same-site NOI growth to 2%. Turning to the balance sheet. We ended the third quarter with consolidated net debt to EBITDA of 5.5x. On a look-through basis, including pro rata JV debt and preferred -- perpetual preferred stock outstanding, net debt to EBITDA was 5.9x, the same as last quarter and 0.4x better than a year ago.

Our liquidity position remains very strong at over $2.4 billion at quarter end. This was comprised of more than $400 million in cash and full availability of our $2 billion revolving credit facility. In addition, we have our remaining Albertson shares, which have a value of over $320 million. Subsequent to quarter end, we issued a new $500 million long 10-year unsecured bond which is scheduled to mature in 2034 at a fixed coupon of 6.4%. As we are all aware, interest rates have risen dramatically over the past year and further rate increases are not off the table.

As such, we felt it was prudent to address our upcoming 2024 unsecured bond maturities, which come due in the first quarter of next year. Pending the maturity, we have invested the proceeds in high-quality instruments to mitigate a large portion of the dilution. Now for our outlook for the remainder of 2023. As Conor noted earlier, we began the year facing a noncash headwind of $0.06 per share totaling $36 million compared to 2022, stemming from the anticipated lower fair market value amortization from the early repayment of the Weingarten bond and the normalization of credit loss.

In addition, we reduced our 2023 lease termination income assumption by $10 million or $0.02 per diluted share in the first quarter. As a result of the strong performance from the operating portfolio, we have clawed most of this back. Our ability to overcome these headwinds speaks to the stability and strength of our operating portfolio.

Based on our year-to-date results and our expectations for the fourth quarter, we are again tightening our 2023 FFO per share guidance range to $1.56 to $1.57 from the previous range of $1.55 to $1.57. This includes improving our full year credit loss assumption to a range of 75 basis points to 100 basis points from the previous range of 75 to 125 basis points and increasing our same-site NOI assumption to 1.75% to 2.25% from the previous level of 1% to 2%.

In addition, based on our full year expectations, our Board has elected to increase the fourth quarter common dividend to $0.24 per share, representing an increase of 4.3%. As a reminder, we received a $194 million special dividend from Albertsons earlier this year, which has considered ordinary income for tax purposes but not included in FFO. We continue to evaluate the amount of special dividend needed to satisfy our REIT distribution requirements.

The Board is expected to declare the amount of special dividend in November, and we expect to pay it by year-end. Looking ahead, we plan to provide our 2024 outlook when we report our fourth quarter results. We anticipate it will be inclusive of the RPT merger being completed early in the year. And with that, we are ready to take your questions.

[David Bujnicki, executive]

Before we begin Q&A, 1 additional item of note, today's call will be focused on Kimco's third quarter earnings results and outlook as a stand-alone company. Today's discussion may also contain forward-looking statements about the company's pending merger with RPT, which remains subject to customary closing conditions, including the approval of RPT shareholders. As such, our responses around this pending transaction are limited, the information that's already publicly available, including the transaction announcement, the S-4 and the merger agreement, which can all be found in the Investor Relations section of our website. With that, now we can begin the Q&A. .

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions]

The first question today comes from Michael Goldsmith with UBS.

[Michael Goldsmith, analyst]

You purchased an asset in the quarter, you sold assets in the quarter, you're presumably in the market for selling some of the RPT assets when you acquired the company, can you kind of provide an update on the transaction market with a particular emphasis on how things have changed since the 10-year rate increased.

[Ross Cooper, executive]

Sure, happy to address that. So yes, you're right. We had a very active quarter, as I mentioned. We're very excited about the acquisition of Stonebridge Center. It's going to be a long-term hold where we can create some significant value. The dispositions on the Kimco side were fairly limited. There is 1 transaction, which I would note that we sold out of 1 of our joint ventures, a grocery-anchored shopping center in Southern California at a very low cap rate in the low 5s, which I think showcases still the strength of the market and that there is significant capital, particularly for core grocery centers. .

That being said, we're being, I think, very cautious in this market in terms of the fourth quarter and our expectations. There's essentially nothing in the pipeline on the acquisition side between now and year-end. And on the dispositions, they continue to be limited to a couple of select land parcels and a few smaller joint venture assets that we're exploring. So I would tell you that the market is still active, although transaction volumes are down plus or minus 70% year-to-date. There still is capital that is being put to work.

Just recently, there were transactions that very aggressive sub-6 cap rates in Southern California aside from the 1 I mentioned that we sold as well as in Miami. We've seen grocery-anchored centers as well as power centers in Chicago and other parts of the Midwest that are trading in the 6s and the 7s and in some cases, low 8s, the financing is still available, albeit at a higher rates than what we've seen in the last 12 months or so, which is obvious given where the rate environment has gone.

But LTVs can still be obtained from private owners or investors in the 50% to 60% range. So there's still activity out there. We're encouraged by what we see in the fundamentals of the business, as we've talked about -- and we believe that we can selectively execute at the appropriate time.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Juan Sanabria with BML. .

[Juan Sanabria, analyst]

Just hoping to pick up on the back of Michael's question with regards to targeted RPT dispositions, presumably that would be focused on the lower growth Midwest markets. Just how committed are you to trying to prune that part of the portfolio, if at all? And how should we think about cap rates spreads or differences between kind of typical primary gateway markets versus more secondary, maybe Midwest or rustbelt-type markets. .

[Ross Cooper, executive]

Sure. We are going to save the specifics of the RPT strategy for once we close the merger. That being said, I would tell you that there is still activity out there, as I mentioned, we've seen transactions in the Midwest as well as in the Sunbelt and other parts of the country. So investors are still looking at all parts of the country and all formats of retail.

There's a significant amount of capital that is currently sidelined that is leading for the appropriate opportunities and frankly, for more supply to hit the market as it's been a pretty stable and static amount of supply that's been introduced. So we'll be very selective.

We're going through the integration process, the premerger integration process right now. So we're formulating our strategy, but we're very encouraged by the direction of the RPT portfolio and what we're seeing -- and as we get to the merger and beyond it, we'll be much more specific about the strategy and the plan there .

[Operator]

The next question comes from Jeff Spector with Bank of America. .

[Jeffrey Spector, analyst]

I guess just to push on that a little bit, just given the year-to-date stock performance, the market is clearly not appreciating the opportunities or the market is too concerned over the risks on these opportunities. And it sounds exciting. You're seeing more opportunities to come. I guess is there anything else you can share today to alleviate maybe some of these concerns that Kimco is executing the right strategy to be opportunistic.

[Conor Flynn, executive]

Jeff, I'm happy to take that one. So I think when you see our results and the numbers speak for themselves. Clearly, we are very focused on executing our strategy and having that result in strong operating results, strong FFO. We raised our dividend, we raised our guidance, we raised our same-site NOI guidance, the all-time high occupancy for small shops is reflected there 6-year high on leasing spreads.

So we believe we're executing and we're showcasing it and letting the numbers speak for themselves. Clearly, we're in an opportune time with the dislocation in the financing market. We try and be opportunistic. And I think that's what Kimco is known for. And so obviously, it's a show-me story, and we believe we've executed in the past, and we know we're only as good as our last deal. And so we're going to make sure that we continue to put up the numbers that speak for themselves. And when you look -- and I know we've been very vocal about the health of our industry. But when you look at the supply and demand side of the shopping center sector, with the demand, the store openings of what we track over 6,900 new store openings for this year, the supply of 0.5% of the existing stock of new construction, which is the lowest amongst all commercial real estate categories. and the vacancy levels for the whole entire open-air sector, depending if you look at Cushman & Wakefield or CBRE, it's the lowest since they've ever been tracking.

So between 16 years at Cushman, 18 years at CBRE, this is the lowest vacancy rate the country has ever experienced. And so we're in a good spot. We see that opportunity. We think that the RPT transaction is exactly that. It's a high-quality portfolio with all the wind at its back, so we can crystallize the G&A synergies very quickly. And what gets us most excited, obviously, is the OpEx margin that we believe we can execute on quickly and bring it up to a Kimco level and block and tackle and showcase what the platform can build.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Craig Mailman with Citi. .

[Craig Mailman, analyst]

Just maybe coming at things from another angle on RPT here. Just the 10 years up, call it, 70 bps since you guys announced the transaction, you guys just did the debt deal at 6.4, you have to refinance the $880 million. Could you just talk about kind of given where rates are, where they could go, what the optimal mix of cash versus new debt could look like to take that out? And maybe how the accretion math has moved since the deal was announced just given the higher financing costs? .

[Glenn Cohen, executive]

Yes, it's Glenn. Again, rates obviously moved a little bit, but we do have a full miss, and we have a fair amount of optionality. We have cash, obviously, that is on our balance sheet. We also have our Albertsons investment that we would expect to be able to monetize in the beginning part of the year. So between that, our access to capital, the revolver we feel pretty comfortable with refinancing of debt at prices relatively close to where we targeted.

Rates are up a little bit, but I think from a full standpoint, we still expect the transaction to be FFO accretive in the first year. We have -- again, the revolver was fully available. We're seeing with a significant amount of cash on the balance sheet and Alberto. I think those give us the flexibility to take down .

[Operator]

The next question comes from Handel St. Juste with Mizuho.. .

[Haendel St. Juste, analyst]

I will not ask the question on RPT. I wanted to ask about the leasing spreads. My question for you is on leasing spreads. The Bed Bath spread, in particular, which were stronger, I think, than many of us expected. So maybe can you shed some more color here? Are you perhaps offering a bit more TIs? Are you cutting up boxes? And maybe some color on how the conversations are going to backfill the remaining boxes and expectations for spreads on those .

[David Jamieson, executive]

Yes. Yes, I appreciate the question. I think it sort of dovetails part of what Conor mentioned about the supply demand and the demand factors that are very much in our favor right now with no new development supply really existing inventory. And so similar message to what we've communicated previously. And a lot of these retailers are looking for opportunities to grow their store count. They have to hit their growth projections over the next several years. And so they've always seen the Bed Bath inventory is 1 of those clear opportunities.

So in terms of the commitments they've made, you have multiple players at the table looking for the similar space that actually helps you push rents northward, which helps drive the spread, when you look at the cost side, the costs have been pretty much in line. All of these have been single-tenant backfills, we aren't setting boxes yet. When you look at the balance of the 12, we still have a handful of those that are going to be occupied most likely by single tenant users. T

here may be a couple in there that we anticipate splitting, but that was to be expected from the very beginning, and we still see very healthy spread margins as well for those remaining boxes. So again, looks favorable right now.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Samir Khanal with Evercore ISI. .

[Samir Khanal, analyst]

Maybe a follow-up to the Bed Bath sort of comment earlier. I guess how much -- how should we think about the downtime with those boxes? I mean I'm trying to figure out the downtime and how long it will take to get kind of the rent back online with new tenants as we think about growth for next year. So on the 1 side, you have the headwinds from higher interest rates, interest expense. But on the other side, I'm just trying to understand how much of a sort of a pickup from rents you'll get sort of as a tailwind for next year. .

[David Jamieson, executive]

Yes, sure. Absolutely. So we have 14 boxes that were executed, 3 of which were assigned. Those 14 boxes are accounted for currently on our snow pipeline, which spend a 320 basis points, $52 million in total. For some perspective on timing, we do actually have our first 2 Bed Bath boxes that were backfilled starting to flow this quarter. And so that was under a 12-month window. Obviously, timing will vary box-to-box on what needs to be done. The balance of that is baked into our snow pipeline, of which we anticipate seeing about 50% to 60% of that flow through the course of '24. .

[Conor Flynn, executive]

The nice part, too, about the re-leasing of the Bed Bath boxes is, again, they've been individual tenants taking the whole boxes, which usually compresses the build-out time and the rent commencement date. So that's what we're already starting to see some flow this year. .

[Operator]

The next question comes from Dori Kesten with Wells Fargo.

[Dori Kesten, analyst]

With respect to your push for higher annual escalators are you finding there's any incremental pushback? Or would you expect to be able to continue to push upward for the near term? .

[Glenn Cohen, executive]

Yes, it's market driven. Obviously, we'd say the Sunbelt markets have been areas of opportunity where we can push probably further north on the increases, but it's really a case-by-case conversation with all the retailers. Obviously, everything is a negotiation. So there's a lot of discussion on the table. But we felt we have been confident in our abilities to push it north were right now. It seems to be holding pretty well. With the small shop occupancy at 91.1%, obviously matching our all-time high. Again, that supply demand is still working very much in our favor. .

[Operator]

The next question comes from Connor Mitchell with Piper Sandler. .

[Connor Mitchell, analyst]

So sticking with the lack of supply and strong tenant demand. I guess thinking about how you guys are having conversations and discussions with your anchor tenants. So traditionally, the anchor tenants are able to drive leasing terms on deals but now that the availability is dwindling, how is Kimco able to regain leverage in those discussions and maybe curtail some tenant friendly terms? .

[Conor Flynn, executive]

Sure. Yes. I mean outside of the economics, you're looking at co-tenants provisions, exclusive provisions, all of which you can start to rebalance, loosen up, create more flexibility for us, obviously, repositioning and redeveloping our centers has been a core principle of ours, so having that flexibility to do so. .

I also think we continue to grow into a data-driven market where you have a better sense of the impact, and you see tendencies or understandings change. Former principles about the impact of fitness long ago was sort of dispelled by the reality that people go to the gym and then they actually go and shop elsewhere afterwards.

And so retailers have come to appreciate that. So I think today, more than ever, it's very much a partnership looking to build the best community for the shopper and the customer and our retailer partnerships are very, very strong, and they're willing to explore new opportunities that work for both sides. .

[Glenn Cohen, executive]

And the only thing I would add is I think you're seeing retailers become more flexible with store footprint, which again opens up a lot more opportunities days of sort of having their prototype and that's it. It seemed to be in the past. And so that may not be a lease term specific item, but it is an optionality that creates more demand for spaces that might be more tweener size, and that's what you're seeing with some of the Bed Bath opportunities.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Floris Gerbrand Van Dijkum with Compass Point. .

[Floris Gerbrand van Dijkum, analyst]

I'm a little bit surprised that in some ways on the reaction from the markets on your increasing scale at a time when the fundamentals of the shopping center industry are probably the best we've ever seen. But maybe if you can put into context some of the your historical occupancy and leverage ratios. And in particular, maybe highlight also maybe if you can talk about what your shop occupancy is at record levels already, but are there big regional differences?

And how much more can you push that? Maybe comparing, for example, your New York or Lyon shop occupancy versus your national. Obviously, there are market differences here. But highlight to the market a little bit on what the upside potential -- additional upside potential is here in terms of occupancy? And also, obviously, as that snow pipeline comes online, what that would do to your already, I believe, record low leverage ratios. .

[Conor Flynn, executive]

Sure, happy to start, Floris, and we can pass the mic around. But you're spot on. We're obviously encouraged by the supply demand dynamic that we're experiencing in our portfolio. We're using a lot of data analytics to understand that there's virtually no new supply on the horizon and that we feel like our portfolio is well positioned for growth as the signed but not open pipeline continues to build, as you saw, expand further this quarter, which indicates future NOI growth. .

And we're trying to maintain the portfolio and strategy that allows us to grow regardless of the environment that we're facing. And so keeping leverage levels at all-time lows for us is important. You saw us be proactive and really sort of push out any near-term maturities with our recent bond offering. We continue to think that the small shop occupancy is going to be a bright spot for us as we've just reached all-time highs, and we're continuing to think that there's more to push there.

As the demand drivers are multiple, and they are more -- as I mentioned earlier, there's traditional and there's nontraditional and you continue to see the use cases for shopping centers evolve because it's all about value and convenience. And almost everything you can think of benefits from value and convenience. And so that's why the shopping center continues to evolve to be, I think, the place of choice for whether it's a service use, whether it's a medical use, whether it's a pure retail use, you name it, it continues to evolve as the spot where people want to start businesses.

And that's why I think it gives us a lot of encouragement as well as the fact that we have all of this underutilized parking that we think has future upside in the long term. So we always want to think long term, we entitled over 800 units this quarter alone in the portfolio. We continue to think that the shopping center will evolve to include multiple uses, primarily multifamily for us, but we position the portfolio for long-term growth, we've been on a roller coaster of retail.

As you know, there's been retail apocalypse. There's been the COVID pandemic. There's been all things we've faced in terms of challenges, and we feel right now we're in a really good spot hopefully be the bright spot of commercial real estate because Kimco is well positioned, I think, to be opportunistic and showcase that when times when people are nervous, if you have the capability to execute we should be able to make generational deals. And we feel like that's what we're intending to do at Kimco going forward and into the future.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Greg McGinniss with Scotiabank. .

[Greg McGinniss, analyst]

Just curious how you're thinking about spending on acquisitions versus redevelopment at this point? Where do you see the bigger opportunity? And given the size of and growing size of the portfolio, whether or not you expect to see some increase in the redevelopment opportunities or whether the accretion yields there due to cost whatever it might be, are just not worth the squeeze. .

[Ross Cooper, executive]

Sure, happy to address that. Cost of capital amount is paramount and doing deals that are accretive to that cost of capital is something that we discuss and evaluate as a collective committee on a daily basis. To your point, acquisitions in this environment, at least one-off sort of third-party acquisitions will be very challenging for us in the near term as cap rates have not moved nearly at the same speed that interest rates and our cost of capital have moved.

The bright spot is that redevelopments, particularly sort of the bread-and-butter retail redevelopments within our portfolio continue at very high clips, double digits on average. So that is an investment opportunity that we will continue to pursue and activate across our portfolio. And to your point, as the portfolio continues to grow, those opportunities grow alongside it.

So we do believe that leasing and redevelopment retail redevelopment will continue to exceed our cost of capital and be where we put a significant amount of our available cash flow. And then we'll be opportunistic with the structured investment program, which also have double-digit returns requirements for us to proceed, and we'll prioritize each and every opportunity with that thought process in mind.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Anthony Powell with Barclays. .

[Anthony Powell, analyst]

Question on where do share repurchases fit into the capital allocation, I guess, matrix? I think you had about $224 million left in your authorization. How do -- how does that compare to structural investments and other opportunities you have? .

[Ross Cooper, executive]

I think it's a similar conversation. I think every investment opportunity that we look at is judged based upon our cost of capital and what is accretive to that. I think that we talked a little bit about our leverage being at the lowest levels historically than it's ever been, which gives us a lot more optionality to consider anything that's on the table.

So we'll look at every single investment opportunity and acquisition, leasing, redevelopment, structure investment, stock buybacks, whatever the case may be and prioritize it based upon through that lens. So that's where we sit and that's how we consider it.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Caitlin Burrows with Goldman Sachs. .

[Caitlin Burrows, analyst]

Conor, you talked about small shop occupancy as a bright spot. Could you talk about what types of tenants you're seeing that interest from like local versus national, what industry? And also the timing, I feel like we hear that macro uncertainty is lengthening the time it takes to sign leases and other property types. So I'm wondering if you're seeing that at all in your property type. .

[Conor Flynn, executive]

Sure. From a small shop perspective, I think it's definitely a bright spot. When you look at the uses restaurants, specialty foods, like those types of users still dominate sort of the percentages of new leases that we signed this quarter. And then when you go past that, it's really sort of the health and wellness and beauty category, that continues to evolve. You used to be dominated by sort of the old bus of the world.

Now we're seeing Sephora and a number of others continue to evolve to have open air shopping centers as a key component to their growth strategies. When you look at the services category, that continues to evolve. We always have had hair and nail salons as a key component of the shopping center sector. But when you add in all the medical uses that continue to evolve and want to be closer to the consumer and come out of the hospital, I think that continues to evolve as well.

And then you're seeing sort of these franchise-driven concepts that continue to be the growth driver. The mom-and-pop retailer today very different than it was even 5 years ago. And a lot of what's being -- what's going on is they're buying these franchises with a proven business model, and that's how they're starting the business. And I think when you look at the franchises that we're doing deals with, you can actually improve the credit profile there, again, the corporate guarantee on it.

And so as we evolve our leasing strategy, and we talked about the increases that we're getting on small shops, continuing to improve the growth of the portfolio, all these things are adding up, obviously, to an enhanced growth profile.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Alec Feygin with Baird. .

[Alec Feygin, analyst]

I kind of wanted to dig into the structured investment conversation. You guys have mentioned that the conversations around those have been picking up lately. Can you guys provide us some more details about the return criteria on those and what we can expect that book to grow to? .

[Ross Cooper, executive]

Sure. Yes, the conversations are picking up and we do anticipate there's going to be more optionality with that program as we enter 2024, continuing with the theme of cost of capital. As our hurdle rates increase, the quotes that we're providing to potential borrowers of our capital have increased as well. So what was previously 8% to 9% with some back-end participation potentially is now double digit as a starting point. .

So the blended average of our structure right now in terms of the rates that we're obtaining in the current position are in the mid- to high 9s. And we expect that anything going forward will certainly start in the double digits. But we think that will ramp up. We have just under $200 million outstanding on the book right now within the program. So we'll continue to be mindful of that, but we think that there's room to run there.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Linda Tsai with Jefferies.

[Linda Yu Tsai, analyst]

You reduced your credit loss outlook as you're trending at the low end. Given the record low supply environment you're operating in and your improved portfolio quality in terms of better credit tenants, do you think it's premature to say credit loss will be a step function lower in the coming years? .

[Conor Flynn, executive]

Again, we're happy with the improvement that we've seen. I think you've seen credit loss coming back to on normalized level similar to what we saw prepandemic. It's a little early to put it into the guidance for next year. But as a run rate, if we're in that 75-100 basis point range, I think you're back to pretty normalized levels.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Mike Mueller with JPMorgan.

[Michael Mueller, analyst]

Going back to the structured investment opportunities, are they all tied to real estate? Or are you evaluating some operator opportunities as well? .

[Ross Cooper, executive]

Yes. I mean the core program is looking at operating real estate in our core markets with strong demographics, the tenancy that we're looking for, high-quality sponsors, and as we've talked about in the past, having that right of first offer, a right of first refusal is a critical component of that program.

Now that being said, we do have our Plus business that has been active historically. And as there are retailers that are real estate rich that have capital needs, we believe that we're typically 1 of their, if not their first phone call. So those conversations will continue and where we can be opportunistic and helpful with retailers that have a significant amount of owned real estate, we'll always look at those opportunities as well.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Paulina Rojas with Green Street. .

[Paulina Rojas Schmidt, analyst]

Good morning. Price of interest rates, of course, has been unprecedented and introduced the question of how will retail our balance sheet and look after a company starts facing that maturity. So when you think about the future, how do you feel about potential tenant fallout? Do you think it will be -- or that it's reasonable perhaps to think about above average tenant failure given everything that is happening with interest rates?

[Conor Flynn, executive]

It's a good question, Paulina. I think when you look at the rate environment and how it impacts all industries, really the retailers that have near-term debt maturities are going to be facing higher interest expense and the refinancing, just like other industry. I would say that for Kimco has never been smaller when you look at the retailers that we continue to track from a credit perspective. .

And when you think about the supply and demand dynamics that I talked about earlier, we feel very comfortable with the credit loss reserve that we have today. Obviously, we just improved that this quarter and continue to be proactive on showcasing spaces that are not available today, but may be available in a year or 2 or even 5 years' time. And that's what we're doing right now is we're showcasing not our current vacancies. We're showcasing what may be available in the near term or in the long term to line up the best-in-class tenants.

Because of the lack of supply, retailers are engaged in that knowing that it's going to be hard to fill their promised pipelines of net new store openings in the current environment. So they have to align with folks like Kimco to try and fill that and see where they can add where they wanted to fix to build their needs.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Ki Bin Kim with Truist.

[Ki Bin Kim, analyst]

To follow up on that last question. Just given the rise in the cost of capital for your tenants, do you see that eventually weighing on their expansion plans? And second question, your active mixed-use developments, the yields went up pretty noticeably. Just curious what drove that. .

[David Jamieson, executive]

Yes. Kevin, great for questions. So with the first one, we maintain a very close dialogue with our big retail partners, and they're looking through, I think, the short term impacts and continuing to try to grab market share where they can appreciate in that, that inventory is limited. And if they don't get it today, there might not be new inventory available tomorrow. .

That said, every retailer has a different capital strategy, and that probably evolves most likely as ours evolves as well. So something that we stay very, very close to them. But as I can say right now, it doesn't seem to be slowing the pace of growth the majority of those retailers. And as it relates to the mixed-use pipeline, yes, I appreciate the question. So what you see there is you see 4 projects, 3 of which are ground leases and the fourth 1 being Colter which is the 1 that we identified as our preferred equity structure. That was the first of its kind that we're doing.

So this quarter, we felt it was appropriate to actually show what the real returns are related to the Kimco invested capital and the preferred returns related to those projects. Obviously, that yields a higher or accretive growth profile than if you're just to invest all the capital yourself. So that's what it's reflecting, that's the change.

[Conor Flynn, executive]

The only thing I would add on the retailer demand side, in, and what we're seeing is because of the rate environment because of the construction costs a lot of these tenants that used to do ground-up development and then sell those assets as sale leasebacks are now looking for second generation space versus the ground-up development side.

And so they're looking at how do they absorb existing inventory versus net new development because of that lack of financing availability. And so that should drive more demand to the existing spaces as well as that first-generation ground up development has really dried up.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Juan Sanabria with BMO. .

[Juan Sanabria, analyst]

Thanks for the second shot here. Just a couple of questions. One, just on -- going back to the RPT merger where we started. So what are you guys assuming in terms of the debt that needs to be refinanced. So that's part one. And then part two, if you could just give us an update on the Rite Aid exposure and what you're seeing or expecting there for the space that they've deemed that they're going to get back in 1 form or another.

[Conor Flynn, executive]

So in terms of the debt to be refinanced for RPT, if you look at the balance sheet at 9/30, they're sitting with bank debt, both revolver debt and term loan debt of about $350 million and then they have about $511 million of private placement notes. So that's the magnitude of what we're looking at and then obviously, there'll be merger plus that go into that. So it's around $900 million in total. And as I mentioned, we have a variety of options about how to fund that from our Albertsons investment, cash on the balance sheet, aligned, obviously, access to the capital markets and other things. .

[David Jamieson, executive]

Yes. And as it relates to the Rite Aid exposure, right now, we know that 3 of our leases have been rejected in day 1. That's about 5 basis points of occupancy right now. So a de minimis impact, there are another 2 that we expect to close this quarter. So in total, that's about 8 basis points of total occupancy on the impact. And right now, we have good activity in terms of hitting our retailer list and is appropriate for a lot of the mid-box users, and so the larger sort of small shop operators as well. So we're very encouraged by the activity. We have 1 that has drive-through-locations. So again, there's good attributes, good components here that we feel pretty confident we can backfill those quickly. .

[Operator]

The next question comes from Caitlin Burrows with Goldman Sachs. .

[Caitlin Burrows, analyst]

I had originally tied to just sneak in a second one, but then we didn't get to it. So here I am. And maybe it's a little bit of a follow-up to Ki Bin's question. But so we hear that macro uncertainty is lengthening the time it takes to sign leases in like office and industrial, so I'm just wondering if you guys are seeing this at all, like how have your tenant sense of urgency on signing leases evolved over the course of the year? And like have they changed? Or have you, I guess, avoided that? .

[David Jamieson, executive]

Yes. It really -- it hasn't changed. Not anything related to the macro environment. we're tied for negotiating certain deal points that may add some time, but that's normal course of business. If anything, people are looking to get leases signed quickly so they can get open sooner and they can start booking that growth within their portfolio. So there's been no real material change in terms of time of execution. .

[Operator]

Next question comes from Libby Bakken with Bank of America.

[Unknown Analyst]

This is Lily Join. Yes, just a follow-up. So -- do you think you could clarify the bridge or the walk from 3Q FFO to 4Q just based on the guide, it looks like it implies like a $0.01 to $0.02 step down into the fourth quarter. So just curious on what's driving that. .

[David Jamieson, executive]

Yes. Again, we have a couple of onetime things that are in the third quarter. As we mentioned, there's some of this impact from the Wingard pension plan that was liquidated during the quarter. And there's a few other onetime things. But again, we feel very comfortable with the guidance range and we're at the upper end of the range that we set out for the year. Again, coming back, we made up a lot of headwind that we had going into the year, driving towards that high end of the range today. So that's really the driver .

[Conor Flynn, executive]

There was a big onetime I, as Glenn mentioned, the pension income we recognized was about $8.7 million. That's what's in that other income line. You back that out, you're back to a more normalized level. .

[Operator]

The next question comes from Anthony Powell with Barclays.

[Anthony Powell, analyst]

I saw the lease summary that landlord worked first square foot went up to close to $8 in the quarter. I'm assuming that's related to the Bed-Bath Beyond lease, but I wanted to confirm that and maybe talk about TIs and landing work trends going forward? .

[David Jamieson, executive]

Yes, sure. So there's a couple of components. Let's start with the first and new leases side. So the new lease side, is slightly higher, driven by primarily 3 deals. If you left those deals out, the total work for TI and landlord work would go from 51 down to 40 which is at the lower end of a more normalized rate. The returns on the deals were in excess of 20-plus percent. So very accretive and the mark-to-market on those is between 80% and 116%.

So very, very accretive deals. But again, back those out, you get down to the $40 range. In terms of the overall, where you include new leases, renewals and options, it is elevated because of the weight of the number of new leases executed and we'd also did 24 anchor deals that quarter -- this last quarter. First, the number of renewals and options, if you see those are a little bit lighter. So obviously, when you blend it together, the weighted component of the new deals grow that number up a little bit.

But from a cost standpoint, as you can see, the renewals and options are pretty much in line as well. So that's just the nuance difference between this quarter and prior quarters.

[Operator]

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to David Bujnicki for any closing remarks.

[Craig Schmidt, analyst]

We just appreciate everybody that participated on the call. Enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you so much. .

[Operator]

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.