Inland American: Optimistic About Retail and Lodging

OAK BROOK, IL-As the economy continues to remain sluggish, the retail and lodging sectors tend to lag behind office, industrial and especially multifamily. But executives at Inland American REIT‘s Q2 earnings call remained bullish on these two sectors, which makes up approximately two-thirds of the REIT’s portfolio.

There is good reason for this – the portfolio’s NOI increased by 10.5% year over year (with retail showing a 9.4% increase and lodging up by 24.7%) and same-store NOI was up 1.9% — retail increased by 0.1% compared to the same time last year, with lodging boosted by 5.3%. The numbers and other factors led Inland American’s principal financial officer Jack Potts to say that the FFO guidance would be maintained at $.50-$.51 for the year. “There’s a potential for some disposition and a net of acquisitions for the latter half of the year, and some slight dilution while rotating capital,” he explains.