Another quarter has flown by and mall REITs have reported results. Not surprisingly, they're all still talking about the weather, which kept sales down (for the most part) and expenses up (across the board).
PREIT, for example, plowed its wholly owned centers 390 times, salted more than 700 times and saw the projects closed a total of 66 days, CFO Bob McCadden said at its first quarter conference call.
Funds from operations (FFO) rose 8.1% from the first quarter of 2013. Same store-malls saw occupancy rise to 90.3 percent, an increase of 10 basis points over previous year. Portfolio sales per square foot were $381, down 1.0 percent from the first quarter of 2013. Same-store net operating income (NOI) declined 5.7 percent, largely due to snow removal and energy costs.
Taubman Centers had flat FFO per share, while comp-mall NOI rose 2.0 percent. Leased space was 92.6 percent, up 0.4 percent from the year-ago quarter. Sales were $712 per square foot, down 0.7 percent from the previous year.
“It is difficult to pinpoint precisely the cause. There were a lot of potential factors. The harsh winter. The four week, five week January retail calendar and of course the late Easter,” said Chairman, President and CEO Robert Taubman at the company's conference call.
At CBL & Associates Properties, FFO per share was down slightly, while same-center NOI was up 1.6 percent. Same store sales declined 3.2 percent to $351 per square foot.
Macerich saw occupancy increase to 95.1 percent (from 93.1 percent in the first quarter of 2013). Sales per square foot were $565, up 5.6 percent compared to the year-ago quarter. FFO per diluted share declined from $0.86 to $0.81 in the just-completed quarter. Net income was essentially flat, affected by $2.6 million in higher-than-expected weather related costs.
Glimcher Realty Trust's FFO per share rose from $0.10 in the first quarter of 2013 to $0.16 in the just-completed quarter. Mall NOI was up 2.6 percent. Comparable mall sales rose 1.5 percent.
“We're pleased by the start of fiscal year 2014,” said Chairman and CEO Michael Glimcher. “While the severe winter weather created a challenging operating environment during the first quarter we were encouraged by the overall strength of our operating metrics within the mall portfolio.”
The company is marketing 13 centers with a goal of selling a portion of them. Funds will be used to reduce debt.
Not everyone had a weak quarter. General Growth Properties reported FFO per share increased 21.4 percent over the prior year period, with same-store NOI up 5.7 percent over the first quarter of 2013. Tenant sales rose 1.2 percent to $565 per square foot, and leased percentage rose 40 basis points to 96.2 percent.
And as reported last week, Simon Property Group saw a first-quarter year-over-year FFO increase of 16.1 percent, an 80-basis point increase in occupancy to 95.5 percent and a bump in mall store sales to $576 per square foot.
Most of the CEOs reported that with better weather and the late Easter, shoppers returned to the centers in April. Let's see if that will translate into higher sales.
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