Michael Schall, president and CEO of Essex Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE: ESS), participated in a video interview at Nareit’s REITworld: 2022 Annual Conference held in San Francisco on Nov. 15-17.
Schall said that the coastal markets of Northern and Southern California and the Seattle metropolitan area, where Essex’s properties are located, have historically produced high compounded annual growth rates of rents, driven by supply and demand factors.
“That’s consistent with our objective, which is growing core FFO per share over long periods of time,” he said.
Schall said that being transparent with investors and residents about Essex’s corporate social responsibility commitments, including tracking each goal openly on its website, is part of the REIT’s broader philosophy.
“We try to be open and transparent with the investment community…we started that many years ago with respect to our financial reporting,” he said. “What we’ve done is just taken that and expanded it to our ESG and CSR efforts.”
Schall discussed his upcoming retirement as president and CEO, effective March 31, 2023, detailing several personal and company-wide accomplishments.
“On the company side…the merger with BRE Properties in 2014 and the subsequent inclusion in the S&P 500 were both major milestones,” Schall said. “Even more important than that, is the fact that we’ve continued to be able to grow core FFO per share over a very long period of time.”