John Kite, chairman and CEO of Kite Realty Group Trust (NYSE: KRG), participated in a video interview at Nareit’s REITworld: 2022 Annual Conference held in San Francisco on Nov. 15-17.
Kite noted that last year’s merger with Retail Properties of America, Inc. (RPAI) has been “fabulous,” with almost 4 million square feet leased in the first nine months of 2022 at 13% rent spreads, which has driven the company’s outperformance.
Looking to 2023, Kite pointed to the company’s $38 million of signed-not-open NOI, most of which will be “fully on” in the coming year. He added that the REIT also has a lot of room to lease up back to pre-pandemic levels, which has been another driver of cash flow offering “tremendous” returns.
Kite also discussed trends among tenants with regard to their preferences for the various types of centers that are available in the REIT’s portfolio.
He noted that the majority of revenue comes from community and neighborhood centers , while the REIT also has a “healthy exposure” to lifestyle centers, power centers, and mixed-use assets. “We’re seeing tenants really spread out across all those food groups. There’s a trend there where there’s not an over-concentration of a retailer wanting to be in only one product type; I think that’s a great tailwind for our business.”