Clipper Realty Q3 2025 Earnings Call - Record Residential Rents Offset by Office Lease Termination and Development Costs
Summary
Clipper Realty reported steady revenues in Q3 2025 at $37.7 million, driven by an exceptionally strong residential leasing market where new rents increased by over 14% across the portfolio. Residential occupancy hovered around 99%, with newly completed developments such as Prospect House 60% leased but still absorbing initial lease-up expenses. However, the termination of a major New York City office lease at 250 Livingston Street and the absence of contributions from a sold property weighed on net operating income and funds from operations, which declined year-over-year. The company maintains a conservative fixed-rate debt profile and announced a stable dividend, signaling cautious confidence amid ongoing portfolio optimization and repositioning efforts.
Key Takeaways
- Residential rental demand remains robust with same-store new leases rising over 14% in Q3 2025, sustained at record-high rent levels.
- Overall portfolio occupancy for residential properties stands at 99%, driven by strong leasing at properties such as Tribeca House and Clover House.
- Prospect House, a new ground-up development in Brooklyn, is 60% leased with pre-market rents exceeding $88 per square foot, reflecting healthy initial leasing momentum.
- Pacific House, another ground-up development, is fully stabilized and contributing positively to cash flow after a year of operation.
- Office segment challenges persist as the New York City lease at 250 Livingston Street was terminated in August 2025, impacting revenues and NOI materially.
- Clipper Realty's Q3 2025 revenues remained flat year-over-year at $37.7 million despite property sales and lease terminations due to strong residential leasing.
- Net operating income declined by $1 million versus last year, influenced by lease termination impacts and the initial lease-up costs of Prospect House.
- Adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) fell $2.2 million year-over-year, reflecting increased expenses and non-cash amortizations alongside lease-up and sale effects.
- The company holds $26.1 million in unrestricted cash and has 88% of its debt fixed at a low average rate of 3.87%, with asset-level financing and no cross-collateralization.
- Clipper Realty declared a quarterly dividend of $0.095 per share, unchanged from the previous quarter, signaling steadiness despite transitional portfolio dynamics.
- Management continues to focus on lease-up completion, particularly at Prospect House, and negotiations to bring office properties back to positive cash flow.
- Capital improvements at Clover Gardens have been funded with real estate tax abatements as part of a long-term agreement, showing commitment to asset enhancement amid regulatory environments.
Full Transcript
Conference Operator: Good day and welcome to the Clipper Realty Q3 earnings call. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode. The floor will be open for questions and comments following the presentation. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Lawrence Sava. Sir, the floor is yours.
Lawrence Sava/Larry Kreider, CFO, Clipper Realty: Thank you. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for the third quarter 2025 Clipper Realty earnings conference call. Participating with me on today’s call are David Bistricer, our Co-Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, JJ Bistricer, Chief Operating Officer, and Larry Kreider, Chief Financial Officer. Please be aware that statements made during the call that are not historical may be deemed forward-looking statements, and actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including those disclosed in the company’s 2024 annual report on Form 10-K and the third quarter 2025 quarterly report on Form 10-Q, which will be accessible on www.sec.gov and on our website. As a reminder, the forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this call, November 13, 2025, and the company undertakes no duty to update them.
During this call, management may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted funds from operations or AFFO, adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, or adjusted EBITDA, and net operating income or NOI. Please see our press release, supplemental financial information, and Form 10-Q that will be posted for reconciliation on these non-GAAP financial measures with the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures. With that, I will now turn the call over to our Co-Chairman and CEO, David Bistricer.
David Bistricer, Co-Chairman and CEO, Clipper Realty: Thank you, Lawrence. Good afternoon and welcome to the third quarter 2025 earnings call for Clipper Realty. I will provide an update on our business performance and some developments, after which JJ will discuss property-level activity, including leasing performance, and Larry will speak to our quarterly financial performance. We will then take your questions. I’m pleased to report that our residential properties continue to perform very well due to continued high residential rental demand, excellent cash flow, overall rents are generally at all-time highs, and continue to increase, and we are nearly fully leased. In the third quarter, new leases exceeded prior rents by over 14%, same as last quarter across the entire portfolio, as JJ will detail. We are also in the initial lease-up of Prospect House at 953 Dean Street.
We bought the property online in August on time and on budget, having placed a bridge loan last quarter that will provide funds through stabilization. We are currently approximately 60% leased, with pre-market rents in excess of $88 a sq ft. This project was ground up with development in Brooklyn, where we bought the land in 2021 and 2022 and built a nine-story fully amenitized building with 160,000 residential sq ft, 240 units, 70% pre-market, 30% affordable, 57 parking spaces, and 19,000 commercial sq ft. Our other ground-up development at Pacific House at 1010 Pacific Street in Brooklyn is stabilized and is contributing to cash flow after over one year of full operation. As for the office properties at 250 and 141, we previously reported that we are ongoing conversations with those properties to bring them back online to a cash flow position.
With that, I would like to now turn over the phone to JJ.
JJ Bistricer, Chief Operating Officer, Clipper Realty: Thank you. I am pleased to report that residential leasing at all our stabilized properties is very strong, and they are 99% leased overall. Rents are at record levels and continuing to increase over previous levels. Overall, new rental rates at residential properties in the third quarter exceeded previous rents by over 14% and renewals by 5%. We expect demand for our residential leasing product to remain strong in the foreseeable future as the overall rental housing supply in New York City remains constrained and new developments discouraged. All our residential rents are now at record highs. In the third quarter, Tribeca House had lease occupancy of 99% overall, rent per foot over $88 per foot, and new rent at $105 per foot. The Clover House property had occupancy of 100%, average overall rent of $88 per foot, and new leases of $95 per foot.
Our recently completed Pacific House property, consisting of a blend of pre-market and rent-stabilized tenants, had lease occupancy of 97% and pre-market rent of $82 per sq ft on new leases. Our other residential properties at Aspen and 250 Livingston Street continue to perform at record levels, with average occupancy above 98% and new rents and renewals 12% higher compared to previous leases. We have begun leasing at the newly completed Prospect House ground-up development at 953 Dean Street and are now 60% leased with pre-market units at $88 per sq ft gross. At the Clover Gardens property, overall average rents were $31.67 per sq ft at the end of the quarter, an increase of 9% over last year. As previously disclosed, we have been operating under the 40-year Article 11 agreement made with the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development in June 2023.
Since the beginning of the agreement, we have spent nearly $17 million towards fulfilling our capital improvement commitment in the agreement, funded principally by a full abatement of real estate taxes and other rent supplements. Rent collections across our portfolio remain strong. The overall collection rate in the third quarter for all residential properties was approximately 95%, including Clover Gardens, at 92%. We are steadily working through the legal system to minimize arrears. Looking ahead, we remain focused on optimizing our capacity, pricing, and expenses across the business to best position ourselves for growth. I will now turn the call over to Larry, who will discuss our financial results.
Lawrence Sava/Larry Kreider, CFO, Clipper Realty: Thank you, JJ. Our results this quarter versus last year reflect three unusual items, namely the termination of the New York City lease at the 250 Livingston Street property on August 23, 2025, the initial lease-up results at Prospect House, placed in service August 1, reflecting an excess of expenses over revenue, and the absence of results from the 10 West 65th Street property sold in May 2025. I will refer here and after to the remaining properties as the ongoing properties. For the third quarter, we achieved flat revenues of $37.7 million versus $37.6 million last year, NOI of $20.8 million this quarter versus $21.8 million last year, a decrease of $1 million, and AFFO of $5.6 million this quarter versus $7.8 million last year, a decrease of $2.2 million. The following details these results.
For revenue, the flat revenues reflect a $2.4 million or 7% increase from ongoing residential properties due to excellent residential leasing. Also, a $1 million decrease from the absence of the 10 West 65th Street property sold in May, a $1.9 million decrease from the New York City lease termination at 250 Livingston Street, and a $0.5 million increase from the initial lease-up at the Prospect House property placed in service in August. For NOI, the $1 million NOI decrease reflects a $1.5 million or 8% increase from ongoing properties, a $0.7 million decrease from the absence of the 10 West 65th Street property sold in May, a $1.8 million decrease from the New York City lease termination at 250 Livingston Street, and a nominal decrease from the inclusion of Prospect House in this quarter.
The $1.5 million NOI increase from ongoing properties reflects the $2.4 million revenue increase, partially offset by $0.7 million higher collection and payroll expenses, and $0.2 million from routine annual real estate taxes and insurance increases. The payroll expenses primarily relate to staff focused on repairs and maintenance and CapEx. The $0.7 million NOI decrease from the absence of the 10 West 65th Street property reflects the absence of $1 million revenue less real estate taxes. Finally, for AFFO, the $2.2 million AFFO decrease reflects a $1.5 million or 19% increase from ongoing properties, a nominal decrease from the absence of the 10 West 65th Street property sold in May, a $1.9 million decrease from the termination of the New York City lease at 250 Livingston Street, and a $1.8 million decrease from the inclusion of Prospect House in this quarter.
The $1.5 million AFFO increase from ongoing properties matches the increase in NOI. The nominal AFFO decrease from the 10 West 65th Street property reflects the absence of the $0.7 million NOI offset by interest expense, and the $1.8 million decrease from the inclusion of Prospect House reflects the nominal NOI offset by interest expense for two months. Lastly, for AFFO, the increase in G&A was entirely offset by non-cash increase in amortization of stock-based executive compensation. With regard to our balance sheet, we have $26.1 million unrestricted cash and $30.6 million restricted cash at the end of the quarter. As of the end of the quarter, our operating debt is 88% fixed at an average rate of 3.87%, an average duration of 3.7 years. Our debt instruments are non-recourse, subject to limited standard carve-outs, and are not cross-collateralized. We finance our portfolio on an asset-by-asset basis.
Today, we are announcing a dividend of $0.095 per share for the third quarter, the same amount as last quarter. The dividend will be paid on December 4, 2025, to shareholders of record on November 26, 2025. Let me now turn the call back to David for concluding remarks.
David Bistricer, Co-Chairman and CEO, Clipper Realty: Thank you, Lawrence. We remain focused on efficiently operating our portfolio. We look forward to full lease-up of Prospect House, finalization of the 141 and 250 Livingston negotiations, and capitalizing on other possibilities that may present themselves. I would now like to open the line for questions.
Conference Operator: Thank you. At this time, we’ll be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you have any questions or comments, please press star one on your phone at this time. We ask that while posing your question, you please pick up your handset if listening on speakerphone to provide optimum sound quality. Please hold while we pull for questions. Once again, that’s star one on your phone at this time if you wish to ask a question. There were no questions from the lines at this time.
David Bistricer, Co-Chairman and CEO, Clipper Realty: Thank you for joining us today. We look forward to speaking with you again next quarter.
Conference Operator: Thank you. This does conclude today’s conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time and have a wonderful day. Thank you for your participation.
