Curbline Properties Corp. is accumulating a portfolio of what it calls convenience shopping centers and its March acquisition of six Jacksonville area properties, its largest deal to date, fits right in with its strategy.
“We began investing in convenience assets now almost seven years ago, recognizing the strong financial performance of the small format asset class, both within the retail sector and the broader real estate industry,” Curbline CEO David Lukes said in the company’s April 24 conference call with analysts.
New York-based Curbline bought six Northeast Florida properties ranging in size from 26,000 to 59,000 square feet from The Peter Sleiman Development Group of Jacksonville for $86.3 million.
“Like Jacksonville, we continue to make acquisitions in new wealthy submarkets that share the key characteristics we seek,” Lukes said.
“Average household incomes for the first-quarter investments were nearly $110,000 and a weighted average lease rate of over 95%,” he said.
While the properties are in high-income neighborhoods, Lukes isn’t focusing on the potential for higher sales at retailers in Curbline’s centers but instead on zoning in that type of market.
“Those local zoning boards are not very wild about entitling additional strip center retail,” he said.
“The higher income suburbs tend to have less square footage per capita, and that generally means that there’s a scarcity value,” with less likelihood of new retail centers entering the market.
The six properties acquired by Curbline were Carrie Plaza, Deerwood Station, Oakleaf Crossing and Roosevelt Plaza in Jacksonville, Southlake Plaza in St. Augustine and Julington Station in St. Johns.
Curbline owned 107 properties with about 3.4 million square feet of leasable space at the end of the first quarter.
“Curbline is a differentiated growth company capable of generating double-digit earnings and cash flow growth well above the REIT average for a number of years to come,” Lukes said.
The company produced earnings of $10.6 million on revenue of $38.7 million in the first quarter.
Juno Beach-based NextEra Energy Inc., parent of Florida Power & Light Co., expects minimal exposure from tariffs on its supply chain, CEO John Ketchum said in the company’s April 23 conference call.
“We’ve spent the last three years diversifying and domesticating ours (supply chain) to strategically position our supplier relationships to manage potential disruption,” Ketchum said, according to a company transcript of the call.
“We’ve dramatically diversified where we source our solar panels. As a result, we don’t source solar panels from countries impacted by the anti-dumping and countervailing duty tariff rates announced earlier this week. Plus, we source our wind turbines from the U.S. with manufacturing in Florida,” he said.
Ketchum also said the company has secured arrangements to buy most of its batteries from U.S. manufacturers, with the rest from sources outside of China.
NextEra forecasts $150 million in tariff exposure through 2028 on more than $75 billion in capital spending.
“Once we work with our customers, we expect our $150 million tariff exposure to be significantly reduced potentially down to zero,” he said.
NextEra reported adjusted first-quarter earnings of $2.038 billion, or 99 cents per share.
FPL provides electricity for about 12 million Floridians, including most of the state’s east coast outside of Jacksonville.
Landstar System Inc. delayed its first-quarter earnings report, scheduled for release April 29, to May 13 as it evaluates the impact of a supply chain fraud issue it previously disclosed.
“This matter relates to the Company’s international freight forwarding operations, and the Company believes that this matter is limited to the operations of one specific independent commission sales agency,” the Jacksonville-based trucking company said in a news release.
Landstar said the fraud could reduce earnings by up to 43 cents a share. It expects to report earnings before the fraud impact of 95 cents a share, down from first quarter 2024 earnings of $1.32.
The St. Joe Co. reported first-quarter earnings rose 26% to $17.5 million, or 30 cents a share, with revenue rising 7% to $94.3 million.
The Panama City Beach-based real estate developer reported revenue gains in all three of its business segments: residential, hospitality and commercial properties.
“Despite macro-economic headwinds in some parts of the country, St. Joe continues to show solid organic growth,” CEO Jorge Gonzalez said in an April 23 news release.
St. Joe was a longtime conglomerate headquartered in Jacksonville before selling off its industrial properties to focus on developing its large land holdings in the Florida Panhandle.
It moved its headquarters to the Panhandle in 2010 to be closer to its development projects.