Franklin Street Properties Corp. Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2020 Results

Franklin Street Properties Corp. (the “Company”, “FSP”, “we” or “our”) (NYSE American: FSP), a real estate investment trust (REIT), announced its results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2020.

George J. Carter, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented as follows:

“Reflecting on 2020, I would like to start by thanking everyone who contributed to the successful operation of our business during these challenging times that were headlined by the COVID-19 pandemic, including frontline workers, first responders, our tenants and their employees, FSP employees, our vendors and service providers, our Board of Directors, and of course, our shareholders. Notwithstanding the specific challenges caused by the pandemic, for full-year 2020, our monthly rental collections averaged approximately 99% and we achieved approximately 1,130,000 square feet of total leasing with new tenants, renewals and expansions.

For 2021, we are focused on two primary objectives: leasing progress and debt reduction. From a leasing perspective, we anticipate the potential for growing office space demand in our markets as a result of an improved economic situation due to increasing access to both therapeutics and vaccines. We believe that users of office space are now reconsidering the office densification trends of the past approximately 20 years. We also believe that, even with the continuation of some planned for level of remote/work-from-home flexibility, the potential reversal or slowing of office densification could bode well for future office space absorption. Our 2021 leasing focus includes both increased economic occupancy and longer-term renewals of existing tenants. We believe that successful leasing efforts will translate into higher property valuations.

In terms of debt reduction, we believe that the sale of our Emperor Boulevard property in Durham, North Carolina on December 23, 2020 for $89.7 million demonstrated our ability to identify and dispose of a property that we viewed as having reached its valuation objective, and then to apply substantially all of the proceeds to the repayment of debt. FSP intends to build upon our sale of Emperor Boulevard by pursuing additional dispositions, particularly where we believe that embedded values of properties may not be appropriately reflected in the price of our common stock, and then to apply the proceeds from any such dispositions primarily for the repayment of debt. We believe that further debt reduction will provide greater financial flexibility and position the Company for stronger shareholder returns. Accordingly, we have introduced full year 2021 disposition guidance in the range of approximately $350 million to $450 million in aggregate gross proceeds.

FSP remains committed to its Sunbelt and Mountain-West office focus that emphasizes markets/properties with compelling long-term population and employment growth potential. We look forward to 2021 with anticipation and optimism.”

Financial Highlights

• Net Income was $37.4 million and $32.6 million, or $0.35 and $0.30 per basic and diluted share, for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2020, respectively.
• Funds From Operations (FFO) was $17.4 million and $79.3 million, or $0.16 and $0.74 per basic and diluted share, for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2020, respectively.
• FFO for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2020 includes a charge of $3.1 million, or $0.03 per share, as a result of a write-off related to the December 21, 2020 voluntary petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code by the parent of WorldVentures Holdings, LLC (the “WorldVentures Bankruptcy”). WorldVentures leases approximately 130,000 square feet at our Legacy Tennyson property in Plano, Texas.
• Adjusted Funds From Operations (AFFO) was $0.05 and $0.11 per basic and diluted share for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2020, respectively.
• On December 23, 2020, we sold our Emperor Boulevard property in Durham, North Carolina for $89.7 million, or approximately $346 per square foot, and recorded a gain of approximately $41.9 million in connection with the sale.
• In December 2020, we repaid $87.3 million of debt under our revolving and term loan facilities using net proceeds from the sale of Emperor Boulevard.
• We have $600.7 million of liquidity as of December 31, 2020, consisting of $4.2 million of cash and $596.5 million available on our revolving line of credit.
• Our debt is entirely unsecured and we have no scheduled debt maturities until November 30, 2021.

COVID-19 Pandemic Update

FSP remains committed to the health and safety of its employees, tenants, vendors and visitors and will continue to implement recommended guidelines for social distancing and other safety protocols at our properties and corporate headquarters.

• All of our properties remain open for business.
• As of February 12, 2021, we had collected approximately 99% of rental receipts due in January 2021. Due to the high level of uncertainty related to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are unable to predict the level of rental receipts in future months.
• We collected approximately 98% of rental receipts due for the fourth quarter 2020 and approximately 99% of rental receipts due for the year ended December 31, 2020.
• For the year ended December 31, 2020, we had tenant write-offs of approximately $3.8 million, representing approximately 1.5% of annualized rents.
• During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have received rent relief requests from some of our tenants. The majority of these requests for relief have been in the form of potential rent deferrals for varying lengths of time. Excluding any impact from the WorldVentures Bankruptcy, as of February 5, 2021, we are in discussions with tenants regarding potential rent deferrals representing less than approximately 1% of annualized rents. We will continue to review each request for rent relief on a case by case basis. Where prudent, we may grant deferrals and, in some instances, seek extended lease terms. We are unable to predict the outcomes of these ongoing negotiations, the amount of the rent relief packages, if any, and ultimate recovery of any deferred amounts.

Leasing Update

• During the quarter ended December 31, 2020, we leased approximately 524,000 square feet, of which approximately 21,000 square feet was with new tenants. During the year ended December 31, 2020, we leased approximately 1,130,000 square feet, of which approximately 368,000 square feet was with new tenants. During the year ended December 31, 2019, we leased approximately 1,417,000 square feet, of which approximately 534,000 square feet was with new tenants.
• Our directly owned real estate portfolio of 34 owned properties (including our 2 redevelopment properties) totaling approximately 9.7 million square feet, was approximately 83.8% leased as of December 31, 2020, compared to approximately 84.3% leased as of September 30, 2020. The decrease in the leased percentage is primarily a result of the December 23, 2020 sale of our Emperor Boulevard property with 259,531 rentable square feet, which was 100% leased and is excluded from our statistics at year-end.
• During the quarter ended December 31, 2020, existing tenant Booz Allen Hamilton entered into an amendment to its lease to extend and expand its leased square footage at our Meadow Point property in Chantilly, Virginia by approximately 29,000 rentable square feet, from approximately 34,000 rentable square feet to approximately 63,000 rentable square feet. The term of the expansion is 67 months, with the term of the lease now expiring on July 31, 2027. Meadow Point was approximately 91% leased as of December 31, 2020.
• During the quarter ended December 31, 2020, existing tenant Centene Management Company entered into an amendment to its lease to extend and expand its leased square footage at our Timberlake Corporate Center in Chesterfield, Missouri by approximately 100,000 rentable square feet, from approximately 217,000 rentable square feet to approximately 317,000 rentable square feet. The term was extended by 84 months, with the term of the lease now expiring on June 30, 2030. Timberlake Corporate Center was 100% leased as of December 31, 2020.
• Lease expirations for 2021 are approximately 739,000 square feet, representing approximately 7.6% of our owned portfolio.
• The weighted average GAAP base rent per square foot achieved on leasing activity during the year ended December 31, 2020 was $28.47, or 7.7% higher than average rents in the respective properties as applicable compared to the year ended December 31, 2019. The average lease term on leases in the year ended December 31, 2020, was 8.3 years, matching the 8.3 years for the full year of 2019. Overall the portfolio weighted average rent per occupied square foot was $29.60 as of December 31, 2020 compared to $29.88 as of December 31, 2019.

Dividend Update

On January 15, 2021, the Company announced that its Board of Directors declared a regular quarterly cash dividend for the three months ended December 31, 2020 of $0.09 per share of common stock that will be paid on February 18, 2021 to stockholders of record on January 29, 2021.

Non-GAAP Financial Information

A reconciliation of Net income to FFO, AFFO and Sequential Same Store NOI and our definitions of FFO, AFFO and Sequential Same Store NOI can be found on Supplementary Schedules H and I.

2021 Net Income, FFO and Disposition Guidance

At this time, we are not able to predict whether and to what extent our level of rental receipts may change in future months. Consequently, we are continuing suspension of Net Income and FFO guidance and will not be providing additional guidance until such time as we have a better understanding of the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on our business and the businesses of our tenants. However, we are introducing disposition guidance for full year 2021, as we execute on a strategy to dispose of certain properties where we believe our valuation objectives have been met. Anticipated dispositions in 2021 are estimated to result in aggregate gross proceeds in the range of approximately $350 million to $450 million. We intend to use the proceeds of any such dispositions primarily for the repayment of debt under our revolving line of credit and term loan facilities, any special distributions required to meet REIT requirements, and general corporate purposes. This guidance reflects our current expectations of economic and market conditions and is subject to change. We will update our disposition guidance quarterly in our earnings releases. There can be no assurance that the Company’s actual results will not differ materially from the estimates set forth above.

Real Estate Update

Supplementary schedules provide property information for the Company’s owned and managed real estate portfolio as of December 31, 2020. The Company will also be filing an updated supplemental information package that will provide stockholders and the financial community with additional operating and financial data. The Company will file this supplemental information package with the SEC and make it available on its website at www.fspreit.com.

Today’s news release, along with other news about Franklin Street Properties Corp., is available on the Internet at www.fspreit.com. We routinely post information that may be important to investors in the Investor Relations section of our website. We encourage investors to consult that section of our website regularly for important information about us and, if they are interested in automatically receiving news and information as soon as it is posted, to sign up for E-mail Alerts.

Earnings Call

A conference call is scheduled for February 17, 2021 at 11:00 a.m. (ET) to discuss the fourth quarter 2020 results. To access the call, please dial 1-800-464-8240. Internationally, the call may be accessed by dialing 1-412-902-6521. To access the call from Canada, please dial 1-866-605-3852. To listen via live audio webcast, please visit the Webcasts & Presentations section in the Investor Relations section of the Company's website (www.fspreit.com) at least ten minutes prior to the start of the call and follow the posted directions. The webcast will also be available via replay from the above location starting one hour after the call is finished.

About Franklin Street Properties Corp.

Franklin Street Properties Corp., based in Wakefield, Massachusetts, is focused on infill and central business district (CBD) office properties in the U.S. Sunbelt and Mountain West, as well as select opportunistic markets. FSP seeks value-oriented investments with an eye towards long-term growth and appreciation, as well as current income. FSP is a Maryland corporation that operates in a manner intended to qualify as a real estate investment trust (REIT) for federal income tax purposes. To learn more about FSP please visit our website at www.fspreit.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements made in this press release that state FSP’s or management’s intentions, beliefs, expectations, or predictions for the future may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. This press release may also contain forward-looking statements, such as our ability to lease space in the future, expectations for dispositions and the repayment of debt in future periods, value creation/enhancement in future periods and expectations for growth and leasing activities in future periods that are based on current judgments and current knowledge of management and are subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that our forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainty, including without limitation, adverse changes in general economic or local market conditions, including as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and other potential infectious disease outbreaks and terrorist attacks or other acts of violence, which may negatively affect the markets in which we and our tenants operate, increasing interest rates, disruptions in the debt markets, economic conditions in the markets in which we own properties, risks of a lessening of demand for the types of real estate owned by us, adverse changes in energy prices, which if sustained, could negatively impact occupancy and rental rates in the markets in which we own properties, including energy-influenced markets such as Dallas, Denver and Houston, any inability to dispose of properties on acceptable terms and any delays in the timing of any such anticipated dispositions, changes in government regulations and regulatory uncertainty, uncertainty about governmental fiscal policy, geopolitical events and expenditures that cannot be anticipated such as utility rate and usage increases, delays in construction schedules, unanticipated increases in construction costs, unanticipated repairs, additional staffing, insurance increases and real estate tax valuation reassessments. See the “Risk Factors” set forth in Part I, Item 1A of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, as the same may be updated from time to time in subsequent filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Although we believe the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, acquisitions, dispositions, performance or achievements. We will not update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this press release to conform them to actual results or to changes in our expectations that occur after such date, other than as required by law.

Franklin Street Properties Corp. Earnings Release
Supplementary Schedule H
Reconciliation and Definitions of Funds From Operations (“FFO”) and
Adjusted Funds From Operations (“AFFO”)

A reconciliation of Net income to FFO and AFFO is shown below and a definition of FFO and AFFO is provided on Supplementary Schedule I. Management believes FFO and AFFO are used broadly throughout the real estate investment trust (REIT) industry as measurements of performance. The Company has included the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT) FFO definition as of May 17, 2016 in the table and notes that other REITs may not define FFO in accordance with the current NAREIT definition or may interpret the current NAREIT definition differently. The Company’s computation of FFO and AFFO may not be comparable to FFO or AFFO reported by other REITs or real estate companies that define FFO or AFFO differently.

Funds From Operations (“FFO”)

The Company evaluates performance based on Funds From Operations, which we refer to as FFO, as management believes that FFO represents the most accurate measure of activity and is the basis for distributions paid to equity holders. The Company defines FFO as net income or loss (computed in accordance with GAAP), excluding gains (or losses) from sales of property, hedge ineffectiveness, acquisition costs of newly acquired properties that are not capitalized and lease acquisition costs that are not capitalized plus depreciation and amortization, including amortization of acquired above and below market lease intangibles and impairment charges on properties or investments in non-consolidated REITs, and after adjustments to exclude equity in income or losses from, and, to include the proportionate share of FFO from, non-consolidated REITs.

FFO should not be considered as an alternative to net income or loss (determined in accordance with GAAP), nor as an indicator of the Company’s financial performance, nor as an alternative to cash flows from operating activities (determined in accordance with GAAP), nor as a measure of the Company’s liquidity, nor is it necessarily indicative of sufficient cash flow to fund all of the Company’s needs.

Other real estate companies and the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, or NAREIT, may define this term in a different manner. We have included the NAREIT FFO as of May 17, 2016 in the table and note that other REITs may not define FFO in accordance with the current NAREIT definition or may interpret the current NAREIT definition differently than we do.

We believe that in order to facilitate a clear understanding of the results of the Company, FFO should be examined in connection with net income or loss and cash flows from operating, investing and financing activities in the consolidated financial statements.

Adjusted Funds From Operations (“AFFO”)

The Company also evaluates performance based on Adjusted Funds From Operations, which we refer to as AFFO. The Company defines AFFO as (1) FFO, (2) excluding our proportionate share of FFO and including distributions received, from non-consolidated REITs, (3) excluding the effect of straight-line rent, (4) plus the amortization of deferred financing costs, (5) plus the value of shares issued as compensation and (6) less recurring capital expenditures that are generally for maintenance of properties, which we call non-investment capex or are second generation capital expenditures. Second generation costs include re-tenanting space after a tenant vacates, which include tenant improvements and leasing commissions.

We exclude development/redevelopment activities, capital expenditures planned at acquisition and costs to reposition a property. We also exclude first generation leasing costs, which are generally to fill vacant space in properties we acquire or were planned for at acquisition.

AFFO should not be considered as an alternative to net income or loss (determined in accordance with GAAP), nor as an indicator of the Company’s financial performance, nor as an alternative to cash flows from operating activities (determined in accordance with GAAP), nor as a measure of the Company’s liquidity, nor is it necessarily indicative of sufficient cash flow to fund all of the Company’s needs. Other real estate companies may define this term in a different manner. We believe that in order to facilitate a clear understanding of the results of the Company, AFFO should be examined in connection with net income or loss and cash flows from operating, investing and financing activities in the consolidated financial statements.

Franklin Street Properties Corp. Earnings Release
Supplementary Schedule I
Reconciliation and Definition of Sequential Same Store results to property Net Operating Income (NOI) and
Net Income

Net Operating Income (“NOI”)

The Company provides property performance based on Net Operating Income, which we refer to as NOI. Management believes that investors are interested in this information. NOI is a non-GAAP financial measure that the Company defines as net income or loss (the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure) plus general and administrative expenses, depreciation and amortization, including amortization of acquired above and below market lease intangibles and impairment charges, interest expense, less equity in earnings of nonconsolidated REITs, interest income, management fee income, hedge ineffectiveness, gains or losses on the sale of assets and excludes non-property specific income and expenses. The information presented includes footnotes and the data is shown by region with properties owned in the periods presented, which we call Sequential Same Store. The comparative Sequential Same Store results include properties held for the periods presented and exclude our redevelopment properties. We also exclude properties that have been placed in service, but that do not have operating activity for all periods presented, dispositions and significant nonrecurring income such as bankruptcy settlements and lease termination fees. NOI, as defined by the Company, may not be comparable to NOI reported by other REITs that define NOI differently. NOI should not be considered an alternative to net income or loss as an indication of our performance or to cash flows as a measure of the Company’s liquidity or its ability to make distributions. The calculations of NOI and Sequential Same Store are shown in the following table: