Armada Hoffler Acquires Thames Street Wharf In Baltimore

Armada Hoffler Properties, Inc. (NYSE:AHH) recently announced the acquisition of a certified LEED Gold Class A office building — Thames Street Wharf — in the Harbor Point development of Baltimore, MD. The company shelled out $101 million for the purchase of this trophy office building from KBS — a private equity real estate company.

This latest buyout seems to be a strategic fit for Armada Hoffler as the property in Baltimore has sufficient capability to boost the company’s top-line growth. Presently 100% occupied, the 263,426-square foot Thames Street Wharf is anchored by Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) and Johns Hopkins Medicine, which together lease 92% of the property’s rentable space. Moreover, the property has an average remaining lease term of 7.4 years. In the Baltimore market, Thames Street Wharf’s in-place triple net rent levels rank amongst the highest.

Armada Hoffler anticipates the acquisition to be accretive to Funds from Operations, with the property generating an expected cash net operating income of around $7.1 million in the first full year of ownership. This leads to an estimated underwritten cash capitalization rate of 7.1%.

The trophy office building, completed by Armada Hoffler Construction in 2010, was the first building in Baltimore’s Harbor Point neighborhood. Notably, Harbor Point is the largest downtown waterfront development site in the city, having the capacity for up to three million square feet of mixed-use space on 27 acres.

Moreover, Thames Street Wharf is situated beside 1405 Point — the company’s 17-story luxury apartment high-rise building — and Wills Wharf, the 325,000-square foot, mixed-use building, which is currently being developed by Armada Hoffler. Therefore, the buyout offers scope to capitalize on the synergies from operating multiple asset classes in the same environment.

Notably, Armada Hoffler is engaged in developing, building, owning and managing the office, retail and multifamily properties in attractive markets throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern U.S. It is based in Virginia Beach.

Armada Hoffler currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). So far this year, shares of the company have gained 15.7%, underperforming the industry’s 16.5% increase.



Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks from the real-estate space include Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NYSE:HST) , Lamar Advertising Company (NASDAQ:LAMR) and PS Business Parks, Inc. (NYSE:PSB) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Host Hotels’ Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2019 FFO per share moved 2.8% north to $1.82 in the past two months.

Lamar’s FFO per share estimates for the current year inched up 0.3% to $5.83 over the past month.

PS Business Parks’ Zacks Consensus Estimate for the ongoing year’s FFO per share moved up 0.6% to $6.71 in the past month.

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Lamar Advertising Company (LAMR): Free Stock Analysis Report

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