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DATE
Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026 at 12:00 p.m. ET
CALL PARTICIPANTS
- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer - Victor Coleman
- President - Mark Lammas
- Chief Financial Officer - Harout Diramerian
- Executive Vice President of Leasing - Art Suazo
- Executive Vice President, Investor Relations and Marketing - Laura Campbell
TAKEAWAYS
- Total Revenue -- $188.3 million, compared to $190 million in the prior year primarily due to asset dispositions such as the sale of Element L.A.
- Core FFO -- $23.1 million, or $0.35 per diluted share, representing a 30% increase on a per share basis from $0.27 in the prior year.
- Same-store Cash NOI -- $90.2 million, growing 7.5% year over year driven by improved occupancy across both office and studio portfolios.
- Office Leasing Volume -- 1.3 million square feet, consisting of 61% new and 39% renewal leases during the second quarter.
- San Francisco Anchor Lease -- 891,000 square feet, representing a 24-year agreement with the City and County of San Francisco at 1455 Market.
- In-service Office Occupancy -- 82.5%, an increase of 470 basis points sequentially marking the fourth consecutive quarter of growth.
- Office Leased Rate -- 82.8%, climbing 440 basis points from the prior quarter.
- General and Administrative Expenses -- $12.0 million, an 11% improvement from $13.5 million in the prior year due to cost-saving initiatives.
- Total Liquidity -- $876.1 million, including $80.8 million of cash and $795.3 million available on the unsecured revolving credit facility.
- Rent Spreads -- 17.2% growth on a GAAP basis and a decrease of 11.4% on a cash basis, largely impacted by the long-term San Francisco lease.
- Net Effective Rents -- 22% sequential increase and 9% growth year over year, benefiting from the City and County lease terms.
- Leasing Pipeline -- 2.4 million square feet, with approximately 70% of the requirements consisting of new leases.
- Washington 1000 Coverage -- 65%, up from 60% in the prior quarter with active negotiations covering approximately 350,000 square feet.
- Studio Stage Occupancy -- 74.6%, reflecting a 180 basis point sequential increase in trailing three-month leased stages.
- Hollywood Studio Performance -- 95.5% leased, maintaining high utilization for prime production space in the Los Angeles market.
- Core Studio NOI -- $4.6 million, increasing $7 million year over year with the company's share turning positive for the first time in two years.
- Quixote Restructuring Gains -- $14.3 million, representing the annualized run rate improvement in cash NOI through cost-cutting and business exits.
- 2026 Disposition Target -- $200 million, with progress supported by the post-quarter sale of 2001 Gateway and additional assets in contract.
- 2001 Gateway Sale -- $25 million, for a 161,000-square-foot office building in North San Jose that was 55% leased at the time of sale.
- Full Year Core FFO Guidance -- $1.12 to $1.20 per diluted share, raised from the previous range of $1.10 to $1.18 per share.
- Interest Expense -- $38.5 million for the quarter, reflecting a 20% year-over-year reduction and $9.7 million in savings.
- Net Debt to Undepreciated Book Value -- 32.4%, with 100% of the company's debt currently fixed or capped.
- Tour Activity -- 20% increase year over year, driven by tech, AI, and professional services firms.
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RISKS
- Diramerian stated, "we anticipate third quarter expirations will impact occupancy and earnings results," noting that these impacts were previously expected.
- Lammas stated that the Quixote fleet business is running at "just over $4 million of negative annualized cash NOI at current demand levels."
- Coleman noted that while West Los Angeles is strong, "the broader markets remain challenged overall" regarding Los Angeles office demand.
SUMMARY
Management reported a significant increase in office leasing and a 470 basis point rise in portfolio occupancy during the second quarter. The company executed a 24-year lease with the City and County of San Francisco, covering nearly 900,000 square feet. Hudson Pacific continued its strategic restructuring of the Quixote business by exiting noncore ancillary segments and stage leases to reach a breakeven point. FFO guidance for the full year was raised following outperformance in both G&A savings and core studio operations.
- Management noted that the San Francisco office market recorded its seventh consecutive quarter of positive absorption and its largest year-over-year rent increase since 2020.
- CEO Coleman stated, "The IPO market is improving, too with pending listings signaling further office demand as newly public companies and the ecosystem around them continue to grow."
- The company is pursuing reentitlement for residential use at 901 Market in San Francisco and Metro Center in Foster City to create optionality independent of office leasing cycles.
- President Lammas indicated the Quixote fleet business needs roughly 80 active shows to reach breakeven, compared to the current level of 70 shows.
- Regarding the Hollywood Media portfolio loan, management confirmed the loan transferred to a special servicer to finalize a longer-term extension.
- The company reported that the office leasing pipeline is evenly split between AI ecosystem/tech tenants and non-tech sectors like professional services and government agencies.
INDUSTRY GLOSSARY
- Core FFO: A non-GAAP measure of a REIT's operating performance that adjusts NAREIT FFO for non-recurring or non-core items.
- Same-store Cash NOI: Net operating income from properties owned for the full current and prior periods, adjusted to exclude non-cash items like straight-line rent.
- Quixote: A Hudson Pacific subsidiary providing production services, vehicles, and studio space for the entertainment industry.
- NOI: Net Operating Income, calculated as property revenues minus property-level operating expenses.
- AFFO: Adjusted Funds From Operations, which adjusts FFO for capital expenditures and non-cash rental income.
- AMPTP: Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the trade association representing major film and television studios in labor negotiations.
Full Conference Call Transcript
Operator: Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the Hudson Pacific Properties Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand the conference over to Laura Campbell, Executive Vice President, Investor Relations and Marketing. Laura, please go ahead
Laura Campbell: Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining us. With me on the call today are Victor Coleman, Chairman and CEO; Mark Lammas, President; Harout Diramerian, CFO; and Art Suazo, EVP of Leasing. This morning, we filed our earnings release and supplemental on an 8-K with the SEC, and both are now available on our website, along with an audio webcast of this call for replay. Some of the information we'll share on the call today is forward-looking in nature. Please reference our earnings release and supplemental for statements regarding forward-looking information as well as the reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures used on this call. Today, Victor will discuss our second quarter results and current market trends.
Mark will provide detail on our office and studio operations and Harout will review our financial results of 2026 outlook. Thereafter, we'll be happy to take your questions. Victor?
Victor Coleman: Thanks, Laura. Hello, everyone, and welcome to our second quarter call. This was both a record leasing and highly productive quarter for Hudson Pacific. We signed 1.3 million square feet of new and renewal office leases headlined by a landmark 891,000 square-foot 24-year lease with the City and County of San Francisco at 1455 Market, which locks in nearly 1/4 of a century of cash flow visibility. Occupancy increased 470 basis points, our fourth consecutive quarter of gains and improved performance across our office and studio portfolios drove same-store NOI up 7.5%. Together with continued cost reductions and Quixote restructuring, we nearly tripled core FFO and achieved a 30% increase on a per share basis.
We also stayed disciplined on capital, maintaining total liquidity of $876 million while continuing to execute our asset disposition plan. And importantly, as we look ahead, we reloaded our leasing pipeline to 2.4 million square feet. That leasing strength is playing out against a constructive venture and IPO backdrop, U.S. venture investment totaled $145 billion in the second quarter, its second largest and strongest quarter ever with -- infrastructure, robotics and space tech. This all points to a wider, more diverse tenant base rather than a single sector bed, which will benefit our portfolio over time.
The IPO market is improving, too with pending listings signaling further office demand as newly public companies and the ecosystem around them continue to grow. Across nearly every market in our portfolio, demand is broadening along virtually no new construction and that dynamic is strengthening fundamentals, though at different rates across our markets. San Francisco posted its seventh consecutive quarter of positive absorption and its largest year-over-year rent increase since 2020. We're seeing strength at the submarket levels across the Peninsula and the Valley led by strong year-to-date positive absorption in Foster City and Redwood City, Redwood Shores, along with multiple headline leases in Santa Clara.
In Los Angeles, our leasing efforts are focused on West Los Angeles, which commands the market's most robust activity and highest rents even as the broader markets remain challenged overall. The Puget Sound extended its recovery for its third consecutive quarter led by Downtown Seattle, which leases came from Anthropic, DocuSign and Stripe helped drive the first improvement in CBD vacancy in 6 years. And Downtown Vancouver continues to stand out on fundamentals with vacancy just over 12%, the tightest in our portfolio with positive net absorption both for the quarter and year-to-date. Regarding studios, our prime location studios continue to outperform as the production landscape remains mixed.
New York show counts improved and Los Angeles was relatively stable as California's production pipeline continues to work through a meaningful backlog of tax credit approval projects not yet in production. Importantly, with SAG-AFTRA, WGA and DGA, all ratifying new 4-year AMPTP agreements, the labor risk that drove much of the industry's recent volatility is now off the table. Our strategy remains unchanged, restructure Quixote while optimizing performance at our best-in-class assets. Finally, turning to dispositions. We continue to make good progress against our $200 million target, having sold 2001 Gateway after quarter end with three additional Bay Area office assets currently in contract or negotiation, alongside our 10950 Washington residential development site.
Buyer demand for Bay Area office assets has picked up meaningfully this year, allowing us to execute this program on our time line and to redeploy capital toward our broader strategic priorities. Now with that, I'm going to turn it over to Mark, who's going to talk about leasing and operations.
Mark Lammas: Thanks, Victor. As you noted, we signed 1.3 million square feet of office leases in the quarter, 61% new and 39% renewal. On top of the city and county of San Francisco lease for 891,000 square feet, we executed an additional 402,000 square feet of leases, 71% of which were new and 29% renewal. Our occupancy increased 470 basis points sequentially to 82.5%, and our lease rate climbed 440 basis points sequentially to 82.8%. Our portfolio occupancy and lease percentages improved everywhere, except the already strong Palo Alto and Vancouver submarkets, both of which ended the quarter effectively 94% leased. Rent spreads grew 17.2% on a GAAP basis and decreased 11.4% on a cash basis.
Excluding the City and County lease, GAAP rents were off 3.3% and cash rents were down 9.9% due primarily to midsized deals in Palo Alto, rolling off of pre-pandemic peak market brands. However, these rents are still quite healthy at north of $80 per square foot. Net effective rents strengthened this quarter, rising 22% sequentially and 9% year-over-year, benefiting significantly from the City and County lease. Trailing 12-month net effective rents were up 7% sequentially and 1% year-over-year. Tours rose nearly 20% year-over-year. Even with strong second quarter leasing, we reloaded the pipeline to 2.4 million square feet, nearly 70% new leases with an average requirement size north of 20,000 square feet.
Excluding 2001 Gateway, which we sold earlier in the third quarter and 875 Howard, where we now have line of sight on a potential sale, we have just over 50% coverage on approximately 400,000 square feet of leases set to expire through the remainder of the year. This includes 80% coverage on the PayPal lease at Fort Traction. At Washington 1000, we now have coverage for approximately 65% of the building, up from 60% last quarter with active negotiations across 9 tenants, including requirements of up to 125,000 square feet. We're seeing strong traction on our newly delivered move-in-ready suites with 8 tenants in the last 30 days touring or scheduling tours.
Tour activity building-wide has also increased, driven primarily by new-to-market tech, AI and professional services firms. Turning to studios. We continue to see strong interest from leading showrunners and major studios for our prime production space. Our in-service stages were 74.6% leased during the second quarter, up 180 basis points sequentially driven by an improved lease rate at Sunset Pier 94 up 40 percentage points to 78.5%. Our Hollywood stages inclusive of Sunset Las Palmas remain well leased at 95.5%. As part of our Quixote restructuring, we have designated as noncore with plans to exit its lease sound stage facilities in Atlanta area operations as well as Quixote's Pro Supplies and stage ancillary businesses, including Lighting and Grip.
Going forward, we will speak to our studio NOI on a core basis, which in the second quarter reflects Sunset Studios and Quixote's fleet operations in Los Angeles and New York. Core studio NOI was up $3.1 million sequentially and $7 million year-over-year to $4.6 million, with HBP's share turning positive for the first time in 2 years at $2.2 million. Putting a finer point on the Quixote restructuring to date, Quixote generated negative cash NOI of $18.6 million in 2024.
Since then, our restructuring efforts have improved annualized run rate cash NOI by approximately $14.3 million, bringing the fleet business to just over $4 million of negative annualized cash NOI at current demand levels, closing roughly 3/4 of the gap to our breakeven objective. Turning to value creation optionality across the portfolio. We continue to make progress on our reentitlement and adaptive reuse, an area where our team's expertise is a real differentiator. At 901 Market in San Francisco, we filed our office to residential reentitlement application with entitlements expected before year-end. We're also advancing construction drawings in parallel so we can quickly move once approved, essentially the same playbook we're running at 10950 Washington.
We also recently amended the CCNRs at Metro Center in Foster City and across our Redwood Shores assets to permit residential use, giving us the flexibility to explore residential and mixed-use development. This isn't a reaction to soft leasing demand as we're seeing healthy interest in these locations, rather a proactive step to unlock value by tapping into strong residential demand independent of where the office leasing cycle stands. In short, these entitlement efforts will create development options to enhance our current portfolio value. And now Harout will take you through our financial results and outlook.
Harout Diramerian: Thanks, Mark. Total revenues were $188.3 million compared to $190 million in the prior year, primarily due to asset dispositions most significantly the sale of Element L.A., almost entirely offset by improved office occupancy. As a result of ongoing cost-saving initiatives, G&A improved 11% to $12 million compared to $13.5 million in the prior year. The latter adjusted to exclude the prior year expense associated with the onetime cancellation of noncash compensation agreements. We nearly tripled core FFO to $23.1 million, up from $8 million in the prior year, while core FFO on a per diluted share basis increased 30% to $0.35, up from $0.27 in the prior year.
Adjustments to core FFO, including noncore Quixote lines of business totaled $7.5 million or $0.11 per diluted share compared to $19.2 million or $0.64 per diluted share in the prior year. We grew same-store cash NOI 7.5% to $90.2 million compared to $83.9 million in the prior year, driven by higher office and studio occupancy. Turning to our balance sheet. Total liquidity of $876 million includes $81 million of cash and full availability of $795 million on our credit facility. Interest expense was 20% lower year-over-year, representing $9.7 million of savings and all of our debt is fixed or capped.
Regarding the Hollywood Media portfolio loan, subsequent to quarter end, the loan transferred to the special servicer ahead of its third quarter maturity. The borrower and the special servicer have since agreed on terms for a longer-term extension along with a 30-day extension to finalize documentation. Wrapping up our 2026 outlook, we are raising our full year core FFO to a range of $1.12 to $1.20 per diluted share, up from the prior range of $1.10 to $1.18 per diluted share. This updated range reflects at the midpoint, approximately $0.01 of outperformance in the second quarter compared to our initial expectations as well as approximately $0.01 attributable to improved expectations for the second half of the year.
As we have previously noted, even with the first and second quarter outperformance, we anticipate third quarter expirations will impact occupancy and earnings results with a rebound in the fourth quarter. As a reminder, this updated range excludes the previously announced closures of Quixote's stage and Atlanta operations and the associated stage ancillary and Pro Supply segments from core FFO. And as always, our outlook excludes potential dispositions, acquisitions or capital markets activity. With that, I'll turn the call back to Victor for closing remarks.
Victor Coleman: Thanks, Harout. Simply put, the second quarter reflects exactly the execution we said we'd deliver. Record leasing, our fourth consecutive quarter of occupancy growth, a transformative long-term agreement with the City and County of San Francisco, and a Quixote restructuring that's now yielding measurable earnings benefits. We still have work ahead of us, but each of these actions reinforces the same outcome, a clear incredible path to sustained FFO per share growth. Operator, now I'd like to turn it back to you for questions.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Jamie Feldman with Wells Fargo.
Jamie Feldman: So West L.A., you're talking about a recovery and then you still have decent upside to get to stabilization in North San Jose, Denny Triangle. Can you just talk more about those markets, but especially West L.A., if there's a real inflection point happening or how we should think about what's to come?
Victor Coleman: Well, I mean, West L.A., you guys cover other our peers. You're seeing -- it's a bifurcated marketplace, right? You've got Brentwood and Century City and Beverly Hills doing exceptionally well. I think Westwood and Santa Monica are a little slower. Olympic Corridor is a little slower. But again, there's zero construction in the near future for new product. And so good space is pretty much leased up or spoken for and being expanded upon. And I think you're seeing that momentum potentially drive into some of the other marketplaces like Santa Monica and hopefully in Westwood and overall, the West side.
Culver City has been strong all the way through, but there's very little product there, and everything is -- that's being built in that marketplace is already pre-leased.
Jamie Feldman: But I guess more on the demand side, like what's changing?
Victor Coleman: Well, listen, we've talked about the fire tenants being massively impactful in West L.A., majority of which is led by law firms. The streaming/entertainment companies have taken sort of homes in specific marketplaces like Apple and Culver, Sony and Culver, Netflix and Hollywood, and Amazon spread themselves between, obviously, Santa Monica and Culver, Lionsgate, Beverly Hills. And so entertainment companies, WME, the same are all in those marketplaces. And then their ancillary guys are growing. I implications around AI is just not that strong here yet. They're small growth tenants. But I do think it's entertainment and fire, and that's sort of the nucleus. Art, do you want to comment?
Arthur Suazo: Yes. I mean I think the demand drivers, Jamie, are positive. They're modestly improving. There was an improvement in net absorption, gross leasing was up slightly, things like that, that we're monitoring very closely. And that's coming from the small to midsized tenants in the market. As you know, and all this talk about West L.A. improving, West L.A. has been driving the L.A. market for several years, and it will continue to do so as the demand drivers continue to increase.
Jamie Feldman: Okay. And then if I can ask another, just the studio loan, can you just talk about how you're including that in guidance? Or anything you can say about expectations of what that could look like for numbers or how we should be modeling it?
Harout Diramerian: Yes. So we can't get into any specifics because we're still finalizing documentation but what we can say is in our guidance, we've kept things the same, and that is our expectation.
Jamie Feldman: Okay. So just kept like same interest expense that you've got now. Don't change anything?
Harout Diramerian: Correct.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Jana Galan with Bank of America.
Jana Galan: Congrats on the strong office leasing and the improvements at Quixote. I guess maybe first question on the guidance. The main change seems to be the outperformance in second quarter G&A. Are there any other kind of puts and takes that are driving the FFO guidance increase given the strong leasing outlook?
Harout Diramerian: Just around guidance. So yes, our second quarter was very strong, but not that strong compared to our own expectations. We beat our own expectations by about $0.01, and our projections are higher about $0.01. So the leasing expectations that we've experienced in the second quarter and the projections are in line with our previous guidance. So nothing has really changed from that expectation, which is why you're not seeing a massive increase in our projections in our guidance.
Jana Galan: And then maybe just on the transaction market, given the asset sale post quarter and just a few more that may come. If you can just kind of comment on what you're seeing the kind of demand and depth of buyers like?
Victor Coleman: Well, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, I mean, San Francisco is seeing an influx of interest levels. And so we have closed one deal, as we mentioned, and we've got three others, two of which are in contract and one is imminently going to be in contract that sort of show indicative interest level of the demand in the marketplace for our asset quality. And we're comfortable with our pricing. I think we've exceeded our expectations in three out of the four assets that we are selling. There is one asset that potentially could be an owner user. And so that pricing is going to be dependent on time line and occupancy for the owner user.
But overall, the demand drivers right now for the disposition market from our standpoint are very strong.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Alexander Goldfarb with Piper Sandler.
Alexander Goldfarb: Two questions. First, Harout, on the updated guidance, you guys said it excludes the Quixote restructuring, but that would be a positive to guidance, would it not? So if you were to include that, guidance would increase. I just want to make sure I'm thinking about it right.
Harout Diramerian: It would not increase. We -- just like last quarter and the guys provided last quarter, we've removed the impact of the Quixote restructuring. So it's not impacting the numbers that we have shared. So just like our core FFO doesn't include that in our results, and neither does our guidance.
Alexander Goldfarb: But isn't that a drag on earnings? And once that drag is away, like you're streamlining the portfolio and there's less cost going forward? I understand the in between, there's a negative, but wouldn't that be a positive longer term?
Mark Lammas: Alex, you're precisely right. It is a drag. So that is to say it operates at a loss. So the removal of it improves core FFO, right?
Harout Diramerian: So our [ NAREIT ] by it, but our core FFO is not.
Alexander Goldfarb: Okay. Now I'm thinking about it right. Second question is, Art, on Seattle, as we think about the interplay between the East Side and CBD, there's -- like we want to get really enthusiastic and say, hey, Seattle could turn quickly and things are going well. At the same time, office moves slower than we all think. As we think about the CBD rebound, do you think this is a later this year, '27 event? Or you think it takes longer than that just based on how office always, as I say, seems to take longer than we'd like?
Arthur Suazo: Yes. I mean the good news is the word rebound is being used. We're already seeing green shoots, Alex. We've been talking about the greater Puget Sound with 3 quarters of positive absorption. We saw for the first time in 6 years, the CBD this quarter had positive absorption. We're seeing demand drivers continue to increase across downtown Seattle. And specific to our portfolio, specific to our pipeline, Seattle for the last 2 quarters has the most deals in negotiation than any submarket that we have, including the Valley, including San Francisco. And to us, I mean, that's a tremendous sign of what's to come.
And it's really being driven by not just the larger tenants that have come back in the market that we've talked about for the last 2 or 3 quarters. It's really the 10,000 to 30,000 square foot tenants and the expansion of those tenants in the market, which, by the way, is predominantly driven by growth in the professional service firms, the fire sector and governmental firms that are there. So we're seeing it real time, and it's demonstrated by the fact that these -- this last quarter, there were three larger deals done in downtown Seattle. Again, that demonstrates that the larger tenant demand is broadening beyond just Bellevue as people had thought before.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Caitlin Burrows with Goldman Sachs.
Caitlin Burrows: Just a follow-up then on Seattle. Wondering if you can talk about how -- what you're seeing in the Seattle market is or is not impacting activity at Washington 1000 and kind of leasing potential there?
Arthur Suazo: Yes. No, it absolutely is. In fact, we're seeing -- as I mentioned to Alex, we have more activity in our pipeline, which is active deals in negotiation in Seattle than any other market. It's over 600,000 square feet for the market. Washington 1000, we had talked about the 9 deals we have in negotiation represents over half of that. So it's 300,000, about 350,000 square feet of deals in different stages that have been impacted, and we feel like we've had more momentum than we ever had. Even as we speak, kind of the last 30 days, tour activity has increased kind of in the dead of summer, tour activity has increased tremendously.
Caitlin Burrows: Okay. Got it. And then just on the maybe same-store NOI side, it looks like guidance suggests a deceleration in the second half. I think you guys mentioned earlier that there could be like lease expirations or low retention in the second half. So wondering if you could talk about that a little bit and the expectation for, yes, I guess, like occupancy in the back half.
Harout Diramerian: Sure. As far as the guidance goes, what I specifically said not the second half, but primarily the third quarter. We have two large expirations that were -- that are impacting our numbers in the third quarter that we've previously spoken about. This is not the first time we brought it up, and we expect to rebound again in the fourth quarter.
Mark Lammas: On the occupancy question, if you're waiting on that answer. We've maintained that midpoint at 81%. When we initially launched that guidance, we had indicated that if you kind of run the math from the beginning to the end of the year, it suggests that we should end the year towards the mid -- kind of mid 80-ish range and that remains intact.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Dylan Burzinski with Green Street.
Dylan Burzinski: Just maybe continuing with that mid-80% occupancy year-end and maybe looking at sort of the 2.4 million square foot leasing pipeline. Is there any sort of large leases that are needed to required to hit that mid-80% occupancy range? And then maybe just sort of diving into that 2.4 million square feet a little bit more. You mentioned an average size of over 20,000 square foot. But are there any sort of leases or potential leases that are well over that 100,000 square foot range?
Victor Coleman: Dylan, so yes, we have a series of leases that are the average size that we're talking about, and that's the majority of the portfolio. There are a couple of deals that are multi-tenant floors and leases that are large. But we're still banking on our bread and butter, which is the 20,000 to 30,000 footers that are out there right now. And that seems to be the consistent aspect of where our properties are lined up. Not to say, as Art had mentioned, in Seattle, as an example, I mean, there have been now a handful of deals either closed or about to close over 100,000 feet. And I think there's more for sure in that marketplace behind it.
There is clearly more in the city that are larger tenants. Specific to our portfolio, we do have our fair share. But what we're really talking about on the 2.4 million square feet is the average sized tenants, 20,000 to 30,000 footers.
Dylan Burzinski: Okay. That's helpful. And then maybe just touching on sort of capital markets. Obviously, you mentioned confident in hitting that $200 million target this year. But as you sort of think about beyond '26, I mean, is there any desire to sort of continue bringing assets to market to potentially help deleverage the balance sheet given the strength that you've seen in capital markets and hopefully, that continues.
Victor Coleman: So Dylan, as you know, you've covered us for a long time. We've increased our optionality for the ability for us to lower our debt metrics and the likes of that. And that will continue working on these dispositions right now, confident that they're all going to go through, and we're going to exceed that $200 million number that we talked about at the beginning of the year. We have other options that are out there with assets that could either be put in the marketplace given the activity in the market or we have options on refinancing certain assets or just financing assets that are unencumbered as well. So we've got -- and we've got other alternatives.
The nice thing is we do have some time. We're acutely aware of what our needs are and what the demand market is at the end of the day, and I think we're comfortable with our ability to execute on all fronts.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Seth Bergey with Citi.
Seth Bergey: I guess just to start, you kind of talked on the increased activity with the transaction market. Just -- and the depth of the buyer pool, but just what type of money is out there that's interested in office product? Is it core money? Is it opportunistic money? And just how are you seeing that kind of evolve?
Victor Coleman: So I think there's three buckets, Seth, that you're looking at. I mean there is a revamped core money that is out there that is looking for the high-end, high quality. It was more driven around WALT, and it still sort of relies on that aspect. I mean the opportunistic dollars are absolutely at the forefront for office looking for value add, which is usually lease-up or repositioning. And then you still have your owner user dollars that are out there that we've seen a fair amount that is either owner user for an occupancy standpoint or conversion standpoint. We did comment in our prepared remarks, we have some options on some assets just like we did at 10950.
It's not been our core game plan to convert assets to residential, but we are in the process of a couple of assets in the portfolio right now that we're entitling and the activity is very strong on that as well, given the demand for residential. So I think there are 3 buckets. They're consistent. I believe that the trade dollars, we haven't seen much of the trade dollars, albeit we did do a deal with the 1031 exchange just recently. That was our most recent deal. So the markets are pretty much even across the board for activity and interest levels.
Seth Bergey: Great. And then just maybe as leasing activity continues to accelerate, are you seeing any changes in kind of the timing of the conversion from when tenants are touring assets to signing leases?
Victor Coleman: I mean I think at the end of the day, it's competitive driven, right? So high-quality stuff, if there's one or two tenants looking at it, the decisions are being made quicker. Brokers are more aware. I will let Art comment but -- and Ken is in the room as well for the Bay Area. But I think what you're finding now is high-quality space is getting grabbed quickly. And as a result of that, a tenant is only looking at when they had maybe 4 or 5 options that were clear and identified. Now if it's 1 or 2, they're moving quicker on 1 and 2 versus, hey, I have 4 different options, I can take my time.
Arthur Suazo: Yes, no question. It's demand driven. We're seeing in the markets where actually we are well leased, 94% in Palo Alto and Vancouver and so forth, West L.A. I mean, decisions have to be made quicker by necessity. And so as you start to see that pendulum swing on leverage or I say leverage, you're going to get a truncated deal cycle time, and we're certainly seeing more and more of that.
Victor Coleman: Let's not mistaken this to be a landlord's market, though. I want to make sure we're clear. Doors are always open for us to make deals.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of John Kim with BMO Capital Markets.
John Kim: I wanted to ask for more color on your 2.4 million leasing pipeline. I think last quarter, you gave some information on how much of that was tech versus AI. So if you could provide some of that? And how much of the pipeline will be addressing either near-term operations or currently vacant space?
Arthur Suazo: John, it's Art. Yes. So that we -- first of all, we grew the pipeline, right? We were about 2.3 million even after the large quarter. We've -- the team has done an excellent job of increasing the number. It's interesting, over the last 12 to 18 months, there's been a lot of attention paid to -- for good reason, to tech and the AI ecosystem. But what we're finding now in our active deals and negotiation pipeline is it's evenly distributed. It's about 50-50 AI ecosystem/tech versus non-tech, which is professional service firms, fire sector and now kind of governmental agencies taking more space.
And so we have a broader depth of tenants, they're looking for space, which is great. And they're all but not just the tech and the AI ecosystem, they're all looking for some level of expansion down the road. So we feel even better than we did before this last quarter.
John Kim: And how much of it is new versus renewal?
Arthur Suazo: 70. Right now in our active pipeline at 70-30, 70 new, 30 renewal.
John Kim: Okay. And now that your Hollywood Media CMBS has gotten a short-term extension, but it's in special servicing, is your expectation that this will ultimately be refinanced? Or is it a possibility that you would walk away from these assets? Assuming it's the former, do you expect any paydown as part of that extension? Or do you expect pricing to change even though it's not officially in your guidance?
Victor Coleman: So John, I want to be clear. We've commented on it -- we're not going to talk about what the pay down. We're not going to talk about the terms until they're finalized, okay? Your assumption is that -- which is wrong, it's a short-term extension, but that's your assumption, okay? So I want to just make sure you're clear on that. In terms of us walking away from the assets or dealing with the refinancing, we'll address that publicly when we get the renewal completed.
John Kim: So if it's not short term, how long is the extension for?
Victor Coleman: John, as I said, you'll get full terms and conditions on the extension when we announce it. You're not going to get in advance of anybody else.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Ronald Kamdem with Morgan Stanley.
Ronald Kamdem: Just commentary just on AFFO. Obviously, a lot of the leasing has come through nicely. How do you guys think about the CapEx trailing off and sort of the prospects of that AFFO to start kicking into gear as well?
Harout Diramerian: Sure. So the FFO, I think we previously stated this that we're still working through the leasing spend. There's a lot of leasing that Art has mentioned that's still coming. The spend usually comes in a little later than we've experienced in the past. So we expect AFFO to be up and down over the next few quarters until all the spend is happening and the cash flow starts coming through from all those leasing. So even though we've done a lot of good leasing, there's still some CapEx to be spent and that leasing hasn't generated cash flow yet, full cash flow.
Ronald Kamdem: Helpful. And then just on the studio recovery and so forth, now that, obviously, the Quixote services in Atlanta is out, how do you guys think about sort of the ramp and the ultimate sort of NOI opportunity now with that studio business? Any color there would be helpful.
Mark Lammas: Yes. I mean maybe just to make sure our expectations are in line. Our first goal is to get this thing to breakeven. And if you look at our results, and I assume we're talking about the Quixote business because that's really where the opportunity sits is -- if you look at our second quarter results, you'll see that we're now generating somewhere in the neighborhood of, call it, negative $4 million annualized cash NOI. That is with a backdrop of about 70 shows. We think we've -- through all that cost-cutting efforts, we've managed to lower the threshold to get to breakeven in terms of show count.
So if we -- if shows can improve very, very modestly, say, from the current 70 level to 80, we think we're at breakeven. When we started the cost-cutting endeavor, shows were around 90. Had they stuck at that level, we would be in positive territory already which is to say, if we were at 90 shows, we should be running at like a positive $4 million or $5 million, we think of positive NOI and cash for Quixote. We're not trying to project where we think show counts are trending. We are just going to continue to focus on costs. We're going to continue to reach for that breakeven point.
We think we're getting increasingly close to that as the numbers show. And we'll see where things go from there. Right now, we're in summer. Summer is historically a slow period. We'll see if shows pick up as we get closer to fall. And hopefully, if they do, we'll start to see positive NOI in Quixote.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Richard Anderson with Cantor Fitzgerald.
Richard Anderson: So I'm going to draft off that last question for you, Mark. Do you still approach the Quixote unwind as if it's 70 shows, you're not counting on 80 or 90, and so you -- the process continues. I just want to make sure I understand that.
Mark Lammas: That's right. I mean -- or maybe to put even finer point on it, if you look at our guidance, we are assuming no improvement in show count.
Richard Anderson: Okay. That's what I figured. I just wanted to confirm. Now what is Quixote -- what does the Quixote platform look like as a long-term hold in terms of lease stages and so on? Like what -- where and what should we expect to be the sort of the ultimate landing point?
Mark Lammas: Well, once the announced wind downs are done, it will consist of a fleet of various types of vehicles of about a little bit more than 1,000 vehicles largely located in Los Angeles with some in New York. That will be the remaining going concern, if you will, I'll -- Victor can comment on where we go from there because the first priority is to get that line down done and give ourselves a chance at profitability. And then where we go from there, I think we'll have to explore it.
Victor Coleman: Yes. And Rich, just in line with that, it's -- let's not let the numbers get skewed a little bit here or there. We still have market share in the range of 70% in that business. So it's not that we're servicing just our portfolio. We're servicing the industry itself. And so as the industry evolves and if it lays out, to where it is right now, which we underwrote it at, as Mark said, we'll break even relatively shortly if it ends up expanding, then there's options for us to look at that industry and that business around Quixote and look at our alternatives.
Richard Anderson: But it's a fleet business at the end of the day, would you be out of the leased studios as well entirely?
Victor Coleman: Yes, that's the goal.
Mark Lammas: On the Quixote side.
Richard Anderson: Yes, understood. And so then my last question is, that's a nice change from $18.6 million loss in 2024 to $4 million currently run rate today. Would you describe yourself as ahead of the game versus when you started to talk about the unwind process?
Mark Lammas: I would in that even as we've lost demand, that is to say show counts have gone down over the time frame that we've been cutting costs. The fact that we are approaching breakeven even in that kind of declining demand environment, I think, is a good indicator that our plan is working and because we would be in positive territory, as I indicated, had demand held up.
Richard Anderson: Okay. And then just real quickly, will the studio side of Quixote, will that extend into 2027 in terms of the unwind? I mean, year-end this year, will you still be in some studios? Again, I apologize for that.
Mark Lammas: No, we don't -- we're in the process. We've got, call it -- we started with 10 leases, mostly staged leases. We have -- we're out of 5 of them, and we are in negotiation on the remaining 5.
Operator: Your final question comes from Jamie Feldman with Wells Fargo.
Jamie Feldman: Great. So I guess just sticking with the studios. Can you just talk about the potential show pipeline? I think you had commented on now that there's more stability or visibility on labor, maybe you feel better about what's out there. Can you just give us more color of what you think could come to the studios?
Victor Coleman: I mean Jamie, listen, as Mark said, it is a quiet time right now. I think the labor comment is absolutely apparent that there are no foreseeable hurdles on that basis. As we're seeing, New York has picked up dramatically. So it's taken some business away from Los Angeles. Our core portfolio is extremely -- performing extremely well and very well leased in terms of what we own. the show counts have been varied. And I think candidly, the state credits have been disappointing in that they haven't really expedited a lot of filming. We'll have to see what happens in fall.
There is banter around some federal aid on that basis, and we're in the middle of it as we sit. So we'll see what happens on that side. Los Angeles isn't going anywhere from a production standpoint. And what we have seen is the other ancillary markets are in a much worse situation being Atlanta, New Orleans, Michigan, Toronto. I mean the three core markets really that have held up are New York, Los Angeles and Vancouver.
So by fall and when we get through what we're working on right now and seeing the new shows that are launched in fall, I think we'll have a clearer picture of where those numbers are going to shake out on a consistent basis.
Jamie Feldman: Okay. And is there anything you can say about Netflix or the Netflix lease? Or is that offline?
Victor Coleman: All we can say is that our relationship and conversations are completely ongoing. To the contrary or what other people are talking about. With that, I'd like to thank everybody for participating in this quarter's call, and we look forward to updating you through the next quarter and speaking next quarter. Thank you.
Operator: This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.
