Cannabis REIT IIPR Defers Rent Payments For Tenants During Pandemic

Cannabis REIT Innovative Industrial Properties, Inc.  (NYSE:IIPR) reported its results for the first quarter ending March 31, 2020, with total revenues of approximately $21.1 million. This was a 210% increase from the prior year’s first quarter. Innovative Industrial also delivered a net income of approximately $11.5 million or $0.72 per diluted share.

The adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) were approximately $17.8 million, or $1.12 per diluted share. Net income available to common stockholders and AFFO increased by 249% and 236% from the prior year’s first quarter, respectively. The company paid a quarterly dividend of $1.00 per share on April 15, 2020, which increased approximately 122% increase over the first quarter of 2019’s dividend.

“One of the pillars of our business strategy has consistently been a conservative, flexible balance sheet, and we believe we are exceptionally well-positioned to not only weather this unprecedented health crisis and economic disruption but to continue to make real estate investments on a long-term basis with best-in-class tenant operators,” said Alan Gold, Executive Chairman of IIP. “We remain steadfast in our support of this industry and its bright long-term future and are working every day through this crisis with our tenant partners toward continuing to build a tremendous future forward of growth and strength for many years to come. When we overcome this crisis through the collective ingenuity of our top medical professionals and researchers, the regulated cannabis industry will continue to thrive and be one of the top drivers of growth and good jobs across the country.”

COVID Rent Deferrals

While cannabis was deemed an essential service in many states, social distancing was still required. This makes working in a grow facility a challenging prospect. IIP said it has had conversations with each of its tenants in March and April over the situation. As a result, the company said that it is providing temporary rent deferrals for three of its 21 tenants. The decision was to apply a portion of the security deposit IIP holds under each lease to pay April rent in full, defer rent for May and June in full, and provide for the pro-rata repayment of the security deposit and deferred rent over an 18 month time period starting July 1.

That means a total of $743,000 of security deposits that IIP holds in cash were applied to the payment of rent for April, and a total of approximately $1.5 million in rent was deferred for May and June. The total of this amount, $2.3 million, represents approximately 3% of IIP’s total revenues as reported for the three months ended March 31, 2020, annualized.

Current Portfolio

As of May 6, 2020, IIP said it owned 55 properties located in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, totaling approximately 4.1 million rentable square feet (including approximately 1.3 million rentable square feet under development/redevelopment), which were 99.1% leased (based on square footage) with a weighted-average remaining lease term of approximately 15.9 years. As of May 6, 2020, the company has invested approximately $719.7 million in the aggregate and had committed an additional approximately $143.2 million to reimburse certain tenants and sellers for completion of construction and tenant improvements at IIP’s properties.

Financial Picture

In January, IIP completed an underwritten public offering of 3,412,969 shares of common stock, including the exercise in full of the underwriters’ option to purchase an additional 445,170 shares, resulting in net proceeds of approximately $239.6 million. The company reported that it has roughly $108.3 million in cash and cash equivalents and approximately $272.9 million in short-term investments, totaling approximately $381.2 million.

Debra Borchardt

Debra Borchardt is the Co-Founder, and Executive Editor of GMR. She has covered the cannabis industry for several years at Forbes, Seeking Alpha and TheStreet. Prior to becoming a financial journalist, Debra was a Vice President at Bear Stearns where she held a Series 7 and Registered Investment Advisor license. Debra has a Master's degree in Business Journalism from New York University.


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