Acadia Realty Trust (NYSE:AKR) outlined continued momentum across its street retail-focused portfolio and investment management platform during its fourth-quarter 2025 earnings call, pointing to another year of strong leasing, rising occupancy, and acquisition activity that management believes sets up multi-year growth.
Management highlights “strong year” and street retail tailwinds
CEO Ken Bernstein said Acadia’s fourth-quarter performance “added to an overall strong year,” supported by both internal growth initiatives and external acquisitions. Bernstein framed the company’s strategy around a favorable backdrop for retail real estate—particularly street retail—citing limited new retail supply for nearly a decade, retailers’ increased emphasis on direct-to-consumer physical stores, and continued demand from discretionary brands serving higher-income consumers.
Leasing: record activity, large spreads, and pre-lease strategy
Chief Operating Officer A.J. Levine said 2025 was another “record year of leasing,” driven by retailer confidence, direct-to-consumer expansion, and what he described as “remarkable strength of the high-end consumer.” Levine highlighted several tenant additions and expansions across key markets, including T&T Grocery and an LA Fitness Club Studio in San Francisco, Google and Swarovski on M Street in Washington, D.C., and UGG on North 6th Street in Williamsburg.
Levine said Acadia achieved street leasing spreads “in excess of 50%” during 2025 through a combination of lease-up, pre-leasing, and fair market resets. He also described strong tenant sales trends, stating year-over-year sales on the company’s streets ranged from 10% to as high as 30% to 40% in some markets.
In the fourth quarter, Levine said Acadia signed $3.5 million of annual base rent (ABR), with nearly 75% from markets including Melrose Place, Williamsburg, Newbury Street, and Henderson Avenue in Dallas. He highlighted several street deals signed during the quarter, including leases on Newbury Street at a 58% spread and on Melrose Place at a 60% spread. He also pointed to a Williamsburg lease where UGG replaced lululemon after lululemon was relocated and expanded elsewhere on the same street; Levine said the UGG deal reflected a 72% spread, though it was not included in the company’s earnings release.
Levine also discussed the company’s “pri-loose” and blend-and-extend approach, under which tenants extend early and rents are reset toward market. He gave an example of a SoHo tenant with two years remaining on its lease that extended early, allowing Acadia to reset rent to market immediately and achieve a 51% spread. Levine said the transaction contributed about $0.005 of FFO and described the strategy as both a growth lever and a risk-management tool.
Acquisitions: $1.3B in two years and new corridor expansion
Chief Investment Officer Reggie Livingston said Acadia’s fourth-quarter and year-to-date acquisition volume was nearly $500 million, and that over the past 24 months the company closed more than $1.3 billion of acquisitions. That total included more than $500 million of street retail for the REIT portfolio and more than $800 million of value-add deals for the investment management platform.
Livingston highlighted a January purchase of five storefronts at 1045 and 1165 Madison Avenue in Manhattan, with tenants including Le Labo and Todd Snyder. He said Upper Madison Avenue is attracting contemporary brands and experiencing rent growth that has left current rents in the acquired assets “below market.” He added that Acadia would look to add more in the corridor if it can do so accretively.
For near-term deal activity, Livingston said the company had more than $150 million of street retail deals under agreement that could close in the first quarter. In the investment management business, he cited the closing—alongside TPG Real Estate—of The Shops at Skyview for approximately $425 million, describing it as a 550,000-square-foot center in Queens with national tenants including Marshalls, Burlington, Uniqlo, and BJ’s. Livingston also pointed to the property’s visitor volume (nearly 12 million annual visitors) and said traffic could increase given a recently approved Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and an $8 billion mixed-use development planned nearby.
Financial results, guidance, and balance sheet positioning
CFO John Kim reported same-property net operating income (NOI) growth of 6.3% for the fourth quarter and 5.7% for the full year, which he said was at the upper end of guidance. Kim said Acadia reported $0.34 per share for the quarter, including $0.03 of gains from the final sale of Albertsons shares. Excluding the $0.03 gain and a one-time $0.01 of net real estate tax savings referenced in the earnings release, Kim said fourth-quarter results were $0.30 per share, up $0.01 sequentially from $0.29 in the third quarter (also excluding gains and promotes).
Kim said REIT economic occupancy increased 30 basis points during the quarter to 93.9%, while street and urban economic occupancy rose 80 basis points sequentially in the fourth quarter and 370 basis points over the course of 2025. He added that street and urban occupancy is around 90% compared with prior peak levels above 95%, which management views as embedded growth potential.
Kim said signed-not-open ABR in the pipeline totaled $8.9 million at December 31, representing about 4% of in-place rents at Acadia’s share. Substantially all of that pipeline is expected to commence in 2026, and based on projected timing, Kim said the company expects about $4 million of ABR to flow into NOI in 2026, with the remaining $4.9 million in 2027.
For 2026, Kim introduced a simplified reporting metric, “FFO, as adjusted,” excluding gains from the investment management business and other material non-comparable items. Acadia guided to 2026 FFO as adjusted of $1.21 to $1.25 and same-property NOI growth of 5% to 9% (excluding redevelopments). Kim said the company expects street to outperform the suburban portfolio by about 400 basis points.
Kim identified several factors that could affect where results land within guidance ranges, including the timing of rent commencements on executed leases, credit loss assumptions (he cited 115 basis points against minimum rents at the midpoint), and the impact of executing on “pri-loose” opportunities, which he said is not included in the base case and could create short-term downtime while accelerating long-term value creation. He also said total pro-rata NOI—including redevelopments and investment management—is expected to rise about 15% to roughly $230 million at the midpoint, compared with about $200 million reported for 2025.
On the balance sheet, Kim said pro-rata debt to EBITDA was about 5x, with meaningful liquidity and “several hundred million” of dry powder available. He added that Acadia has no material debt maturities in 2026 and is well hedged against interest rate volatility, citing a weighted average borrowing cost of 4.5% and the availability of five-year unsecured funding at similar pricing.
Looking beyond 2026, Kim highlighted potential NOI and FFO contributions from redevelopments—particularly two San Francisco projects—along with Henderson Avenue in Dallas. He said the San Francisco projects are expected to contribute an additional $7 million to $9 million of NOI beyond amounts included in 2026, translating to $0.03 to $0.05 of incremental FFO net of capitalized interest and re-tenanting costs, upon stabilization and inclusive of the signed-not-open pipeline. For Henderson Avenue, he said phase one is tracking to stabilize in 2027 and 2028 and is expected to deliver $0.03 to $0.05 of incremental FFO upon stabilization.
During Q&A, management reiterated its focus on building scale on “must-have” corridors and said it aims to reach roughly 95% street occupancy within about 18 months, using a leased metric. Bernstein also said Acadia intends to reduce its relative exposure to Chicago over time, noting the company has “too much ownership” there compared with the broader portfolio and expects to “subtract” through pruning over the next one to two years, even as he described strong rent spreads and tenant demand in key Chicago submarkets.
On tariffs, Bernstein said retailer impacts varied but that many tenants believe they have navigated the toughest period. He added that for Acadia’s street retailers, traditional rent-to-sales ratios have held, and management has not seen tariff-related pushback as a primary constraint on rent discussions.
About Acadia Realty Trust (NYSE:AKR)
Acadia Realty Trust (NYSE: AKR) is a Maryland real estate investment trust (REIT) that focuses on the acquisition, development, ownership and operation of grocery-anchored and necessity-based shopping centers. The company targets retail properties that serve densely populated urban and suburban markets and typically feature essential tenants such as supermarkets, drugstores, fitness centers and other service-oriented retailers. As a self-managed REIT, Acadia oversees leasing, property management, financing and construction activities through its in-house platform.
Acadia’s portfolio is diversified across property types and lease structures, with an emphasis on sites that benefit from long-term consumer traffic and resilient tenancy.
