Ernest Rady, chairman and CEO of American Assets Trust, Inc. (NYSE: AAT), participated in a video interview during Nareit’s REITworld: 2023 Annual Conference held Nov. 14-16 in Los Angeles.
Rady said American Assets Trust had the insight to borrow a half billion dollars in 2021 when it anticipated inflation earlier than others: “So that was, in retrospect, a good move.” He added that his team has a great working rapport and the company’s real estate is best in class.
“We’re coming through this very difficult time with all the turbulence taking place, [and] we have the financial resources, the human resources, and we have the quality of real estate which will take us through this period of time,” he said. “We’re having—actually—record FFO this year, and we hope that will be the case next year.”
Rady said one of the key achievements for American Assets Trust during 2023 was managing its office portfolio.
“Office now is regarded as a disease…so we’ve used this time to amenitize our office,” he said. “And as a result, in San Diego, we’re 95% occupied. In San Francisco, one of our buildings is 100% occupied.”