About Jeffrey Edison
Jeffrey Edison, chairman and CEO of Phillips Edison & Company, discussed the company's performance and outlook during the second quarter 2026 earnings call on July 24, 2026. He stated that the company is "well positioned to deliver what we view as compelling combination for our investors, more alpha with less beta" as it looks toward the second half of 2026 and into 2027. Edison noted that the company's centers generated 2% year-over-year traffic growth in June and 2% traffic growth year to date, adding that "while consumers are increasingly seeking value, they're continuing to make frequent trips to necessity-based destinations." He reported that the company had already acquired about $200 million in properties through the first quarter and had a "really strong backlog," with a target of $400 to $500 million in acquisitions for the year.
In a June 2026 interview at Nareit's REITweek conference, Edison described retailer sentiment as "surprisingly positive" despite economic uncertainty, saying that "almost all the retailers looking at growth opportunities" and that the lack of new development has been "a great advantage for us." He outlined multiple capital sources for the company, including a strong balance sheet, joint ventures, a disposition strategy targeting $100 to $200 million in sales, and free cash flow that he said could fund about $300 million in incremental property purchases without accessing equity markets. Edison also noted that the company is seeing "30% more opportunities than we did last year" in the everyday retail space and that it has "already moved occupancy 450 basis points" in that area.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Jeffrey Edison's recent appearances.
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Transcript (9 segments)
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Jeffrey Edison0:00
We've had a sustained period of very muted new construction and it's given us pricing power. It's given us the ability to really work more strongly on the merchandising of the centers and making them ideal for each specific location that we're at.
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Interviewer0:20
With me today is Jeff Edison, chairman and CEO of Phillips Edison. Jeff, thanks for joining me.
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Jeffrey Edison0:25
Oh, thanks for having me.
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Interviewer0:27
So Jeff, is there an aspect of your latest earnings report that you feel underscores your goals or priorities at this time?
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Jeffrey Edison0:32
We, you know, I think we're all feeling like there's a lot of change going on and there's a lot of unsettling things happening. And one of the things that we really like about our business is that it has stability to it. Stability that we've been doing and recognizing for 30 years as we've been in this business. And the stability is kind of driven by the necessity-based nature of our retail, with that number one or two grocer in the market and how that drives the traffic to our centers, and then the necessity-based smaller stores where we get a lot of our growth out of. And I think that in this environment is a really nice place to be. What PICO's been able to do is to add to that a very strong growth strategy. So with that, we like to think that we can create more alpha in that growth but also have a really low beta. And that's the opportunity we think that is in our space right now. And we're seeing really strong operating results, and those operating results are driven by that. And then the other piece that helps us right now is just the lack of new construction. I mean, we've had a sustained period of very muted new construction and it's given us pricing power. It gives us the ability to really work more strongly on the merchandising of the centers and making them ideal for each specific location that we're at.
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Interviewer2:13
And what are you anticipating with respect to consumer sentiment and tenant demand in the short to medium term?
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Jeffrey Edison2:18
It's kind of surprising with as much turmoil as there is that the consumer has maintained a really strong position. We think a lot of that's driven by the low unemployment rate, and we're at a really solid place there. As long as we keep that, the consumer seems to be hanging in. And with that, one of the metrics we look at closely is how the retailers are feeling about it, because they are partners in this business. And they were shocked at the tariff time, but they've adapted like they always do to it. And I think obviously it's gotten a little less draconian in terms of the scale of it, and they're now in a planning mode. They're okay, we're going to have to deal with supply chains. We're going to have to adjust where we do. But that's what they do. They're really good at that. And as they do that, they're then thinking, okay, if we end up with 15% tariffs, what does that mean? And what they're saying is, okay, we're going to push 5% of it back to the seller, we'll take a 5% hit, and we'll pass 5% on to the consumer. That change in a relatively short period of time has been very positive, and our retailers are not retracting. They're active, and we're seeing pretty good visibility on the leasing side at least through the end of this year, and it's as solid as it's ever been. So we're cautiously optimistic in a time that there's not a lot of optimism out there. So I think our retailers are driving our feelings about that.
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Interviewer4:25
What role is technology playing in either enhancing operations or disrupting traditional models at Phillips Edison?
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Jeffrey Edison4:31
Yes. Well, we are very excited about AI. About six, I guess almost nine months ago, we set up for each department in the company a target that they had to come up with an AI innovation that they were going to bring into their department. Some of them are cross-functional, but a lot of them are very specific. And we're getting the full report and recommendations within the next probably 30 to 45 days of what they have in place. And a lot of it at this point is efficiency pieces. Particularly on the legal side, we're finding a ton of efficiencies that AI is bringing us. The HR side has actually been very active in being able to use AI to facilitate a lot of the very routine things that you have to do on the HR side. And they've brought that in, so they're able to focus more on the individual and the people and planning for their careers and that stuff. So those are just two simple examples of things that we are already implementing, but we're going to see it move from just an efficiency standpoint, and that will be a big part over the next 12 to 18 months. But then there's the information part and the ability to buy better, to target what you're buying better, and using AI to assist us in that process. And so we're really excited about where it can take us and how it can continue to improve the operations of our business.
