Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions). Your first question comes from Paul Adornato – BMO Capital Markets.
Paul Adornato – BMO Capital Markets
I was wondering if you could talk about those leases that were not renewed. I see that you had a very high renewal percentage, but what was the reason behind those tenants that chose not to renew? Was it because you could not accommodate their needs or because they were shrinking their space requirements?
Daryl Mechem
Yes. Concerning the expected customers not to renew in the first quarter two of those lost their accounts. They were 3PLs and had given us notice far in advance and another was they were downsized and we could not accommodate their need. So those were the three biggest ones that drove our dip in predicted occupancy first quarter into the second quarter.
Now I'll also add, though, that of those same customers they did hold over and/or sign two to three month extensions upon their expiration so our occupancy is a little higher going into the first quarter than we expected because of that.
Paul Adornato – BMO Capital Markets
And what about the new leasing activity, what are some of the circumstances behind some of those tenants?
Daryl Mechem
Activity so far this year, Paul?
Paul Adornato – BMO Capital Markets
Yes.
Daryl Mechem
Sure. We signed 900,000 square feet of leases in January 200,000 of which was new deals. We've also signed 240,000 square feet of new deals so far in February. A little more color on that I think would come from our lease negotiation tracking. We follow all leases in negotiation at the lease document stage, which once it gets to that stage it's very likely to close. We have 2.5 million square feet being negotiated today; 1.9 million is renewals for 2009 and the balance is new deals. So there's still activity out there. We're pleased with that.
Paul Adornato – BMO Capital Markets
And have you touched base with all of the '09 scheduled expirations at this point?
Daryl Mechem
Yes we have and we track the progress of the negotiations with those customers in our lease proposal pipeline. We have 6.8 million square feet being negotiated at the proposal level, first round proposal all the way to final negotiation. Of that 6.8 million square feet of activity, we have 3.2 million square feet at the renewal level for 2009. I'll also add to that that we have 1.6 million square feet in that 6.8 million that pertains to 2010 renewals. So we are very aggressive getting in front of our customers to try to get deals done early.
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