First Capital, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the First Capital Reads Q2 Results conference call. During the presentation, all participants will be in listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. At that time, if you have a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. I would like to turn the conference over to Alison. Please proceed with your presentation.

Thanks, and good afternoon, everyone. In discussing our financial and operating performance and in responding to your questions during today's call, we may make forward-looking statements. These statements are based on our current estimates and assumptions, many of which are beyond our control and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements. A summary of these underlying assumptions, risks, and uncertainties is contained in our various securities filings, including our Q2 MDNA, our MDNA for the year ended December 31st, 2020, and our current AIF, which are available on CDAR and our website. These forward-looking statements are made as of today's date, and except as required by securities law, we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any such statements. During today's call, we will also be referencing certain financial measures that are non-IFRS measures. These do not have standardized meanings prescribed by IFRS and should not be construed as alternatives to net income or cash flow from operating activities determined in accordance with IFRS. Management provides these measures as a complement to IFRS measures to aid in assessing the REIT's performance. These non-IFRS measures are further defined and discussed in our MD&A, which should be read in conjunction with this conference call. I'll now turn the call over to Adam.

Thank you very much, Alison. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for our Q2 conference call. In addition to Alison, with me today are several members of the FCR team, including Jordy Robbins and Neil Downey, both of who you will hear from shortly. The second quarter, our portfolio continued to demonstrate remarkable stability and resiliency and growth. Notwithstanding a quarter that continued to be subject to major restrictions in Ontario and the GTA specifically, FCR's largest market by far, we are pleased with our operating metrics across the board. Consistent with every quarter during the pandemic, Our leasing statistics were solid and again demonstrated the outcome of pairing high quality real estate with a talented leasing and operations team. Occupancy was a solid 95.9% up marginally from Q1. Although down by 40 basis points year over year, the impact was offset by growth in rents which helped to deliver marginal same property NOI growth and consequently FFO growth for Q2. For clarity, that excludes the impact of bad debt expense, which clearly had a very positive impact during the quarter. Importantly, it certainly feels as if we are at a major turning point. Given our strong position and the reopening activities that are underway, as well as other tailwinds that continue to build, we're excited about the future for SCR. The strength and value of real estate assets of FCR's caliber is evident in the private markets, which we are capitalizing on. At the beginning of the year, we said that while we desire to monetize a portion of our asset base, we would be aggressive but patient in order to achieve premium pricing that reflects the quality of our properties. Our patience in that regard has served us well. A significant portion of our nearly $400 million of assets classified as held for sale are subject to third-party sale agreements. Notably, the pricing we expect to achieve is meaningfully higher than what we believed was achievable at the beginning of the year. Simply put, our properties have never been worth more than they are today. These expected transactions and progress at our Christie Cookie property in Toronto were the main contributors to strong NAV growth in Q2. Our $23.36 NAV per unit represents an increase of 4.3% or 96 cents in Q2, in line with our highest NAV ever. So we're very optimistic as we look ahead. Our Q2 results were solid despite being achieved while elements of the business continue to operate at less than their full potential. Besides the recent lifting of the major restrictions that were in place in the GTA, there are other revenue sources that will continue to strengthen as the reopening takes hold. Properties like our newly renovated Hazleton Hotel, which has recently seen occupancy gains, although still below pre-pandemic levels, parking revenue at many of our properties and other forms of ancillary revenue, not to mention certain lease transactions that are conditional on a decision maker stationed outside of Canada being able to physically visit the respective property which quarantine rules have prevented. As we look ahead, we see conditions that will augment current earnings by gradually returning FCR's full potential. We're seeing many signs of a very encouraging and constructive environment for our business, and it seems like the best is yet to come. We're moving forward from a solid position, just under 96% occupancy, highest in place rental rates we've ever had, the best demographic profile, a strengthening balance sheet, and importantly, a rising NAV per unit. We've made substantial progress on our real estate portfolio and specifically several strategic transactions. The most impactful of which is our Christie cookie property, which will be FCR's largest development to date. When we initially acquired the property five years ago, we noted how optimistic we were about the potential at Christie. It's working out better than planned. Master plan is complete. and zoning will soon be in place permitting 7.5 million square feet of density plus many elements reminiscent of a complete community including parks, public realm, transit, and other infrastructure as well as extensive community services. Therefore, it is the appropriate time to add a strategic and aligned partner with deep residential and major construction expertise. We feel Pemberton Group an existing partner of FCR, was a superb candidate, and we're thrilled to expand our partnership on such an important development. With Pemberton on board, together with FCR's platform, we have all the expertise required to successfully deliver on what will become a new super urban neighborhood in Toronto. So please continue to stay tuned on this one. Dory will expand on Christie as well as some of our other properties shortly. In Q2, we also made steady progress in advancing our ESG goals, which included a number of firsts in our sector. First Capital is the first Canadian REIT to be a signatory in support of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures. We are committed to establishing a concrete plan to align with the TCFD recommendations. And secondly, FCR is the first Canadian retail REIT to achieve the well health and safety rating for facility operations and management from the International Well Building Institute at 35 of our buildings, totaling over 7 million square feet of space. We're also proactive in working with our tenants, which we believe is a necessity to drive maximum performance and healthier buildings. This quarter, we're proud to have received a Gold 2021 Green Lease Leader Recognition by the Institute for Market Transformation and the U.S. Department of Energy's Better Buildings Alliance for our leadership in green lease implementation. We look forward to providing further updates on our ESG initiatives in the future. And in the meantime, please refer to our latest ESG report as well as detailed information on all of our related efforts, which can be found on the enhanced ESG section of FCR's website. And with that, I will now pass things over to Neil.