Generation Income Properties Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Generation Income Properties fourth quarter and fiscal year 2022 earnings conference call. At this time, all lines have been placed in a listen-only mode. Please note that today's conference call is being recorded. Replay information is included in our March 17th press release, which can be found on the investor relations section of the company's website at GIPREIT.com, along with the fourth quarter and fiscal year earnings release. After the speaker's prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer period. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. I will now turn the conference over to the company's Chief of Staff, Emily Cusmano.

Thank you, Operator, and good morning, everyone. I am joined this morning by David Sobelman, Chief Executive Officer, and Allison Davies, Chief Financial Officer. David will provide an overview of the company's growth strategy, business and capital markets activities, 2022 milestones, and a 2023 outlook. Allison will review our quarterly and year-end financial results and balance sheet. Today's conference call includes forward-looking statements and projections that reflect the company's current views with respect to, among other things, our pipeline and planned acquisition activity, anticipated market size, expected consolidation in the industry, future events, and financial performance. These forward-looking statements are subject to the inherent uncertainties in predicting future results and conditions. Certain factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in these forward-looking statements. New risks and uncertainties arise over time, and it is not possible for the company to predict those events or how they may affect it. Therefore, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. During this call, we may refer to FFO, Core FFO, AFFO, and Core AFFO, which are each non-GAAP financial measures. reconciliations of net income, the most comparable gap measure to these non-gap measures can be found in our earnings release or in the investor presentation available on our website. We ask that you refer to our most recent filings with the SEC for important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements and projections, including the risk factors included in our Form 10-K for the 2022 fiscal year to be filed with the SEC. As such, it is important to note that management's comments include time-sensitive information that may only be accurate as of today's date, Tuesday, March 28, 2023. Following management's prepared comments, the call will be open for your questions. We request that you ask only one question and one follow-up to allow ample time for everyone to ask questions. If time permits, we welcome you to re-queue to ask additional questions. With that, I will now turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, David Sobelman.

Thank you, Emily. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Generation Income Properties' year-end earnings call. In a few minutes, Allison Davies, our CFO, will be reviewing our financial results for 2022. Until then, I'm happy to report that our patience proved to be a good strategy for our shareholders as we're now showing meaningful signs of the net lease market leaning more towards our favor, and pricing of assets is expected to allow us to more actively grow our company. However, before we recount some of the milestones we accomplished in our first full calendar year as a NASDAQ company, let us remind you of how GIPR differentiates itself from its net lease re-peers. As our name suggests, we not only generate income, but we think generationally. That translates into having an investment philosophy that puts the underlying real estate first. This increases the likelihood of both renewals with the current tenant and the ability to efficiently re-tenant an asset. This protects our downside risk as well as gives our shareholders the best chance to have stabilized and hopefully increasing rents from our properties. Additionally, to create value for shareholders and stabilized assets, we seek out net lease properties that are typically overlooked by the majority of investors by targeting short-term lease properties. By focusing on this segment of the market, we're able to purchase assets at what is traditionally a higher cap rate than the same assets with over 10 years remaining. This, coupled with our active management of our portfolio, allows us to increase value in the assets by recognizing rental rate increases quicker. extending the lease terms of our assets, and gaining a deeper understanding of the specific site's performance. As we all know, 2022 put an end to what was an ever-increasing bull market pertaining to net lease valuations. Public REITs suffered last year, as they continue to today. But in the face of a tremendous adversity, we believe that GIPR is weathering these challenges well. While the spike in interest rates led to the ultimate dislocation between sellers' pricing expectations and our underwritten valuation of assets and made us pause our acquisitions beginning in April 2022, we were by no means stagnant in our efforts to grow the company. Some of the milestones we achieved last year included 100% rent collection, we averaged 3.5% same property rent growth year over year, Our large portfolio refinance resulting in all debt for the portfolio being fixed at approximately 35% lower interest rates than today's rates. Our $25 million debt commitment from American Momentum Bank remains in place and has a zero balance in order to opportunistically use when needed. Our hands-on asset management and relational approach that we value proved to be beneficial with the increase in direct communication with our tenants. We added additional experience and governance to our accounting team by hiring a 15-year REIT accounting professional as our new CFO, in addition to our first full-time corporate controller. And we qualified as a REIT, as defined by the IRS, which has been a goal of ours since our inception. So the question is, that most people will have as it pertains to our short-term and long-term goals is, how does GIPR grow? Subsequent to year-end measures, 2023 has proven to be somewhat of a launching pad for the company. We had one tenant, Mayor Shipping, hold over in their space before they vacated, which provided us the opportunity to negotiate to its final form, a lease with a Department of Defense-funded contractor at an increased rental rate, which we hope to execute in the near term. Additionally, we have executed an engagement agreement with Baird, one of the premier middle market investment banks, to advise the company on implementing growth strategies in various forms. Lastly, we recently signed a contract to purchase a retail asset occupied by an investment-grade credit tenant at a cap rate that correlates with today's interest rates, and is directly in line with our overall value investment thesis of well-located, high credit, and shorter-term net lease properties. The portfolio remains stable, and we are, as our investment thesis lends itself to, consistently contemplating potential risks. Our 13 assets are well-positioned in their specific markets, and the tenant's performance at these locations is providing them with ample revenue to continue paying their rents as originally planned. The distribution between asset classes is currently 46% retail, 17% industrial, and 36% office. We believe that a diversified high credit portfolio will be able to weather markets well. While we're not providing guidance for 2023, we hope we are clearly conveying that we are being patient while working diligently to not only add value to our current portfolio, but also to externally grow by traditional acquisitions, contributions through our successful upgrade program, our proven joint venture JV structure, as well as keeping our options open for alternative opportunities. I and our board believe that GIPR has set the proverbial table to capitalize on our long-term, value investing strategy that has been working well since our inception. It will not come without some bumps in the road, as we're all experiencing now. But as Charlie Munger, Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, has stated in the past, I think the record shows the advantage of a peculiar mindset, not seeking action for its own sake, but instead combining extreme patience with extreme decisiveness. With that, I'm pleased to introduce my colleague, GIPR CFO, Allison Davies.