Gaming and Leisure Properties, Inc.

Gaming Analysia Properties Inc. Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Joe Giaffone, Investor Relations, Thank you, Mr. Jafani. You may begin.

Thank you, Ranju, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Gaming and Leisure Properties' third quarter 2023 earnings call and webcast. The press release distributed yesterday afternoon is available in the investor relations section on the company's website at www.glpropinc.com. On today's call, management's prepared remarks and answers to your questions may contain forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements address matters that are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed today. Forward-looking statements may include those related to revenue, operating income, and financial guidance, as well as non-GAAP financial measures such as FFO and AFFO. As a reminder, forward-looking statements represent management's current estimates, and the company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements in the future. We encourage listeners to review the more detailed discussions related to the risk factors and forward-looking statements contained in the company's filings with the SEC, including its Form 10Q and in the earnings release, as well as the definitions and reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures contained in the company's earnings release. On this morning's call, we are joined by Peter Carlino, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Gaming Leisure Properties, and joining Peter will be Brandon Moore, Chief Operating Officer, General Counsel and Secretary, Desiree Burke, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Steve Ladney, Senior Vice President, Chief Development Officer, and Matthew Demchek, Senior Vice President, Chief Investment Officer. With that, it's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Peter Carlino. Peter, please go ahead.

Well, thank you, Joe, and good morning, everyone. As always, you will hear from most of our team this morning, though almost everything relevant has been highlighted in our earnings release. However, let me underline at least a couple of accomplishments this quarter. We expanded our footprint with the addition of the hard rock casino in Rockford, Illinois, by signing a 99 year ground lease, generating an initial $8 million in rent. Plus we've agreed to fund up to $150 million of construction costs at 10%. Uh, this construction you should know is well underway and the temporary facility there is doing exceedingly well. with great management looking at the Hard Rock Group going forward. And as you recall, we sold our Hollywood facility in Baton Rouge to Casino Queen. And as part of that sale, we retained the right to design, build, and construct a landside facility, eliminating our old boat. Our $78 million spend will produce a yield of 8.5%. The new casino is doing spectacularly well, and I must say, for the money invested there, to say this is an issue of personal pride, it's a terrific facility, and it's kicking butt. But I'll leave to the queen folks to release the numbers when they're ready to do so. But performance numbers are terrific. As part of managing our design build capability, we hired Jim Baum, who was our head of construction at Penn National in my time there. Our team here with Jim built many ground up casinos and major projects over the years. So Jim gives us the ability to assess and monitor the flow of money into new projects or expansion of existing properties. And we have a number of those on the horizon. With that capability in mind, we acquired the land and certain improvements of Casino Queen Marquette with an annual rent increase to our Queen master lease of $2.7 million, with a commitment of at least $12.5 million for new construction, perhaps more at the property. I should highlight it's not our goal to become a construction company, but Jim expands our capability to keep an eye on money as it's put out in these construction situations brings a great deal of experience. Plus, we are doing more thorough examination of our properties, oversight, understanding utility costs, some of the things that we need to know these days, and making sure that the major systems are inspected on a periodic basis. Jim runs that process as well. So I had suggested over the last couple of quarters that 2023 would be a good year for us, and I think it's going to pan out to be a very good year for us. And looking at our probable pipeline, 2024 should be strong as well. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Desiree.