Phillips Edison & Company, Inc.

Please note that this call is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Kimberly Green, Head of Investor Relations. Kimberly, you may begin.

Thank you, Operator. I'm joined on this call by our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Jeff Edison, our President, Devin Murphy, and our Chief Financial Officer, John Caulfield. Once we conclude our prepared remarks, we will open the call to Q&A. After today's call, an archived version will be published on our website. As a reminder, today's discussion may contain forward-looking statements about the company's view of future business and financial performance, including forward earnings guidance and future market conditions. These are based on management's current beliefs and expectations and are subject to various risks and uncertainties as described in our SEC filings, specifically in our most recent Form 10-K and 10-Q. In our discussion today, we will reference certain non-GAAP financial measures. Information regarding our use of these measures and reconciliations of these measures to our GAAP results are available in our earnings press release and supplemental information packet, which have been posted on our website. Please note that we have also posted a presentation with additional information. Our caution on forward-looking statements also applies to these materials. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Jeff Edison, our Chief Executive Officer. Jeff?

Thank you, Kim, and thank you everyone for joining us today. The PICO team delivered another solid quarter of growth with same-center NOI increasing by 3.2% and continued strength in portfolio occupancy and rent spreads. This performance has allowed us to reaffirm the midpoint and tighten the range of our 2023 core FFO guidance. The midpoint represents year-over-year growth of 2.6%, despite interest expense headwinds of 10 cents per share. We believe we will continue to deliver positive earnings growth despite interest expense and other macro headwinds. The continued strength of our operating performance is attributable to our differentiated and focused strategy of exclusively owning grocery anchored neighborhood shopping centers anchored by the number one or two grocer by sales in a market. and our ability to drive results at the property level through our integrated and cycle tested operating platform. Today, we see a continued strong operating environment and a transaction market that has improved. The consumer continues to be resilient and our grocers continue to drive strong foot traffic to our centers. We remain 98% occupied, which gives us pricing power. Leasing demand continues to be elevated for our inline spaces, and we have limited exposure to big box retailers. We have a great balance sheet and are well positioned for accretive acquisitions. We have seen an increase in deal activity beginning in the third quarter as cap rates continue to adjust in response to higher interest rates. Based on our current pipeline, we have increased the low end of our guidance range for acquisitions. While it's still a market in transition, we are confident in our ability to close on $250 to $300 million in net acquisitions this year. We continue to have a very disciplined acquisition process. We remain focused on accretively growing our shopping center portfolio at the right price, while achieving our acquisition hurdle of a 9% unlevered IRR. The acquisitions that we will complete in the second half of the year underwrite to a nine and a half plus unlevered IRR. With PICO's experienced in-house acquisition team, we are well positioned to continue to grow our portfolio. The PICO team looks forward to sharing an update on our acquisition strategy, including case studies, our underwriting process, and our targets for 2024 during our investment community day on December 14th. In September, Kroger announced a divestiture plan with CNS wholesale grocers in connection with the proposed Kroger and Albertsons merger. We remain cautiously optimistic about the impact on PECO. We continue to believe it is ultimately a positive for PECO, for our centers, and for the communities that our centers serve. While the market still gives the merger a low probability of occurring, should it close and 413 stores are sold to CNS, The impact on PECO is a net positive. CNS has been operating for over 100 years, and they're one of the largest wholesale operators with demonstrated experience in retail operations. We believe the recent announcement is potentially a better outcome for PECO than a new spin co that Kroger and Albertsons had considered. Importantly, should the merger occur, the majority of our Albertsons stores will be operated by an excellent operator in Kroger. If the merger does not occur, our Albertsons Anchored Centers will continue the strong performance that they have enjoyed to date. I will now turn the call over to Devin. Devin?