Regency Centers Corporation

Greetings and welcome to the Regency Centers Corporation first quarter 2023 earnings 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, Christy McElroy, Senior Vice President of Capital Markets. Thank you, Christy. You may begin.

Good morning, and welcome to Regency Center's first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. Joining me today are Lisa Palmer, President and Chief Executive Officer, Mike Moss, Chief Financial Officer, Alan Ross, EVP, National Property Operations and East Region President, and Nick Wivenmeyer, EVP and West Region President. As a reminder, today's discussion may contain forward-looking statements about the company's views 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. It's possible that actual results may differ materially from those suggested by these forward-looking statements we may make. Factors and risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements may be included in our presentation today and are described in more detail in our filings at the SEC, specifically in our most recent Form 10-K and 10-Q filings. In our discussion today, we will also reference certain non-GAAP financial measures, The comparable GAAP financial measures are included in this quarter's earnings materials, which are posted on our investor relations website. Please note that we have also posted a presentation on our website with additional information, including disclosures related to forward earnings guidance. Our caution on forward-looking statements also applies to these presentation materials. Lisa?

Thank you, Christy. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. We're pleased to report another solid quarter with positive results. Yes, we acknowledge there is uncertainty in the economic outlook, especially given the recent bank turmoil. So we do continue to look for signs of softening in our business, but to date, we haven't seen it. Operational trends remain positive, and this is consistent with our update a quarter ago. And in fact, with three more months in the book, we have even more conviction in our outlook for this year. Tenant demand for space in our centers remains strong, sustaining the momentum in our leasing pipelines, and also in our ability to drive base rent growth. This is the case across our entire operating portfolio as well as within our development and redevelopment program. We've seen continuing outperformance in tenant sales as well, which have resulted in higher percentage rents, especially in restaurant and grocery. We believe this reflects strength in those categories as well as an ability of consumers in our trade areas to absorb elevated inflationary impacts. As we discussed in our last call, we are seeing more activity related to tenant bankruptcies, most recently with a widely anticipated filing from Bed Bath & Beyond nearly two weeks ago. But none of this activity has been a surprise to us, as these retailers have been on our watch list for some time. And as Alan will discuss, our teams have been proactive and we're seeing strong demand from tenants to backfill the space. Regency's relatively limited exposure to these bankruptcies is not by accident or luck. It is the result of proactive asset and portfolio management over a long period of time, as the quality of our assets and locations gives us the advantage and the ability to be selective in the merchandising of our centers. We believe that our in-place tenant roster today is as strong as it's ever been. One change that we have seen since our update last quarter is in regard to the transaction markets. You may recall that I commented that we were starting to see increased activity and competitive bidding situations returning. But that was pretty short-lived, as within weeks after that, the transaction market was again impacted by uncertainty and instability in the financing markets. I was hoping that today we'd have more concrete data points to share with you, but transaction volumes remain very thin. That said, we remain on our front foot from an investment perspective. As Nick will discuss in a few minutes, the team is hard at work finding new opportunities to invest our free cash flow and grow our development and redevelopment pipelines. This has long been a core competency of Regency, as many of you on this call are aware, and I'm proud of our industry-leading team and long track record of successful execution. In summary, we believe that given the positive structural trends supporting continued tenant demand in suburban trade areas, we, and the shopping center sector as a whole are in an enviable position with greater resistance to potential adverse economic and capital markets impacts. And further, we also believe Regency benefits from competitive advantages including the exceptional quality of our assets and our people, our liquidity, access to capital, and balance sheet strength that uniquely positions us to be opportunistic while still delivering quality results. Alan?