Regency Centers Corporation

Greetings and welcome to Regency Center Corporation's second quarter 2024 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. A 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. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Christy McElroy. Thank you. You may begin.

Good morning, and welcome to Regency Center's second quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Joining me today are Lisa Palmer, President and Chief Executive Officer, Mike Moss, Chief Financial Officer, Alan Roth, East Region President and Chief Operating Officer, and Nick Wibbenmeyer, West Region President and Chief Investment Officer. 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 with 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. 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. Finally, given the number of participants we have on the call today, we kindly and respectfully ask that you limit your questions to one and then rejoin the queue if you have any additional follow-up questions. This will allow everyone who'd like to ask a question an opportunity to do so. Lisa?

Thank you, Christine. Good morning, everyone. We had another great quarter driven by continued strong operating fundamentals and active and prudent capital allocation. While we recognize that the macro environment remains uncertain with mixed economic signals and inflationary pressures on consumers, our business continues to show strength. Consumers may be shopping with a new level of price awareness, but that can be a benefit to our high quality centers and our high quality tenants given a focus on necessity, service, convenience and value. Sales and traffic trends remain steady and leasing demand continues to be strong. We are taking advantage of this solid and consistent tenant demand to drive rent growth and leasing activity with strong new and existing tenants. This is evidenced in our record shop lease rate and our sizeable SNO pipeline. This will provide momentum and lease commencement into 2025. Our continued leasing success is a testament to the strength of Regency's high quality grocery anchored centers and strong suburban trade areas with limited new and available supply. Our value creation pipeline, also supported by the strong tenant demand and focus on high quality assets in demographically compelling areas, is one of the most exciting aspects of our business today and one that truly sets Regency apart. Our team continues to make meaningful progress sourcing new projects with another $250 million of expected starts in 2024, as well as executing on and delivering our existing pipeline. The strength of Regency's platform and ability to self-fund our program with free cash flow have enabled our long track record of success. We also continue to acquire shopping centers when able to, that are accretive to our quality growth and earnings. As previously disclosed, we acquired Compo Shopping Center in Westport, Connecticut in May, and we are currently under contract to purchase an additional asset in the Northeast. I can't stress enough the importance of our balance sheet strength and liquidity position in providing us with an ability to be opportunistic across the spectrum of capital allocation strategies, which is why in addition to sourcing select high-quality, high-growth acquisition opportunities at upper single-digit IRRs, we were also able to take advantage of a meaningful disconnect in public and private market values this past quarter with the execution of a $200 million share repurchase. As many of you are well aware, along with our standards of quality and balance sheet strength, corporate responsibility is also a foundational strategy for Regency. This past quarter, we published our annual corporate responsibility report, highlighting our 2023 achievements, as well as our future goals and strategy. Our best in class program is evident in the progress we've made toward our goals, but also in the recognition we received from third parties, including ranking sixth overall and first in the real estate industry for Newsweek's most responsible companies list, and our continued recognition by Gresby for sustainability and disclosure leadership in our sector. I appreciate the efforts of all Regency team members in helping us achieve these important accomplishments. In closing, now that we are more than halfway through the year, with the strength in leasing activity and results that we've seen thus far, we are raising our eye level and our full year guidance range. Mike will go into more detail, but we've been able to move the needle on several fronts, including same property NOI, development activity, and accretive capital allocation. I want to reiterate the importance of Regency's strategic competitive advantages which position us favorably to continue to outperform over the long term as we have historically. These advantages include our high quality assets and strong trade areas with favorable demographics, the strength of our operating platform and experience and talent of our people, a value creation pipeline that gives us more levers to drive growth, and the balance sheet strength that allows us to opportunistically allocate capital which we did very strategically in the second quarter. Alan?