Retail Opportunity Investments Corp.

Good day and welcome to Retail Opportunity Investment's first quarter 2023 conference call. Participants are currently in a listen-only mode. Following the company's prepared remarks, the call will be opened up for questions. Now I would like to introduce Lori Sneave, the company's Chief Accounting Officer.

Thank you. Before we begin, please note that certain matters which we will discuss on today's call are forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. These forward-looking statements involve risks and other factors which can cause actual results to differ significantly from future results that are expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Participants should refer to the company's filings with the SEC, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K, to learn more about these risks and other factors. In addition, we will be discussing certain non-GAAP financial results on today's call. Reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial results to GAAP results can be found in the company's quarterly supplemental, which is posted on our website. Now I'll turn the call over to Stuart Tans, the company's Chief Executive Officer.

Stuart? Thank you, Lori, and good morning, everyone. Here with Lori and me today is Michael Haynes, our Chief Financial Officer, and Rich Schovel, our Chief Operating Officer. As reported in our press release, Lori Sneave is retiring in a couple of weeks. Lori and I have worked together for over 20 years, first at Plan Pacific and then for the past 11 years here at ROIC. I am truly grateful for her invaluable contributions, wisdom, guidance, and leadership over the years. She will be missed by everyone at ROIC, and all of us wish her the very best in her retirement. With Lori retiring, Lauren Silvera will become Chief Accounting Officer. Lauren joined ROIC back in 2013 as the company's corporate controller and has been an important part of the ROIC team for the past decade. Mike Rich and I look forward to working with Lauren in her new role. Turning to our first quarter results, our grocery-anchored portfolio and tenant base continue to perform very well. In fact, in terms of leasing activity, notwithstanding our portfolio being essentially full, at over 98% leased at the start of 2023, we achieved the most active quarter in the company's history, leasing a new quarterly record amount of space and driving our portfolio lease rate to an all-time high at quarter end. Additionally, we again achieved solid releasing rent growth. In fact, it was our 45th consecutive quarter over 11 years in a row of achieving releasing rent growth on both new leases and renewals. Speaking of renewals, we post our most active quarter by far in terms of renewing tenants, including longtime valued anchor tenants, as well as a broad range of strong non-anchor tenants. Many of our tenants continue to reach out to us early to execute renewal options with a growing number looking to extend past the typical five-year option period. We think the renewal activity is indicative of the strength and long-term appeal of our grocery anchor portfolio with its strong location attributes and demographics. It is also indicative of the strength of our tenant base today. Dampening our record-setting leasing, during the first quarter we had several expenses that impacted FFO and same center NOI. Most notably, we incurred an inordinate amount of snow removal costs, primarily as a result of the unusual severe snowstorms up in the Seattle area back in July and February. We also incurred a one-time expense during the first quarter related to concluding an open item with a seller of a property that we had previously acquired. Notwithstanding these expenses, we remain on track in terms of our guidance for the year. Along with working to enhance our portfolio through our leasing initiatives, we were also working to enhance our financial flexibility, especially in light of the recent banking turmoil. During the first quarter, we extended the maturity date of our credit facility. While the facility wasn't scheduled to mature until next year, we extended the maturity date out to four years from now with the flexibility to extend it by as much as five years. Additionally, watching the interest rates swap market closely during the first quarter, we swapped top of our floating rate term loan, reducing our floating rate debt considerably. Now I'll turn the call over to Michael Haynes, our CFO, to take you through the details. Mike?