Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc.

Good afternoon and welcome to the Alexandria Real Estate Equities 2023 fourth quarter and year-end conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Paula Schwartz, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. This conference call contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. The company's actual results might differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements is contained in the company's periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. And now I'd like to turn the call over to Joel Marcus, Executive Chairman and Founder. Please go ahead, Joel.

Thanks, Paula, and welcome, everybody. Consistent with Alexandria's building the future of life-changing innovation in medicine and at the vanguard and the heart of the $5 trillion investment secularly growing industry, want to wish everyone a safe and healthy 2024. On the cover of our press release and supplemental package, we've included the great Jim Collins quote about Alexandria. Alexandria has achieved the three outputs that define a great company, superior results, distinctive impact, and lasting endurance. On superior results, we're very proud to say that we've had a very strong total shareholder return since IPO of over 1500% beating all of the benchmark REIT indices and also almost every other healthcare REIT. On distinctive impact, Alexandria's tenants whom we have supported are responsible for an astounding 50% of the novel FDA approved therapies over the last decade, truly amazing. And our unique one of a kind full continuum of care 115 project in Dayton, Ohio has treated more than 7,000 patients afflicted by opioid addiction and other substance abuses, and has made a dramatic and positive impact on the lives of thousands of people, and we're very proud of that accomplishment. And then moving to lasting endurance, want to congratulate the Alexandria family team on this significant 30-year anniversary milestone of our founding on January 5th, 1994, and who would or could have imagined in 1994 that this fledgling garage startup would have created an entirely new class of real estate at the vanguard and the heart of the life science industry, combating many of the illnesses which afflict our family and friends. So moving on to my take on fourth quarter and year-end 2023, I'd say we have witnessed the unprecedented eight-year bull run of the life science capital markets 2014 through 2021, the longest on record. coupled with the rocket ship funding during COVID. And the market in 2023 has clearly reflected the rationalization of the past decade. With respect to Alexandria in 2023, I would say I would characterize our 2023 overall operating and financial performance as highly resilient. Notable achievements include 11% plus NOI growth year over year, 23 to 22, and of incremental NOI in 2023 with our development capabilities moving that to fruition, which are first in class. We've continued very solid leasing in 2023 with over 4 million plus rentable square feet leased with very respectable cap and cash gap in cash numbers. Two key leases in fourth quarter, which are noted in the supplement, the lease to Novo Nordisk and the lease to Cargo Therapeutics. 2023, we had a remarkable 76% of leasing with existing tenants, and we look forward to a strong 2024 leasing effort and expect a handful of significant leases to mature soon. We expect to make significant progress on our lease expirations and filling vacant space while achieving positive rent growth. 2023, we did a highly competent job of self-funding our growth and will continue to do so in 2024. Our balance sheet and liquidity are in the best shape in the company's history, and we're very proud of that accomplishment. We have given and reconfirmed very solid detailed guidance for 2024. And we believe that the life science industry will continue to benefit, most importantly, from some key macro tailwinds in 2024, including positive M&A activity, declining interest rates, increased innovation, and some great key data readouts. And finally, before I turn it over to Peter to comment on a range of critical issues, comment on the sale of our 42nd Street asset in New York City, leased to Pfizer through mid-year 2024. They previously vacated and moved their headquarters to another site in New York City. We made a strategic decision not to go forward with a contemplated redevelopment of that building to impart to state and local, to challenging state and local governmental policies. We also had a somewhat similar, but not on the scale, reaction back a number of years ago in our successful reduction in our footprint in the city of San Francisco. We've created and grown the commercial life science lab space market in New York City. When we delivered our East Tower and our ACLS mega campus back in 2010, there were only essentially two companies of any significance that were doing commercial life science research in New York City, many academics, but virtually no commercial. Today, there are over 100, but New York City, the life science market there remains here 14 years later, still a small startup market. And we believe that by focusing on our ACLS New York City mega campus, that's the best way for us to continue to be successful. And we have taken this disciplined action out of an abundance of prudence. And with that, let me turn the commentary over to Peter.