AvalonBay Communities, Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Avalon Bay Community's fourth quarter 2020 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following remarks by the company, we will conduct a question and answer session. You may enter the question and answer queue at any time during this call by pressing star 1. If your question has been answered or you wish to remove yourself from the queue, please press star 2. If you're using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before asking your question, and we ask that you refrain from typing and have your cell phones turned off during the question and answer session. Your host for today's conference call is Mr. Jason Riley, Vice President of Investor Relations. Mr. Riley, you may begin your conference.

Thank you, Allie, and welcome to Avalon Bay Community's fourth quarter 2020 earnings conference call. Before we begin, please note that forward-looking statements may be made during this discussion. There are a variety of risks and uncertainties associated with forward-looking statements, and actual results may differ materially. There's a discussion of these risks and uncertainties in yesterday afternoon's press release, as well as in the company's Form 10-K and Form 10-Q filed with the SEC. As usual, this press release does include an attachment with definitions and reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures and other terms, which may be used in today's discussion. The attachment is also available on our website at www.avalonbay.com forward slash earnings. And we encourage you to refer to this information during the review of our operating results and financial performance. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Tim Naughton, Chairman and CEO of Avalon Bay Communities, for his remarks. Tim?

Thanks, Jason, and welcome to our Q4 call. With me today are Kevin O'Shea, Sean Breslin, Matt Bierenbaum, and for the first time, Ben Shaw. Shaw and Kevin and I will provide commentary on the slides that we posted last night, and all of us will be available for Q&A afterwards. Before turning to our prepared remarks, I'd like to take a minute to introduce Ben, who many of you have met either during his previous job or since the announcement in early December. Most recently, Ben served as the CEO and President of Ceritage Growth Properties, where he led the company from its inception and oversaw the transformation of the company from a portfolio of Sears stores into a mix of shopping, dining, entertainment, and mixed-use destinations. Prior to Ceritage, Ben was CEO of Rouse Properties, an owner of regional shopping malls, and before that, he was SVP with the Bernado Realty Trust. Ben brings a deep background in developing, operating, and activating real estate, in addition to a broad experience in many of the markets in which we do business. This is only Ben's second week on the job, so he'll likely have a limited role on the call today, but I thought I'd give him the floor for a couple minutes just to share a few comments. Ben?