Brixmor Property Group Inc.

Hello, and welcome to the Bricksmore Property Group second quarter 2022 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Stacey Slater. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator, and thank you all for joining Bricksmoor's second quarter conference call. With me on the call today are Jim Taylor, Chief Executive Officer and President, and Angela Ahman, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, as well as Mark Horgan, Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer, and Brian Finnegan, Executive Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer, who will be available for Q&A. Before we begin, let me remind everyone that some of our comments today may contain forward-looking statements that are based on certain assumptions and are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties, as described in our SEC filings, and actual future results may differ materially. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. Also, we will refer today to certain non-GAAP financial measures, Further information regarding our use of these measures and reconciliations of these measures to our GAAP results are available in the earnings release and supplemental disclosure on the investor relations portion of our website. Given the number of participants on the call, we kindly ask that you limit your questions to one or two per person. If you have additional questions regarding the quarter, please re-queue. At this time, it's my pleasure to introduce Jim Taylor.

Thank you, Stacey, and thanks to each of you for joining our second quarter call. Our results this quarter once again underscore the transformative and accelerating impact of our value-added plan, as well as the outstanding execution of the Bricksmore team. Our progress is evident in nearly every observable metric, including our robust leasing volumes and spreads. Under Brian and the leasing team's leadership, we executed nearly 2 million feet of new and renewal leases at a cash rent of $18.79 and a blended spread of 14.6%, including 870,000 square feet of new leases at a comparable spread of 34.3%. We continue to attract the very best retailers to our centers at growing rents, which Brian will provide some commentary on in our Q&A session. It's also evident in our continued growth in ABR. Our activity this quarter drove another post-IPO record for our overall average in-place ABR, which increased to $15.90 a foot. And importantly, we remained disciplined with capital as we achieved an average net effective rent of $16.91 a foot on our new leases. Our progress is evident in our sequential and year-over-year growth in both build and lease occupancy. we set yet another record for small shop occupancy for the portfolio of 87.7%. And overall occupancy grew to 92.5%, just 30 basis points shy of our all-time record. And there's a lot more room for us to run there as we deliver our value-added pipeline, which currently drags our overall occupancy by 150 basis points. And importantly, it's also evident in our strong same-store NOI growth and bottom line FFO growth. While we continue to realize the benefit of strong prior period collections, it's important to note that most of our growth was driven by our top line revenue growth of 4.3%, which reflects the accelerating momentum of our value-added plan. Now, those are indeed fantastic results, as is our increase to guidance for the balance of the year that Angela will cover in a minute. But what about 23 and beyond? As we look forward and consider the natural moderation of prior period collections, as well as the potential for economic disruption, we remain very pleased and confident in our strong visibility of continued growth, as reflected in our $53.8 million of ABR and leases signed but not commenced that will commence through 2024, our forward new lease legal pipeline of $50 million of additional leases under negotiations, Our real-time volume of new deals coming into our leasing committee for commencement in 23 and beyond. Our current and ongoing discussions with tenants to accommodate their store plans in our centers as retailers try to grow their most profitable channel. And it's reflected in the continued real-time growth in our traffic to our centers versus 19, which is averaged in the mid to high single digits. relative growth that I believe leads the sector, but importantly reflects the strength of our centers. In addition to these visible growth drivers, we continue to deliver tremendous value through the ongoing execution and delivery of our reinvestment pipeline, as evidenced by another $30 million of reinvestment delivered during the quarter at an incremental return of 11%. Parenthetically, our gross returns are much higher. and we're pleased that we have another $400 million of reinvestment underway at an incremental 9% return. Phenomenal execution by Bill, Haag, and the redev and construction teams to continue to deliver these projects on budget, even with supply chain disruption. And as highlighted in the past, these investments generate follow-on value beyond their ROI through increased occupancy and market rates at the centers impacted. In fact, for our stabilized redevelopments, Small shop occupancy has increased over 600 basis points versus one year before project start, and the in-place market rate increased over 20%. Our value-add strategy, which demonstrated its resilience and outperformance through the pandemic, positions us very well to outperform not only in stronger market environments, but weaker ones as well. From an external growth standpoint, we continue to source centers where we can drive strong returns through leveraging our value-add platforms. Those opportunities include Lake Point Village, a Whole Foods-anchored asset in Houston, which, with our Braves Heights Centers, represents the number one in two-volume Whole Foods stores in the entire Houston MSA. Importantly, Lake Point Village also presents highly visible growth opportunities through the lease of a small shop vacancy, which the leasing team is already driving, as well as the addition of highly accretive out parcels. Great job by Mark and team. In the coming months, given the volatile capital markets, we expect to be a net seller as we found strong demand for our smaller non-core assets. We also plan to keep our acquisition pattern dry should the volatile capital market conditions lead to even more opportunistic pricing of assets that fit our value-add strategy. In that regard, I'm pleased that we have over $1.2 billion of liquidity, including a $200 million undrawn term loan, and we have no maturities until 24. Great job by Angela and team managing our balance sheet. As I said at the outset, I'm grateful for how this Brixmore team continues to execute and deliver upon our purpose of creating and owning centers that truly are the center of the communities we serve. And as we detail in our recently published corporate responsibility report, we are executing our plan in a manner that is environmentally sustainable and socially responsible. With that, I'll turn the call over to Angela for a more detailed discussion of our results, our outlook, and our liquidity.