Brixmor Property Group Inc.

Greetings and welcome to the Bricksmore Property Group first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief 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. It is now my pleasure to introduce your hosts, Stacey Slater. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, Operator, and thank you all for joining Bricksmore's first quarter conference call. With me on the call today are Jim Taylor, Chief Executive Officer and President, Angela Ahman, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Brian Finnegan, Executive Vice President, Chief Revenue Officer. Mark Horgan, Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer, will also 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, Stacy, and good morning, everyone. Our results this quarter once again underscore the proven tenant demand for our well-located centers, and most importantly, the outstanding execution of the Bricksmore team in not only delivering growing value for our stakeholders, but positioning this platform for continued outperformance. Highlights for the quarter include our growth in overall occupancy to 94%, a record for the company, in an occupancy level that not only grew on a year-over-year basis, but also sequentially during what is typically a seasonally low quarter. Our continued momentum in small shop occupancy as well, which grew to 89.3%, another all-time record for the company. Our new and renewal leasing spreads of 43% and 14%, respectively. Our average rate on new and renewal leases is over $22 a foot. which grew our average in-place rent to $16.46, showing we have room to run while remaining disciplined with the capital to drive that growth. Our growth and expense recoveries, even while delivering a higher operational standard of excellence to our tenants. Our delivery of another $14 million of reinvestment during the quarter at an incremental return of 10%, bringing our total delivery since we began to $885 million at an incremental 11%. and our successful harvesting of $125 million of lower growth non-core assets at a blended cap rate well inside our implied cap rate. Bottom line, we are proud of how our durable value-added business plan continues to deliver, with same-store NOI and FFO growth during the quarter of 4.9% and 3.5% respectively, results that I believe will compare favorably within the sector. as we all face declining prior period rent collections, tenant disruption, and higher interest rates. Importantly, Bricksmore is proving real-time the quality of our portfolio, as well as the cumulative momentum of our value-added execution. In just a few minutes, Brian will provide some additional color on our robust leasing activity, our progress on recaptured space, and the continued strong demand from growing tenants. And then Angela will provide additional color on our operating results, our strong and liquid balance sheet, as well as our improved outlook and guidance for the balance of this year. I'd like to focus on the unparalleled visibility our execution provides on forward growth, particularly in an environment of increased disruption that we've been preparing for the last several quarters. That visibility begins with the $60 million of AVR that we've commenced over the past year. for which we will get the full benefit of in the coming 12 months. Second, we have our signed but not commenced lease pipeline, which has $56 million of ABR that will commence as Angela will detail in a minute over the next several quarters. Third, we have nearly $38 million of leases in our forward new leasing pipeline. And finally, we have an even larger amount of ABR under LOI. This cumulative activity will propel growth that we believe will be at the top of the sector for the next several quarters, even through much more significant levels of disruption. And please remember, the spreads we continue to achieve underscore the competitive advantage of our attractive rent basis, allowing us to unlock value as we execute our plan. Importantly, this leasing momentum is also driving our value accretive reinvestment pipeline. which currently stands at $360 million at an incremental return of 9% and a gross return several hundred basis points higher. Not only are we creating huge value even in a higher interest rate environment, we enjoy the flywheel effect of follow-on small shop leasing, growing rate, and lower applied cap rates that the center has impacted. Lastly, we have the free cash flow to fund our reinvestment pipelines, on a deleveraging basis for the next several years without having access to capital markets. Simply put, we benefit from an all-weather strategy of delivering growth. We also enjoy a strong balance sheet with debt EBITDA 6.1 times, a very well-laddered debt maturity schedule, and over $1.2 billion of capacity. Looking forward, I believe this strong balance sheet position may unlock some interesting acquisition opportunities as private asset-level borrowers face refinancing capital requirements in an environment of constrained liquidity. But importantly, as always, expect us to remain disciplined, as our self-funded internal growth strategy already provides us with visibility on achieving top-of-the-sector growth. With that, I'll turn the call over to Brian for a more detailed look at our leasing activity and outlook. Brian?