Brixmor Property Group Inc.

Ladies and Chairman, good morning and welcome to the Bricksmore Property Group Inc. Third Quarter 2024 Awnings 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 and zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Samantha Strong from Investor Relations. Please go ahead, ma'am.

Thank you, Operator, and thank you all for joining Bricksmore's third quarter conference call. With me on the call today are Jim Taylor, Chief Executive Officer, Brian Finnegan, President and Chief Operating Officer, and Steve Gallagher, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial 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 per person. If you have additional questions, please re-queue. At this time, it's my pleasure to introduce Jim Taylor.

Thanks, Sam, and good morning, everyone. This third quarter was yet another quarter of outstanding performance, with increased expectations for 24 and, importantly, excellent visibility on continued growth in 25 and beyond. Collectively, these results that Steve and Brian will talk about in more detail reflect the momentum and durability of our proven plan, the transformation of our portfolio, and the strength of our team. Our outstanding performance is reflected across every observable metric, from record occupancy and rate, continued strength in customer traffic, sector-leading leasing spreads, continued delivery of accretive reinvestments, and a ramping external growth pipeline that continues to cluster our portfolio, while we efficiently harvest and redeploy capital from centers where we see limited upside. We also have proven again, as Brian will discuss, our ability to capitalize on tenant disruption as an opportunity to drive value by bringing in better tenants and better rents. And, of course, we continue to deliver strong bottom-line FFO growth, which we expect to be 5% for the second consecutive year. As noted in our earnings release last night, during the quarter, we implemented a regional realignment that combines our north and midwest regions and moves Texas into our south regions. These changes enable us to realize the benefits of our clustering strategy and the efficiencies of scale across these markets, while also investing in talent closer to the real estate. In conjunction with realignment, we recognize the one-time severance costs of about $2.5 million, which we expect to more than offset in annual savings as we move forward. We are very pleased with the acceleration of our capital recycling efforts. Our patients over the last few years positioned us to now pivot and take advantage of our improved cost of capital and the dry powder we have built, including through $143 million of dispositions year-to-date. During the quarter, we completed $64 million of acquisitions, with $81 million completed year-to-date. In addition to fresh market shops in Hilton Head, which closed during the quarter, we also closed on the acquisition of Acton Plaza. which is located in a very affluent suburb of Boston, and our portfolio there to seven assets. Acton is anchored by a highly productive Roche Brothers grocer, and we are confident we can leverage our position in the market to drive NOI growth at that asset. Importantly, we also have an additional $250 million of value-add acquisitions under control. Look for us to share more about these exciting acquisition opportunities in the coming quarters. At the same time, we've continued our focus on driving value through accretive reinvestment, delivering $33 million at a 10% yield in the quarter, with our in-process pipeline over $500 million at a 9% expected yield. Importantly, these projects highlight our valuable tenant partnerships as we bring in and invest in our centers alongside thriving grocers, including Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Aldi, and Sprouts. We are even more excited as we look to the future. Our signed but not yet commenced pipeline sits at 59 million, even with the commencement of 18 million of ABR in the quarter, of which we'll see the full benefit in the coming quarters. These stacking rent commencements, of which we've commenced 47 million year-to-date, combined with improving contractual rent steps, accretive reinvestment deliveries, a robust forward leasing pipeline, and, of course, our attractive rent bases, provide us unparalleled visibility on continued growth and value creation in 25 and beyond. With that, I'll turn the call over to Brian for a more detailed discussion of our operating results. Brian? Thanks, Jim, and good morning, everyone. Our results this quarter once again demonstrate how our team continues to capitalize on a positive environment for open-air retail, our transformed portfolio, and industry-leading platforms. Supply remains as tight as it's ever been, while demand from a broad range of retailers to be in our centers remains strong. This supply, demand, and balance is enabling our team to not only drive rents across our portfolio, but to upgrade our merchandising mix with the best operators that are looking to expand their open-air footprint. But it's the unique combination of the low rent basis across this portfolio and the track record of our team that truly sets Brixmore apart and is once again evident in our results. That begins with leasing as our team executed 1.1 million square feet of new and renewal leases at a blended cash spread of 22%, including record new small shop base rent of $31 per square foot. The new leasing activity, along with low move outs, led to another quarter of record overall anchor and small shop occupancy at 95.6%, 97.7%, and 91.1% respectively. The best-in-class tenants that drove these results during the quarter included three new grocer leases, highlighted by Trader Joe's backfilling a former Bed Bath Box in suburban Denver, increasing our percentage of ABR from grocer-anchored centers to 81%. We also added new locations with Aldi, Burlington, Boot Barn, Skechers, and Ulta Beauty, while continuing to capitalize on great demand from out-parcel tenants like Chase Bank, Fifth Third Bank, Shake Shack, and Coppin. The team is also well on its way to a creatively back-filling space we're in the process of recapturing, including from Big Lots, with seven boxes already resolved in markets like Nashville, Houston, and Fort Lauderdale at spreads of more than 50%, with great tenants in the grocery, value apparel, fitness, and home furnishing segments. The recapture of these spaces has long been anticipated and a focus internally. and our team is welcoming the opportunity to upgrade merchandising and do it at much higher rents. And while we may see some short-term fluctuation in occupancy as we recapture this space, we're excited with the traffic driving tenants we'll be adding to our centers over the next several quarters, many of which we expect to start paying rent in late 2025 and 2026. Switching to reinvestment, included within the $36 million of new projects we added during the quarter was the expanded scope of the company's first Whole Foods redevelopment in the Philadelphia suburbs, where we were able to capitalize on that lease and a new Barnes & Noble that opened last month to add a new multi-tenant out parcel with Chipotle and First Watch, driving rents in the mid-70s. On the stabilization front, we were excited to open another Sprouts Farmer's Market location in suburban Tampa, in a former bed-bath box which we executed last year at close to three and a half times the prior rent. As we approach the end of the year, we remain as confident as we ever have in our business plan. The list of retailers that want to grow with us continues to expand, which not only gives us good forward visibility on growth, but acknowledges the work our team has done in transforming this portfolio. With that, I'll turn the call over to Steve for a more detailed review of our financial results. Steve?