CubeSmart

And welcome to the Keep Smart fourth quarter 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all lines are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If at any time during this call you need assistance, please press star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on Friday, March 1st, 2024. I would now like to turn the conference over to Josh Schutzer, Vice President of Finance. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Joanna. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to CubeSmart's fourth quarter 2023 earnings call. Participants on today's call include Chris Marr, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Tim Martin, Chief Financial Officer. Our prepared remarks will be followed by a Q&A session. In addition to our earnings release, which was issued yesterday evening, supplemental operating and financial data is available under the Investor Relations section of the company's website at www.cubesmart.com. The company's remarks will include certain forward-looking statements regarding earnings and strategy that involve risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause the actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements. The risks and factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from forward-looking statements are provided in documents the company furnishes to or files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically the Form 8-K we filed this morning together with our earnings release filed with the Form 8-K. and the risk factor section of the company's annual report on Form 10-K. In addition, the company's remarks include reference to non-GAAP measures. A reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP measures can be found in the fourth quarter financial supplement posted on the company's website at www.cubasmart.com. I will now turn the call over to Chris.

Thanks, Josh. Good morning, everybody. Last evening, we provided our solid operating results for the fourth quarter of 2023 and introduced our expectations and guidance on our key metrics for 2024 tim martin will provide more color and insight on both of those in his prepared remarks at a very high level operating trends have stabilized when comparing to the volatility that we experienced in the first three quarters of 2023. But price sensitivity for new customers remains elevated given the tight housing market and a particularly challenging competitive environment. Once customers enter the portfolio, they remain strong as they have elevated lengths of stay and continue to accept ECRIs and our customer credit metrics remain in line with pre-pandemic levels. Our urban markets have outperformed the faster deceleration of our Sunbelt markets, as the lower beta nature of these markets has continued to support steadier performance. A strong demographic profile for our portfolio should support performance through any phase of the cycle, as New York City remains the bright spot in our portfolio with strong performance over the last year now making it our highest growth market the transaction market remains quiet as the recent rise in rates has kept the cost of capital elevated and we continue to have a bit of a bid-ask spread between seller expectations and our expectations our investment grade balance sheet is in excellent shape no material maturities, minimal exposure to floating rate debt, and significant leverage capacity, which we believe positions us to transact as attractive opportunities return to the market. Thanks for joining the call today, and I will turn it over to Tim for additional commentary. Tim?