Easterly Government Properties, Inc.

Greetings. Welcome to the Easterly Government Properties first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a list-nulling mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session between the company's research analyst and Easterly's management team. To ask a question during the session, analysts will need to press star 11 on their telephone. They will then hear an automated message advising their hand is raised. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Lindsey Winterhalter, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning. Before the call begins, please note that certain statements made during this conference call may include statements that are not historical facts and are considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Although the company believes that its expectations as reflected in any forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that these expectations will be attained or achieved. Furthermore, actual results may differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements and will be affected by a variety of risks and factors that are beyond the company's control, including, without limitation, those contained in the company's most recent Form 10-K filed with the FCC and in its other FCC filings. The company assumes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements. Additionally, on this conference call, the company may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures, such as funds from operation, core funds from operation, funds from operation as adjusted, and cash available for distribution. You can find a tabular reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable current GAAP numbers in the company's earnings release and separate supplemental information package on the investor relations page of the company's website at ir.easterlyrate.com. I would now like to turn the conference call over to Darrell Crate, Chairman of Easterly Government Properties.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for this first quarter conference call. Today, in addition to Lindsay, I'm also joined by Bill Trimble, the company's CEO, and Megan Bevere, the company's CFO and COO. These are transformative times in the real estate market. The office sector is under pressure, plagued by the uncertainty surrounding work patterns of the future. Our decision to concentrate on mission critical agencies differentiates us from the largest risks facing the office sector. And we're pleased with how Easterly is positioned to create and protect value for our shareholders. We are also grateful to have built a partnership with a capital partner that shares the same long-term vision for value creation. The forward dynamic is becoming clear and we are well positioned to grow. Our development opportunities are moving forward at our Atlanta FDA project, as well as our pipeline of new potential projects. We also see that there may be development projects that experience some distress over the coming 18 months, as liquidity dries up for developers with over-levered balance sheets. Lastly, recall in 2017 when our bullseye acquisition strategy was expanded to include the Department of Veterans Affairs and its recently delivered mission-critical outpatient facilities. We welcomed this new asset class while remaining true to our goal of delivering value to shareholders through government stability. Since then, we've kept a close eye on other opportunities, both foreign and domestic, and today the Easterly team is at the end of another important study period. We have used our time while seller expectations readjust to identify and underwrite facilities that share the same important attributes and characteristics of our current portfolio. Our bullseye universe will grow with the discipline our investors have come to expect from us. And there's more to come, and we look forward to keeping you posted, but we believe the growth trajectory at Easterly is changing for the better. This will not happen overnight, as nothing with the government ever does. but we are being deliberate about seeking to create value for our shareholders over the medium and long term. In closing, we're proud to have built a portfolio that is comprised of buildings early in their life with long-dated leases with exceptional credit quality. With Bullseye Properties, we're uniquely positioned to have that strong visibility to future cash flows for many quarters to come, which in turn provides high-quality income to our shareholders through dividends. With that, I'll turn the call over to Bill to get further insights into our portfolio.