Douglas Emmett, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to Douglas Emmett's quarterly earnings call. Today's call is being recorded. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After management's prepared remarks, you will receive instructions for participating in the question and answer session. If you require operator assistance, please press star then zero. I will now turn the conference over to Stuart McElhenney Vice President of Investor Relations for Douglas Emmett.

Thank you. Joining us today on the call are Jordan Kaplan, our President and CEO, Kevin Crummey, our CIO, and Peter Seymour, our CFO. This call is being webcast live from our website and will be available for replay during the next 90 days. You can also find our earnings package at the Investor Relations section of our website. You can find reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures discussed during today's call in the earnings package. During the course of this call, we will make forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs of, assumptions made by, and information currently available to us. Our actual results will be affected by known and unknown risks, trends, uncertainties, and factors that are beyond our control or ability to predict. Although we believe that our assumptions are reasonable, they are not guarantees of future performance and some will prove to be incorrect. Therefore, our actual future results can be expected to differ from our expectations, and those differences may be material. For a more detailed description of some potential risks, please refer to our SEC filings, which can be found in the investor relations section of our website. When we reach the question and answer portion in consideration of others, please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up.

I will now turn the call over to Jordan. Good morning, and thank you for joining us. In 2023, higher interest rates fueled recession fears. As a result, tenants became more cautious, office leasing slowed, and our leasing gains immediately following the pandemic were reversed. Our office occupancy declined, but large fixed rent increases, stable rental rates, and low concessions in our markets mitigated the impact on revenue. Interestingly, Remote work does not seem to have meaningfully reduced demand from our tenants. In addition, due to our typical five-year lease terms, more than two-thirds of our current leases were actually signed after the pandemic began. As Peter will tell you, our 2024 guidance anticipates lower FFO as a result of vacating the Barrington Plaza apartments, the expiration of one large lease, and higher interest costs. Our guidance does not take into account any significant recovery in leasing demand, even though we see the potential for that as tenant confidence increases. I am pleased that shortly after quarter end, one of our largest tenants signed an early renewal for 250,000 square feet. We continue to grow our residential portfolio. We have added almost 1,300 apartments over the last five years in our strongest markets. Despite removing Barrington Plaza from the market, our residential portfolio now provides almost 20% of our rental revenue. In addition, we have not experienced the residential building boom seen in other major markets, so our apartments remain fully leased. That said, the rapid rent growth during the pandemic seems to be normalizing. There are challenges and opportunities ahead. We are prepared for both, as I am confident in the long-term prospects of our markets. Our supply-demand dynamic is among the best in the U.S. Our sub-markets are vibrant, and our office tenants have overwhelmingly returned to work. We have significant cash on hand, meaningful free cash flow, no corporate-level debt, and almost half our office properties remain unencumbered. With that, I will turn the call over to Kevin.