Equity Lifestyle Properties, Inc.

Good day, everyone, and thank you all for joining us to discuss Equity Lifestyle Properties' third quarter 2022 results. Our featured speakers today are Marguerite Nader, our president and CEO, Paul Seavey, our executive vice president and CFO, and Patrick Waite, our executive vice president and COO. In advance of today's call, management released earnings. Today's call will consist of opening remarks and a question and answer session with management relating to the earnings released. For those who would like to participate in the question and answer session, management asks that you limit yourself to two questions. so everyone who would like to participate has ample opportunity. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. Certain matters discussed during this conference call may contain forward-looking statements in the meaning of the federal securities laws. Our forward-looking statements are subject to certain economic risk and uncertainty. The company assumes no obligation to update or supplement any statements that become untrue because of subsequent events. In addition, during today's call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures as defined by SEC regulations Reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to comparable GAAP financial measures are included in our earnings release, our supplemental information, and our historical SEC filings. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Marguerite Nader, our President and CEO.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. Yesterday afternoon, we issued our supplemental and provided additional information about the impact of Hurricane Ian, which made landfall in Florida 20 days ago. Our team members, some of whom suffered personal losses from the storm, have worked tirelessly to restore our properties and assist our residents and guests. The results of the cleanup and restoration efforts over the last 20 days are nothing less than extraordinary. We have prioritized the safety of employees, residents, and guests as we began the cleanup efforts, in some cases hampered by a lack of utility service. The strength of our infrastructure and the homes in our communities, in particular newer homes, was evident in Florida after the storm. Over the years, we have developed a detailed hurricane preparation plan, which includes significant advanced planning. As soon as a storm passes, our property cleanup and restoration efforts commence. We have a coordinated program, including having vendors on call to arrive at communities as soon as a storm passes to mitigate additional damage and return to normal operations as quickly as possible. In just 20 days, we have made significant progress towards cleaning up and restoring our communities. We see the best in our homeowners, with neighbors helping neighbors. After the storm, we have seen an increase in customer traffic driven by displaced residents as well as emergency workers looking for a location to spend the winter months. Our teams will continue to work with those impacted to accommodate those customers at our RV parks across Florida. We believe we have adequate insurance, subject to applicable deductibles, to cover the expenses associated with Hurricane Ian, including business interruption insurance. The timing of payment under business interruption insurance may result in revenue recognized in subsequent periods. We will have a better estimate of the timing of the proceeds in the coming months. I want to thank the Florida teams for protecting our communities and supporting our residents during this time. Patrick will provide additional details on restoration efforts at the conclusion of my comments. Turning to the results for the third quarter, we delivered strong normalized FFO growth of 8.5%. Our MH revenue grew by 5.9%. Over the last several years, we have seen increased demand for owning a home in our properties. Our rental pool is at the lowest point since 2010, with 4.3% of our occupancy comprised of rental homes. Our portfolio is comprised of 96% homeowners. This quality of our resident base is important. Following storm events, we see our resident base quickly addressing any damage to their homes caused by the storm. Our RV revenue performed in line with our expectations with a growth of 8.6% seen in annual revenue and a decline of 2% in seasonal and transient RV revenue. This decline is a result of the decreased number of available transient sites after being converted to an annual site over the last year. Our first-time transient customer returning from last year showed a desire to strengthen their relationship with us, with nearly 20% of those returning becoming an annual, seasonal, or member. Inflationary pressures, specifically with respect to utility costs, negatively impacted our performance in the quarter. Paul will provide more detail on the specific drivers for the increase in our expenses. During the quarter, we sold 331 new homes. Over 95% of these new home buyers were cash buyers. This investment is consistent with our entire portfolio as the vast majority of our residents have made a capital commitment to live in our communities. The commitment from our homeowners results in pride of ownership and a long-term resident base. Turning to 2023, we anticipate continued demand into next year. Within our MH portfolio, by the end of October, we anticipate sending 2023 rent increase notices to approximately 51% of our MH residents. These rent increase notices have an average growth rate in the range of 6.2 to 6.6%. For our RV portfolio, we have set annual rates for 95% of our annual sites. The RV annual rate increases have an average growth rate of 7.6% to 8%. Our snowboard residents and guests are anxious to head back to Florida and Arizona for the season. Our teams are prepared for their arrival and will continue to focus on providing outstanding customer service. I will now turn it over to Patrick to provide an operational update.

Thank you, Marguerite, and good morning, everyone. During the two weeks following Hurricane Ian making landfall, Everett, Florida, visited properties impacted by the storm. Our ELS team members are extraordinarily committed to cleanup and restoration efforts to return the properties to their pre-storm condition. The majority of our properties suffered limited damage, and to the extent they were closed for the storm, they reopened shortly after the storm passed. Several properties that were closer to the center of the storm suffered damage from high winds and flooding or storm surge. After a storm event, the primary cleanup efforts are focused on debris removal, and by pre-staging vendors to move in as soon as possible after the storm, property level response was quickly underway at all accessible All restoration efforts of properties are hampered by road or bridge access not yet restored to full capacity. And in some cases, partial power or the lack of power at the property. We have six properties where we need some additional time to estimate the time frame for reopening. Two of those properties are located in areas accessible by bridges. Given damages caused by hurricanes, our early access to those properties was limited. We now have access to those properties from the mainland over restored bridges. Our storm response included ELS teams providing assistance to residents and guests, bottled water and food were prepared and served by our ELS team, as well as coordinating local restaurants, food trucks, and resident groups. Through our Make a Difference program, we made donations to groups and organizations supporting our community. We also work to coordinate with local, county, and state response on the ground whenever necessary. And for residents who suffered hardship as a result of the storm, our charity, Consider Others, provides financial grants to help residents and guests through difficult times. We are focused on restoring our properties and in the process assisting members of our ELS team and residents and guests of our communities who experience losses from this storm. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of the ELS team members especially the property team, supported residents, guests, and each other through the challenges of hurricane. I'll now turn it over to Paul to walk through our results.