Empire State Realty Trust, Inc.

Greetings, and welcome to the Empire State Realty Trust second quarter 2024 earnings 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 zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Heather Houston, Senior Vice President, Chief Counsel, Corporate and Secretary of Thank you. You may begin.

Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us today for Empire State Realty Trust's second quarter 2024 earnings conference call. In addition to the press release distributed yesterday, a quarterly supplemental package with further detail on our results and our latest investor presentation were posted in the investor's section of the company's website at esrtreit.com. On today's call, management's prepared remarks and answers to your questions may contain forward-looking statements as defined in applicable securities laws, including those related to market conditions, property operations, capital expenditures, income expense, financial results, and proposed transactions and events. As a reminder, forward-looking statements represent management's current estimates. They are subject to risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results to differ from those discussed today. Empire State Realty Trust assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement in the future. We encourage listeners to review the more detailed discussions related to these forward-looking statements in the company's filings with the SEC. During today's call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures, such as FFO, Modified and Core FFO, NOI, Same Store Property Cash NOI, EBITDA, and Adjusted EBITDA, which we believe are meaningful in evaluating the company's performance. The definitions and reconciliations of these measures to the most directly comparable gap measures are included in the earnings release and supplemental package, each available on the company's website. Now, I will turn the call over to Tony Malkin, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

Thanks, Heather. Good afternoon to everyone. Yesterday, we reported ESRT's strong second quarter and year-to-date results. we are happy to report continued strong leasing momentum, observatory growth, and capital recycling progress. So let's dive into our discussion of our results for 2Q and our outlook for the rest of 2024. In the second quarter, we delivered once again on office leasing absorption and positive rent spreads. Here's the big leasing story for New York City office. Team ESRT put points on the board again with our 10th consecutive quarter of leased percentage growth. That's 10 quarters in a row, and our 12th consecutive quarter of positive New York City mark-to-market lease spreads. Positive lease absorption, positive lease spreads. New York City is strong, and our modernized, amenitized, energy-efficient properties with indoor environmental quality are in demand. Our observatory performance continues very nicely and was named number one destination attraction in the United States for the third consecutive year and number one destination attraction in the world for the first time in TripAdvisor's Best of the Best. We have contracted to expand the retail component of our NOI with additional retail on the Prime North 6th submarket of the remarkable Williamsburg submarket of Brooklyn. And we maintain a best-in-class balance sheet. In 2024, ESRT is on our front foot, and we are eager to create additional value for our shareholders in the current real estate cycle. Year-to-date, we have leased 640,000 square feet, of which 270,000 square feet were leased in the second quarter. Our Manhattan office portfolio had 170 basis points of positive leased absorption year over year and is now 93.3% leased. Our redevelopment work over the past decade has produced a unique top-of-tier product that tenants want to lease. Please see a new slide on page nine of our investor deck that features great before and after pictures. ESRT's commitment to service and tenant relationships continue to drive strong tenant retention and expansion within our portfolio over time. Since our IPO, and this is a new number, that just continues to grow, we have seen 2.8 million square feet of new leases comprised of tenant expansions. Tenants appreciate that we have the lowest leverage of any New York City REIT, a strong liquidity position, and have addressed all meaningful debt maturities until December 2026. Our balance sheet delivers leases. Year to date, Observatory NOI is up 6% year over year, driven by continued improvement in revenue per caps and increase in visitation. Our NOI per cap towers above the competition. Our global brand awareness has no equal. And as noted, in June, the Empire State Building Observatory Deck was named the number one attraction in the world in TripAdvisor's 2024 Traveler's Choice Awards, Best of the Best Things to Do, and the number one attraction in the United States for the third consecutive year. I promised our observatory team I would take a pie in the face if we achieved this great result. and watch our social channels for that very occurrence soon. See slide 17 of our investor presentation for more on the observatory performance story. Sustainability continues to be a cornerstone of ESRT's business philosophy, and we are the leader in environmental stewardship and healthy building performance. Just last week, the Empire State Building earned the Building and Owners Management Association, BOMA, 2024 International Earth Award. That is a big deal, and we are so happy for the recognition of our team. Please read our 2023 sustainability report to see what leadership looks like. Our track record of successful sustainability partnerships with companies and their employees attracts tenants and contributes to our leasing success. Tom, Christina, and Steve will provide more detail on our progress, and how we plan to accomplish these goals in the balance of 2024. Now I'd like to hand it over to Tom.