Empire State Realty Trust, Inc.

Greetings and welcome to the Empire State Realty Trust fourth quarter 2024 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. The question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce Heather Houston, SVP, Chief Counsel, Corporate and Secretary. Thank you. You may begin.

Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us today for Empire State Realty Trust's fourth 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 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 GAAP 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.

Thank you, and welcome back to you, Heather. Congratulations on your new addition, and good afternoon to everyone. we reported ESRT's strong fourth quarter and 2024 results. We are happy to discuss today our continued leasing momentum, observatory execution, and our outlook for 2025. In the fourth quarter, FFO came in above expectations. Our leasing team again put points on the board with approximately 380,000 square feet leased in the quarter. We now have achieved more than three years of consecutive quarterly leased percentage growth and positive New York City office rent spreads. For the year, we leased 1.3 million square feet, up from 982,000 square feet in 2023. Our Manhattan office portfolio is over 94% leased. And that reflects the desirability of our top-of-tier, modernized, amenitized, well-located, energy-efficient, sustainability-leading portfolio. Return to office is no longer a question, as leasing momentum in the Manhattan market has told the story for itself. The need to provide a good workspace is a boon for ESRT. And the price gap between brand-new offices and our product has enabled us to raise the rents and reduce concessions. TripAdvisor's number one attraction in the world, the observatory, continued its performance with year-over-year growth in fourth quarter and full-year 2024 net operating income that exceeds 2019 levels. As this benchmark has been passed, we will no longer refer to our performance relative to 2019 results. Our focus remains to provide visitors with an unmatched customer experience to drive top-line growth, manage expenses, and continue to build exceptional brand awareness. In 2024, the Empire State Building had over 485 billion global media impressions, an increase of 25% year-over-year. and generated globally over $950 million in advertising value equivalency. We enter 2025 on our front foot. The leasing environment in New York City continues to benefit our product and price point. In fact, it has allowed us to increase rents and reduce free rent. The office sector statistics illustrate the results of haves and have-nots. The haves are buildings like ours, which have been modernized, are well located near mass transit, are sustainability leaders, have great amenities, and are owned by a financially stable landlord. Our product meets the demand of informed, better credit tenants. While it may be bumpy with our reduced inventory of space to lease, we expect positive occupancy absorption again for the full year 2025. Our observatory deck remains the leader. Our average check size per visitor increased year over year, and we expect continued growth in 2025 as we introduce a new dynamic pricing model designed to monetize high demand times through the day. We are still below overall 2019 levels of volume and have room for upside as visitation levels improve. We continue to scour the market for additional transaction opportunities and are prepared to act when we see opportunities to enhance growth, either through expansion or trade-out of our existing portfolio. The maintenance of a best-in-class balance sheet allows ESRT tremendous flexibility to lease and transact opportunistically and to create additional value for our shareholders. Our entire organization remains laser-focused on the company's five priorities to lease space, sell tickets to the observatory, manage our balance sheet, identify growth opportunities, and achieve our sustainability goals. Tom, Christina, and Steve will provide more detail on our progress and how we plan to accomplish these goals in 2025. Tom?