Extra Space Storage Inc

Good afternoon. My name is Jason, and I am your conference operator today. Welcome to the Extra Space Storage second quarter conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session, and instructions will follow at that time. If anyone should require assistance during the conference, please press star, then zero on your touchtone telephone. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to our host, Mr. Jeff Norman, the Vice President of Investor Relations. You may begin the conference, sir.

Thank you, Jason. Welcome to Extra Space Storage's second quarter 2019 earnings call. In addition to our press release, we have furnished unaudited supplemental financial information on our website. Please remember that management's prepared remarks and answers to your questions will may contain forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. Actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied by our forward-looking statements due to risks and uncertainties associated with the company's business. These forward-looking statements are qualified by the cautionary statements contained in the company's latest filings with the SEC, which we encourage our listeners to review. Forward-looking statements represent management's estimates as of today, July 31, 2019. The company assumes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements because of changing market conditions or other circumstances after the date of this conference call. I'd now like to turn the call over to Joe Margolis, Chief Executive Officer.

Thank you, Jeff. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us for our second quarter call and for your interest in extra space storage. We had a solid quarter with positive rate growth and healthy occupancy in a competitive summer leasing season. Same store revenue and NOI both increased by 3.9 percent, exceeding our estimates. This property outperformance contributed to better than expected FFO growth of 6.1 percent, which was two cents above the top end of our guidance. We are pleased with our results in the first half of the year, and the success our team and best-in-class platform have had mitigating the impact felt from new supply. In order to achieve this performance, we increased our advertising spend significantly on a year-over-year basis, and we do not expect the increased advertising spend to abate anytime soon. As anticipated, we have seen the timing of expected deliveries slip on many developments. As these delayed projects deliver and begin their lease up, we expect additional moderation in the back half of the year. However, while the market will continue to be very competitive, large operators with diversified portfolios and sophisticated systems, like extra space storage, are best positioned to navigate the supply cycle. We continue to actively explore external growth opportunities that present attractive risk-reward metrics. Widely marketed acquisitions are still very expensive. However, we continue to find success acquiring off-market acquisitions through long-standing relationships. During the quarter, we purchased a non-marketed 11-property portfolio in a joint venture structure for $228 million. We also acquired one certificate of occupancy project and completed one development for a total investment by the company of $57 million. We have also executed innovative capital light opportunities to enhance shareholder returns. In the quarter, we closed our first net lease transaction with WP Carey, which will include 36 total assets, including five New York City assets that are new to our platform. We are gaining traction in our bridge lending program, and our third-party management platform continues to see significant growth. In the quarter, we added 48 managed stores, bringing our six-month total to 94 stores. Between our third-party program and our JV platform, we now manage 838 stores with a strong pipeline for the back half of the year. I would now like to turn the time over to Scott.