Getty Realty Corporation

Good morning and welcome to Getty Realty's earnings conference call for the first quarter of 2021. This call is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Prior to starting the call, Joshua Dicker, Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary of the company, will read a safe harbor statement and provide information about non-GAAP financial measures. Please go ahead, Mr. Dicker.

Thank you, Operator. I would like to thank you all for joining us for Getty Realty's first quarter earnings conference call. Yesterday afternoon, the company released its financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2021. The Form 8K and earnings release are available in the investor relations section of our website at gettyrealty.com. Certain statements made in the course of this call are not based on historical information and may constitute forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and are subject to trends, events, and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. Examples of forward-looking statements include our 2021 guidance and may also include statements made by management in their remarks and in response to questions, including regarding the company's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, future company operations, and financial performance and the company's acquisition or redevelopment plans and opportunities. We caution you that such statements reflect our best judgment based on factors currently known to us and that actual results could differ materially. I refer you to the company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 and other filings made with the SEC for a more detailed discussion of the risks and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements made today. You should not place reliance on forward-looking statements which reflect our view only as of the date hereof. The company undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements that may be made in the course of this call. Also, please refer to our earnings release for a discussion of our use of non-GAAP financial measures, including our definition of Adjusted Funds from Operation, or AFFO, and our reconciliation of those measures to net earnings. With that, let me turn the call over to Christopher Constant, our Chief Executive Officer.

Thank you, Josh. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our first quarter of 2021 earnings call. With Josh and me on the call today are Mark O'Lear, our Chief Operating Officer, and Brian Dickman, our Chief Financial Officer. I will begin today's call by providing an overview of our performance for the first quarter of 2021, touch on our strategic objectives for the remainder of the year, and then we'll pass the call to Mark and Brian to discuss our portfolio and financial results in more detail. We delivered another quarter of solid results as our net lease portfolio and our tenants' operating businesses continued to display the strength and stability that we saw throughout the prior year. We had no issues with rent collections this quarter, including collecting small amounts of rent, which we agreed to defer in 2020. We view the strength of our collections as a continuation of recent quarter's performance, as our business was quite strong throughout all of last year. The net result of our stable in-place portfolio and the continued execution of our investment strategies was a 5.4% increase in total revenues 8.6% increase in our adjusted funds from operations and a 2.2% increase in our AFFO per share. We also continued to execute on our growth strategy during the first quarter as we invested a total of $30.3 million in a combination of sale lease tax and construction funding for new to industry locations. Our investment activity for the quarter was again focused on both the convenience store and car wash business. In addition, our team continues to source and underwrite numerous opportunities in the convenience and auto-related sectors, and we are encouraged by the number of attractive opportunities we are reviewing in our investment pipelines. As we look ahead, we remain focused on three primary areas. The first is maintaining a healthy portfolio and high rent collections. We are pleased with the continued performance of our C-Store and auto-related tenants, as evidenced by our steady and strong rent coverage ratios. The asset classes included in our portfolio have proven to be resilient and growing despite the impact of the pandemic. With that said, we will continue to monitor tenant health and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our portfolio and the economy. Our second priority as we move through this year is executing our initiatives to grow, evolve, and enhance our portfolio. by making accretive acquisitions of convenience stores and other automotive-related retail assets, by unlocking embedded value through selective redevelopments, and by maximizing the quality of our in-place portfolio through continued active asset management. We are confident in our targeted investment asset classes and believe that acquiring high-quality real estate in metropolitan markets across the country will continue to drive additional shareholder value. Finally, we remain committed to maintaining our stable and flexible balance sheet. We ended the quarter with significant availability on our revolving credit line, and during the quarter we filed the new $250 million ATM program, both of which we believe provide us with access to capital to grow our company while maintaining a well-laddered and flexible capital structure. With that, I will turn the call over to Mark to discuss our portfolio and investment activity.