Getty Realty Corporation

in their remarks and in response to questions, including regarding the company's future company operations, future 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 events or results could differ materially. I refer you to the company's annual report on Form 10-K and for the year ended December 31, 2021, and our subsequent 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 undue 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 updated definition of adjusted funds from operations 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 earnings call for the fourth quarter of the Joining us on the call today are Mark O'Lear, our Chief Operating Officer, and Brian Dickman, our Chief Financial Officer. I will lead off today's call by providing commentary on our financial results and investment activities for both the fourth quarter and the full year ended December 31st. I will also discuss the company's strong position heading into 2023, and as usual, Mark will then take you through our portfolio, and Brian will further discuss our financial results and guidance. 2022 was a unique but successful year for Getty Realty. Our financial results exceeded the high end of our guidance range, and we continue to make progress towards two of our other key objectives, which are to grow and further diversify our portfolio. Beyond being proud of our overall accomplishments, I am particularly pleased that the team at Getty remained disciplined throughout the year as we worked through volatile capital markets in a transaction market that was slow to adapt. That patience was rewarded as we ended the year with a very active and successful fourth quarter. For the year and quarter, our base rental income grew 6% and 7.5% respectively, and our adjusted funds from operations or AFFO per share increased 1.9% and 2.9% respectively. For the year, we invested $157.5 million in 52 properties, including more than $83 million in the fourth quarter. Our investments in 2022 reflect our continued emphasis on diversifying our portfolio by property type, geography, and tenant, as we leverage our expertise to invest in high-quality real estate across convenience and automotive retail sectors. In 2022, more than 70% of our investments were in property types other than convenience stores, including express car washes, auto service centers, and drive-through quick service restaurants. We also expanded our presence in a number of attractive high-growth metro areas, including Austin, Charleston, Charlotte, Las Vegas, and San Antonio, and continued to expand our tenant roster through both our acquisitions and redevelopment programs. In 2022, we increased our activity with Refuel, a high-growth C-Store operator, and Go Car Wash and Splash Car Wash, two of the best and largest operators in the business. and we look forward to continuing to expand with these brands in 2023. We also completed redevelopment projects throughout the year and added Chase Bank and Murphy USA as tenants by completing value-add projects in the Boston and Dallas-Fort Worth MSAs. As we look ahead, we are excited about our committed investment pipeline of more than $110 million for the acquisition and development of new to industry convenience stores, auto centers, and car wash properties. which we expect to fund over the next approximately 12 months. Equally important, our proactive capital raising activities in 2022 will enable us to accretively fund these transactions while maintaining our conservative leverage profile. Supported by our strong financial position, our team continues to underwrite opportunities across our target asset classes. Our disciplined strategy continues to emphasize owning high quality real estate in major metro areas, and partnering with growing regional and national operators across the convenience and automotive retail sectors. Our knowledge of these sectors in which we invest, our underwriting expertise, and our deep industry relationships continue to drive an increasing set of transaction opportunities for Getty. To these points, we are confident in our ability to continue executing on our investment strategy and to grow and further diversify our portfolio. Lastly, I want to thank the dedicated team at Getty for their outstanding efforts in 2022 and their enthusiasm to start 2023. I believe we are poised for continued success due to this experienced team, our solid balance sheet, and our differentiated investment strategy. Our focus on providing real estate financing solutions to the convenience and automotive retail sectors, combined with our funded investment pipeline, positions us well for success in 2023 and beyond. that, I will turn the call over to Mark to discuss our portfolio and investment activities.

Thank you, Chris. As of the end of the year, our occupied portfolio included 1,034 net lease properties and three active redevelopment sites. Our weighted average lease term was 8.8 years, and our overall occupancy, excluding active redevelopments, increased to 99.8%. Our portfolio spans 38 states plus Washington, D.C., with 65% of our annualized base rent coming from top 50 MSAs and 83% coming from top 100 MSAs. Our rents are well covered with a trailing 12-month tenant rent coverage ratio of 2.7 times. We have invested in our platform to accelerate our growth, and we are starting to see returns on these investments in our people, processes, and systems as we experienced a significant increase in the volume and diversity of potential transactions that we underwrote in 2022. For the year, we evaluated a record $6.4 billion of opportunities to acquire freestanding convenience automotive retail real estate. Convenience stores represented approximately 58% of our underwriting, with the remaining 42% being focused on other convenience and automotive retail property types. In terms of our investment activities, we had a very strong quarter in which we acquired or provided development funding for 36 properties totaling $83.3 million, bringing our full year totals to 52 properties and $157.5 million. Highlights of this quarter's investments include the acquisition of six convenience stores located in the Las Vegas MSA for $35.7 million, 13 auto service centers located primarily in the Charlotte MSA for $21.2 million. Three car wash properties located in Austin, Las Vegas, and San Antonio MSAs for $12.4 million. And one drive-through QSR located in the Charlotte MSA for $3 million. In addition, we have provided approximately $9.3 million, including accrued interest for the development of 12 new to industry properties, including convenience stores in the Charleston and Austin MSAs, and car wash properties in the Jacksonville, New Haven, Newburgh, Raleigh, and Richmond MSAs. As part of these funding transactions, we will accrue interest on our investments during the construction phase of the project, and will acquire the properties via sale-leaseback upon completion of final funding. For the fourth quarter, the aggregate initial cash yield on our investment activity was approximately 6.9%, and the weighted average lease term for acquired properties was 17.3 years. For the year ended 2022, we acquired 40 properties for $137 million, did weighted average initial lease term of 16.2 years, and aggregate initial cash yield of approximately 6.8%. In addition, we advanced $20.2 million in construction loans for new to industry developments, which are accruing interest at 6.9%. Subsequent to year-end, we invested $5.6 million for the development and acquisition of six car wash properties located in various markets across the U.S. Looking ahead, regarding the $110 million of commitments to fund acquisitions and developments that Chris referenced, We expect to fund these transactions throughout the next approximate 12 months at an average initial yield of between 10 and 20 basis points in excess of where we closed acquisitions in 2022. We continue to evaluate and underwrite a variety of potential investment opportunities across our target asset class. Pricing for retail properties is moving, and we believe the market continues to adjust to reflect the changing economic landscape and tighter credit markets. We are pleased that we are sourcing the vast majority of these activities through our broad network, and we believe we are well-positioned to invest accretively as we move through 2023. Moving to our redevelopment platform, during the quarter, we invested approximately $140,000 in projects which are in various stages in our pipeline. We completed one redevelopment project where rent commenced on a new convenience store in the Dallas-Fort Worth MSA, which is leased to Murphy USA. We invested $400,000 in this project and generated a return on invested capital of 28%. We ended the quarter with six signed leases, which includes three active projects and three projects at properties that are currently subject to triple net leases and have not yet been recaptured from the current tenants. The company expects rent to commence at these and other projects over the next couple of years, including in 2023. Turning to our asset management activities for the fourth quarter, we sold five properties realizing $13 million in gross proceeds and exited one leased property. For the year, we sold 24 properties realizing $26 million in gross proceeds and exited five leased properties. We will continue to pursue dispositions of non-core properties that we have determined are no longer competitive in their current format, do not have compelling redevelopment potential, which we believe have attractive valuations that may allow us to recycle capital as part of managing our balance sheet and sources of capital. With that, I turn the call over to Brian to discuss our financial results.