Innovative Industrial Properties, Inc.

Hello, and welcome to the Innovative Industrial Properties Inc. FYQ4 2020 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in the Sonali mode. Should you need assistance, please schedule a conference specialist for pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note, today's event is being recorded. Now I'll turn the conference over to your host today, Ryan Wolf. Mr. Wolf, please go ahead.

Thank you for joining the call. Presenting today are Alan Gold, Executive Chairman, Paul Smithers, President and Chief Executive Officer, Catherine Hastings, Chief Financial Officer, and Ben Regan, Vice President of Investments. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that statements made during today's conference call may be deemed forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and actual results may differ materially due to a variety of risks, uncertainties, and other factors. For a detailed discussion of some of the ongoing risks and uncertainties of the company's business, I refer you to the news release issued yesterday and filed with the SEC on Form 8K, as well as the company's reports filed periodically with the SEC. The company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. I'll now hand the call over to Alan.

Alan? Thank you, Brian, and welcome everyone. Today, we look forward to providing a recap of our results through the back half of 2020 and into 2021 and our views on the continued evolution of the industry we are so proud to serve. There is certainly a lot to recap, both from our company's activities and the regulated cannabis industry as a whole. First and foremost, we are thrilled to see on display the great minds of our country and the world achieving what many believe to be the impossible. Multiple sets of highly effective vaccines ready for distribution in less than one year from the onset of this pandemic. A truly remarkable testament to the ingenuity of our scientists and one which we hope brings the light at the end of the tunnel that much quicker. With all the challenges that we have faced as a society over the last year, the regulated cannabis industry has demonstrated a strong and sustained resilience across the United States, in arguably the first major economic disruption that this very young industry has faced. As we have highlighted on prior calls, with the regulated cannabis industries designated as essential services in the vast majority of state and local jurisdictions, Our tenant operators have been particularly adept at modifying their operations in this new environment in ways to ensure continued, compassionate, individualized service to their patients and customers in an environment designed to maximize the safety and health of patients, customers, and employees. And as the country and the world as a whole has suffered through not only a health crisis, but also one of the quickest and deepest economic contractions in recent history, the United States regulated cannabis industry continued on its tremendous growth path, growing over 50% annually from just over $13 billion in sales in 2019 to an estimated $20 billion in 2020. And while the vast majority of businesses were retrenching in this unprecedented time, experienced well-positioned regulated cannabis operators continue to expand their footprints and deepen their operations we were proud to continue to partner with them in 2020 as their go-to real estate partner a year in which we made 20 new property acquisitions and additional investments in our existing portfolio totaling over 620 million dollars as of today we own 67 properties in 17 states totaling 5.8 million square feet, which are 100% leased on a long-term basis to high-quality licensed cannabis operators. Now, the one property that was not leased in our portfolio at year-end was our Los Angeles, California property. And as noted in our press release issued yesterday, Holistic Industries, our long-term tenant partner in Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, acquired the operational licenses for this property in early January, and we executed a long-term lease with them for the entire property. Aside from our Los Angeles property, our tenants have paid all contractual rent due in the fourth quarter 2020 and the first two months of 2021, other than one tenant in our Southern California portfolio having paid partial rent through that period. And we have executed no rent deferrals for any tenants since July of last year, which we believe is a testament to the quality of our tenant base and their ability to adapt to this new normal, in addition to the exceptional resiliency of the regulated cannabis industry as a whole. Reflecting the strength and resiliency of our tenant partners, we paid a quarterly common dividend of $1.24 per share to stockholders on January 15th, representing a 24% increase over fourth quarter 2019 dividend and our ninth dividend increase since our IPO in December 2016. On the financing front, I would also like to personally thank all of our stockholders, our long-term company owners, for their steadfast support, providing us over $1 billion in net proceeds over the last year to support our tenant partners in their continued expansion initiatives. while forging new tenant partnerships with top-tier operators in the industry. Catherine will also provide more detail regarding our financial results and capital raising activity. And of course, regulatory developments in the cannabis industry are also top of mind. With the continued strong majority support across nearly every demographic for legalizing cannabis, In November, the momentum we have seen over the past decade on the state level continued as five new states passed measures to legalize medical or adult-use cannabis, resulting in 36 states having legalized medical-use cannabis and 15 states also having legalized adult-use cannabis. We are closely monitoring the many proposals in Congress regarding cannabis legislation, and Paul will provide additional detail on that front. Now, before I turn the call over to Paul, I want to reiterate our deep appreciation for you, our long-term owners, for your support throughout these four transformative years of our company. And we look forward to serving you and this amazing high growth industry for many years to come. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Paul, who will provide additional detail on the recent legislative developments of the cannabis industry. Paul?