Innovative Industrial Properties, Inc.

Good day and welcome to the Innovative Industrial Properties Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by 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 a touch-tone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Brian Wolf. Please go ahead.

Thank you for joining the call. Presenting today are Alan Gold, Executive Chairman, Paul Smithers, President and Chief Executive Officer, Katherine 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 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 you an update on our business since our last call in February and our views on the continued evolution of a truly dynamic industry we are so proud to serve. There's certainly a lot to recap from our company's activity and the regulated cannabis industry as a whole. As we have noted on prior calls, with all the challenges that we have faced as a society over the last year and a half, the regulated cannabis industry has demonstrated a strong and sustained resilience across the United States. 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. That momentum, has continued into 2021, with U.S. quarterly sales across regulated medical and adult use cannabis markets reaching an all-time high of $5.84 billion in the first quarter alone. And as noted in our earnings press release yesterday, we continue to execute on our acquisitions and investment pipeline. executing on over 245 million in new transactions since the beginning of the second quarter, representing a good mix of new tenant relationships and follow-on investments with our existing long-term tenant partners. Ben will provide an update on our acquisitions investments, along with a survey of recent developments with our largest tenant partners. Now, as of today, we own 73 properties in 18 states, totaling 6.8 million square feet, which are 100% leased on a long-term basis to high-quality licensed cannabis operators. Reflecting the strength and resiliency of our cash flows and continued execution on our acquisition and investment pipeline, we paid a quarterly common stock dividend of $1.40 per share to stockholders on July 15th. representing a 32% increase from the prior year's second quarter dividend and our 11th dividend increase since our IPO in December 2016. On the financing front, this past quarter has been a transformational one for this young company. In May, we obtained an investment-grade corporate credit rating and shortly thereafter executed on a bond offering that generated $300 million in gross proceeds with a 5.5% coupon rate and a five-year maturity. With a strong book of demand for these notes, we are thrilled to further complement our strong balance sheet and liquidity profile with this new financing option, providing us with an attractively priced, non-dilutive capital source as we continue to grow. Of course, we remain focused on maintaining a strong, flexible, and prudent leveraged balance sheet, And with this new offering, we have a debt to total gross assets ratio of just 21% as of quarter end. Catherine will also provide more detail regarding our financial results and capital raising activity. And of course, regulated developments in the cannabis industry continue at a brisk pace. Since our last call alone, four states, Connecticut, New Mexico, New York, and Virginia, passed adult-use cannabis programs by legislative action, bringing that total to 18. And Alabama passed legislation in May to become the 38th state to establish a medical-use cannabis program. With these new programs coming online, New Frontier projects regulated cannabis sales reaching $43 billion by 2025, representing a continued tremendous growth trajectory for the overall industry. Regarding federal regulatory developments, on the heels of the reintroduction of the Safe Banking Act earlier this year, Senator Schumer introduced an extensive draft cannabis bill last month, which seeks to address numerous items surrounding federal cannabis regulation, including descheduling cannabis, criminal record expungement, maintaining the authority of states to set their own cannabis policies, and reform of federal taxation of cannabis businesses. Paul will provide further detail on these and other developments we are closely monitoring. Finally, I would like to note that in June, we published our inaugural Environmental, Social, and Governance Report, highlighting how we are addressing top ESG priorities of our stakeholders. We are proud of the work that we and our tenant partners have done so far on this front, And we look forward to keeping you updated as we continue to execute on our ESG initiatives. And before I turn the call over to Paul, I want to reiterate our deep appreciation for you, our long-term owners, for your steadfast support as we move through just our fifth year of operations. 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 and market developments of the regulated cannabis industry. Paul?