LXP Industrial Trust

I would now like to turn the call over to Heather Gentry, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. Welcome to LXP Industrial Trust third quarter 2024 earnings conference call and webcast. The earnings release was distributed this morning, and both the release and quarterly supplemental are available on our website in the investor section and will be furnished to the SEC on a form 8K. Certain statements made during this conference call regarding future events and expected results may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. LXP believes that these statements are based on reasonable assumptions. However, certain factors and risks, including those included in today's earnings press release and those described in reports that LXP files with the SEC from time to time, could cause LXP's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Except as required by law, LXP does not undertake a duty to update any forward-looking statements. In Earnings Press Release and Quarterly Supplemental Disclosure Package, LXP has reconciled all non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measure. Any references in these documents to adjusted company FFO, referred to adjusted company funds from operations available to all equity holders and unit holders on a fully diluted basis. Operating performance measures of an individual investment are not intended to be viewed as presenting a numerical measure of LXP's historical or future financial performance, financial position, or cash flows. On today's call, Will Eglin, Chairman and CEO, Beth Bulleris, CFO, Brendan Mullenix, CIO, and Executive Vice President James Dudley will provide a recent business update and commentary on third quarter results. I will now turn the call over to Will.

Thanks, Heather, and good morning, everyone. We had a great third quarter characterized by strong leasing outcomes and same-store NOI growth of 5.4%. Second-generation leasing volume in the quarter of approximately 490,000 square feet resulted in attractive base and cash-based rental increases of approximately 38% and 22% respectively. And we made progress on leasing our development portfolio with the lease up of our 250,000 square foot development project in Columbus, Ohio. We continue to work closely with a full building user at our 1.1 million square foot Ocala, Florida development project and are seeing activity at our two remaining big box facilities with the most promising prospect at our Greenville Spartanburg facility. Our target market focus on the Sunbelt and Lower Midwest has contributed to our second generation leasing success this year, as these markets have performed well relative to many others. We continue to favor markets that are supported by strong long-term demographic trends, including population and job growth, logistics infrastructure, and government spending programs designed to support advanced manufacturing initiatives. With the transaction market becoming more active, we have opportunistically sold several assets outside of our target markets for reinvestment into the Sunbelt markets where we have scale, market expertise, and strong tenant and service provider relationships. During the quarter, we sold an asset in the Cleveland market for $29M and subsequent to quarter end, we sold three industrial facilities in Chicago, which produced gross sales proceeds of $137M. Further, adding to our SunBub exposure, we acquired a $34M industrial facility in Savannah in October and are in diligence on three additional assets for purchase in Houston and Atlanta. In addition, we expect to receive approximately $83 million of sale proceeds now that the tenant under our Phoenix ground lease has exercised the purchase option, which we plan to utilize for reinvestment and debt reduction. Moving to the balance sheet, during the third quarter, we capitalized on a favorable market window for short-term interest rates, swapping the interest rate on $250 million of our $300 million term loan and approximately $83 million of our trust preferred. These actions increased the percentage of our debt that is fixed or swapped to approximately 94% for 2025 and 2026 at a weighted average interest rate of 3.9%. We estimate the swaps were executed approximately 60 basis points below current levels. Consistent with our goal of increasing our dividend annually, we announced this morning that our Board of Trustees authorized an annualized dividend increase of two cents per common share. The newly declared common share dividend represents an increase of 3.8% over the prior dividend and will be paid in the first quarter of 2025. As we look ahead, our focus remains on enhancing our internal growth profile through the lease up of four million square feet available for lease and capturing the marked market opportunities in our portfolio with current rents that are estimated to be approximately 23% below market through 2029. Finally, we published our 2023 Corporate Responsibility Report in October. The report emphasizes our continued focus on the resiliency of our portfolio and the enhancement of efficiencies and sustainability in our operations. This included the completion of our first solar project, the completion of a greenhouse gas emissions inventory, and further green building certifications across our portfolio. With that, I'll turn the call over to Brendan to discuss investment activity in more detail.