National Storage Affiliates Trust

Greetings and welcome to the National Storage Affiliates First Quarter 2021 Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, George Hoglund. Vice President of Investor Relations for National Storage Affiliates. Thank you, Mr. Hoglund. You may begin.

We'd like to thank you for joining us today for the first quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call of National Storage Affiliates Trust. On the line with me here today are NSA's CEO, Tamara Fischer, COO, Dave Cramer, and CFO, Brandon Togashi. Following prepared remarks, management will accept questions from registered financial analysts In addition to the press release distributed yesterday, we filed an 8K with the SEC containing our supplemental package with additional detail on our results, which may be found in the investor relations section on our website at NationalStorageAffiliates.com. On today's call, management's prepared remarks and answers to your questions may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, including uncertainty related to the scope, severity, and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic and the actions taken to contain or mitigate the direct and indirect economic impact. The company cautions that actual results may differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statement. For additional detail concerning the forward-looking statements, please refer to our public filings with the SEC. We also encourage listeners to review the definitions and reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures such as FFO or FFO and net operating income contained in the supplemental information package available in the investor relations section on our website and in our SEC filings. I will now turn the call over to Tammy.

Thanks, George, and thanks everyone for joining our call today. Before we talk about our outstanding results for the quarter and our positive outlook for the remainder of 2021, I'd like to recognize the hard work and dedication of all of our team members, beginning with our field team, our corporate team members, and our pros and their teams. The joint efforts by all of the extended NSA family are what drives our stellar results, and I couldn't be prouder or more appreciative of our entire team. Now, moving on to results, we're off to an exceptional start to the year, delivering double-digit same-store NOI growth in the first quarter and with acquisition volume that is on pace to reach the top half of our original guidance range. While the back half of the year still presents some challenging year-over-year comps, our current occupancy and rate trajectory make those comps appear somewhat less challenging. All signals are pointing in the right direction and I don't see that changing in the near term. We continue to benefit from the resilience of the self-storage sector, the diversification of our portfolio and the strength of our differentiated pro structure. On the acquisition front, we've been very busy this year and the pace of deals coming to market is not slowing. During the first quarter, we invested $166 million in 23 properties. And so far this quarter, we've closed or have under contract to close 20 properties valued at about $250 million. We continue to see meaningful competition for transactions. and the amount of capital seeking to establish or expand a position in self-storage is driving cap rate compression, especially on larger portfolios. Fortunately for us, though, about two-thirds of our closed deals this year were either off-market or from our captive pipeline, where we tend to buy at slightly above-market cap rates. The average stabilized cap rate on our first quarter acquisitions was in the high fives. and the deals so far in the second quarter are in the mid-sixes. Our core FFO per share increased 23% in the first quarter compared to the first quarter last year. This growth was driven by a combination of strong same-store growth, healthy acquisition volume and the internalization of SecureCare in April of 2020. While the self-storage sector as a whole is clearly having a banner year, We once again are able to deliver results above the pure average, which really attests to the benefits of our pro structure and our secondary market exposure. In summary, it's a great time to be in self-storage, as our results surpass even our own expectations, and fundamentals continue to strengthen from already remarkable levels. We'll remain very active and engaged in the current consolidation phase of our sector, Our stellar first quarter results and the continued momentum into the second quarter give us the confidence to raise our same-store NOI and core FFO per share guidance meaningfully. I'll now turn the call over to Dave to provide color in what we're seeing on the ground. Dave?