Piedmont Office Realty Trust Inc

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Piedmont Office Realty Trust first quarter 2022 earnings call. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode. The floor will be open for questions and comments after the presentation. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Eddie Gilbert. Sir, the floor is yours.

Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us today for Piedmont's first quarter 2022 earnings conference call. Last night, we filed our form 10-Q and an 8-K that includes our earnings release and our unaudited supplemental information for the first quarter that's available for your review on our website at piedmontreat.com under the investor relations section. During this call, you'll hear from senior officers at Piedmont, Their prepared remarks, followed by answers to your questions, will contain forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements address matters which are subject to risks and uncertainties, and therefore, actual results may differ from those we anticipate and discuss today. The risks and uncertainties for these forward-looking statements are discussed in our press release as well as our SEC filings. We encourage everyone to review the more detailed discussion related to risks associated with forward-looking statements in our SEC filings. Examples of forward-looking statements include those related to Piedmont's future revenues and operating income, dividends and financial guidance, future leasing and investment activity, and the impacts of this activity on the company's financial and operational results. You should not place any undue reliance on any of these forward-looking statements, and these statements speak as of the date they are made. Also on today's call, representatives of the company may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures such as FFO, Core FFO, AFFO, and Same Store NOI. The definitions and reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures are contained in the earnings release and in the supplemental financial information which we filed last night. At this time, our President and Chief Executive Officer, Brent Smith, will provide some opening comments.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you again for joining us on today's call as we review our financial and operating results for the first quarter of 2022. In addition to Eddie, on the line with me this morning are George Wells, our Chief Operating Officer, Chris Colmy, our EVP of Investments, and Bobby Bowers, our Chief Financial Officer, as well as other members of the Senior Management Team. We are extremely pleased with the strategic transactions closed during the first quarter and encouraged by the continued momentum we are witnessing across our markets, which led to the strong financial results. While some U.S. companies are taking longer than we anticipated to finalize their return to the workplace strategy, we continue to encourage investors to focus on new tenant leasing as an indicator of the strength in the office sector as opposed to individual building utilization levels, which can vary greatly by region and tenant type. And on that metric, I would note that Piedmont's new tenant leasing activity this past quarter was the most robust it has been in over three years and marked the third consecutive quarter we've exceeded pre-pandemic levels of new tenant leasing. This leasing volume was achieved irrespective of the fact that the first quarter of the year historically tends to have the lowest leasing activity due to winter weather. Furthermore, these leasing transactions continue to demonstrate the positive momentum we're experiencing across our portfolio, particularly at our redeveloped properties. I would reiterate, Piedmont's portfolio is long-dated and positioned for growth, with the average in-place rent 5% to 10% below market and approximately six years away to average lease term remaining. At this time, I'm going to turn the call over to George Wells, our COO, to review this quarter's leasing activity with you in greater detail.