Rexford Industrial Realty, Inc.

And welcome to Rexford Industrial Realty first quarter 2021 earnings call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during a 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, Costa Carminholis, Senior Vice President of Corporate Finance and Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you for joining Rexford Industrial's first quarter 2021 earnings conference call. In addition to the press release distributed yesterday after market close, we posted a supplemental package in the investor relations section of our website, www.rexfordindustrial.com. Joining today's call are Rexford Industrial's co-chief executive officers, Michael Frankel and Howard Schwimmer, along with chief financial officer, Laura Clark, and General Counsel David Lanzer. Before we begin our prepared remarks, I would like to remind everyone on today's call that management's remarks and answers to your questions contain forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements address matters that are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ from those discussed today. For more information about these risk factors, we encourage you to review our 10-K and other SEC filings. Rexford Industrial assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement in the future. In addition, certain financial information presented on this call represents non-GAAP financial measures. Our earnings release and supplemental package present GAAP reconciliations and an explanation of why such non-GAAP financial measures are useful to investors. With that, it is my pleasure to hand the call over to Michael.

Thank you, and welcome to Rexford Industrial's first quarter 2021 earnings call. We hope you and your families are well. Today I'll begin with a brief overview. Howard will then cover our transaction activity, and Laura will discuss our financial results. We will then open the call for your questions. With regard to the first quarter, we are pleased with our exceptional results. From an operational perspective, a robust 2 million square feet of leasing drove 98.3% occupancy in our stabilized portfolio. Releasing spreads continue at record levels, averaging 33% cash and 47% on a GAAP basis. Our extraordinary internal growth, coupled with our strong investment volume, resulted in year-over-year core FFO growth 29% and 12.1% on a per-share basis. As we look forward, Infill Southern California appears positioned to outperform UCLA economists project California will grow faster than the rest of the United States, driven by a diverse range of growing business sectors, combined with lifting of some of the nation's most constraining pandemic restrictions. Moreover, e-commerce continues to surge, representing more than $1 for every $5 spent on retail purchases. First quarter port volumes exceeded pre-pandemic levels, with imports growing 25%, compared with the first quarter of 2019. Moreover, with unprecedented tenant demand, Rexford's last mile portfolio is positioned to outperform within our markets due to our focus on the best locations delivered with superior functionality. Within our infill markets, a dearth of developable land and high barriers constrain new construction, resulting in essentially no ability to introduce any material volume of net new supply. In fact, our infill markets continue to lose supply on average year over year. Consequently, CBRE projects greater Los Angeles rental rates to grow at a rate that is two and a half times greater than the remaining major markets outside of Southern California into the next four years. With an incurable supply-demand imbalance, the infill Southern California tenant base continues to prove itself as the strongest, most resilient, and highest demand tenant base in the nation. Looking forward, the company is positioned for favorable internal and external growth. Overall, we project approximately 18% of embedded NOI growth equal to $54 million within our in-place portfolio, assuming no further acquisitions over the next 18 to 24 months. Regarding external growth, the company has perhaps never been better positioned, as our research and local relationship-driven origination methods enable us to harvest a proprietary pipeline of investment opportunities. We are well positioned to grow accretively, significantly beyond our current 1.7% market share within the infill of Southern California, the nation's most highly valued industrial market. Regarding our Rexford team, this past March marked one year since we began working remotely. We are truly humbled by the extraordinary manner with which our Rexford team rose to the task despite many hardships, to perform at the highest levels within the entire real estate industry. We'd like to acknowledge and thank the Rexford team for your tremendous dedication, entrepreneurial spirit, and market-leading performance. And with that, I'm very pleased to turn the call over to Howard.