Tanger Inc.

Good morning. This is Cindy Holt, Senior Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations, and I would like to welcome you to the Tanger Factory Outlook Center's first quarter 2021 conference call. Yesterday evening, we issued our earnings release as well as our supplemental information package and investor presentation. This information is available on our Investor Relations website, investors.tangeroutlook.com. Please note that during this conference call, some of management's comments will be forward-looking statements that are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, and actual results could differ materially from those projected. We direct you to our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a detailed discussion of these risks and uncertainties. During the call, we will also discuss non-GAAP financial measures as defined by SEC Regulation G, including Funds from Operations, or FFO, core FFO, same center net operating income, and adjusted EBITDA. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are included in our earnings release and in our supplemental information. This call is being recorded for rebroadcast for a period of time in the future. As such, it is important to note that management's comments include time-sensitive information that may only be accurate as of today's date, May 6, 2021. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Following management's prepared comments, the call will be opened up for your questions. We request that everyone ask only one question and one follow-up to allow as many of you as possible to ask questions. If time permits, we are happy for you to re-queue for additional questions. On the call today will be Stephen Tanger, our Executive Chair, Stephen Yaloff, Chief Executive Officer, and Jim Williams, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. I will now turn the call over to Stephen Tanker. Please go ahead, Steve.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us for our first quarter 2021 earnings call. We are encouraged by a brighter macro outlook over the past 90 days as vaccination rollout continues and an improving retail environment as evidenced by the Consumer Confidence Index report in late April reaching its highest level since the onset of the pandemic. The improvement we are starting to see in some of our operating metrics reflects the excellent value proposition that our open air centers provide for both retailers and shoppers. We are confident that by continuing to make progress executing on our strategy will position the company to return to sustained growth over time. I would now like to turn the call over to Steve Yaloff to provide details on our first quarter performance and to discuss our strategic priorities.

Thank you, Steve. We're pleased to share the traffic to our domestic open-air centers in the first quarter nearly returned to 2019 levels. and exceeded 2019 levels in April. We continue to make progress on our core priorities for the business, leasing, operating, and marketing our outlet centers. We are focused on rebuilding our occupancy, driving leasing, and curating our merchandise mix to maximize shopper frequency and dwell time, and to bring new customers to Tanger centers. Consolidated portfolio occupancy was 91.7 percent at the end of the quarter. off only 20 basis points from the end of 2020. This reflects the anticipated 61,000 square feet of space recaptured during the quarter related to bankruptcies and brand-wide restructurings. Blended average rental rates decreased 2.8% on a straight-line basis and 8.5% on a cash basis for all renewals and re-tenanted leases that commenced during the trailing 12 months ended March 31, 2021. However, this reflects a 300 basis point improvement on a cash basis and a 390 basis point improvement on a straight line basis compared to our reported Q4 2020 spreads. We believe we will continue to see improvement longer term as positive traffic and sales trends will support driving better rents. However, in the near term, we anticipate that we will continue to see pressure on re-tenanting spreads this year as we fill recaptured space that was at rental rates above the portfolio average. Collections of contractual fixed rents billed in the first quarter of 2021 were approximately 95%. Through April 30, 2021, we collected 96% of the deferred 2020 rents due to be repaid in the first quarter and had collected 83% of all deferred 2020 rents, leaving a balance of only $3.7 million. Given this run rate, we're comfortable with our outlook for future collections. Meaningful rebound in traffic that we discussed last quarter has been sustained. For the first quarter, domestic traffic returned to 97% of the 2019 level, even as February traffic was impacted by severe winter weather, and we were still operating at 20% fewer hours. We believe a comparison to 2019 is more relevant as we started to feel the impacts of the pandemic during March of last year. Our strong and sustained traffic levels clearly reflects the attraction of our open-air shopping centers, their dominant market locations, and the value proposition that we offer to both our retailer partners and shoppers. Note that in Canada, where we have two unconsolidated JV properties, stores have been closed under government mandate through mid-February and are again closed under mandate. With trailing 12 months, 280 leases commenced, totaling over 1.4 million square feet. Renewals executed or in process as of March 31st represented 52% of the space scheduled to expire during the year, compared to 63% at the same time last year. The slower-than-usual pace reflects our decision to strategically delay some of our renewal leasing activity as the overall economic and retail environments improve. We continue to expand relationships with our traditional tenants, and we are seeing a measured pace of new leasing activity. with particular interest coming from the higher end brands. Developing new business with local and regional brands is one of our leasing priorities. This initiative provides compelling opportunities to add new and interesting concepts to our centers, and with it, more variety for our shoppers. Additionally, we continue to expand our tenant mix beyond apparel and footwear, growing such categories as food and beverage, interactive and experiential, home decor and design, housewares, sporting goods, and gourmet grocers. As a result, we are reimagining design elements for our centers. In Grand Rapids, Michigan, for example, we have created outdoor seating and a gathering space in connection with a new micro-brew restaurant located in a formerly underutilized part of our center. In our Hilton Head Center, iconic gourmet grocer Nantucket Meat and Fish is currently under construction for Memorial Day Grand Open. Our partnership with Billogic, the logistics as a service platform in Deer Park, has provided for 5,000 square feet of a micro-distribution hub aimed at providing lower-cost and efficient distribution solutions for our retailers and shoppers. We continue to deliver strong pop-up leasing activity, which serves several important functions. Introducing new brands to the outlet channel that may convert to long-term permanent tenants, creating retail vibrancy in an otherwise dark store, providing variety to the center and more choice for our shoppers, delivering immediate NOI contributions, and in certain cases, allowing us to maintain occupancy on a temporary basis as we defer long-term leases for market improvement. This tendency represented approximately 8.6 percent of our consolidated portfolio total GLA as of March 31st, 2021. Though elevated from previous levels, this is a proven approach that has historically benefited our centers. Since joining Tanger one year ago, our top priority has been evolving our operational discipline by empowering our field leadership team to drive local leasing, business development, and operational efficiencies at the center level. These efforts have proven effective and are reflected in our better than planned short-term leasing, paid media, and operating expense contributions. Revenues derived from non-rental transactions such as paid media and sponsorships also provide a significant contribution to the other revenues line in the first quarter of 2021, driving a 14% increase year over year. We have decentralized shopping center operations with each center's management team now participating in revenue generation and empowered with decision-making authority regarding operating expenses. At the same time, we are centralizing certain procurement activities to benefit from the scale of our organization. One thing that COVID environment reinforced is the importance of meeting the customer where they are and creating a more personalized experience. Our marketing and digital transformation teams have continued to expand our virtual shopper offering, curbside pickup with fluid interactive capabilities, add live stream shopping, and offer digital pre-shopping on the Tanger app and website. Our digital initiatives are aimed at creating a highly personalized relationship for users and further building our loyalty base by providing more relevant offers and content to our individual shoppers. While our operating strategy evolves, our commitment to environmental, social, and governance efforts remains unchanged. In 2021, we have launched a comprehensive materiality assessment conducted by a third party to ensure that we are addressing the ESG issues most important to our stakeholders and that these issues are integrated into our core values. Our board and executive leadership team are engaged on ESG issues impacting the organization, and we are investing time and resources to grow our diversity, equity, and inclusion program. We believe that education is essential to embedding DE&I throughout our culture and are launching unconscious bias training for our senior leadership team, which will be rolled out throughout the organization. We are also investing in our communities in new ways, including through our newly implemented Small Business Owner Outreach Initiative. Through this program, we're offering opportunities for new and existing businesses in our communities set up shop in Tanger Centers supported by our proprietary suite of services to help them incubate and grow. In 2021, we will continue our efforts to streamline ESG reporting so that the data is more accessible to stakeholders and easier to navigate. To improve our transparency in reporting on our ESG efforts, we will begin to implement the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures during 2021 with a focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, energy performance, biodiversity, water usage, and waste management. These projects have impact on the global environment, broader Tanger's environmental efforts beyond our immediate footprint, and provide additional opportunities to engage with our employees, retailers, and shoppers. Our team remains focused on a return to sustained growth. We have strengthened our balance sheet and are exploring selective growth opportunities. We are restarting our marketing efforts for our planned Nashville development, and as restrictions are lifted, prospective tenants are making site visits. The progress we are making across each of our strategic priorities gives us confidence that we will create long-term value for our shareholders. I would now like to turn the call over to Jim Williams to take you through our financial results, balance sheet, and outlook for the remainder of 2021. Jim?