Choice Properties Real Estate Investment Trust

the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one a second time. Thank you. And I would now like to turn the conference over to Erin Johnson, Senior Vice President of Finance. You may begin.

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to the Choice Properties Q1 2024 conference call. I'm joined here this morning by Rail Diamond President and Chief Executive Officer, Mario Barifato, Chief Financial Officer, and Nile Collins, Chief Operating Officer. RIO will start the call today by providing a brief recap of our first quarter performance and provide an update on our transaction and development activity in the quarter. Nile will discuss our operational results, followed by Mario, who will conclude the call with a review of our financial results before we open the lines for Q&A. Before we begin today's call, I would like to remind you that by discussing our financial and operating performance and in responding to your questions, we may make forward-looking statements, including statements regarding choice properties, objectives, strategies to achieve those objectives, as well as statements with respect to management's beliefs, plans, estimates, intentions, outlook, and similar statements concerning anticipated future events, results, circumstances, performance, or exceptions that are not historical facts. These statements are based on our current estimates and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the conclusions in these forward-looking statements. Additional information on the material risks that can impact our financial results and estimates and the assumptions that were made in applying and making these statements can be found in the recently filed Q1 2024 Financial Statements and Management Discussion and Analysis, which are available on our website and on CDAR. And with that, I will turn the call over to Rael.

Thank you, Erin. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Overall, we had a very positive start to the year. Our portfolio maintained near full occupancy at 97.9%. We achieved solid same-asset cash NLR growth of 2.4%, impressive renewal spreads of 22.9%, and strong FFO growth of 6.1 percent. Last quarter, we discussed the need for a strong balance sheet as we continue to face significantly high borrowing costs and overall uncertainty due to market volatility and recession . While there are a lot of market participants that are hoping that interest rates will abate, this has not come to fruition. The 10-year bond is 18 basis points higher than it was when we released results in February and 65 basis points higher than the start of 2024. We remain committed to our prudent approach to financial management and believe that our industry-leading balance sheet combined with the strong underlying fundamentals in each of our asset classes will continue to be a real differentiator in this environment. We will weather this volatility better than most. This past quarter, our business once again demonstrated resilience, and our team remained focused on executing our strategic framework. Despite continued interest rate pressures, the investment market is still active on a local level for quality assets with strong fundamentals. During the first quarter, we completed approximately 61 million in total real estate transactions, including approximately 38 million of acquisitions and 23 million of dispositions. We continued to buy high-quality assets from Loblaw, and during the quarter, we acquired a retail property located at Bathurst in St. Clair, Toronto, for a purchase price of approximately $38 million, with a lease term of 15 years and annual rent increases of 2.25%. This property is a high-performing Loblaw store, turning approximately 75,000 feet, and is a great addition to our portfolio. The asset is exceptionally well located in the heart of Midtown Toronto and benefits from current and future densification in the surrounding node as well as direct access to public transit. This transaction is another example of the benefits of our relationship with Love Law as retail assets of this quality rarely come to market. In terms of dispositions, we sold an industrial property located at 379 Arenda Road in Brampton for approximately $16 million and a retail property located in Edmonton for approximately $7 million. We advanced our development profit on the Q1, completing approximately $75 million of development projects at a weighted average yield of 5.1%. In addition to a retail development in Georgetown, Ontario, which consisted of an expansion of an existing lease to a national retailer with a cost of 8% and a yield of 8.8%, we also transferred a residential development at Mount Pleasant Village in Brampton, Ontario, in which we own a 50% interest. This development offers a unique rental community in the heart of Brampton, consisting of 302 residential units. The building is currently 58% leased and is expected to stabilize over the next 12 months. In addition to developing the rental building to a stabilized yield of 4.7%, we have developed 142 condominium units, which are expected to generate $7 million a share of total condominium profits, of which $6.6 million has been recognized to date. There are only 12 units remaining, which are expected to close in the second quarter. As we look at our development accessibility for the remainder of 2024, our teams are on track to complete the first phase of our industrial development in Caledon, Ontario, in addition to delivering an additional 120,000 square feet of retail space. Before I hand it over to Niall, I want to take a minute to acknowledge the release of our 2023 Environmental, Social, and Governance Report. This year's report summarizes many of CHOICE's successes over the last year and truly showcases our commitment to ESG and the great work being done by teams across the business. The report can be found in the sustainability section of our website, and I encourage you to take a read. With that, I'll pass it over to Niall to provide more color on our operational results. As you all hear, our operating performance was strong, and across our portfolio, we observed strong tenant demand from our necessity-based properties. Additionally, our industrial portfolio experienced significant rental rate increases on lease renewals. Niall?