Choice Properties Real Estate Investment Trust

If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one again. I would now like to turn the call over to Erin Johnston, Senior VP of Finance. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to Choice Properties Q2 2024 conference call. I'm joined here this morning by Rail Diamond, President and Chief Executive Officer, Mario Barifato, Chief Financial Officer, and Niall Collins, Chief Operating Officer. Rail will start the call today by providing a brief recap of our second quarter performance and provide an update on our transaction and development activity in the quarter. Niall 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 or suspects 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 risk that can impact our financial results and estimates and the assumptions that were made in applying and making these statements can be found in our recently filed Q2 2024 Financial Statements and Management Discussion Analysis, which are available on our website and on CDAR. And with that, I will turn the call over to Ralph.

Thank you, Erin, and good morning, everyone. We're very pleased with our performance this quarter, as once again, we delivered solid operating and financial results. Our portfolio continues to deliver stable and growing cash flow. We maintained near full occupancy in the quarter at 98%, achieved strong leasing spreads of 48.2%, and delivered same-asset cash NLR growth of 4.4 percent. Our strong operating metrics this quarter reflect the strength and resilience of our portfolio. FFO for the quarter was impacted by the timing of lease termination income and certain one-time costs related to our continued focus on operational efficiency. Excluding these impacts, FFO increased 5.7 percent year-over-year. On the retail side, we are seeing certain discretionary retail tenants impacted by the overall health of the Canadian consumer. However, our grocery-anchored, necessity-based retail portfolio is performing exceptionally well. The demand for our space is strong. Our leasing team is actively working with many of our tenants who are looking to further expand their footprints. In industrial, despite the slowdown in rate growth, Demand for well-located, high-quality assets remains strong, as evidenced by our leasing activity this quarter. We remain confident in our ability to deliver growth through our industrial development pipeline. Our prime locations, large contiguous blocks of land, and attractive land costs allow us to deliver high-quality product into the right segment of the market at competitive rental rates. Our residential assets are also performing well, with our two newer assets both over 80% leased and are expected to stabilize this year. Although the current environment will impact certain developers focused on condos, limited residential construction, stock, and overall lack of housing availability provide long-term tailwinds for the residential asset class. Turning back to activity in the quarter, In pursuit of maintaining a market-leading portfolio, we continue to execute on our capital recycling program. This involves completing approximately $114 million in total real estate transactions in the quarter. Specifically, we acquired two grocery-anchored retail assets worth $33 million and successfully disposed of four properties totaling $81 million. The first was the acquisition of Cornerstone Shopping Center in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, by purchasing our partner's 50% stake for about $21 million. We now fully own this 200,000 square foot high quality grocery anchored shopping center. The second acquisition was a vacant 13,000 square foot standalone retail property in Toronto for approximately $12 million and concurrently leased it to Love Law for 15 years. Loblaw plans to open a small format, no pearls on the side, as part of their overall small format store expansion plan. This transaction is an example of the strategic benefits of our relationship to both Choice and Loblaw. The position activity included the sale of our non-managing partnership interest in two retail properties in Alberta and two retail properties in Saskatchewan for total proceeds of approximately $81 million in the quarter. We also continue to add value to our development pipeline with a near-term focus on commercial development. During the quarter, we transferred approximately 44,000 square feet of retail GLA through ongoing intensifications of our neighborhood centers. This intensification included a 17,000 square foot shoppers drug one in Alberta and a ground lease to Nautical Lands Group in Bradford, Ontario. This is the first of six ground leases with nautical lands without developing independent living options for adults over sixty five thirty five. Sorry. There's a great partnership for choice as it is complimentary to our retail size and will generate a stable and growing cash flow stream for choice. Our active industrial developments. are progressing well. At Choice Caledon Business Park, we're progressing on the first two phases, providing 1.75 million square feet of new logistics space. The first phase is a land lease to Love Law with site servicing underway. The second phase leads to a leading logistics provider is in the tendering stage with construction expected to start later this year. A portfolio's performance and ability to deliver on our strategic priorities, regardless of the economic climate, is entirely supported by the strength of our balance sheet and the quality of our credit. I often speak about the importance of prudent capital management and risk management. Despite encouraging inflation fronts and the Bank of Canada making its first interest rate cut in June, the interest rate environment remains volatile. We do not foresee a substantial drop in long-term interest rates in the near future. We believe that companies with strong balance sheets like ours will consistently outperform in the long run. As a result, our team is committed to preserving our industry-leading balance sheet. They demonstrated their ability to do just this through our financing activities and the credit rating upgrade we received in the quarter, which Mario will speak to shortly. But first, I'll pass the call over to Niall to discuss our operational results. Niall?