Choice Properties Real Estate Investment Trust

Good morning, my name is Audra and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Choice Properties Real Estate Investment Trust first quarter 2025 earnings call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. 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 will now hand the call over to Simone Cole, General Counsel and Secretary. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to Choice Properties Q1 2025 conference call. I am joined this morning by Rail Diamond, President and Chief Executive Officer, Niall Collins, Chief Operating Officer, and Erin Johnston, Chief Financial Officer. Rail will start the call today by providing a brief recap of the first quarter performance and providing an update on our transaction activity. Niall will discuss our operational results and development pipeline, and Erin will conclude the call with a review of our financial results before we open the line for Q&A. Before we begin today's call, I would like to remind you that by discussing our financial and operating performance and 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 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 2025 financial statements and management discussion and analysis, which are available on the website and on CDAR. And with that, I turn the call over to Raoul.

Thank you, Simone, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our Q1 conference call. We had a very strong start to the year, and our Q1 operating and financial results were solid. Our high-quality necessity-based portfolio continued to deliver stability and growth. In the first quarter, we maintained near-full occupancy at 97.7%, achieved strong same-asset cash NOI growth of 2.9%, and FFO growth of 1.9%. In light of the current macroeconomic environment, I'd like to start by expressing my confidence in our portfolio's exceptional positioning amidst broader economic uncertainty. Before diving into the details of our quarterly activities, it's important to highlight that choice remains in an enviable position. In retail, we continue to see strong performance and retention in our well-located necessity-based properties. Our portfolio continues to demonstrate its ability to deliver stable and growing cash flows throughout varying economic cycles and conditions, and we believe this year will be no different. Our industrial portfolio is extremely high quality and generic in nature, with properties located in key distribution markets across the country. Based on the current tariffs announced, our industrial portfolio has limited exposure to sectors impacted by these tariffs, and will continue to capitalize on embedded rate growth within the portfolio from strong leasing demand for our properties. In our transit-orientated mixed-use and residential portfolio, our portfolio is benefiting from the lease-up and stabilization of our two most recent residential development completions, which are now near full occupancy. Our remaining mixed-use and residential portfolio continues to perform well. Choice's strong balance sheet and prudent approach to financial management has allowed our team to focus on executing our strategic goals, including our active capital recycling program that is focused on maintaining the quality of our portfolio. During the first quarter, we completed approximately $95 million in total real estate transactions, including approximately $33 million of strategic acquisitions and $62 million of non-core asset dispositions. In the quarter, we continue to buy high-quality assets from Loblaw, acquiring a retail property in Brampton for a purchase price of approximately $33 million. The property totals approximately 120,000 square feet and is anchored by Fortino's banner with a 15-year lease term and annual rent increases of 2%. The asset benefits from favorable demographic trends, and is exceptionally well located nearby the Mount Pleasant Go Station and our recently completed residential asset, Unity, at Mount Pleasant Village. On the disposition funds, in the quarter we completed the sale of three non-core retail properties, including two assets in Aurora and one in Montreal, for combined proceeds of approximately $54 million. In addition, we sold a land parcel in Edmonton for approximately $8 million. Subsequent to quarter end, we're able to leverage our relationships and industry-leading value to take advantage of acquisition opportunities. In April, we completed two industrial transactions totaling $340 million, bringing year-to-date acquisitions to approximately $373 million. These acquisitions included a $1.1 million square foot industrial distribution asset from Lavalore for approximately $182 million, which was concurrently leased back to Lavalore for a 10-year term with 2% annual growth. The asset also has significant excess land that offers 1.2 million square feet of future intensification potential and is well located in Ajax along Highway 401, providing 30-minute access to the city. We also buy the portfolio of eight industrial outdoor storage sites for approximately $158 million. The portfolio includes approximately 140 acres of land across core Canadian markets. These sites are complementary to our existing industrial portfolio and are leased to 10 Canada, one of Canada's largest commercial, trailer, rental, leasing, and maintenance companies, at an attractive price per acre and yield. Our team also continued to advance our development pipeline in the first quarter, with approximately $44 million of development spend primarily related to active construction at Choice Caledon Business Park. We also transferred two retail intensifications in Ontario and one in Alberta, totaling 97,000 square feet. Our intensification pipeline is another example of how we continue to take advantage of the demand for retail space to add value to our portfolio. Now we'll speak more about our intensification initiative shortly. Finally, I want to acknowledge the release of our 2024 Environmental, Social and Governance Report. This year's report summarizes many of CHOICE's successes over the last year and showcases CHOICE's 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 the poll over to Niall to discuss our operation results in more detail. Niall?