Plaza Retail REIT

Good morning. I would like to welcome everyone to the Plaza Retail Reads Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. Instructors hearing the conference, please press star zero for operator assistance at any time. I would like to advise everyone that this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Kim Strange, Plaza's General Counsel and Secretary. Please go ahead, Ms. Strange.

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on our Q3 2023 results conference call. Before we begin today, we are obliged to advise you that in talking about our financial and operating performance and in responding to questions today, we may make forward-looking statements. including statements concerning plaza's objectives and strategies to achieve them, as well as statements with respect to our plans, estimates, and intentions, or concerning anticipated future events, results, circumstances, or performance, which are not historical facts. These statements are based on our current expectations and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from the conclusions in these forward-looking statements. Additional information on the risks that could impact our actual results and the expectations and assumptions we applied in making forward-looking statements can be found in Plaza's most recent annual information form for the year ended December 31st, 2022 and management's discussion and analysis for the nine months ended September 30th, 2023, which are both available on our website at www.plaza.ca.ca and on CDAR Plus at www.cdarplus.ca. We will also refer to non-GAAP financial measures widely used in the Canadian real estate industry, including FFO, AFFO, NOI, and Same Asset NOI. Plaza believes these financial measures provide useful information to both management and investors in measuring the financial performance and financial condition of the trusts. These financial measures do not have any standardized definitions prescribed by IFRS and may not be comparable to similar titled measures reported by other real estate investment trusts or entities. They should be considered as supplemental in nature and not as a substitute for related financial information prepared in accordance with IFRS. For definitions of these financial measures and where to obtain reconciliations thereof, Please refer to Part 7 of our MD&A for the nine months ended September 30, 2023, under the heading Explanation of Non-GAAP Measures. With that, I will now turn the call over to Michael Zacuta, Plaza's President and CEO. Michael?

Thank you, Kim. Good morning. Our business remains strong and our outlook positive. Plaza's portfolio continues to exhibit outstanding resilience. Our experienced and dedicated team has demonstrated its knowledge and determination that has enabled us to move our business forward and navigate successfully in these times of macroeconomic and geopolitical challenges. We are continuing with our business plan to grow through developments and redevelopments, active leasing and recycling capital through the disposition of non-core assets despite these challenges. I recently attended the Canadian ICSC conference in Toronto with our leasing team. We were surprised by the level of demand from major essential needs and value retailers. They're all looking to grow their Canadian brick and mortar store networks in the next five years. This creates new and compelling opportunities for Plaza, and I am confident in our ability to seize these opportunities and grow our business. At the recent ICSC, we observed the important distinction between retailers in the discretionary versus non-discretionary sectors. The non-discretionary retailers were aggressively pursuing opportunities. We have been seeing this trend for some time as consumers focus on non-discretionary and value retail spending at the expense of discretionary spending. Another takeaway from our ICSE experience is the increase in barriers to entry for our business niche. These barriers have increased significantly in the past few years. We will continue to benefit from this trend for two reasons. First, the populations in the markets we serve have generally seen solid growth, mainly through immigration. Our disciplined approach to site selection has ensured that our properties are very well positioned within their individual markets. As populations grow in our communities, our retailers are able to serve more people and, in turn, lease more space and pay higher rent. Our healthy leasing spreads are testament to both the quality of our real estate and the relationship we have with our retailer customers. Second, delivering new projects to best-in-class retailers within set schedules and financial parameters has become increasingly complicated. Success requires the right combination of experience, entrepreneurship, discipline, and financial resources. As we have been continuously feeding our development pipeline throughout our history, we understand the complexities and have clearly demonstrated the ability to deliver both new development and redevelopment projects in Atlantic Canada, Quebec, and Ontario. Looking ahead, we remain committed to our ongoing program of recycling capital by selling non-core properties and deploying the sale proceeds new developments anchored by Canada's leading essential needs retailers. While uncertainties persist, our prudent financial management, exceptional customer service, combined with our experience in overcoming past challenges, provide confidence in our ability to weather any storm and continue driving unit holder value. I will now turn the call over to Jim Drake, Plaza CFO. Jim?