Will Eglin
Analyst · Evercore
Thank, Heather. Good morning, everyone and thank you for joining our third quarter 2017 earnings call and webcast. We are pleased to report positive third quarter results. Net income totaled $0.02 per diluted common share and we generated $0.25 per common share of adjusted company funds from operations during the quarter. In addition to positive financial results, our business plan execution continues to lead to significant improvements in the overall quality of our portfolio. We added $321 million of industrial assets to the portfolio during and subsequent to the quarter, most notably a $200 million three property industrial portfolio acquired at the end of September. We also disposed of another $70 million of non-core assets during the quarter and subsequently, further reducing our exposure to leasing risk and related CapEx as well as incremental operating expenses. Leasing volume of 1.2 million square feet in the quarter supported a healthy percentage leased of 97.9% at quarter end and we have completed an additional 700,000 square feet of leases since then. Leverage increased in the third quarter when compared to the past few quarters, primarily as a result of bottoming [ph] on our line to fund the I-40 industrial portfolio acquisition, without the benefit of recognizing a full quarter of EBITDA. Overall, our balance sheet remains in good shape with 73% of our assets unencumbered and a weighted average debt maturity of 6.9 years. Given our 2017 acquisition volume, improving risk profile and a longer weighted average lease term, we announce today an increase in our annual dividend rate from $0.70 to $0.71 per common share. Also, as a result of better visibility leading into the remainder of the year, we are tightening our 2017 adjusted company FFO guidance within the range of $0.95 to $0.97 per diluted common share. Let’s take a closer look at the third quarter and how we're thinking about the rest of the year and beyond. Starting with investments, during the quarter, we acquired four industrial properties and completed one industrial build-to-suit for a total of $303 million at average GAAP and cash cap rates of 6.6% and 5.7% respectively. The bulk of the volume in the quarter was the purchase of the I-40 industrial portfolio located within submarkets in Tennessee and Mississippi that have close proximity to Interstate 40. These assets are all newly constructed Class A warehouse distribution facilities leased for approximately 10 years to investment grade tenants. We were excited to add these properties to our portfolio, given the quality of the real estate, locational attributes and the high credit quality of the Nissan, Kellogg and McCormick brands. We also purchased a $67 million distribution facility in McDonough, Georgia leased to Georgia Pacific for 10.5 years and completed a 165,000 square foot industrial build-to-suit in Opelika, Alabama, leased to Golden State Foods for 25 years. Subsequent to the end of the quarter, we purchased a distribution facility in Lafayette, Indiana, leased to Caterpillar for seven years for $17 million. We expect an additional $86 million in forward commitments to close shortly. Including these two forward commitments, 2017 investment activity is expected to total almost $700 million at average GAAP and cash cap rates of 7.4% and 6.5% respectively. These additions to the portfolio substantially all of which are industrial, will add 9.1 million of new square footage to our holdings and have helped increase both our industrial revenues and weighted average lease term. We would expect industrial exposure to increase further by year end to approximately 43% of overall portfolio revenues once the full quarter of revenue is recognized for third quarter acquisitions. We continue to source and evaluate new assets to acquire, either through a purchase sale leaseback transaction or build-to-suit project, primarily in the industrial area. Strong fundamentals and demand have further tightened pricing in the industrial market, increasing the value of our holdings and our acquisition team continues to leverage our relationships in franchise to find new opportunities. We continue to favor the industrial space, given its better long-term return profile, it’s less capital intensive attributes and its greater relevance in the continued shift towards e-commerce and demographic trends. Given our current pipeline, proceeds from dispositions, available cash and ample credit, we believe we are well positioned from a funding perspective. Moving on to dispositions, we had another successful quarter of selling non-core portfolio assets to further simplify and improve the quality of our portfolio, while reducing operating costs and leasing risk. Sales for the quarter totaled $42 million at GAAP and cash cap rates of 5.2% and 5.3% respectively and consisted primarily of short term leased office, retail, multi-tenanted and vacant properties. Subsequent to quarter end, dispositions of $28 million consisted of an office building whose lease expired October 31, an office building in Lisle, Illinois and two vacant properties, which included an industrial building in High Point, North Carolina and an office building in Fishers, Indiana. To date, we have completed the bulk of our announced 2017 disposition plan with wholly owned asset dispositions totaling $222 million at average GAAP and cash cap rates of 7.4% and 7.6% respectively. Further, we have sold a $6 million non-consolidated asset and raised approximately $89 million from loan sales in 2017. We expect modest disposition volume for the remainder of fourth quarter and are targeting 250 million to 300 million of asset sales to be sold between now and the end of next year to complete our current portfolio of repositioning. Turning to leasing, during the quarter, we leased approximately 1.2 million square feet with our portfolio 97.9% leased at quarter end. The majority of this volume included lease extensions with New Cingular, ODW Logistics and Tenneco Automotive, all of which had near term lease expirations. Renewal rents overall were up 6% on a GAAP basis and flat on the cash basis. Breaking this down further, office renewal GAAP and cash rents were up 6% and 4% respectively and industrial renewal GAAP and cash rents were up 6% and down 5% respectively. Industrial cash rents decreased as a result of the Tenneco lease in which we lowered rent in exchange for a long lease extension of 10 years in order to create additional value in the property. Subsequent to the quarter, we renewed a 640,000 square foot 2017 lease expiration with Geodis Logistics in Statesville, North Carolina for three years, which raised GAAP and cash rents by 30% and 14% respectively. We also signed a new lease at our multi-tenant office property in Farmers Branch, Texas, increasing property occupancy from 43% to approximately 80%. Property sales, lease renewals and new investments coming online continued to lengthen our weighted average lease term, currently at 9.1 years. Through our leasing efforts, we have addressed virtually all of our 2017 lease expirations and approximately 40% of 2018 single tenant lease expirations through a renewal or sale since the beginning of the year. We continue to work diligently to address remaining 2018 lease expirations, which represent only about 5% of the overall portfolio. On the office side, the lease with Swiss Re in Overland Park, Kansas, which is set to expire in December 2018 makes up the largest percentage of our 2018 office lease expirations. We do not anticipate the tenant will renew its lease and we are marketing the space for lease or sale. There is a large non-recourse mortgage of $33 million on the property, which means that our downside risk is mitigated in the event we cannot create value in excess of the loan balance. Additionally, Pacific Union in Irving, Texas will be moving out of their 43,000 square foot space in May, 2018 and we have begun marketing this space for lease. Nissan currently occupies the remaining 225,000 square feet in the building. Current negotiations are underway for our two office properties in Wallingford Connecticut and McDonough, Georgia. On the industrial side, we have no leases expiring until September 30, 2018 and are actively pursuing renewals on the majority of these explorations. As a whole, these properties represent minimal square footage and revenue in relation to the larger portfolio. Moving on to retail, we are in the process of marketing both our Gander Mountain properties, which includes a 100% owned 46,000 square foot space in Albany, Georgia and a 25% joint venture interest in a 120,000 square foot space in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida for either lease or sale. Additionally, both our Best Buy and Mighty Dollar retail properties come off lease in 2018 and are actively being marketed for sale. Overall, retail properties represent only about 1% of our revenues and as a result, we do not believe that leasing outcomes are material to our operations. Moving briefly to the balance sheet, our balance sheet remains in fine shape. Leverage increased to 6.2 times net debt to EBITDA during the quarter, primarily as a result of the I-40 industrial portfolio purchase. Our overall credit metrics continue to be strong. In connection with the purchase, we increased borrowings on our line and our two term loans, which Pat will discuss in more detail shortly. As we think about the future direction of our balance sheet, we will continue to maintain flexibility and may obtain non-recourse mortgage financings on some of our office properties. These proceeds could be used to pay down our revolving credit facility. In summary, we continued to successfully execute our business plan during the third quarter, specifically by acquiring high quality industrial investments, disposing of non-core assets to simplify the portfolio and reduce cost, addressing near term lease expirations and maintaining a flexible balance sheet. Looking forward, our goals of long term growth potential and an improved valuation remain the same as we near completion of a carefully constructed plan we started several years ago. We will continue to act on attractive growth opportunities in the industrial space, while finishing the multi-year disposition plan and managing through the remainder of our near term lease rollover. With that, I will now turn the call over to Pat who will review our financial results in more detail.