Christine C. J. Mastandrea
Good morning, everyone. As Dave said, we delivered another strong quarter, bringing the occupancy number back up with the Ace Hardware commencing at Terravita and with a strong momentum in the shop space leases. We signed $33.2 million of total lease value, picking up slightly from the first quarter and building towards the fourth quarter, which is typically our strongest quarter. Leasing spreads were 41.4% for new leases and 15.2% for renewals, giving us a combined leasing spreads of 17.9% for the quarter. Same-store NOI growth was 3.9% for 6 months, and we remain confident in hitting our 2025 guidance of 3% to 4.5% same-store NOI growth. Looking out a bit further, 2 significant new tenants, EoS at Windsor Park in San Antonio and Cactus Club Cafe at Boulevard Place in Houston are energizing their respective centers and will move out of their build-free rent period soon and contribute over 150 basis points to same-store NOI in 2026. Our most recent acquisition, South Hulen, joins a growing list of Whitestone properties that have major development going on around them. We've had the opportunity to acquire very stable cash flows and future upside as a result of urban development. And so we took action and made the acquisition. Urban development is both a factor within our acquisition criteria framework and the natural progression that occurs because of our other criteria, strong university systems, high household incomes and upwardly mobile surrounding demographics. We spoke on the last 2 earnings calls about how Whitestone is designing to proactively identify change to take advantage of that change, delivering earnings as the company leverages change. Today, I would like to highlight some of the major changes going on around our portfolio that will provide the opportunity in years ahead. Expanding further on South Hulen's development, Fort Worth population grew 3.1% last year and has become the nation's 11th largest city. It's clear to us that Hulen Mall will undergo additional development, further elevating the traffic to the area, which is already robust with I-20 and Hulen Street attracting more than 180,000 vehicles per day. Our South Hulen Center is perfectly positioned as a gateway for the mall and for upcoming development. In terms of upcoming development, Garden Oaks purchased in 2024 is very similar. We anticipate a major announcement soon concerning the neighboring old Sears property. The property will be redeveloped in conjunction with the neighborhood that is experiencing very rapid growth as Houston Heights redevelopment spreads northward. In other parts of the Houston Metro, we've got pockets of development as well. Near our Lake Woodlands Center, The Cynthia Mitchell Woods Pavilion has taken over as the top spot globally for outdoor amphitheaters with over 600,000 guests in attendance in 2024 alone. In response to the area's growth, Howard Hughes is building The Ritz-Carlton Residences, a short walk from Lake Woodlands Center and projected to be completed by the beginning of 2027. We've anticipated this development when we purchased the property in late 2022, and we're already benefiting from our ongoing remerchandising efforts. Near our Boulevard Center, Post Oak Central is being revitalized, transforming a 16-acre campus into a mixed-use environment of retail, restaurant and office spaces. Midway is the lead developer on the project and groundbreaking recently occurred and completion is expected late next year. In addition, the adjacent parcel to our Boulevard Center was recently purchased by Crescent Real Estate, the Doggett families and also the Schnitzer families. They are developing a 6-acre parcel to create a mixed-use development with 1.5 million square feet of additional space. We anticipate that this project is moving very quickly, and we welcome them as a neighbor. Given that our Boulevard property is very strong interest right now, and it sits at the main artery in the uptown area of San Felipe 610 and Post Oak Boulevard. We have the opportunity not only to protect our asset but further upgrade our tenant base and move Whitestone's developable land at the property into an income-producing column. One last Houston highlight that David touched upon was Park Eight Place is a $1 billion mixed-use development occurring less than a mile from Lion Square in the former Halliburton campus with over 70 acres designed around walkability, health and sustainability and convenience. This development is supercharging an already fast-growing Asian community. The second largest concentration of Asian Americans in the United States are in Houston, Texas. In Phoenix, near our Anthem Center, TSMC is investing $165 billion, including 6 fabs, 2 advanced packaging centers and an R&D center. The project is expected to produce 6,000 direct manufacturing jobs and over 20,000 construction jobs. Anthem is Whitestone's closest center to TSMC's investment, but we anticipate the benefits will be felt throughout the greater metro area, which represents approximately 40% of Whitestone's portfolio. In Dallas, explosive growth is occurring around our El Dorado center and plans to build and expand on the McKinney Airport have recently been announced, adding 47,000 square foot [ terminal ], which is intended to handle 1 million passengers annually within 5 years. This expansion is a result of numerous corporate headquarters located in McKinney and will likely add to the attractiveness of the area for more major corporations. Construction that has already begun on the new airport is expected to open late next year. In Austin, we announced the purchase of San Clemente, really a sister center that sits across the road from our Davenport Center. Both of our properties will benefit from the recent improvements to the Loop 360, which would increase the traffic above the current 80,000 vehicles per day, our centers currently enjoy. In addition, the Four Seasons is adding nearly 200 high-end residences to the area. This is another opportunistic acquisition that fit our criteria as well. With all of these developments, our leasing agents are constantly working to ensure our tenant mix is properly connected to the community, and we'll see the benefits in the same-store net operating income growth as we evolve the tenant mix. In some cases, we'll benefit without investment to a center. Lake Woodlands would be an example of a center that's prime benefit from change without redevelopment. In other cases, Lion Square being a primary example, we can make a modest redevelopment in investment and capture significant gains upgrading a center to match the neighborhood. And finally, we've got a few centers like Boliver Place and Dana Park. We have land for development where we expect to capture additional growth and quite possibly partnering with another firm to develop mixed-use assets at the center. In total, we have at least 5 to 7 years' worth of development and redevelopment in order to supplement our growth. In terms of guidance, we have up to 1% of redevelopment growth embedded in our longer-term same-store growth target, and we'll add development growth once we have greater visibility into timing on larger development projects in the area. I'll close by thanking the different teams at Whitestone for their ability to work together in a seamless fashion. Calling out one group I'm very pleased with is the tight integration between our acquisitions and leasing teams, allowing us to move quickly on acquisitions and integrate into our operations. That same closeness runs between leasing, property management, legal, finance really throughout the entire company. We're a team-based company, and it has proved in the efforts and where we've exceeded these past years. This may be because of our smaller size, but overall, we appreciate that we've got these great teams, all working hard towards the same objectives. And with that, I'll turn it over to Scott to cover the financials.