Laura Nguyen - Director, Marketing Jon Wheeler - Chairman and CEO Steven Belote - Chief Financial Officer.

Wilkes Graham - Compass Point Mitch Germain - JMP Securities Kent Engelke - Capitol Securities Ed Goldman - Capital Securities.

Greetings. And welcome to Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust Company 2015 First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Laura Nguyen, Director of Marketing for Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust. You may begin..

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. On the call today will be Jon Wheeler, Chairman and CEO, Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust; and Steven Belote, Chief Financial Officer. Following management’s discussion, there will be a question-and-answer session which is open to all participants on the call.

On today’s call management’s prepared remarks and answers to questions may contain forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ from those discussed today.

For more detailed discussion related to these risks and uncertainties, we encourage listeners to review the company’s most recent filings with the SEC. As a reminder, forward-looking statements represent management’s view only as of the date of this call.

Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements in the future. Definitions and reconciliations of non-GAAP measures are included in the company’s quarterly supplemental package, which is available to the company’s website.

With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Jon Wheeler, Chief Executive Officer of Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust. Please go ahead, Jon..

Thank you, Laura. Good morning, everyone, and welcome. I’d like to thank you all for joining us for our first quarter 2015 earnings call. We have made substantial progress over the past few months, highlighted by continued acquisition activity and increases in NOI and revenue.

I briefly like to take a few moments to go through few of these highlights from the 2015 first quarter and then turn the call over to Steven for a review of our financials. We began this year by acquiring a partial land in our headquarters hometown of Virginia Beach, Virginia.

We acquired this property approximately 1.5 acre for around $1.6 million, with $150,000 paid in cash and the remaining in UPREIT shares. We expect to use the land for future development. Also in January, we completed the acquisition of Pierpont Centre, a 122,000 square foot grocery anchored shopping center located in Morgantown.

This grocery anchored retail center is 100% leased and expands our footprint in the State of West Virginia. With the stable mix of retailers and restaurants, Pierpont represents a perfect example of necessity based retail property located in the growing secondary and tertiary markets that can be acquired at a discount replacement cost.

We obtained attractive financing terms of the property and believe it will be a strong performing asset in our portfolio. At the end of March, we closed and purchased of Brook Run Properties, a 2 acre parcel of undeveloped land that is located in Richmond, Virginia.

We purchased this property for $300,000, and expect to lease the land to an affiliated shopping center nearby. Acquisition activity maintained at steady pace throughout the first quarter, as we also enter in contracts to acquire three additional properties.

The first, Beaver Ruin Village, is the 74,038 square foot shopping center that is 94.9% leased in Lilburn, Georgia, located across the street in this property. We also entered into a contract to acquire from the same seller, Beaver Ruin Village II, a 34,925 square foot shopping center located that is 100% leased.

Both locations benefit from the affable traffic of nearby Kroger Grocery Store and the properties tenant mix includes national, regional and local retail merchants such as AutoZone, Chase Bank, State Farm Insurance, T-Mobile, Firehouse Subs, Sally Beauty Supplies and MetroPCS.

The two properties have combined acquisition value of approximately $16.8 million. In March, we entered into a contract to acquire Washington Square, a 262,000 square foot shopping center located in Washington, North Carolina, which is immediately to South of our Home Office in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

The center includes national resale tenants such as Belk, Hallmark and Rite-Aid and a shadow anchored by Walmart Supercenter. The properties are 100% leased. We expect to purchase this property for $20 million or approximately $76.46 per square foot.

I’d like to point out that Washington Square was first brought to our team’s attention to a private seller and will be considered an off-market purchase. We view this acquisition as yet another testament to context of long-term relationships that we have developed over the years that provide us with access to opportunities such as Washington Square.

We are confident that these properties will make strong additions to the trust, generating stable NOIs and yielding solid returns for investors. Shopping centers and development properties I just mentioned altered their acquisition criteria perfectly as they are all retail focused and located within growing secondary or tertiary markets.

The centers have high occupancy rates and are leased financially and we see no tenants. To provide you with the snapshot of our growth over the past year, at the end of the first quarter of 2014, Wheeler owned 23 properties in seven states and had gross leasable area of 1,294,572 square feet.

At the end of the first quarter this year, the company had grown to a gross leasable area just over 2 million square feet and our property portfolio increased include 37 locations, seven of which are development properties and a geographic presence in 10 states.

With regards to our leasing and property management activities, total occupancy rate as of March 31, 2015 was a strong 95.8% leased. During the first quarter, we executed 10 renewal agreements representing 88,800 square feet of our property portfolio with an average original increase of $0.92 per square foot or a positive RIN spread equal to 9.65%.

We have consistently maintained above average occupancy levels as compared to our peers and going forward, it will remain a primary focus of the company's operations. Now, I’d like to focus -- discuss our recent financing which we announced towards the end of March.

The company raised $90 million in gross proceeds from a private placement transaction of Series C convertible preferred stock. This is by far largest capital raised today and the proceeds raised will allow us to take advantage of the strong acquisition pipeline available.

We’ve identified number of targeted retail centers and have closed or entered into contracts to acquire several of these properties, raising the capital market, maintain a healthy debt-to-total assets ratio, acquiring properties that fit our acquisition criteria and leverage our energy expertise in secondary and tertiary markets has been our model from day one and one that we believe will add significant value to the trust.

This recent financing will allow us to execute our model and we look forward to an exciting year ahead. Concurrent with the completion of the offering, the company reduced its monthly common stock dividend from $0.035 per share to approximately $1.75 per share. The company’s yield remains above industry standards.

The reduction will provide us with financial flexibility in the short term and we believe will increase value for our long-term shareholders. Let me now turn over to Steven Belote, our CFO for review of our financials. Steven..

Thank you, Jon and good morning everyone. I will begin by reviewing our financial and operational results for the first quarter followed by an update on our balance sheet. Total revenues for the three-month period ended March 31, 2015 were $5.8 million, an increase of approximately $2.1 million or 57% when compared to the same quarter last year.

Same store revenues for the first quarter 2015 remain relatively unchanged at approximately $3.6 million while revenues from new stores was consistent with a non-income producing properties acquired since the beginning of 2014, contributed approximately 31% or $1.8 million to our total revenues for the period.

Property net operating income for the first quarter of 2015 was $3.8 million, an increase of approximately 39% or $1.1 million when compared to NOI of $2.7 million for the same quarter last year. Same stores contributed $2.5 million to the 2015 first quarter NOI while new store represented $1.3 million of total NOI.

Core funds from operations available to common shareholders and common unit holders for the three-month period ended March 31, 2015, decreased $1.6 million as compared to 2014 first quarter, primarily due to preferred stock dividends paid on the Series B and Series C Preferred Stock issued after the first quarter of last year and the internalization of the operating companies.

Net loss attributable to Wheeler REIT common shareholders for the three months ended March 31, 2015 was $6.3 million or $0.80 per basic and diluted share. This compares to a net loss of $1.2 million or $0.17 per basic and diluted shares in the same quarter of last year.

The rise in net loss is attributable to several factors, including increase in depreciation, amortization and interest expense related to the nine shopping centers and the seven development properties acquired since March 2014, as well as acquisition costs of approximately $653,000 in 2015, compared to $57,000 in 2014 and the preferred stock dividends.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization was $2.1 million during the three months ended March 31, 2015, compared to $2 million for the prior year period. EBITDA was also impacted by the increase in acquisition costs and the internalization of the operating companies. Leasing activity remained positive for the first quarter.

10 renewals were signed during the quarter, totaling approximately 89,000 square feet and weighted average interest increased $0.92 per square foot, representing an increase of 9.65% at prior rates. Now turning to our balance sheet.

Our net investment assets totaled $163 million as of March 31st of this year, with cash and cash equivalents of $81 million. Total assets were $288 million at March 31, 2015, compared to $200 million at December 31, 2014. Total outstanding debt at March 31, 2015 was $148 million compared to $142 million at December 31, 2014.

Our weighted average interest rate on fixed-rate debt for the first quarter was 5%, with a weighted average turn of approximately 6.1 years. Maintaining a healthy debt to total asset ratio quarter-over-quarter is a key for our REIT company as we continue to grow. And with that, I would now like to turn the call back over to Jon..

Thank you, Steven. The first quarter 2015 was extremely busy for the company and we expect this to continue throughout 2015, as we believe we are all well positioned for tremendous year of growth.

The strategic decisions made over the past few months will provide us with a necessity of necessary capital to further carry out our business plan of identifying, analyzing, acquiring properties that fit our acquisition criteria.

We will leverage our excellent leasing, property management and development expertise to grow the size of the trust and generate returns for our shareholders. With that, I’d like now to take a moment to thank all the Wheeler team.

We have a great group of knowledgeable and experience associates in Virginia Beach and Charleston that manage our leasing, acquisition, property management, development and administrative operations and I sincerely appreciate all their hard work and dedication to the company.

In the coming months, we expect to break ground on several development projects and once completed, we anticipate these properties will generate significant returns to the trust. We will also continue our acquisition efforts as mentioned throughout this call.

We believe that 2015 is off to a great start and we look forward to another exciting and successful year here at Wheeler. With that, I’m now ready to take any questions you might have.

Operator?.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Wilkes Graham with Compass Point. Please proceed with your question..

Hey. Good morning, everyone..

Good morning, Wilkes. Thanks for joining in..

Thank you. Couple of questions.

Just on the income statement first, can you help explain what the preferred stock accretion add back is?.

I will refer to Steven..

Yes. Hi Wilkes. Basically that is the cost of raising that capital. We offset against proceeds in the equity section of the financial statements. And because we have such a short period of time before the conversion date or anticipated conversion date, that’s a very accelerating amortization period for that cost. But that’s basically what it is.

It is non-cash from the standpoint of income statement..

Okay. If I look at the G&A number excluding acquisition costs, it was about $1.65 million. I think on the -- as you guys were out raising the Series C we sort of talked about post the transaction, which the majority of this quarter was pre-transaction. Post the transaction the run rate would be about $1.4 million, so it’s about a $250,000 difference.

I am assuming that there were some costs in the G&A that were related to the transaction itself. I am just curious to have a breakout of how much of that $1.65 million was nonrecurring..

Yes. I will give you a couple of a little bit of insight on that. Some of the costs were related to raising the capital. The other thing to keep in mind Wilkes is in the first quarter of any year quite frankly, all the audit and tax fees related to the year end or incurred or primarily all of them, the majority of them.

So that’s a number that if we spread out throughout the year annualized basis, it’s not so bad on a quarter-over-quarter basis. But that’s one item that impacted our G&A. The other was related to, it’s never movable, believe or not. It’s never movable. Primarily it’s in the first quarter as well. And that’s a very large number.

At centers that numbers continue to grow. And quietly frankly, it’s even done and some of those centers intend to see and some of the other southern centers we get to know a little cost and they can be very expensive, especially in those areas. So they were two big items that impacted G&A..

Yes. Let me follow up on that as well, Wilkes. This, as you know, is a hard winter up and down the whole entire East Coast and Midwest as well. And centers that never experienced prototypical storms or snowfall, significant snowfalls like around Metro Charleston if you will.

We have a lot of assets in North Carolina and South Carolina that really never experienced snow, this year we did.

But it’s important to note that a majority of those expenses are recoverable through the reconciliation process on the previous year or the past year but the previous year and being a triple net format with our anchors in shopping centers and retailers, most of that is recoverable.

So even thought it’s a expense in the first quarter, it becomes income as we go throughout the year and next year as well..

Okay. That’s helpful.

And can you actually quantify how much was Summerville and how much was either audit and legal or even travel fees related to the deal in the 10-K?.

Right. Summerville was almost $102,000 in the first quarter..

150..

Yes. Okay. And let me correct myself on that. That was actually hit the property expenses, but the gain in the audit fees were primarily related to that the impact, the increase in the G&A piece, I apologize for that..

Okay.

So how much of the G&A was nonrecurring, can you quantify that?.

Well, the nonrecurring means that the audit fees are recurring obviously, but there were about $155,000 of audit and tax fees related to the Beaver Ruin that we will not have in quarters to come..

Okay. And on the asset management line item, I know it’s -- I think that’s a new disclosure sort of breaking out as management fees and expenses.

Is that expected to run at sort of a neutral, earnings neutral basis going forward?.

That’s the idea, Wilkes. We are allocating cost to that sector of our business. And as we increase the property cat and the REIT, there obviously were more of the overhead costs and more of the costs that we allocate.

So I expect that to run neutral, maybe a little bit positive from a tax standpoint, but basically we expect those costs to put all the costs, the revenues cover the costs..

And Wilkes, this is Jon again. We do have third party fees that are benefit to the trust, whether they are Wheeler legacy assets or other truly third party business and that’s something that we want to focus on and grow as well. So as mentioned, Steven mentioned a slight positive increase.

We feel that will be a benefit as we go down the track as well as you know when we get into the development sites and start that development going vertical and ground up that we benefit from those development fees as well..

Sure. Maybe just one more question. I mean I will say that the 9.6% rev increase on the renewals is pretty impressive. I think that I just want to point out that’s pretty impressive number. But on the pipeline if I understand right, the two assets that were in the perspective that are not yet under contract are Brook Run and Chesapeake Square.

And it looks like patent as of the proxy last week, maybe patent is not in the pipeline anymore, although I know that you had Beaver Ruin Village II to the pipeline.

So I want to ask about the status of Brook Run and Chesapeake Square as well as if you have sort of size of the negotiated LOI pipeline that you referenced in the past?.

Yes. This is John. Let me address Brook Run Shopping Center and Chesapeake Square are Wheeler legacy assets and as contemplated in the last PPM on these series C, those are coming in and coming in, in short order. They will be brought in Brook Run, July 1 on the [nose] [ph] because that’s when the note literally matures.

And there no deficient spirit associated a window if you will for that assets so that will come in literally on July 1 and we anticipate Chesapeake Square to come in by August 1 because it has a similar hard date on that deficient’s period.

And you are correct with patent square that was in the book of seven for the contemplated 85 million in assets on the PPM and after further due diligence, we are able to determine that one of the larger tenants, the hardware tenant which is not going to in fact remain when the seller felt that they were and felt they had to moderately negotiate the stay.

And because it was a lager 15,000, 20,000 foot tenant we decide to pass on that.

But more importantly, we feel that we picked up a better asset with Beaver Ruin II directly across the street from Beaver Ruin 1, the shadow-anchored by the Kroger and of course that one is anchored by an Audit Zone and we just feel it’s a better asset this particular time. So it kind of worked to self out if you will..

Sure. I have a few more questions, but I’ll jump back in the queue..

Okay. Thank you..

Our next question is from Mitch Germain JMP Securities. Please proceed with your question..

Good morning..

Good morning, sir..

Curious just in terms of when you look at your acquisition pipeline kind of on a go forward basis, where do you find Wheeler being most competitive, is it on the value add product, is it stable maybe geography? I am just kind of curious in terms of how you think about putting capital to work in the Future?.

Well, first and foremost, we will stay true to our procedures, policies, guidelines. We focused heavily on the secondary and tertiary markets primarily Eastern Mississippi. And if you look at our website, we are as high as Sicklerville, New Jersey all the way down to Florida and then over to Oklahoma.

And we see a lot of potential in field states surrounding Oklahoma and then back over to the East Coast that we don’t currently have assets in.

So grocery-anchored will be our primary focus, retail of course primary focus and those secondary and tertiary markets that we refer to is blue and low blue, blue color and low blue color where they literally are day-trippers to our shopping centres and they visit and patronise not just once a week but 2, 3, 4 times a week.

So our criteria won't change.

We’ll still focus on trying to purchase asset at 50% of replacement policy or less and matter of fact when I referenced Washington Square today and that's again right south of us in Virginia Beach and Washington, North Carolina and we find that asset roughly to around $74, $75 per square foot which is much less than that and it’s a 100% lease.

Now referring to value add and so forth, we don't really swing from the trees from a value add with a contemplated business plan. We like more known fixed contracts and leases with rent increases. So if we buy 500,000 foot centre and its 10,000 feet vacant, that's a lot for us and that vacancy of courses is in small shops.

We always factor in a 5% vacancy in our ARGUS, our analysis software that we use over 10-year period. We factor in 5% on the front end and we are almost 95%, 96% leased now. So value add is really not a term that we use, it’s not a part of our language or dictionary.

We like a higher level of occupancy where we can actually push rents in this particular case north of 9% for this last quarter. 2014 had a rent spread of about 6.6% and I am happy to say the 33 leases that came up for renewal in the public portfolio, we had a 100% renewal on that. And again we had a 6.6% rent spread.

Now with that mine we factor in a 2% to 3% and the only factor in a 75% renewal probability and of course in both cases we beat that this year in the first quarter. We are off to a great start north of 9% and over 88,000. And I believe we have about 200,000 square feet just coming up for renewal in 2015, so we are already down the track well on that.

So what I like to say is we know how to buy well, we know how to invest well, but we are at least and manage extremely well..

Great. That's very helpful. And last one for me. I am reading a lot about capital, which is -- has historically chased in primary market shifting to more secondary markets.

And I'm curious are you seeing that with regards to bidding on -- I know that some of the deals you had this quarter and in the past have obviously been off market, but more the marketed transactions you are seeing more and more institutional or yield focus capital then you are historically used to seeing?.

And that's a very good question. And it’s a very interesting conversation and the answer is yes and no. Now, when I say that, is that we are buying from our peer group. We’re buying from our competitors and that list includes DDR, which is Pierpont, up in Morgantown, West Virginia, a fantastic acquisition at a great cap rate.

That was right, sub 9% cap rate and the per square foot was phenomenal, 100% leased. And that’s a good example of -- where you have a high barrier to entry and you just can’t build that often that easily in the mountain type regions in United States and that will be a long-term asset for us. So, we are buying from DDR, RPAI.

Phillips Edison, we bought in the past from -- formally known as Edens & Avant, now EDENS. We have purchased assets from private groups like DLC, that up to this point in time have been competitors of ours.

And matter of fact, DLC now is currently going through a sell-off of some of their assets and probably more significantly than they have in the past. So there are more sellers selling. There are more funds that are winding up that they have to exit that creates great opportunity for us.

And also there are more groups that have no succession plan or they have chosen that does not interest the business to provide a wonderful opportunity for us on the acquisition pipeline. Meaning that we do have our own currency and that’s via UPREIT shares, the Umbrella Partnership Real Estate Investment Trust shares.

And a lot of people really enjoy the benefit of tax deferral and the lack of recapture depreciation and exposure to capital gains.

So yes, there are buyers entering the market but what happened is -- I’ve been doing this for 33 years and both, privately and publicly, this firm has been in business for 16 years or 2.5 years public, we have become a real market maker in our particular markets.

And people know that we do our homework and people know that we negotiate well and people know that we close.

And if there are two or three buyers in the kitty if you will, in the bucket to negotiate with, sometimes we do lose out on the first offer and there’s a lot of cases that come back that we’re number two, number three and we end up one in the bid because the first guy failed because he had it under contract.

So, what I want to convey is we have absolute focus on execution delivery and people know that we know what we’re doing. And again, we know how to buy well and that’s a very key component and we’ve been successful at it now for the last 15, going on 16 years..

Thank you..

Our next question is from Kent Engelke with Capitol Securities. Please proceed with your question..

Hey, Stevie, Jon, how are you all doing?.

Hey, Kent..

Hey. Good morning.

How are you, sir?.

Doing well. I appreciate your explanation on the SG&A expenses there. I appreciate it. This is more of a forward-looking question. I don’t know if you are going to answer this or not or you care to.

Any thoughts about forward-looking FFO as it relates to the dividend and the like?.

Steven, I’ll refer you on that..

Yeah. We have actually no account. We have not got any insight on that. Obviously, we cut our dividend with the plan to invest these funds. And so, really we have not put any forward FFO, got insight on that. So, I will not comment on that. But it’s honestly -- and let say, we’re trying do -- FFO will cover that, cover the dividend with FFO..

Okay. So what I’m hearing you say is that there is no sort of thoughts and sort of liking.

So you have the quarters continue to go on?.

We will just keep doing our thing growing. Yeah. Absolutely..

Okay. Hey. Thank you..

Our next question is from Ed Goldman with Capital Securities. Please proceed with your question..

Good morning. I’ve got a question about the acquisition cost of -- just looking here at Alex City Marketplace, the two recent acquisitions. Alex City was $62 a foot and Butler Square was a $114 a foot, that’s a significant difference on one in what would create that extra value in the Butler Square versus Alex City..

Yeah. Let me address that. This is Jon Wheeler. And thank you for calling in, sir. A lot of things come into play to answer that, there is a lot of variables. A lot of time it is location, whether it’s the proximity closer to a larger city, let say of Atlanta or Charlotte or Dallas. The close you are to a city traditionally, the cap rates are lower.

Also size has a lot to do with it. So, Alex City is larger than Butler Square. And Alex City was from a private investor up in New York and Butler Square actually was from DLC, one of the groups I mentioned earlier. So you get into size. You get into the particular sales of particular retailer and we focus heavily on the grocery stores.

We like to use whatever our procedure or policy is. We want that grocery store to have 3% rent versus gross sales or less. And gross sales have a great impact on cap rates as well. So if a grocery stores like Bi-Lo at Butler is doing $300 a foot versus it was a public, say, $500 a foot that would drive that cap rate down if it was public.

Also the lease terms on those anchors are a common denominator in the cap rate valuation, how well the center is leased and also what time particular ancillary retailers are associated with that anchors whether it is a drug store or maybe a dollar store that’s packed over drug stores and the drug store moved out to the corner.

You will see a lot of situations where even today people like Starbucks are now more so expanding, because they really kind of develop at the major cities now. They are more so expanding in the secondary and the territory market, we’re seeing them more often.

So when you have the Panera Bread and the Starbucks start to occupy an Alex City or Butler Square that slightly drives down that cap rate as well. It’s a smaller tenant. The rents tend to be higher per square foot that also drives down that cap rates. But also it’s the credit and cash sale of those particular tenants to help also generate other leases.

So it’s fair to say that if you are in a Whole Foods or a public center, your cap rates is going to be lower than it fits in, if you have, an anchor like a Food Lion or Bi-Lo. All four tenants are great tenants, that is to have a different type of cap rates on the denominator.

So a lot of things come into play but I would say gross sales, lease terms, location, co-tenancy, those are some of the most important..

Okay.

And another question, do you see flipping is probably not the right word but taking advantage of some of the buyers you’ve got then selling a center or too?.

Well, right now, we are primarily growth company. And I would never say that we wouldn’t sell.

And I know there is always those particular opportunity that present themselves, let say, just use a unique example, we have a 1031 buyer at a California that used to buying five caps and they come to east coast and they can pick one of our asset at a 6.25, 6.5 cap because what they are very used to.

All we have an asset that really that we can improve the value anymore that we already have. Again, we buy and then we lease and manage and that post acquisition, we implement our business plan and what I would like to say is we relocate tenants, we dislocate tenants, we replace tenants, we expand tenants.

And it is a little bit of chess match on the tenancy. And we really have a good understanding of who goes next to whom and why and who benefits to and why. Once we implement that business plan, there maybe that unique opportunity to sell. Now keep in mind, as of June of this year, we’ll be two and a half months public.

And of course, we start to off with eight assets and as you saw we have 37 income-producing properties in seven development parcels that we can build upon.

Those opportunities will start to preset themselves and a classic example, we may buy grocery anchored freestanding asset, like we did with the XB Research or Genes Research, Metro Tulsa, Dunham, Oklahoma, where those had 20 year of brand-new leases on them. They had upward trending sales.

You may see us maybe in the third or fourth year because I have branded 20 year leases perhaps 16 or 17 years remaining, 15 years remaining, they could be great disposition targets, time will tell..

Okay. I guess, some of them for long haul..

We are..

I think so..

But thank you very much and all the best to you both..

Thank you..

Our next question from Wilkes Graham with Compass Point. Please proceed with your question..

Hi. Thanks. Jon, can you quantify.

If you have a pipeline out there outside of, the assets we spoke about before that are under sort of asset negotiations, anything like that?.

Yes. As you know in the book, the PPM and the investor deck we had about $85 million in acquisition target with the use about $38 million and proceeds to invest. And with what we have either under LOI or contract, we feel good about that are almost under $80 million in assets.

Now keep in mind, through the negotiation process and through our due diligence, we have an extensive due diligence process. Three page, 100 point checklist, so like a pattern square, we determined that we just did want to take on that risk. So some things will come and go.

And we have the benefit of our last raise with a $90 million that let us roughly about $40 million to invest opposed those seven assets. We are consistently looking literally about $75 million to $100 million in acquisition targets on any given day.

And what’s in front of us right now, we feel very strong about judiciously investing well the remaining proceeds from the last offering and it’s just a good time, because cap rates ironically have risen in our markets and with the loan-to-value is dropping, and all the other debt maturities before coming CMBS or otherwise, a lot of investors and owners cannot bridge that equity gap, but we can now with the use of this type of proceeds.

So to put it bluntly, we are in a fantastic position with fantastic growth opportunities and I really see the next three to five years is a significant time for growth for our company..

Thank you, Jon.

Last question just one, recent move in interest rates, I think, the -- I know when you closed on April 1st the Alex City asset, you got a 3.954% mortgage rate? Any comment on where rates are today?.

Yes. And as you can imagine, we focus on that on a daily basis and that is probably one of the most important common denominators of our business plan.

And bear with me, back in 2000, the first deal we bought privately, the interest rate was 8.35%, that was on asset in Tampa, Florida, and the cap rate was 11.5%, but return to the private investor was 14%.

So as the interest rates move up and down, as you referenced today, Alex City and also there is another we close, not too longer, a couple weeks at 3.897% and that was a fixed interest rate for 10 years interest only. We put down 45% equity. So 55% LTV, in essence we are prepaying amortization and it drives down that rate.

Even with rates now that is slightly nudged above 4% all-in with the 10-year swap and spread, it was the Cantor Fitzgerald, Rialto, Bank of America, Protective Life or Aviva Life, companies like that. We have a really good bevy of lenders that we deal with that know us well and we’ve executed well for both of us coming and going.

So if the rates slightly increase, it really doesn’t impact us that much. Now I know from a REIT pricing standpoint, you always see stock prices drop when interest rates go up. It’s really a good time for us. Again if you compare 8.35% and I delivered a 14% return back in 2000.

My model really is 9.612%, which means we are buying on an average of nine cap. We are financing the 6% or less. We are delivering the 12% return to the Trust. While on those two previous deals that model switch to 9.414% and it just really a fantastic time for us debt wise. But if the rates go back up to, well, give you another example.

We bought the five food lines in South Carolina portfolio from Edens & Avant back in 2003. In December of ’13 we contribute those assets to the Trust, the five food lines, all in secondary and tertiary markets and the interest rate at that point of time was 5.25%. But more importantly, those were Wheeler legacy assets.

Those assets came into at the 9.5% cap and return to the Trust even at 5.25% was over 14%. So as the rates slightly move up and down, it doesn’t really have any detrimental impact to us and if rates go back up to north of 5% by example of those food lines it does not have a detrimental impact to us.

Now we don’t want to be borrow money at 21% like I did in 1982 down in Dallas, our mortgage is at 14%, 15%, 16%. But what I am trying to point out is, we have a nice range of 4% to 8.35%, and we are making significant investment with great cash flow..

I appreciate that. Good luck..

Thank you, Wilkes..

Thanks, Wilkes..

Thank you. With that, we now like to turn the call back to management for closing remarks..

Thank you, Operator. Again, this is Jon Wheeler. I have been this business now for 33 years starting off in Dallas and up to Washington D.C. and now in our headquarters town Virginia Beach, Virginia. And as you all know back in September, October of last year we opened up our regional office down in Charleston.

As I said before with folks on the phone, we see this is a fantastic time and opportunity for us to excel and do what we do. And for those that know me I refer to it as the positive perfect storm, meaning the product, the equity and the debt have all harmoniously aligned themselves and also well balanced.

I am 54 years old and I have never seen this unique opportunity that we have today that is in front of us. And as I referenced earlier, I really see the next three to five years as a fantastic opportunity for WHLR and for our investors.

So on behalf of our team here at Wheeler, I would like to thank all of those that dialed in for the call, and we look forward to talking with you again in August, when we report second quarter results. You all have a fantastic day and a great week. Thank you..

This concludes today’s teleconference. We thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time..