Pete Mavoides, president and CEO of Essential Properties Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: EPRT), participated in a video interview at Nareit’s REITworld: 2022 Annual Conference held in San Francisco on Nov. 15-17.
Mavoides discussed EPRT’s diverse portfolio, which includes restaurants, car washes, medical services, convenience stores, and several other types of retail.
“When we set out and started Essential back in 2016, we set a goal of owning properties where our tenants serviced or entertained their customers,” he said. “Having a service- and experience-based portfolio leads to a tenant durability.”
Mavoides said that EPRT’s AFFO per share in Q3 2022 was about 15% higher than the same time period in 2021.
“That was coupled with a good internal growth profile,” he said. “Our core portfolio properties have 14 years of weighted average lease life, and those leases have about 1.7% embedded growth within the leases; and then external growth [as well].”
Mavoides also discussed EPRT’s Essential Sustainability Loan Program, a $50 million program that was established during the pandemic and offers tenants the ability to obtain a sustainability initiative loan.
“To the extent that we can use our capital to improve the real estate and lower the overall environmental footprint of those assets, I think we have an obligation to do that,” he said.