Item 1. Business
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Our Company
We are an internally managed real estate investment company focused on acquiring and managing income-producing retail, office and industrial properties net leased to high quality tenants in major markets throughout the United States. With interest rates at historical lows, we believe our focus on owning properties leased to investment grade or creditworthy tenants provide attractive risk adjusted returns through current yields, long term appreciation and tenant renewals.
We believe that single-tenant commercial properties, as compared with shopping centers, malls, and other traditional multi-tenant properties, offer a distinct investment advantage since single-tenant properties generally require less management and operating capital and have less recurring tenant turnover than do multi-tenant properties.
Given the stability and predictability of the cash flows, many net leased properties are held in family trusts, providing us an opportunity to acquire these properties for tax deferred units while giving the owners potential liquidity through the conversion of the units for freely tradable shares of stock.
Once we qualify for taxation as a REIT, we intend to make regular cash distributions to our stockholders out of our cash available for distribution, typically on a monthly basis. Generally, our policy will be to pay distributions from cash flow from operations. However, our distributions may be paid from sources other than cash flows from operations, such as from the proceeds from a capital raise, borrowings or distributions in kind.
We have been organized as a Maryland corporation and have operated in conformity with the requirements for qualification and taxation as a REIT under U.S. federal income tax laws since the beginning of our taxable year ended December 31, 2021.
We and our Operating Partnership were organized to operate using an Umbrella Partnership Real Estate Investment Trust (“UPREIT”) structure. We use an UPREIT structure because a sale of property directly to another person or entity generally is a taxable transaction to the selling property owner. In an UPREIT structure, a seller of a property that desires to defer taxable gain on the sale of its property may transfer the property to the Operating Partnership in exchange for common units in the Operating Partnership and defer taxation of gain until the seller later disposes of its common units in the Operating Partnership. Using an UPREIT structure may give us an advantage in acquiring desired properties from persons who may not otherwise sell their properties because of unfavorable tax results. As of December 31, 2021, we owned 85.3% of the outstanding common units in the Operating Partnership and outside investors own 14.7%.
Business Objectives and Investment Strategy
We intend to continue to acquire and manage a diversified portfolio of high quality net leased properties that generates predictable cash flows and capital appreciation over market cycles. Our properties are generally net leased to a single tenant. Under a net lease, the tenant typically bears the responsibility for most or all property related expenses such as real estate taxes, insurance, and maintenance costs. We believe this lease structure provides us with stable cash flows over the term of the lease and minimizes the ongoing capital expenditures. We seek to identify properties in submarkets with high barriers to entry for development and where valuation is frequently influenced by local real estate market conditions and tenant needs.
Focus on Real Estate Fundamentals: We have observed that the market for properties with bond type net leased structures, lease terms greater than ten years, and limited rent escalators upon renewal are exposed to many of the same operational and market risks as other net leased properties while providing lower returns due to competition. We believe that focusing on traditional real estate fundamentals allows us to target properties with shorter lease terms, modified net leases or vacancy and thereby may allow us to generate superior returns.
Target Markets with Attractive Characteristics: We concentrate our investment activity in select target markets with the following characteristics: high quality infrastructure, diversified local economies with multiple economic drivers, strong demographics, pro-business local governments and high quality local labor pools. We believe that these markets offer a higher probability of producing long term rent growth and capital appreciation.
Target Strategic Net Leased Properties: We target properties that offer unique strategic advantages to a tenant or an industry and can therefore be acquired at attractive yields relative to the underlying risk. We look for properties that are difficult or costly to replicate due to a specific location, special zoning, unique physical attributes, below market rents or a significant tenant investment in the facility, all of which contribute to a higher probability of tenant renewals. Examples of specialized properties include our Pratt &
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Whitney manufacturing facility located in Huntsville, Alabama whose specialized equipment is unique to such a facility and the GSA (US Navy) occupied building in Norfolk, Virginia due to the tenant’s buildout for IT and security. We target properties if we believe they are critical to the ongoing operations of the tenant and the profitability of its business. We believe that the profitability of the operations and the difficulty in replicating or moving operations reflect the importance of the property to the tenant’s business.
Target Investments that Maximize Growth Potential: We focus on net leased investment properties where, in our view, there is the potential to invest incremental capital to accommodate a tenant’s business, extend lease terms and increase the value of a property. We believe these opportunities can generate attractive returns due to the nature of our relationship with the tenant.
Disciplined Underwriting & Risk Management
We actively manage and regularly review each of our properties for changes in the underlying business, credit of the tenant and market conditions. Before acquiring a property, we review the terms of the management contract to ensure our team is able to maximize cash flow capital appreciation through potential lease renewals and/ or potential re-tenanting. Additionally, we monitor any required capital improvements that would lead to increased rental income or capital appreciation over time. We focus on active management with the tenants upon the acquisition of an asset since our experience in the single-tenant, commercial real estate industry indicates that active management and fostering tenant relationships has the potential to positively impact long-term financial outcomes, such as:
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better communication with corporate level and unit level staff to determine ongoing company and location-specific performance, strategic goals and directives;
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the ability to hold a tenant accountable for property maintenance during occupancy in order to reduce the probability of future deferred maintenance expenses; and
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the ability to develop relationships with tenants as an active participant in their occupancy which can lead to better communication during times of potential negotiations.
Underwriting Process
Our extensive underwriting process evaluates key fundamental value drivers that we believe will attract long-term tenants and result in property appreciation over time. This comprehensive pre-ownership analysis led by our CEO (David Sobelman, who has over 15 years in different capacities within the net lease commercial real estate investment market) helps us to assess location level performance, including the possible longevity of tenant occupancy throughout the primary lease term and option periods.
We assess target markets and properties using an extensive underwriting and evaluation process, including:
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offering materials review;
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property and tenant lease information;
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in depth conversations with offering agent, local brokers and property management companies;
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thorough credit underwriting of the tenant;
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review of tenant’s historical performance in the specific market and their nationwide trend to determine potential longevity of the asset and tenant’s business model;
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market real estate dynamics, including macroeconomic market data and market rents for potential rental rate changes after initial lease term;
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evaluation of business trends for local real estate demand specifics and competing business locations;
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review of asset level financial performance;
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pre-acquisition discussions with the asset manager to confirm property specific reserve amounts and potential future capital expenditures;
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review of property’s physical condition and related systems; and
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financial modeling to determine our preliminary baseline pricing.
Specific acquisition criteria may include, but is not limited to, the following:
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properties with existing, long-term leases of approximately seven years or longer;
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premier locations and facilities with multiple alternative uses;
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sustainable rents specific to a tenants’ location that may be at or below market rents;
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investment grade or strong credit tenant;
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properties not subject to long-term management contracts with management companies;
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opportunities to expand the tenants’ building and/or implement value-added operational improvements; and
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population density and strong demand growth characteristics supported by favorable demographic indicators.
Competitive Strengths
We believe that the following factors benefit the Company as we implement our business strategy:
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Focused Property Investment Strategy . We have invested and intend to invest primarily in assets that are geographically located in prime markets throughout the United States, with an emphasis on the major primary and coastal markets, where we believe there are greater barriers to entry for the development of new net lease properties.
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Experienced Board of Directors . We believe that we have a seasoned and experienced board of directors that will help us achieve our investment objectives. In combination, our directors have approximately 140 years of experience in the real estate industry.
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Real Estate Industry Leadership and Networking . We are led by our Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, David Sobelman. He founded the Company after serving in different capacities within the net lease commercial real estate market. Mr. Sobelman has held various roles within the single tenant, net lease commercial real estate investment market over the past 18 years, including investor, asset manager, broker, owner, analyst and advisor. Mr. Sobelman started his real estate career in 2003 as a real estate analyst and ultimately emerged into a Managing Partner of a solely-focused, triple net lease commercial real estate firm. He has procured or overseen numerous transactions that ranged from small, private investments to portfolio transactions with individual aggregate values of approximately $69 million. Additionally, Mr. Sobelman considers himself a pioneer in implementing hands-on management of net leased properties in order to potentially maintain or increase the value of any one asset. He has overseen or actively participated in single tenant real estate management since 2010.
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Established and Developing Relationships with Real Estate Financing Sources . We believe our existing relationships with institutional sources of debt financing could provide us with attractive and competitive debt financing options as we grow our property portfolio and provide us the opportunity to refinance our existing indebtedness.
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Existing Acquisition Pipeline. We believe our extensive network of long standing relationships will provide us with access to a pipeline of acquisition opportunities that will enable us to identify and capitalize on what we believe are attractive acquisition opportunities for our leasing efforts.
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Growth-Oriented, Flexible and Conservative Capital Structure . We believe our capital structure will provide us with an advantage over many of our private and public competitors. We have no legacy balance sheet issues and limited near-term maturities, which will allow management to focus on business and growth strategies rather than balance sheet repair.
Financing Strategies
Our long-term goal is to maintain a lower-leveraged capital structure and lower outstanding principal amount of our consolidated indebtedness. We intend to target aggregate borrowings equal to approximately 50% or less of our total assets. Individual assets may be more highly leveraged. Over time, we intend to reduce our debt positions through financing our long-term growth with equity issuances and some debt financing having staggered maturities. Our debt may include mortgage debt secured by our properties and unsecured debt. Over a long-term period, we intend to maintain lower levels of debt encumbering the Company, its assets and/or the portfolio.
Public Offering and Nasdaq Capital Market Listing
In September 2021, the Company closed an underwritten public offering of 1,665,000 units at a price to the public of $10 per unit generating net proceeds of approximately $13.8 million including issuance costs incurred during the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020. Each unit consisted of one share of common stock and one warrant to purchase one share of common stock at an exercise price equal to $10 per share. The common stock and warrants included in the units (which were separated into one share of common stock and one warrant) currently trade on the Nasdaq Capital Market (“Nasdaq”) under the symbols “GIPR” and “GIPRW,” respectively.
Our Current Portfolio as of December 31, 2021
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Creditworthy Tenants . Approximately 80.3% of our portfolio’s annualized rent (excluding our Tenant in Common property) as of December 31, 2021 was derived from tenants that have (or whose parent company has) an investment grade credit rating from a
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recognized credit rating agency of “BBB-” or better. Our largest tenants are the General Service Administration, PRA Group and Pratt & Whitney, all who have an ‘BB+’ credit rating or better from S&P Global Ratings and contributed approximately 65. 3 % of our portfolio’s annualized base rent as of December 31, 202 1 .
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100% Occupied . Our portfolio is 100% leased and occupied.
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Contractual Rent Growth . Approximately 77% of the leases in our current portfolio (based on annualized rent as of December 31, 2021) provide for increases in contractual base rent during future years of the current term or during the lease extension periods.
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Average Effective Annual Rental per Square Foot . Average effective annual rental per square foot is $17.17. We generally depreciate all properties on a straight-line basis over a 26 – 50 year period.
Given the nature of our leases, our tenants either pay the real estate taxes directly or reimburse us for such costs. We believe all of our properties are adequately covered by insurance.
The table below presents an overview of the nine properties in our portfolio as of December 31, 2021, unless otherwise indicated:
Property
Type
Property
Location
Rentable
Square
Feet
Tenant(s)
S&P
Credit
Rating
(1)
Lease
Expiration
Date
Remaining
Term
(Years)
Options
(Number
x Years)
Tenant
Contractual
Rent
Escalations
Annualized
Base Rent
(2)
Annualized
Base Rent
Sq. Ft.
Base Rent
as a % of
Total
Retail
Washington, DC
3,000
7-Eleven
Corporation
A
3/31/2026
4.2
2 x 5
Yes
$
129,804
$
43.27
3.4%
Retail
Tampa, FL
2,200
Starbucks
BBB+
2/29/2028
6.2
4 x 5
Yes
$
182,500
$
82.95
4.8%
Industrial
Huntsville, AL
59,091
Pratt & Whitney
Automation, Inc.
A-
1/31/2029
7.1
2 x 5
Yes
$
684,996
$
11.59
18.1%
Office
Norfolk, VA
49,902
General Services Administration of the United States of America and
AA+
9/17/2028
6.7
—
No
$
882,476
$
17.68
23.3%
Norfolk, VA
22,247
Maersk Line, Limited
BBB
12/31/2022
1.0
1 x 5
Yes
$
386,795
$
17.39
10.2%
Office
Norfolk, VA
34,847
PRA Holdings, Inc.(3)
BB+
8/31/2027
5.7
1 x 5
Yes
$
742,850
$
21.32
19.6%
Retail
Tampa, FL
3,500
Sherwin- Williams
BBB
7/31/2028
6.6
5 x 5
Yes
$
120,750
$
34.50
3.2%
Office
Manteo, NC
7,543
General Services Administration
of the USA
AA+
2/20/2029
7.1
1 x 5
Yes
$
161,346
$
21.39
4.3%
Office
Tampa, FL
7,826
Irby Construction Company
BBB-
12/31/2024
3.0
2 x 5
Yes
$
148,200
$
18.94
3.9%
Retail
Boulder Springs, CO
30,701
BestBuy
BBB+
3/31/2027
5.2
1 x 5
Yes
$
353,061
$
11.50
9.3%
Total
220,857
$
3,792,778
Tenancy in Common Ownership
Retail (4)
Rockford, IL
15,288
La-Z-Boy Corporation
NR
10/31/2027
5.8
4 x 5
Yes
$
360,100
$
23.55
(1)
Tenant, or tenant parent, rated entity.
(2)
Annualized cash rental income in place as of December 31, 2021. Our leases do not include tenant concessions or abatements.
(3)
Tenant has the right to terminate the lease on August 31, 2024 subject to certain conditions.
(4)
Represents a 36.8% tenancy in common interest in one property.
Property Acquisitions Subsequent to December 31, 2021
The following properties were acquired subsequent to December 31, 2021, bringing our total properties owned to twelve at March 9, 2022.
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A single tenant medical building (approximately 10,900 square feet) leased to Fresenius Medical Care (NYSE: FMS) located in Chicago, Illinois.
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A single tenant retail stand-alone property (approximately 2,600 square feet) located in Tampa, Florida with a corporate Starbucks Coffee as the tenant.
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A leasehold interest in a ground lease and corresponding assignment of a single tenant retail stand-alone property (approximately 88,700 square feet) located in Tucson, Arizona with a corporate Kohl’s as the tenant.
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Property Dispositions During 2021
On August 31, 2021 we sold our 15,100-square-foot, single tenant Walgreens in Cocoa, Florida purchased in September 2019 for total net consideration of approximately $5.2 million. The acquisition was initially funded with a Redeemable Non-Controlling Interest contribution to one of our subsidiaries of $1.2 million and by debt financing of approximately $3.4 million. We also repaid the Redeemable Non-Controlling Interest of $1.2 million and the $3.4 million debt from the sales proceeds.
Property Acquisition Pipeline
We are continually engaging in internal research as well as informal discussions with various parties regarding our potential interest in potential acquisitions that fall within our target market. As of March 9, 2022, however, we are not a party to any binding agreement to purchase any additional properties. There is no assurance that any currently available properties in our acquisition pipeline will remain available, or that we will pursue or complete potential acquisitions, at prices acceptable to us or at all.
Distributions
From inception through December 31, 2021, we have distributed approximately $1,299,000 to common stockholders. In addition, on January 3, 2022, we announced that our Board of Directors authorized a distribution of $0.054 per share monthly cash distribution for shareholders of record of our common stock as of January 15, 2021, February 15, 2021 and March 15, 2021. January and February distributions were paid on January 24, 2022 and February 22, 2022, respectively, and we expect to pay March dividends on or about March 30, 2022. Because we have not yet generated a cumulative profit, distributions have been made from proceeds from prior capital raises.
Competition
The net lease industry is highly competitive. We compete to acquire properties with other investors, including traded and non-traded public REITs, private equity investors and institutional investment funds, many of which have greater financial resources than we do, a greater ability to borrow funds to acquire properties and the ability to accept more risk than we can prudently manage. This competition increases the demand for the types of properties in which we wish to invest and, therefore, reduces the number of suitable acquisition opportunities available to us and increases the prices paid for such acquisition. This competition will increase if investments in real estate become more attractive relative to other forms of investment.
As a landlord, we compete for tenants in the multi-billion dollar commercial real estate market with numerous developers and owners of properties, many of which own properties similar to ours in the same markets in which our properties are located. Many of our competitors have greater economies of scale, have access to more resources and have greater name recognition than we do. If our competitors offer space at rental rates below current market rates or below the rental rates we charge our tenants, we may lose our tenants or prospective tenants and we may be pressured to reduce our rental rates or to offer substantial rent abatements, tenant improvement allowances, early termination rights or below-market renewal options in order to retain tenants when our leases expire.
Human Capital
As of December 31, 2021 we had two part-time employees and three full-time employees. We plan to use consultants, attorneys, and accountants, as necessary. We endeavor to maintain workplaces that are free from discrimination or harassment on the basis of color, race, sex, national origin, ethnicity, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identification or expression or any other status protected by applicable law. The basis for recruitment, hiring, development, training, compensation and advancement is a person’s qualifications, performance, skills and experience. Our employees are fairly compensated, without regard to gender, race and ethnicity, and routinely recognized for outstanding performance.
Environmental Matters
To control costs, we limit our investments to properties that are environmentally compliant or that do not require extensive remediation upon acquisition. To do this, we intend to conduct assessments of properties before we decide to acquire them. These assessments, however, may not reveal all environmental hazards. In certain instances we rely upon the experience of our management and we expect that in most cases we will request, but will not always obtain, a representation from the seller that, to its knowledge, the property is not contaminated with hazardous materials. Additionally, we seek to ensure that many of our leases will contain clauses that require a tenant to reimburse and indemnify us for any environmental contamination occurring at the property. We do not intend to purchase any properties that have known environmental deficiencies that cannot be remediated.
Federal, state and local environmental laws and regulations regulate, and impose liability for, releases of hazardous or toxic substances into the environment. Under various of these laws and regulations, a current or previous owner, operator or tenant of real estate may be required to investigate and clean up hazardous or toxic substances, hazardous wastes or petroleum product releases or threats of
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releases at the property, and may be held liable to a government entity or to third parties for property damage and for investigation, cleanup and monitoring costs incurred by those parties in connection with the actual or threatened contamination. These laws typically impose cleanup responsibility and liability without regard to fault, or whether or not the owner, operator or tenant knew of or caused the presence of the contamination. The liability under these laws may be joint and several for the full amount of the investigation, cleanup and monitoring costs incurred or to be incurred or actions to be undertaken, although a party held jointly and severally liable may seek to obtain contributions from other identified, solvent, responsible parties of their fair share toward these costs. In addition, under the environmental laws, courts and government agencies have the authority to require that a person or company who sent waste to a waste disposal facility, such as a landfill or an incinerator, must pay for the cleanup of that facility if it becomes contaminated and threatens human health or the environment. Any of these cleanup costs may be substantial, and can exceed the value of the property. The presence of contamination, or the failure to properly remediate contamination, on a property may adversely affect the ability of the owner, operator or tenant to sell or rent that property or to borrow using the property as collateral, and may adversely impact our investment in that property.
Furthermore, various court decisions have established that third parties may recover damages for injury caused by property contamination. For instance, a person exposed to asbestos while occupying a net lease may seek to recover damages if he or she suffers injury from the asbestos. Lastly, some of these environmental laws restrict the use of a property or place conditions on various activities. An example would be laws that require a business using chemicals (such as swimming pool chemicals at a net lease property) to manage them carefully and to notify local officials that the chemicals are being used.
We could be responsible for any of the costs discussed above. The costs to clean up a contaminated property, to defend against a claim, or to comply with environmental laws could be material and could adversely affect the funds available for distribution to our shareholders. Prior to any acquisition of property, we will seek to obtain environmental site assessments to identify any environmental concerns at the property. However, these environmental site assessments may not reveal all environmental costs that might have a harmed our business, assets, results of operations or liquidity and may not identify all potential environmental liabilities.
As a result, we may become subject to material environmental liabilities of which we are unaware. We can make no assurances that (1) future laws or regulations will not impose material environmental liabilities on us, or (2) the environmental condition of our net lease properties will not be affected by the condition of the properties in the vicinity of our net lease properties (such as the presence of leaking underground storage tanks) or by third parties unrelated to us.
Insurance
We require our tenant, up to the limits stated in our leases, to maintain liability and property insurance coverage for the properties they lease from us pursuant to net leases. Pursuant to the leases, our tenants may be required to name us (and any of our lenders that have a mortgage on the property leased by the tenant) as additional insureds on their liability policies and additional named insured and/or loss payee (or mortgagee, in the case of our lenders) on their property policies. All tenants are required to maintain casualty coverage. Depending on the location of the property, losses of a catastrophic nature, such as those caused by earthquakes and floods, may be covered by insurance policies that are held by our tenants with limitations such as large deductibles or co-payments that a tenant may not be able to meet. In addition, losses of a catastrophic nature, such as those caused by wind/hail, hurricanes, terrorism or acts of war, may be uninsurable or not economically insurable. In the event there is damage to any of our properties that is not covered by insurance and such properties are subject to recourse indebtedness, we will continue to be liable for any indebtedness, even if these properties are irreparably damaged. In addition to being a named insured on our tenants’ liability policies, we intend to separately maintain commercial general liability coverage with an aggregate limit of $2,000,000. We also intend to maintain full property coverage on all untenanted properties and any other property coverage required by any of our lenders that is not required to be carried by our tenants under our leases.
Available Information
We were formed as a Maryland corporation on June 19, 2015. We are the sole general partner of our Operating Partnership, the subsidiary through which we conduct substantially all of our operations and make substantially all of our investments.
The Company’s Annual Reports on Form 1-K and 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to reports filed pursuant to Sections 13(a) and 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), are filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). Such reports and other information filed by the Company with the SEC are available free of charge on the SEC’s website, www.sec.gov. The Company periodically provides other information for investors on its corporate website, www.gipreit.com, and its investor relations website, gipreit.com/investor-relations. This includes press releases and other information about financial performance, information on environmental, social and corporate governance and details related to the Company’s annual meeting of shareholders. The information contained on the websites referenced in this Form 10-K is not incorporated by reference into this filing. Further, the Company’s references to website URLs are intended to be inactive textual references only.
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