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DATE

Monday, April 27, 2026 at 11 a.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

  • President and CEO — Darrell William Crate
  • Chief Financial Officer — Allison E. Marino
  • Head of Investor Relations — Cole Barterwell

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TAKEAWAYS

  • Revenue -- $91.5 million, a 16% increase, driven by recent acquisitions, contractual rent growth, and consistent lease stability.
  • EBITDA -- $57.3 million, up 12%, indicating expanded platform earnings power.
  • FFO Per Share -- $0.76, representing 7% growth, supporting per-share earnings progress.
  • Core FFO Per Share -- $0.77, a 5.5% increase, reflecting higher recurring earnings performance.
  • Net Income Per Share (diluted) -- $0.03, reported directly by management.
  • Portfolio Occupancy -- 97%, exceeding typical REIT office peers, with a weighted average lease term of 9.4 years.
  • Cash Available for Distribution -- $32.2 million, providing liquidity for capital allocation.
  • Adjusted Net Debt to Annualized Quarterly Pro Forma EBITDA -- 7.3x, increased due to timing of equity related to a Virginia acquisition.
  • First Mezzanine Investment -- $7 million deployed in a VA outpatient clinic development, generating a 12% yield and backed by a 20-year lease with the Department of Veterans Affairs.
  • Guidance Raised -- The low end of full-year guidance increased by $0.10 to $3.6, resulting in a revised range of $3.6 to $3.12.
  • Development Pipeline -- $1.5 billion, with active progress on projects expected to produce returns above capital costs.
  • 2026 Active Projects -- Fort Myers, Florida lab on track for 2026 lease commencement; Flagstaff and Medford courthouses scheduled for 2027 delivery.
  • Target Investment Activity -- Projecting $50 million to $100 million in development-related investment and $50 million in wholly owned acquisitions within the year.
  • Spreads Targeted -- CFO Marino stated, "we target a 100 basis point spread to our cost of capital. Obviously, this mezzanine financing transaction creates like a 600 basis point spread for a fairly nominal investment."
  • Mezzanine Program Growth -- CEO Crate indicated potential allocation of $30 million to mezzanine lending across the next 18 months, reaching involvement in three or four projects.
  • Tenant Credit Quality -- Management emphasized a "AA+ revenue stream" and intention to pursue an investment grade rating in 2027.

SUMMARY

Easterly Government Properties (DEA 0.64%) reported clear portfolio expansion through accretive acquisitions while maintaining above-sector occupancy and extended lease terms. Management executed their first mezzanine investment in a VA outpatient clinic, securing a high-yield position with a long-duration government lease and purchase rights. The company raised the low end of full-year earnings guidance by $0.10, reflecting confidence in sustainable recurring earnings and development pipeline visibility. Large-scale new facility completions are expected to serve as major deleveraging points, with further growth anticipated through both wholly owned and joint-venture projects diversified by tenant profile. Management outlined strategic capital allocation constraints tied to share price volatility but expressed confidence in multi-year FFO and portfolio growth, targeting 2%-3% annual expansion and improvement in credit quality metrics.

  • CFO Marino said, "At the midpoint, our guidance assumes that we will have $50 million to $100 million of gross development-related investment during the year, and $50 million in wholly owned acquisitions."
  • CEO Crate noted, "The VA pipeline over the next four, five, six years is quite significant," highlighting VA facilities as a dominant opportunity in both development and lending partnerships.
  • Active capital discipline was reiterated, with plans to defer a majority of equity issuance for the Virginia acquisition due to market share price volatility.
  • Management conveyed that pipeline diversification would remain, "about a third of that $1 billion being federal, a third being state and local, and a third being government-adjacent," reflecting ongoing commitment to mission-critical tenancy outside traditional office exposure.
  • Direct purchase rights such as ROFR and ROFO are part of the company's mezzanine investments to maintain acquisition optionality for underlying assets.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

  • FFO (Funds from Operations): A key REIT metric representing net income, excluding gains/losses from sales of properties, plus real estate depreciation.
  • Core FFO: FFO further adjusted for nonrecurring items to reflect recurring earnings.
  • NOI (Net Operating Income): Rental and property-related income minus operating expenses, excluding financing and tax costs.
  • Mezzanine Loan: Subordinated debt used to finance real estate developments, positioned between senior debt and equity.
  • ROFO (Right of First Offer): Gives a party the right to make the first offer on a property before the seller may entertain offers from others.
  • ROFR (Right of First Refusal): Gives a party the right to match any third-party offer on a property before the asset is sold.
  • WALT (Weighted Average Lease Term): The average lease duration across a portfolio, weighted by each lease's rental income.
  • GSA (General Services Administration): U.S. federal agency overseeing leasing and management of government workspaces.
  • VA (Department of Veterans Affairs): U.S. government agency operating healthcare and services for veterans; a significant DEA tenant and asset focus.
  • SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility): A secured facility designed for classified U.S. government information processing.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Cole Barterwell: Before the call begins, please note that certain statements made during this call may include statements that are not historical facts and are considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Although the company believes that its expectations as reflected in any forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that these expectations will be attained or achieved. Furthermore, actual results may differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements and will be affected by a variety of risks and factors beyond the company's control, including, without limitation, those contained in the company's most recent Form 10 filed with the SEC and in its other SEC filings.

The company assumes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements. Additionally, on this conference call, the company may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures such as funds from operations, core funds from operations, and cash available for distribution. You can find a tabular reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable current GAAP numbers in the company's earnings release and separate supplemental information package on the Investor Relations page of the company's website at ir.easterlyreit.com. I will now turn the conference call over to Darrell William Crate, President and CEO of Easterly Government Properties, Inc.

Darrell William Crate: Thank you, Cole. Good morning, everyone. We continue to operate in a market defined by volatility, whether it is interest rates, geopolitical uncertainty, or broader capital market disruption. In these environments, investors tend to focus on businesses with durable cash flows, strong tenant credit, and disciplined capital allocation. We believe Easterly Government Properties, Inc. continues to stand out in each of these areas. Our portfolio supports essential government functions that continue regardless of economic cycles or external events. These are facilities tied to critical federal missions, high-credit state and municipal agencies, and select defense-related tenants. The durability of those missions and the strength of those credit relationships continue to provide a stable foundation for our business.

Importantly, we believe our portfolio is often misclassified alongside traditional office real estate. That comparison misses the specialized nature of what we own. From our FBI offices in places like El Paso, New Orleans, and Pittsburgh, these facilities include secure, classified environments, SCIFs, and other controlled spaces where sensitive law enforcement and intelligence work is conducted. These are highly tailored facilities with spaces that support agency-specific operations and are difficult to replicate. They serve essential functions, benefit from long-duration leases, and are backed by some of the strongest credit tenants in the world. Against that backdrop, we remain focused on a straightforward strategy: growing earnings steadily, allocating capital thoughtfully, and continuing to improve overall portfolio quality over time.

Over the past several years, we have taken deliberate steps to strengthen the company, including leadership transitions, resetting the dividend, and maintaining additional capital internally. These decisions are not always easy, but they position us to enter 2026 from a position of strength, supporting a robust and sustainable dividend while continuing to deliver consistent earnings growth that outperforms our peers. Turning to the quarter, our portfolio continued to perform at a high level. Occupancy continues to outpace our REIT peers at 97%, and weighted average lease terms stood at approximately 9.4 years. These metrics reflect both the quality of our assets and the mission-critical nature of the work taking place inside our buildings.

During the quarter, we also completed our first mezzanine investment tied to the development of a new VA outpatient clinic. This transaction reflects how we are thinking about capital allocation in today's environment. While traditional acquisitions remain central to our long-term growth strategy, we are also identifying adjacent opportunities that can generate attractive current returns while preserving future optionality. This investment is expected to deliver a 12% yield, is backed by a committed federal tenant, and allows us to remain connected to an asset that may ultimately fit in our long-term ownership strategy. VA facilities represent one of our largest portfolio exposures—that is by design.

These assets are highly specialized, tend to be very sticky, and are backed by the credit quality of the federal government. We were recently at our VA Jacksonville facility, and it was filled with veterans receiving the care and services they need—an important reminder that these are not traditional office buildings, but essential infrastructure supporting a critical mission. We also believe that the administration's increased focus on defense spending represents an additional tailwind for the company, particularly as it relates to external growth opportunities. As we look to the year ahead, we are encouraged by the strength of our first quarter performance and our ability to raise the low end of guidance.

While broader market volatility remains, our priorities remain unchanged: disciplined capital allocation, operational execution, and consistent earnings growth. We believe our portfolio offers investors a compelling combination of income stability, long-term growth, and exceptional tenant credit quality. With a leased portfolio that generates a AA+ revenue stream, we look forward to working with the credit agencies on achieving an investment grade rating in 2027. To wrap up, we are pleased with how the year started. We are growing earnings, maintaining strong occupancy, allocating capital thoughtfully, and continuing to improve portfolio quality. We believe that disciplined execution will continue creating long-term value for shareholders.

I want to thank our team for their continued focus and execution as well as our tenants and shareholders for their ongoing trust and partnership. With that, I will turn the call over to Allison.

Allison E. Marino: Thanks, Darrell, and good morning, everyone. I am pleased to report the financial results for the first quarter of 2026 on this sunny Monday morning. The underlying growth in the business is clear. Total revenue increased to $91.5 million, up from $78.7 million in 2025, a 16% year-over-year increase. This was driven primarily by acquisitions completed over the last twelve months, contractual rent growth, and continued lease stability across the portfolio. EBITDA also grew meaningfully, increasing to $57.3 million from $51.0 million last year, representing approximately 12% growth, reflecting the expanding earnings power of the platform.

Most importantly, that growth continued to translate into higher earnings for shareholders on a per-share basis even as we raised capital to support portfolio expansion. On a fully diluted basis, net income per share was $0.03. FFO per share increased to $0.76, up from $0.71, representing approximately 7% growth, while core FFO per share increased to $0.77 from $0.73, or roughly 5.5% growth year over year. Our cash available for distribution was approximately $32.2 million. In terms of our active development projects, we are on track to meet previously communicated timelines. Our Fort Myers, Florida lab project is expected to complete and commence its lease in 2026.

That will be followed by the Flagstaff Courthouse in Arizona, which is scheduled to deliver in 2027. Finally, the Medford Courthouse in Oregon is anticipated to complete during 2027. The delivery of these development projects are natural delevering points toward our medium-term cash leverage goals, as the NOI comes online and any agreed-upon lump sums are received. Turning to leverage, our adjusted net debt to annualized quarterly pro forma EBITDA was 7.3x, edging higher during the quarter due primarily to the timing of equity issuance relating to our Commonwealth of Virginia acquisition.

Given the share price volatility the broader markets experienced in the first quarter, we elected to defer issuing the majority of that equity, and we expect to complete the issuance by the end of the year. As Darrell mentioned, during the quarter we completed our first mezzanine loan investment, providing $7 million of financing for the development of a new 120 thousand-square-foot VA outpatient clinic in Kennewick, Washington. The loan carries an anticipated 12% yield and supports a 20-year firm term lease commitment from the Department of Veterans Affairs with an expected project completion date of October 2028.

The transaction is backed by an experienced VA and GSA developer, SB sponsor, who our team has known for decades and Easterly Government Properties, Inc. has transacted with multiple times. This allows us the opportunity to acquire the property upon completion as well. The investment enables us to generate attractive current returns while remaining closely aligned with assets that fit our long-term portfolio strategy. With the successful closing of the mezzanine loan during the quarter, we are raising the low end of our full-year guidance by $0.10 from $3.5 to $3.6, resulting in a revised full-year range of $3.6 to $3.12.

While performance year to date is trending modestly ahead of our initial expectations, we continue to take a disciplined and cautious approach as we evaluate the remainder of the year, particularly given the ongoing uncertainty in the interest rate and broader equity market environment. At the midpoint, our guidance assumes that we will have $50 million to $100 million of gross development-related investment during the year, and $50 million in wholly owned acquisitions. We continue to maintain a $1.5 billion development pipeline, and we are beginning to make meaningful progress on potential transactions that meet our investment criteria and can be executed at a spread to our cost of capital, either independently or through a partnership.

We are staying disciplined on capital allocation, focused on retaining our tenants, and executing across our development pipeline, all in line with the strategic objectives we have communicated. These are the fundamentals behind Easterly Government Properties, Inc.'s stable and growing cash flows, and we believe this will drive shareholder value. Thank you for your time this morning. We appreciate your partnership and look forward to updating you on our progress. I will now turn the call back to the operator.

Operator: We will now open the call for questions. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press 11 on your telephone. Our first question is from Seth Eugene Bergey of Citi. Please proceed with your question.

Seth Eugene Bergey: Thanks for taking my question. I guess just starting off with the mezzanine lending piece. Is the $7 million kind of a one-off transaction, or is there something you would look to do more of? And how should we think about the sizing of that if that is something that you would think about doing more of in the future?

Darrell William Crate: Yes. I mean, look, it is a terrific way for us to get involved early in a project, and I think we could see ourselves allocating about $30 million to this pipeline. The VA pipeline over the next four, five, six years is quite significant. There is a set of terrific, well-respected developers who really have a knack for building these well. And as you can see, at $7 million, roughly $30 million allocated to this effort would get us involved in three or four projects, which, again, as those buildings are ready to go online in one to two years, positions us very well for them to become part of the broader portfolio.

Seth Eugene Bergey: Thanks. And then it sounds like the size of the pipeline is kind of unchanged at the $1.5 billion, and with the Virginia campus closing you have kind of hit the acquisition or most of the acquisition guidance for the year. Just how active is that? What kind of catalyst do you think could unlock more of that acquisition activity? And just trying to think about how conservative that number is.

Darrell William Crate: Yes. I mean, look, we are very active in working the pipeline. We are also just super judicious about making sure it is accretive. And so, as we look at our earnings that we are delivering for shareholders this year, the midpoint of the range is 3% growth, which I think is very favorable relative to the REIT sector, especially given our sort of AA+ revenue stream. I think things will pop out of that $1.5 billion. We are maintaining a very wide funnel on opportunities that are all high quality. The intent for that wide funnel is for it to then narrow down to some opportunities.

Given a little bit of our cost of capital challenge with regard to stock price, as we improve on cost of capital and debt and we continue to find opportunities, we can do things that are really attractive—accretive not only to core FFO per share but also accretive to the portfolio in general. There are a couple of very large development opportunities of the VAs that I am discussing that are in that pipeline which would be very attractive. We have made some relationships with folks that are five, six, seven years old, and ultimately, I think we will be able to work some things out with each of them.

We want to make sure the promises that we make on this call we can keep. I think that we are delivering strong growth, but we are very optimistic about what this pipeline can produce over the next one, two, three years. That is why we are confident in saying that our long-term growth rate for the company is 2% to 3%. As we work with the rating agencies and achieve an investment grade rating, that can also lead to our growth targets growing as we basically get that refinanced over the next three, four, five years.

Seth Eugene Bergey: Great. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question is from John Kim of BMO Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

John Kim: Thank you. It sounds like you are moving forward with some investments in your acquisition pipeline of $1.5 billion. So I am just wondering why not update guidance in terms of investment activity, and can you just update us on what kind of spreads you are looking for in terms of investment versus your cost of capital?

Allison E. Marino: We have thought a lot about whether or not to update guidance, particularly with respect to the acquisitions pipeline this quarter. And as Darrell mentioned, we are being conservative as we evaluate near-term opportunities within that pipeline and would look to update guidance as we are closer to those deals being fully cooked. That does not reflect at all what we think we can do; it is just about being super disciplined about how near-term the opportunities are. And then to the second part, we target a 100 basis point spread to our cost of capital. Obviously, this mezzanine financing transaction creates like a 600 basis point spread for a fairly nominal investment.

So we are definitely balancing all of the opportunities—mezz is an example of one of the actionable opportunities in our pipeline today and one that, as Darrell mentioned, we will continue to evaluate as we go forward. I would say, just to reiterate, the target is 100. Fifty to 100 is our defined range.

John Kim: And on the mezz book getting to $30 million potentially, is that something that could happen this calendar year, or if you could just talk about how fast you want to get to that $30 million over the next period?

Darrell William Crate: Yes, over the next eighteen months, John, is when we can get that deployed. I think we have delivered some really terrific growth for this year, and I think we are really setting ourselves up for a nice 2027. I would love to be giving guidance for 2027, but Allison and Cole will not let me. We are excited again to continue to grow in a way that we think will be pleasing to shareholders.

John Kim: Are these on projects that you feel comfortable owning, or do you plan to own some of these assets?

Darrell William Crate: Yes, they are great assets. How we are legging our way into them I think is very attractive for shareholders, and these are assets that are, you know, 7-cap kind of assets that I think, given how we are entering and where we are in the capital structure, we can buy attractively.

Allison E. Marino: And this is an area where we really do have a deep underwriting expertise—not just on the financing product, but the underlying collateral. The VA CBOC program is one that continues to expand. There are 20-plus projects that are coming through various stages of procurement, so we do expect additional opportunities in that space particularly, though there are other GSA projects coming on as well.

Darrell William Crate: Not to sound too exuberant about it all, but we absolutely understand these assets. It is worth saying that we are working with folks we have known a long time. We are also good at developing mission-critical projects and working with the government. We are seeing it at our Fort Myers project that is being run by a terrific group called Seagate. Our understanding and perspective on how to move things along with the government is certainly neutral to accretive with regard to the project. We are getting to see how these buildings are built because we do work in collaborative partnership with folks that we are mezz lending to. We are not just a lender in the cap structure.

We can also make suggestions along the way that can either save cost or position the building for more attractive operating costs for the next 20 years. We are a terrific mezz partner. Given where the company is today in cost of capital, it is an excellent way for us to get involved in these assets, and we are really excited for the growth that means for shareholders over the next handful of years.

Operator: Our next question is from Merrill Raw of Compass Point Research & Trading. Please proceed with your question.

Merrill Raw: I am sorry, was that me? Yes. Okay. The sound dropped out. Okay. So will any of those VA projects be acquired by the JV, or is that entity filled?

Darrell William Crate: Great question. The answer is it could be either. While we do have this very strong pipeline, we also are being more active today with potential JV partners, and we have some excellent long-term relationships there. I think these are fantastic assets, and to the degree we can afford them and deliver growth to our shareholders, they can be wholly owned. That said, if there is an opportunity for us to lend our ability to manage these kinds of facilities in the efficient way that we do that would allow us to buy them through joint venture, we would certainly want those economics.

But the north star of all of this is delivering accretion and taking on projects that have that 100 basis point premium to our cost of capital. When we think about cost of capital, we really do think about it on an accounting basis—looking at stock price and FFO as cost of equity—because that is what drives FFO accretion.

When you think about the IRRs of our projects, with a dividend of 8% and growth of 2% to 3%, we can also start vectoring into different kinds of cost of equity, but we give very little credit for our future growth in our cost of equity as we allocate it and think about what the spread needs to be to deliver accretion to shareholders. Focusing on that FFO per share growth is the number one metric for this management team.

Merrill Raw: Great. And as you look at your pipeline further out, is it primarily federal government? You said outside the VA there was activity, but is there also activity at the state level? Because the Florida acquisition or development is pretty lucrative. So it would be interesting to know the mix.

Darrell William Crate: We love Florida. Everybody is moving to Florida. Lots of great people are moving to Florida, but there are a few criminals in that mix, so they will be building law enforcement facilities in Florida. They are pretty good at law enforcement. The one that we are working on right now will actually be delivered early—crazy as it sounds—and on budget. They have three or four more of those on the dashboard that they need to get built over the next three to five years.

I think that we are very well positioned to be a good partner in doing that and can probably do it in a way that is very attractive for the taxpayers of Florida, and an opportunity for us to do something that is very accretive for shareholders.

Allison E. Marino: And then the broader pipeline, you can think about it in roughly thirds. We see about a third of that $1 billion being federal, a third being state and local, and a third being government-adjacent. Between the split of regular-way wholly owned, joint venture, development, and mezz financing, it is a mix of all of that with primarily regular-way acquisitions as well as development filling that pipeline up.

Darrell William Crate: The team has done a terrific job of building a toolbox of ways to generate accretion for shareholders. Allison and her team are doing a terrific job on the balance sheet, and I think we will have some nice things to talk about over the next six to nine months.

Merrill Raw: I do appreciate the thought of diversity inside the portfolio. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question is from Michael Carroll of RBC Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Michael Carroll: Darrell, I wanted to circle back on the mezz investment. I know you said a couple of times that you have the ability to potentially acquire these assets someday in the future. Is there a purchase option related to that Easterly Government Properties, Inc. can exercise to acquire those properties, or is it just the relationship you get that would allow you to be able to negotiate a price as that deal gets completed?

Darrell William Crate: We have a series of different ways where we have an advantage in the purchase. Allison, do you want to expand on that?

Allison E. Marino: Yes. We have both a ROFR and a ROFO on that particular deal, and those are mechanisms we look to build into financing arrangements like this as a first look.

Michael Carroll: Okay. And then when you talk about deferring funding some of these deals, does that mean that you have to be more thoughtful about deploying capital here in the near term until you fund the deals that you announced year to date?

Darrell William Crate: What does that mean exactly?

Michael Carroll: I guess on the call, you said that you deferred raising equity to fund the 1Q 2026 acquisitions, and correct me if I am wrong on that. So if you are waiting to fund those deals, does it make it more difficult to execute on the pipeline because you have not funded the 1Q deals yet?

Allison E. Marino: Yes. I mean, look, I think it is really a pretty marginal comment and it is more geared toward our debt providers—the idea being that we are going to continue to bring our leverage down over the medium term. We are going to get something that has a six handle on it. Even though our leverage modestly ticked up a little bit this quarter, that is not a reflection of a change in our strategy to continue to properly equitize these opportunities.

As we look at some of the tools with regard to mezz and some of these development transactions, I think we are going to find ourselves where we deliver the growth that we are promising and we can get our leverage in the right place. We are absolutely directionally showing us getting into the right place. I have said obtaining an investment grade rating can lead to 100 to 150 basis points of additional FFO per share growth over the next five years.

Michael Carroll: Okay. Great. And then just last one for me. On the available space you have in your portfolio—the 3% vacancy—what are the prospects of being able to lease that up? Is some of this space potentially leasable within your portfolio that is currently free?

Darrell William Crate: Yes, crazy enough. This is on the list of all the initiatives where I am super proud of the expanded leadership team. They are working tirelessly. The FDA lab in Atlanta that we just opened has tens of thousands of square feet that are not leased. The building is fantastic, and all the vacant space that we have now is space that we underwrote to be vacant when we purchased these buildings or were forecasting NOI. So a lot of it is a little extra, and we are pursuing that more aggressively than we ever have. That would also be incremental earnings growth on top of what we have set in our guidance.

These leases do take a while with the government, and these can be six- to nine-month things. But as we look to 2027, I see the opportunity to get some of this vacant space leased and to see some things shaking out of our pipeline that are unique for us—how we are positioned to the asset and the needs of the seller can probably come together in a pretty nifty way. We are excited for the opportunity. We do not know exactly where that is going to all come from, but when you look at the pipeline of opportunities, the tools that we have, and the management team’s enthusiasm, effort, and skill, we are really excited for 2027.

We are excited for 2027.

Operator: Our next question comes from Analyst of Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.

Analyst: Darrell, you noted in the opening remarks the intention to achieve an investment grade credit rating in 2027. Can you just speak to the deleveraging strategy and other metrics you are focusing on to achieve this?

Darrell William Crate: There are a couple. One, if you just squint at it, you can see that there are other firms that are quite similar to us that have a BBB+ rating, or flat BBB—solid investment grade. Their revenue streams start from a place of being single A- to BBB+. If you look at the revenue stream that pours into the top of our business, it is basically AA+. The idea that the revenue comes in as AA+ and then all the things that happen before it gets to a bondholder is eight notches lower—that is what it would take for us to receive a non-investment grade rating.

As we look at scale of the business, we are in a place that is attractive—probably a little bit on the lower end—and that is probably why we have not pursued an investment grade rating as aggressively as we could have in the past. If you look at leverage, again, we are in the zip code for obtaining an investment grade rating today, especially when we talk about that differential of us being five notches among REITs of similar credit quality. If we get into the sixes and, as you look at the scattergram of real estate REITs, again we are very much in a place.

So leverage is probably the only metric that we look at—and maybe a little bit on scale—where we would not be a BBB. That said, we are working at all of those things, and we are very committed to behaving like an investment grade company. We understand what that takes, and with a WALT that is almost a decade plus all that AA+ money coming in, we are in a nice spot to be able to harvest that opportunity. It could take a little time, but we think 2027 is hopefully our year.

Analyst: Makes sense. And then just on investments, acquisition target is still at $50 million. I do understand cost of capital is a constraint. Maybe just to ask more of a direct question: at what share price would you be able to become more active and aggressive on this $1.5 billion?

Darrell William Crate: Look, every little bit of share price will obviously make it easier. From where we are, we do not want to have a robust call and try to get expectations ahead of where we are. We are really happy with the growth we are delivering right now. We are going to be very deliberate about making sure 2027 is right on track. To set ourselves up to disappoint anybody is not what we want to be doing. To answer your question directly: $24, $25, $26, $27—those become very, very constructive. The flywheel really gets going for what we do.

Analyst: Great. Thank you for taking time. Appreciate it.

Darrell William Crate: If we do not get the support from the capital markets and continue to have this 8% dividend, we can still meet these growth targets. We have built enough tools. We have strong JVs, so we are going to be able to deliver that value. But, of course, with a lower cost of capital, we are excited—the team is excited—and our disposition is to really accelerate the growth of the company. The team is very aligned in achieving those objectives consistently for a bunch of years.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Michael Lewis of Truist Securities. Please proceed with your question.

Michael Lewis: Thank you. Regarding the mezzanine loan investments, is this now the preferred way to do developments rather than the large cash outlays and the reimbursement later? Does it make sense to do more with developers and then you become the takeout on the back end? Should we expect you to do more of that and less of the other?

Darrell William Crate: It is a good question. I think it really depends on the project. You look at these FDA labs—there are seven more to be built, and we have built three of them—and each one has been a better value for the government because they have been terrific collaborators with the same team on each of those three buildings, and we have been able to get really into stride on how to save money. There are 35 thousand miles of pipe and wire and all sorts of things that go into it, and so we kind of figured it out.

I think that we can build the lowest-cost FDA labs and highest quality for the U.S. government, so we should be doing exactly that. For some of these VAs, while we can build them well, there are five developers that have done a terrific job in this space. For us, the idea of competing with five quality developers—spending the search costs to do it—we might as well let one of those high-quality folks win, stand really close to them while they are building the project, and end up, I think that creates more value for our shareholders. When you look at Medford, Oregon or Flagstaff, we are very good at building courthouses.

These are courthouses that are in areas where this was not a major metropolitan courthouse. We may have found ourselves with a high-cost competition with 11 other developers. The folks who are running the procurement understood Easterly Government Properties, Inc., understood the value that we deliver. They are in markets where the competition was less familiar with these types of assets. In those cases, us doing development from start to finish was the way to go. It is really about using our expertise to deliver the most value for shareholders with each of these very high-quality projects.

They are terrific because you end up with a 20-year lease and find yourselves in a place where you really have significant government cash flows for years to come.

Michael Lewis: No, that is great. Thank you. And then just lastly for me, you kind of alluded to a little bit of conservatism maybe in the acquisition guidance or the FFO guidance. When we annualize the first quarter results, it gets you to $3.10 for the year; the midpoint of the range is $3.09. Is that just a little bit of conservatism, or are there any drags through the rest of the year why you would not have any sequential growth?

Allison E. Marino: Yes. So a few things. One, as you can imagine and have even seen in the markets recently, interest rates are really wacky right now. There is increased short-term volatility that we are seeing with respect to both SOFR and then all of the versions of Treasury we like to play in. A little bit of our conservatism is really driven by the fact that we need to see if some of that volatility calms down, which would allow us to improve our cost of capital as the year goes on as we strategically look to the debt markets to term out the revolver. That is a big piece of uncertainty.

I do not think we sat here two months ago and necessarily felt that way, but I do not think we are in poor company today with that concern either. That is a big piece of the puzzle as we move throughout the remainder of the year. Obviously, as developments come online, timing is a very large piece of what underpins our guidance range. The earlier in Q4—or the closer to the beginning of Q4—we are able to deliver the FDLE lab in Florida, the more improvement in our guidance range you might see.

But we are still in the critical six months here of being close enough to it on the horizon to be excited about an opening party, but still far enough where there is development risk left. We will continue, as we march closer to that, to evaluate its final projection of delivery as well.

Michael Lewis: Actually, maybe I will throw in one more, because since I asked a guidance question about 2026—I know you are not going to give guidance for 2027—you said you are excited about it. The consensus number for FFO is the same as it is for 2026. Is there anything you could say about what excites you about 2027 and the growth potential there?

Darrell William Crate: If you look at all the tools that we have created and the opportunity set that we are harvesting, the idea of us being flat next year would make no sense. That is my point. We have an FAA lab that finally is going to leave—it has been eight years that they are there. That is a little bit of a drag. But everything else that we are doing—from releasing to vacant space to mezz debt to harvesting a pipeline—and Allison has it just right. Look, it is 2026, so not fair to look out. But we have more stable cash flows than every other REIT out there. As we are looking forward, we are feeling a level of optimism.

As things unfold here over the next six months, I think we are going to be able to be very specific about where we are going for the year. With all these tools and the team really reoriented towards growth—everyone understands what they need to do—and we are going to grow 2% to 3% a year. We have done it for two years now. If we hit the middle of our guidance this year, we are going to be there as well, and we believe that is our plan for the next handful of years to grow at that pace.

Analyst: I understand Allison not wanting to give the guidance. A much bigger refi year next year than this year. So if interest rates are uncertain, they are more uncertain for next year. Thank you.

Darrell William Crate: Yes. That is why we cannot give guidance, but I certainly would love to. But Allison will not let me.

Operator: Thank you. I would now like to turn the conference back to Darrell William Crate, President and CEO of Easterly Government Properties, Inc., for closing remarks.

Darrell William Crate: Great. We really appreciate you joining the conference call as we share our first quarter earnings. We are very excited about what we are doing. We are excited about our growth, and we really look forward to you paying attention to the company and spending some time with us. We appreciate it and we look forward to getting together at this time in about three months.

Operator: This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.