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Risk Factors - EPRT

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Item 1A."

In addition to being a named insured on our tenants' general liability and property insurance policies, we separately maintain commercial insurance policies providing general liability and umbrella coverages associated with our portfolio. We also maintain full property coverage on all untenanted properties and other property coverage as may be required by our lenders, which are not required to be carried by our tenants under our leases.

Regulation and Requirements

Our properties are subject to various laws, ordinances and regulations, including those relating to fire and safety requirements, and affirmative and negative covenants and, in some instances, common area obligations. Compliance with applicable requirements may require modifications to our properties, and the failure to comply with applicable requirements could result in the imposition of fines or an award of damages to private litigants, as well as the incurrence of the costs of making modifications to attain compliance. Our tenants have primary responsibility for compliance with these requirements pursuant to our leases. We believe that each of our properties has the necessary permits and approvals.

Environmental Matters

Federal, state and local environmental laws and regulations regulate, and impose liability for, releases of hazardous or toxic substances, hazardous waste or petroleum products 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 releases at the property, and may be held liable to a government entity or to third parties for property damage and for investigation, clean-up and monitoring costs incurred by those parties in connection with the actual or threatened contamination. These laws may impose clean-up 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, clean-up 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. These costs may be substantial, and can exceed the value of the property. In addition, some environmental laws may create a lien on the contaminated site in favor of the government for damages and costs it incurs in connection with the contamination. As the owner or operator of real estate, we also may be liable under common law to third parties for damages and injuries resulting from environmental contamination present at, or emanating from, the real estate. 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.

Some of our properties contain, have contained, or are adjacent to or near other properties that have contained or currently contain storage tanks for the storage of petroleum products or other hazardous or toxic substances. Similarly, some of our properties were used in the past for commercial or industrial purposes, or are currently used for commercial purposes, that involve or involved the use of petroleum products or other hazardous or toxic substances, the generation and storage of hazardous waste, or that are adjacent to or near properties that have been or are used for similar commercial or industrial purposes. These operations create a potential for the release of petroleum products, hazardous waste or other hazardous or toxic substances, and we could potentially be required to pay to clean up any contamination. In addition, environmental laws regulate a variety of activities that can occur on a property, including the storage of petroleum products, hazardous waste, or other hazardous or toxic substances, air emissions, water discharges, hazardous waste generation, and exposure to lead-based paint. Such laws may impose fines or penalties for violations, and may require permits or other governmental approvals to be obtained for the operation of a business involving such activities. In addition, as an owner or operator of real estate, we can be liable under common law to third parties for damages and injuries resulting from the presence or release of petroleum products, hazardous waste, or other hazardous or toxic substances present at, or emanating from, the real estate. As a result of the foregoing, we could be materially and adversely affected.

Environmental laws also govern the presence, maintenance and removal of asbestos-containing material ("ACM"). Federal regulations require building owners and those exercising control over a building's management to

identify and warn, through signs and labels, of potential hazards posed by workplace exposure to installed ACM in their building. The regulations also have employee training, record keeping and due diligence requirements pertaining to ACM. Significant fines can be assessed for violation of these regulations. As a result of these regulations, building owners and those exercising control over a building's management may be subject to an increased risk of personal injury lawsuits under common law by workers and others exposed to ACM. The regulations may affect the value of a building containing ACM in which we have invested. Federal, state and local laws and regulations also govern the removal, encapsulation, disturbance, handling and/or disposal of ACM when those materials are in poor condition or in the event of construction, remodeling, renovation or demolition of a building. These laws may impose liability for improper handling or a release into the environment of ACM and may provide for fines to, and for third parties to seek recovery from, owners or operators of real properties for personal injury or improper work exposure associated with ACM.

When excessive moisture accumulates in buildings or on building materials, mold growth may occur, particularly if the moisture problem remains undiscovered or is not addressed over a period of time. Some molds may produce airborne toxins or irritants. Indoor air quality issues can also stem from inadequate ventilation, chemical contamination from indoor or outdoor sources, and other biological contaminants such as pollen, viruses and bacteria. Indoor exposure to airborne toxins or irritants above certain levels can be alleged to cause a variety of adverse health effects and symptoms, including allergic or other reactions. As a result, the presence of significant mold or other airborne contaminants at any of our properties could require us to undertake a costly remediation program to contain or remove the mold or other airborne contaminants from the affected property or increase indoor ventilation. In addition, the presence of significant mold or other airborne contaminants could expose us to liability from our tenants, employees of our tenants or others if property damage or personal injury occurs.

Before completing any property acquisition, we obtain environmental assessments in order to identify potential environmental concerns at the property. These assessments are carried out in accordance with the Standard Practice for Environmental Site Assessments (ASTM Practice E 1527-13) as set by ASTM International, formerly known as the American Society for Testing and Materials, and generally include a physical site inspection, a review of relevant federal, state and local environmental and health agency database records, one or more interviews with appropriate site-related personnel, review of the property's chain of title and review of historical aerial photographs and other information on past uses of the property. These assessments are limited in scope. If, however, recommended in the initial assessments, we may undertake additional assessments such as soil and/or groundwater samplings or other limited subsurface investigations and ACM or mold surveys to test for substances of concern. A prior owner or operator of a property or historic operations at our properties may have created a material environmental condition that is not known to us or the independent consultants preparing the site assessments. Material environmental conditions may have arisen after the review was completed or may arise in the future, and future laws, ordinances or regulations may impose material additional environmental liability. If environmental concerns are not satisfactorily resolved in any initial or additional assessments, we may obtain environmental insurance policies to insure against potential environmental risk or loss depending on the type of property, the availability and cost of the insurance and various other factors we deem relevant (i.e., an environmental occurrence affects one of our properties where our lessee may not have the financial capability to honor its indemnification obligations to us). Our ultimate liability for environmental conditions may exceed the policy limits on any environmental insurance policies we obtain, if any.

Generally, our leases require the lessee to comply with environmental law and provide that the lessee will indemnify us for any loss or expense we incur as a result of lessee's violation of environmental law or the presence, use or release of hazardous materials on our property attributable to the lessee. If our lessees do not comply with environmental law, or we are unable to enforce the indemnification obligations of our lessees, our results of operations would be adversely affected.

We cannot predict what other environmental legislation or regulations will be enacted in the future, how existing or future laws or regulations will be administered or interpreted or what environmental conditions may be found to exist on the properties in the future. Compliance with existing and new laws and regulations may require us or our tenants to spend funds to remedy environmental problems. If we or our tenants were to become subject to significant environmental liabilities, we could be materially and adversely affected.

Available Information

Our headquarters are located at 5 Vaughn Drive., Suite 202, Princeton, New Jersey, 08540, where we lease approximately 19,601 square feet of office space from an unaffiliated third party. Our telephone number is (609)

436-0619 and our website is www.essentialproperties.com. Information contained on or hyperlinked from our website is not incorporated by reference into and should not be considered part of this Annual Report or our other filings with the SEC.

We electronically file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K, pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. You may obtain these reports and any amendments thereto free of charge on our website as soon as reasonably practicable after we file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC, or by sending an email message to [email protected].

Item 1A. Risk Factors.

There are many factors that may adversely affect us, some of which are beyond our control. The occurrence of any of the following risks could materially and adversely impact our financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and liquidity, prospects, the market price of our common stock, and our ability to, among other things, service our debt and to make distributions to our stockholders. Some statements in this report including statements in the following risk factors constitute forward-looking statements. See "Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements."

Risks Related to Our Business and Properties

We are subject to risks related to the ownership of commercial real estate that could adversely impact the value of our properties.

Factors beyond our control can affect the performance and value of our properties.

Adverse changes in the U.S., global and local markets and related economic and supply chain conditions may materially and adversely affect us and the ability of our tenants to make rental payments to us.

Our results of operations, as well as the results of operations of our tenants, are sensitive to changes in U.S., global and local regions or markets that impact our tenants’ businesses. Adverse changes or developments in U.S., global or regional economic or supply chain conditions may impact our tenants’ financial condition, which may adversely impact their ability to make rental payments to us and may also impact their current or future leasing practices. During periods of supply chain disruption or economic slowdown and declining demand for real estate, we may experience a general decline in rents or increased rates of default under our leases. A lack of demand for rental space could adversely affect our ability to maintain our current tenants and attract new tenants, which may affect our growth, profitability and ability to pay dividends.

Our business is dependent upon our tenants successfully operating their businesses, and their failure to do so could materially and adversely affect us.

The success of our investments is materially dependent on the financial stability and operating performance of our tenants. The success of any one of our tenants is dependent on the location of the leased property, its individual business and its industry, which could be adversely affected by poor management, economic conditions in general, changes in consumer trends and preferences that decrease demand for a tenant's products or services or other factors over which neither they nor we have control.

At any given time, any tenant may experience a downturn in its business, including as a result of adverse economic conditions, that may weaken its operating results or the overall financial condition of individual properties

or its business as whole. As a result, a tenant may delay lease commencement, fail to make rental payments when due, decline to extend a lease upon its expiration, become insolvent or declare bankruptcy. We depend on our tenants to operate the properties leased from us in a manner which generates revenues sufficient to allow them to meet their obligations to us, including their obligations to pay rent, maintain certain insurance coverage, pay real estate taxes and maintain the properties in a manner so as not to jeopardize their operating licenses or regulatory status. The ability of our tenants to fulfill their obligations under our leases generally depends, to a significant degree, upon the overall profitability of their operations. Cash flow generated by certain tenant businesses may not be sufficient for a tenant to meet its obligations to us. We could be materially and adversely affected if a number of our tenants are unable to meet their obligations to us.

Our assessment that certain businesses are more insulated from e-commerce pressure than many others may prove to be incorrect, and changes in macroeconomic trends may adversely affect our tenants, either of which could impair our tenants' ability to make rental payments to us and materially and adversely affect us.

We primarily invest in properties leased to tenants in industries where a physical location is critical to the generation of sales and profits. Such tenants are particularly focused in service-oriented and experienced-based businesses, such as car washes, early childhood education centers, medical/dental offices, quick service restaurants, automotive service facilities, equipment rental locations and convenience stores. We believe these businesses have characteristics that make them e-commerce resistant and resilient through economic cycles.While we believe this to be the case, businesses previously thought to be internet resistant, such as the retail grocery industry, have proven to be susceptible to competition from e-commerce. To the extent our tenants face increased competition from non-traditional competitors, such as internet vendors, some of which may have different business models and larger profit margins, their businesses could suffer. There can be no assurance that our tenants will be successful in meeting any new competition, and a deterioration in our tenants’ businesses could impair their ability to meet their lease obligations to us and materially and adversely affect us.

Our strategy focuses primarily on investing in single-tenant triple-net leased properties throughout the United States. We may also experience difficulty or a significant delay in re-leasing or selling such property. This risk is magnified in situations where we lease multiple properties to a single-tenant under a master lease. The default of a tenant that leases multiple properties from us or its decision not to renew its master lease upon expiration could materially and adversely affect us.

Periodically, we have experienced, and we may experience in the future, a decline in the fair value of our real estate assets, resulting in impairment charges that impact our financial condition and results of operations.

A decline in the fair market value of our long-lived assets may require us to recognize an impairment against such assets (as defined by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”)) if certain conditions or circumstances related to an asset were to change and we were to determine that, with respect to any such asset, the cash flows no longer support the carrying value of the asset. The fair value of our long-lived assets depends on market conditions, including estimates of future demand for these assets, and the revenues that can be generated from such assets. When such a determination is made, we recognize the estimated unrealized losses through earnings and write down the depreciated cost of such assets to a new cost basis, based on the fair value of such assets on the date they are considered to be impaired. Such impairment charges reflect non-cash losses at the time of recognition, and subsequent dispositions or sales of such assets could further affect our future losses or gains, as they are based on the difference between the sales price received and the adjusted depreciated cost of such assets at the time of sale.

Geographic, industry and tenant concentrations reduce the diversity of our portfolio and make us more susceptible to adverse economic or regulatory developments in those areas or industries.

Geographic, industry and tenant concentrations expose us to greater economic or regulatory risks than if we owned a more diverse portfolio. Our business includes substantial holdings in the following states as of December 31, 2025 (based on annualized base rent): Texas (12.7%), Florida (7.4%), Georgia (6.5%), Ohio (5.4%) and Wisconsin (4.6%).

As of December 31, 2025, our five largest tenants contributed 9.9% of our annualized base rent, and our ten largest tenants contributed 16.5% of our annualized base rent. If one of these tenants, or another tenant that occupies a significant portion of our properties or whose lease payments represent a significant portion of our rental revenue, were to experience financial weakness or file for bankruptcy, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and liquidity, and prospects.

As we continue to acquire properties, our portfolio may become more concentrated by geographic area, industry or tenant.

The vast majority of our properties are leased to unrated tenants whose credit is evaluated through our internal underwriting and credit analysis.

The vast majority of our properties are leased to unrated tenants whose credit is evaluated through our internal underwriting and credit analysis. We analyze the creditworthiness of our tenants using Moody’s Analytics RiskCalc, which provides an estimated default frequency (“EDF”) and a “shadow rating,” and a lease's property-level rent coverage ratio. Our methods may not adequately assess the risk of an investment. An EDF score and a shadow rating are not the same as, and may not be as indicative of creditworthiness as, a rating published by a nationally recognized statistical rating organization. Our calculations of EDFs, shadow ratings and rent coverage ratios are unaudited and are based on financial information provided to us by our tenants and prospective tenants without independent verification on our part, and we assume the appropriateness of estimates and judgments that were made by the party preparing the financial information. If our assessment of credit quality proves to be inaccurate, we may be subject to defaults, and our cash flows may be less stable. The ability of an unrated tenant to meet its obligations to us may be more speculative than that of a rated tenant.

Our results of operations depend to a significant degree on our ability to continue to lease our properties, including renewing expiring leases, leasing vacant space and re-leasing space in properties where leases are expiring. We cannot guarantee that leases that are renewed or new leases will have terms that are as economically favorable to us as the expiring leases, or that substantial rent abatements, tenant improvement allowances, early termination rights or below-market renewal options will not be offered to retain tenants or attract new tenants or that we will be able to lease a property at all. We may experience significant costs in connection with re-leasing a significant number of our properties, which could materially and adversely affect us.

The tenants that occupy our properties compete in industries that depend upon discretionary spending by consumers. A reduction in the willingness or ability of consumers to physically patronize and use their discretionary income in the businesses of our tenants and potential tenants could adversely impact our tenants’ business and thereby adversely impact our ability to collect rents and reduce the demand for our properties.

Most of our portfolio is leased to tenants operating service-oriented or experience-based businesses at our properties. As of December 31, 2025, tenants operating in those industries represented approximately 82.8% of our annualized base rent. EquipmentShare, Crunch Fitness, Whistle Express Car Wash, Chicken N Pickle, Allsup's/YesWay, Primrose School, Super Star Car Wash, John Deere, Captain D's, and Flagstop Car Wash represent the largest concepts in our portfolio. Additional adverse economic conditions and other developments that discourage consumer spending, such as high unemployment levels, wage stagnation, interest rates, inflation, tax rates and fuel and energy costs, may have an adverse impact on the results of operations and financial conditions of our tenants and their ability to pay rent to us.

Our ability to realize future rent increases on some of our leases may vary depending on changes in the CPI.

The vast majority of our leases provide for periodic contractual rent escalations. As of December 31, 2025, leases contributing 97.9% of our annualized base rent provided for increases in future annual base rent, generally ranging from 1.0% to 4.0% annually, with a weighted average annual escalation equal to 1.8% of base rent. Although many of our rent escalators increase rent at a fixed amount on fixed dates, approximately 0.9% of our rent escalators relate to an increase in the CPI over a specified period. During periods of low inflation or deflation, small increases or decreases in the CPI will subject us to the risk of receiving lower rental revenue than we otherwise would have been entitled to receive if our rent escalators were based on higher fixed percentages or amounts. Conversely, during periods of relatively high inflation, fixed rate rent increases may be lower than the rate of inflation, resulting in a deterioration of the real return on our assets. Recently, numerous measures of inflation have been relatively high, and our fixed rent escalators have not resulted in increases that equal or exceed the rate of inflation. Similarly, to the extent our tenants are unable to increase the prices they charge to their customers in response to any rent increases, their ability to meet their rental payment and other obligations to us could be reduced.

Inflation may materially and adversely affect us and our tenants.

While our tenants are generally obligated to pay property-level expenses relating to the properties they lease from us (e.g., maintenance, insurance and property taxes), we incur other expenses, such as general and administrative expense, interest expense relating to our debt (some of which bears interest at floating rates) and carrying costs for vacant properties. These expenses have generally increased in the current inflationary environment, and such increases have, in some instances, exceeded any increase in revenue we receive under our leases. Additionally, increased inflation may have an adverse impact on our tenants if increases in their operating expenses exceed increases in their revenue, which may adversely affect the tenants' ability to pay rent owed to us and meet other lease obligations, such as paying property taxes and insurance and maintenance costs.

Some of our tenants operate under franchise or license agreements, and, if they are terminated or not renewed prior to the expiration of their leases with us, that would likely impair their ability to pay us rent.

As of December 31, 2025, tenants contributing 17.4% of our annualized base rent operated under franchise or license agreements. Often, our tenants’ franchise or license agreements have terms that end prior to the expiration dates of the properties they lease from us. In addition, a tenant's rights as a franchisee or licensee typically may be terminated and the tenant may be precluded from competing with the franchisor or licensor upon termination. Usually, we have no notice or cure rights with respect to such a termination and have no rights to assignment of any such franchise agreement. This may have an adverse effect on our ability to mitigate losses arising from a default on any of our leases. A franchisor's or licensor's termination or refusal to renew a franchise or license agreement would likely have a material adverse effect on the ability of the tenant to make payments under its lease, which could materially and adversely affect us.

The bankruptcy or insolvency of a tenant could result in the termination or modification of such tenant's lease and material losses to us.

The occurrence of a tenant bankruptcy or insolvency could diminish the income we receive from that tenant's lease or leases or force us to “take back” a property as a result of a default or a rejection of a lease by a tenant in bankruptcy. Bankruptcy risk is more acute in situations where we lease multiple properties to a tenant pursuant to a master lease. If a tenant becomes bankrupt, the automatic stay created by the bankruptcy will prohibit us from collecting pre-bankruptcy debts from that tenant, or from its property, or evicting such tenant based solely upon such bankruptcy or insolvency, unless we obtain an order permitting us to do so from the bankruptcy court. In addition, a bankrupt or insolvent tenant may be authorized to reject and terminate its lease or leases with us. Any claims against such bankrupt tenant for unpaid future rent would be subject to statutory limitations that would likely result in our receipt of rental revenues that are substantially less than the contractually specified rent we are owed under the lease or leases. In addition, any claim we have for unpaid past rent, if any, may not be paid in full. We may also be unable to re-lease a property whose lease is terminated or rejected in a bankruptcy proceeding on comparable terms (or at all) or to sell any such property. As a result, a significant number of tenant bankruptcies may materially and adversely affect us.

Tenants who are considering filing for bankruptcy protection may request that we agree to amendments of their master leases to remove certain of the properties they lease from us under such master leases. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to sell or re-lease properties that we agree to release from tenants' leases in the future or that lease termination fees, if any, will be sufficient to make up for the rental revenues lost as a result of lease amendments.

Property vacancies could result in us having to incur significant capital expenditures to re-tenant the properties.

Many of our leases relate to properties that have been designed or physically modified for a particular tenant. If such a lease is terminated or not renewed, we may be required to renovate the property at substantial costs, decrease the rent we charge or provide other concessions in order to lease the property to another tenant. This potential illiquidity may limit our ability to quickly modify our portfolio in response to changes in economic or other conditions, including tenant demand.

Defaults by borrowers on loans we hold could lead to losses.

We make mortgage and other loans, which may be unsecured, to extend financing to tenants at certain of our properties. A default by a borrower on its loan payments to us that would prevent us from earning interest or receiving a return of the principal of our loan could materially and adversely affect us. In the event of a default, we may also experience delays in enforcing our rights as lender and may incur substantial costs in collecting the amounts owed to us and in liquidating any collateral. Where collateral is available, foreclosure and other similar proceedings used to enforce payment of real estate loans are generally subject to principles of equity, which are designed to relieve the indebted party from the legal effect of that party's default. In the event we have to foreclose on a property, the amount we receive from the foreclosure sale of the property may be inadequate to fully pay the amounts owed to us by the borrower and our costs incurred to foreclose, repossess and sell the property.

Real estate lending has several risks that need to be considered. There is the potential for changes in local real estate conditions and subjectivity of real estate valuations. In addition, overall economic conditions may impact the borrowers’ financial condition. Adverse economic conditions such as high unemployment levels, interest rates, tax rates and fuel and energy costs may have an impact on the results of operations and financial conditions of borrowers.

We may be unable to identify and complete acquisitions of suitable properties, which may impede our growth, and our future acquisitions may not yield the returns we seek.

Growth through property acquisitions is a primary element of our strategy. Our ability to expand through acquisitions requires us to identify, finance and complete acquisitions or investment opportunities that are compatible with our growth strategy and to successfully finance and integrate newly acquired properties into our portfolio, which may be constrained by the following significant risks: we face competition from other real estate

investors, some of which have greater economies of scale, lower costs of capital, access to more financial resources, greater name recognition than we do, and a greater ability to borrow funds and the ability to accept more risk than we can prudently manage, which may significantly reduce our acquisition volume or increase the purchase price for property we acquire, which could reduce our growth prospects; we may be unable to locate properties that will produce a sufficient spread between our cost of capital and the lease rate we can obtain from a tenant, in which case our ability to profitably grow our company will decrease; we may fail to have sufficient capital resources to complete acquisitions or our cost of capital could increase; we may incur significant costs and divert management attention in connection with evaluating and negotiating potential acquisitions, including ones that we are subsequently unable to complete; we may acquire properties that are not accretive to our results upon acquisition; our cash flow from an acquired property may be insufficient to meet our required principal and interest payments with respect to debt used to finance the acquisition of such property; we may discover unexpected items, such as unknown liabilities, during our due diligence investigation of a potential acquisition or other customary closing conditions may not be satisfied, causing us to abandon an investment opportunity after incurring expenses related thereto; we may spend more than budgeted amounts to make necessary improvements or renovations to acquired properties; we may acquire properties subject to liabilities and without any recourse, or with only limited recourse, with respect to unknown liabilities, such as liabilities for clean-up of undisclosed environmental contamination, claims by tenants, vendors or other persons dealing with the former owners of the properties, liabilities incurred in the ordinary course of business and claims for indemnification by general partners, directors, officers and others indemnified by the former owners of the properties; and we may obtain only limited warranties when we acquire a property, including properties purchased in “as is” condition on a “where is” basis and “with all faults,” without warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose and pursuant to purchase agreements that contain only limited warranties, representations and indemnifications that survive for only a limited period after the closing. If any of these risks are realized, we may be materially and adversely affected.

Our real estate investments are generally illiquid which could significantly impede our ability to respond to market conditions or adverse changes in the performance of our tenants or our properties and which would harm our financial condition.

Our investments are relatively difficult to sell quickly. As a result of this illiquidity, our ability to promptly sell one or more properties in our portfolio in response to changing economic, financial or investment conditions is limited. Return of capital and realization of gains, if any, from an investment generally will occur upon disposition or refinancing of the underlying property. We may be unable to realize our investment objective by sale, other disposition or refinancing at attractive prices within any given period of time or may otherwise be unable to complete any exit strategy. In particular, these risks could arise from weakness in or even the lack of an established market for a property, changes adversely affecting the tenant of a property, changes adversely affecting the area in which a particular property is located, adverse changes in the financial condition or prospects of prospective purchasers and changes in local, national or international economic conditions.

In addition, the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”), imposes restrictions on a REIT's ability to dispose of properties that are not applicable to other types of real estate companies. In particular, the tax laws applicable to REITs effectively require that we hold our properties for investment, rather than primarily for sale in the ordinary course of business, which may cause us to forgo or defer sales of properties that otherwise would be in our best interest. Therefore, we may not be able to vary our portfolio in response to economic or other conditions promptly or on favorable terms.

Our growth depends on third-party sources of capital that are outside of our control and may not be available to us on commercially reasonable terms or at all.

In order to qualify as a REIT, we are required under the Code, among other things, to distribute annually at least 90% of our REIT taxable income, determined without regard to the dividends paid deduction and excluding any net capital gain. In addition, we will be subject to income tax at the corporate rate to the extent that we distribute less than 100% of our REIT taxable income, determined without regard to the dividends paid deduction and including any net capital gain. Accordingly, we will not be able to fund all of our future capital needs, including any necessary acquisition financing, from operating cash flow. Consequently, we rely on other sources of capital, including net proceeds from asset sales and external third-party sources to fund a portion of our capital needs. Our access to debt and equity capital, and the cost thereof, depends on many factors, including general market conditions, interest rates, inflation, the market's perception of our growth potential, our debt levels, our credit rating, our current and expected future earnings, our cash flow and cash distributions, and the market price of our common stock. In particular, the market price of our common stock on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) has

experienced significant volatility. Accordingly, we could experience difficulty accessing debt and equity capital on attractive terms, or at all, which would adversely affect our ability to grow our business, conduct our operations or address maturing liabilities. Similarly, a deterioration in access to capital or an increase in cost may adversely affect our tenants' abilities to finance their businesses and reduce their liquidity, which could reduce their ability to meet their obligations to us.

An important aspect of our business is capturing a positive “spread” between the cost at which we raise capital and the returns that we receive on our investments. To the extent our weighted average cost of capital increases without a corresponding increase in the returns that we receive on our investments, this spread will be reduced or eliminated, and our ability to grow through accretive acquisitions will be reduced or even eliminated. If we cannot obtain capital from third-party sources, or if our cost of capital increases materially, we may not be able to acquire properties when strategic opportunities exist, meet the capital and operating needs of our existing properties, satisfy our debt service obligations or make the cash distributions to our stockholders necessary to qualify as a REIT.

Loss of senior executives with long-standing business relationships could materially impair our ability to operate successfully.

Our ability to operate our business and grow our portfolio depend, in large part, upon the efforts of our senior executive team. Several of our executives have extensive experience and strong reputations in the real estate industry and have been important in setting our strategic direction, operating our business, assembling and growing our portfolio, identifying, recruiting and training key personnel, and arranging necessary financing. In particular, relationships that these individuals have with financial institutions and existing and prospective tenants are important to our growth and the success of our business.

Risks Related to Environmental Matters, Related Compliance and Climate Change

The costs of compliance with or liabilities related to environmental laws may materially and adversely affect us.

The properties we own or have owned in the past may subject us to known and unknown environmental liabilities. We obtain Phase I environmental site assessments on all properties we finance or acquire. However, the Phase I environmental site assessments are limited in scope and therefore may not reveal all environmental conditions affecting a property. Under various federal, state and local laws and regulations relating to the environment, as a current or former owner or operator of real property, we may be liable for costs and damages resulting from environmental matters, including the presence or discharge of hazardous or toxic substances, waste or petroleum products at, on, in, under or migrating from such property, including costs to investigate or clean up such contamination and liability for personal injury, property damage or harm to natural resources. If environmental contamination exists on our properties, we could be subject to strict, joint and/or several liability for the contamination by virtue of our ownership interest; we may face liability regardless of our knowledge of the contamination, the timing of the contamination, the cause of the contamination, or the party responsible for the contamination of the property.

If our environmental liability insurance is inadequate, we may become subject to material losses for environmental liabilities. Although our leases generally require our tenants to operate in compliance with all applicable laws and to indemnify us against any environmental liabilities arising from a tenant's activities on the property, we could be subject to strict liability by virtue of our ownership interest. We cannot be sure that our tenants will, or will be able to, satisfy their indemnification obligations, if any, under our leases. Furthermore, the discovery of environmental liabilities on any of our properties could lead to significant remediation costs or to other liabilities or obligations attributable to the tenant of that property or could result in material interference with the ability of our tenants to operate their businesses as currently operated. Noncompliance with environmental laws or discovery of environmental liabilities could each individually or collectively affect such tenant's ability to make payments to us, including rental payments and, where applicable, indemnification payments. Additionally, the known or potential presence of hazardous substances on a property may adversely affect our ability to sell, lease or improve the property or to borrow using the property as collateral. Environmental laws may also create liens on contaminated

properties in favor of the government for damages and costs it incurs to address such contamination.

Insurance on our properties may not adequately cover all losses and uninsured losses could materially and adversely affect us.

Our tenants are required to maintain liability and property insurance coverage for the properties they lease from us pursuant to triple-net leases. Pursuant to such leases, our tenants are 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 tenant with limitations such as large deductibles or co-payments that a tenant may not be able to meet. If there is damage to our properties that is not covered by insurance and such properties are subject to recourse indebtedness, we will continue to be liable for the indebtedness, even if these properties are irreparably damaged.

Inflation, changes in building codes and ordinances, environmental considerations and other factors, including terrorism or acts of war, may make any insurance proceeds we receive insufficient to repair or replace a property if it is damaged or destroyed. In that situation, the insurance proceeds received may not be adequate to restore our economic position with respect to the affected real property. Furthermore, if we experience a substantial or comprehensive loss of one of our properties, we may not be able to rebuild such property to its existing specifications without significant capital expenditures which may exceed any amounts received pursuant to insurance policies, as reconstruction or improvement of such a property would likely require significant upgrades to meet zoning and building code requirements. The loss of our capital investment in or anticipated future returns from our properties due to material uninsured losses could materially and adversely affect us.

Compliance with the Americans with Disability Act of 1990 (the “ADA”), fire and safety regulations, and other regulations may require us to make unanticipated expenditures.

Our properties are subject to the ADA, fire and safety regulations, building codes and other regulations. Failure to comply with these laws and regulations could result in imposition of fines by the government or an award of damages to private litigants, or both. While our tenants are obligated by law to comply with the ADA and typically obligated under our leases to cover costs associated with compliance with the ADA and other property regulations, if required changes involve greater expenditures than anticipated or if the changes must be made on a more accelerated basis than anticipated, the ability of our tenants to cover costs could be adversely affected, and we could be required to expend our own funds to comply with applicable law and regulation.

Our business is subject to risks associated with climate change and our sustainability strategies.

Our business is subject to risks associated with the effects of climate change, and a resulting shift to a lower carbon economy, and may be subject to further risks in the future. Climate change could adversely affect our business through both chronic and acute perils including, but not limited to, extreme weather, fires, wind, changes in precipitation and temperature, and rising sea levels, all of which may result in physical damage to, or a decrease in demand for, our properties located in the areas affected by these conditions, and may adversely impact consumer behaviors, preferences and spending at our properties, which may impact our tenants’ ability to fulfill their obligations under our leases, or our ability to re-lease the properties in the future. In addition, should the impact of climate change be severe or occur for lengthy periods of time, connectivity, labor and supply chain issues could impact business continuity for ourselves and our tenants. Chronic climate change may lead to increased costs for us and our tenants to reduce carbon footprints, including with respect to heating, cooling or electricity costs, retrofitting properties to be more energy efficient or comply with new rules or regulations, or other unforeseen costs. These risks could adversely affect our reputation, financial condition or results of operations.

We seek to promote effective energy efficiency and other sustainability strategies and compliance with federal, state and other applicable laws and regulations related to climate change, both internally and with our tenants. Our sustainability strategies and efforts to comply with changes in federal, state and other applicable laws and regulations on climate change could result in significant capital expenditures to improve our existing properties or properties we may acquire. Any changes to such laws and regulations could also result in increased operating costs or capital expenditures at our properties. If we are unable to comply with laws and regulations on climate change or implement effective sustainability strategies, our reputation among our tenants and investors may be damaged and we may incur fines and/or penalties. Moreover, there can be no assurance that any of our sustainability strategies will result in reduced operating costs, higher occupancy or higher rental rates or deter our existing tenants from relocating to properties owned by our competitors.

In addition, tenants at our net-leased properties are generally responsible for maintenance and other day-to-day management of the properties. Though many of our leases obligate our tenants to provide us with certain information relating to environmental matters, this lack of control over our net-leased properties makes it difficult for us to collect property-level environmental metrics and to enforce sustainability initiatives, which may impact our ability to comply with certain regulatory disclosure requirements to which we are subject or comply effectively with established Environmental, Social and Governance ("ESG") frameworks and standards, such as the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmarks, Task Force for Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (“TCFD”) and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board. If we are unable to successfully collect the data necessary to comply with these disclosure requirements, we may be subject to increased regulatory risk and if such data is incomplete or unfavorable, our relationship with our investors, our stock price, and our access to capital may be negatively impacted.

Risks Related to Our Indebtedness

As of December 31, 2025, we had $2.5 billion of indebtedness outstanding, which requires substantial cash flow to service, subjects us to covenants and refinancing risk and the risk of default.

As of December 31, 2025, we had $2.5 billion of indebtedness outstanding. This indebtedness consisted of $1.7 billion of combined borrowings under our term loans and $800.0 million outstanding principal amount of senior unsecured notes. We had no indebtedness outstanding under our Revolving Credit Facility as of December 31, 2025, but we may borrow from this facility in the future. Payments of principal and interest on indebtedness may leave us with insufficient cash resources to meet our cash needs, including funding our investment program, or to make the distributions to our common stockholders currently contemplated or necessary to continue to qualify as a REIT. Our indebtedness and the limitations imposed on us by our debt agreements could have significant adverse consequences, including the following: our cash flow may be insufficient to make our required principal and interest payments; cash interest expense and financial covenants relating to our indebtedness may limit or eliminate our ability to make distributions to our common stockholders; we may be unable to borrow additional funds as needed or on favorable terms, which could, among other things, adversely affect our ability to consummate investment opportunities or meet operational needs; we may be unable to refinance our indebtedness at maturity, or the refinancing terms may be less favorable than the terms of the debt being refinanced; because a portion of our debt bears interest at variable rates, increases in interest rates could increase our interest expense; we may be unable to hedge floating rate debt, counterparties may fail to honor their obligations under our hedge agreements, such agreements may not effectively hedge interest rate fluctuation risk, and, upon the expiration of our hedge agreements, we will be exposed to then-existing market rates of interest and future interest rate volatility; we may be forced to dispose of properties, possibly on unfavorable terms or in violation of certain covenants to which we may be subject; we may default on our obligations; we may violate restrictive covenants in our loan documents, which would entitle the lenders to accelerate our debt obligations; and our default under any loan with cross-default provisions could result in a default on other indebtedness. The occurrence of any of these events could materially and adversely affect us.

Our business plan depends on external sources of capital, including debt financings, and market conditions could adversely affect our ability to refinance existing indebtedness or obtain additional financing for growth on commercially acceptable terms or at all.

In particular, credit spreads in certain credit markets have recently been wider relative to historical levels. Such circumstances could materially impact liquidity in the financial markets, making financing terms for borrowers less attractive, and potentially result in the unavailability of various types of debt financing. As a

result, we may be unable to obtain debt financing on favorable terms or at all or fully refinance maturing indebtedness with new indebtedness.

If prevailing interest rates or other factors at the time of refinancing result in higher interest rates upon refinancing, then the interest expense relating to that refinanced indebtedness would increase. Higher interest rates on newly incurred debt may negatively impact us as well. If interest rates increase, our interest costs and overall costs of capital will increase, which could materially and adversely affect us and our ability to invest accretively or make distributions to our stockholders.

Though we currently do not have any secured debt, we have raised capital through secured debt financing in the past, and we may do so again in the future. Secured debt subjects us to certain risks, including the potential loss of the property securing such debt through foreclosure or otherwise and the possible inability to refinance any such debt at maturity at a similar loan-to-value ratio.

A downgrade in our credit ratings could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition.

The credit ratings assigned to us and our debt, which are subject to ongoing evaluation by the rating agencies who have published them, could change based upon, among other things, our historical and projected business, prospects, liquidity, results of operations and financial condition, or the real estate industry generally. If any credit rating agency downgrades or lowers our credit rating, places any such rating on a so-called “watch list” for a possible downgrading or lowering or otherwise publishes a negative outlook for that rating, it could materially adversely affect the market price of our debt securities and possibly our common stock, and generally the cost and availability of our capital.

We have engaged in hedging transactions and may engage in additional hedging transactions in the future; such transactions may materially and adversely affect our results of operations and cash flows.

We use hedging strategies, in a manner consistent with the REIT qualification requirements, in an effort to reduce our exposure to changes in interest rates. Unanticipated changes in interest rates may result in poorer overall investment performance than if we had not engaged in any such hedging transactions and may materially and adversely affect our business by increasing our cost of capital and reducing the net returns we earn on our portfolio.

Our debt financing agreements contain restrictions and covenants which may limit our ability to enter into, or obtain funding for, certain transactions, operate our business or make distributions to our common stockholders.

Our debt financing agreements contain financial and other covenants with which we are required to comply and that limit our ability to operate our business. These covenants, as well as any additional covenants to which we may be subject in the future because of additional or replacement debt financing, could cause us to have to forego investment opportunities, reduce or eliminate distributions to our common stockholders or obtain financing that is more expensive than financing we could obtain if we were not subject to the covenants. The covenants impose limitations on, among other things, our ability to incur additional indebtedness, encumber assets and pay distributions to our stockholders under certain circumstances (subject to certain exceptions relating to our qualification as a REIT under the Code). In addition, these agreements have cross-default provisions that generally result in an event of default if we default under other material indebtedness.

Additionally, these restrictions may adversely affect our operating and financial flexibility and may limit our ability to respond to changes in our business or competitive environment, all of which may materially and adversely affect us.

Mortgage debt obligations expose us to the possibility of foreclosure, which could result in the loss of our investment in any property subject to mortgage debt.

Future borrowings may be secured by mortgages on our properties. Incurring mortgage and other secured debt obligations increases our risk of losses because defaults on secured indebtedness may result in foreclosure actions initiated by lenders and ultimately our loss of the properties securing any loans for which we are in default. If we are in default under a cross-defaulted mortgage loan, we could lose multiple properties to foreclosure. For tax purposes, a foreclosure of any of our properties would be treated as a sale of the property for a purchase price equal to the outstanding balance of the debt secured by the mortgage. If the outstanding balance of the debt secured by the mortgage exceeds our tax basis in the property, we would recognize taxable income on foreclosure, but would not receive any cash proceeds, which could hinder our ability to meet the REIT distribution requirements. As we execute our business plan, we may assume or incur new mortgage indebtedness on our properties. Any default under any mortgage debt obligation we incur may increase the risk of our default on our other indebtedness.

Risks Related to Our Organizational Structure

Our charter and bylaws and Maryland law contain provisions that may delay, defer or prevent a change of control transaction, even if such a change in control may be in your interest, and as a result may depress the market price of our common stock. Our charter contains certain restrictions on ownership and transfer of our stock.

Our charter contains various provisions that are intended to, among other things, assist us in maintaining our qualification for taxation as a REIT and, subject to certain exceptions, authorizes our directors to take such actions as are necessary or appropriate to cause us to continue to qualify as a REIT. For example, our charter prohibits the actual, beneficial or constructive ownership by any person of more than 9.8% in value or in number of shares, whichever is more restrictive, of the outstanding shares of our common stock or more than 9.8% in value of the aggregate of the outstanding shares of all classes and series of our stock.

Our Board, in its sole and absolute discretion, may exempt a person, prospectively or retroactively, from these ownership limits if certain conditions are satisfied. The restrictions on ownership and transfer of our stock may, among other things: discourage a tender offer or other transaction or a change in management or of control that might involve a premium price for our common stock or that our stockholders otherwise believe to be in their best interests; or result in the transfer of shares acquired in excess of the ownership restrictions to a trust for the benefit of one or more charitable beneficiaries and, as a result, the forfeiture by the acquirer of the benefits of owning the additional shares.

We could increase or decrease the number of authorized shares of stock, classify and reclassify unissued stock and issue stock without stockholder approval.

Our Board, without stockholder approval, has the power under our charter to amend our charter to increase or decrease the aggregate number of shares of stock or the number of shares of stock of any class or series that we are authorized to issue, to authorize us to issue authorized but unissued shares of our common stock or preferred stock and to classify or reclassify any unissued shares of our common stock or preferred stock into one or more classes or series of stock and to set the terms of such newly classified or reclassified shares. As a result, we may issue one or more classes or series of common stock or preferred stock with preferences, conversion or other rights, voting powers or rights, restrictions, limitations as to dividends or other distributions, qualifications or terms or conditions of redemption that are senior to, or otherwise conflict with, the rights of our common stockholders. Our Board could establish a class or series of common stock or preferred stock that could, depending on the terms of such class or series, delay, defer or prevent a transaction or a change of control that might involve a premium price for our common stock or otherwise be in the best interest of our stockholders.

Our bylaws designate the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, Maryland, as the sole and exclusive forum for certain types of actions and proceedings that may be initiated by our stockholders, which could limit stockholders' ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers or employees and could discourage lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and employees.

Our bylaws provide that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, Maryland, or, if that court does not have jurisdiction, the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, Baltimore Division, will be the sole and exclusive forum for (a) any Internal Corporate Claim, as such term is defined in the Maryland General Corporation Law (“MGCL”), (b) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, (c) any action asserting a claim of breach of any duty owed by any of our directors, officers or other employees to us or to our stockholders, (d) any action asserting a claim against us or any of our directors, officers or other employees arising pursuant to any provision of the MGCL or our charter or bylaws or (e) any other action asserting a claim against us or any of our directors, officers or other employees that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine. These choice of forum provisions will not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Securities Act, the Exchange Act, or any other claim for which federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction.

These exclusive forum provisions may limit the ability of our stockholders to bring a claim in a judicial forum that such stockholders find favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or employees, which may discourage such lawsuits against us and our directors, officers, and employees. Alternatively, if a court were to find the choice of forum provisions contained in our bylaws to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, and operating results.

Our Board may change our investment and financing policies without stockholder approval, including those with respect to borrowing, and we may become more highly leveraged, which may increase our risk of default under our debt obligations.

Our investment and financing policies are exclusively determined by our Board. Accordingly, our stockholders do not control these policies. Further, our organizational documents do not limit the amount or percentage of indebtedness, funded or otherwise, that we may incur. Although we are not required by our organizational documents to maintain a particular leverage ratio and may not be able to do so, we generally intend to target a level of pro forma net debt (which includes recourse and non-recourse borrowings and any outstanding preferred stock issuance less unrestricted cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash available for future investment and estimated proceeds from unsettled forward equity sale agreements assuming full physical settlement) that, over time, is less than 5.5 times our Annualized Adjusted EBITDAre. However, from time to time, our ratio of pro forma net debt to our Annualized Adjusted EBITDAre may equal or exceed 5.5 times. Our Board may alter or eliminate our current policy on borrowing at any time without stockholder approval. If this policy changed, we could become more highly leveraged, which could result in an increase in our debt service and the risk of default on our obligations. In addition, a change in our investment policies, including the manner in which we allocate our resources across our portfolio or the types of assets in which we seek to invest, may increase our exposure to interest rate risk, real estate market fluctuations and liquidity risk. Changes to our policies with regard to the foregoing could materially and adversely affect us.

Our rights and the rights of our stockholders to take action against our directors and officers are limited.

As permitted by Maryland law, our charter limits the liability of our directors and officers to us and our stockholders for money damages to the maximum extent permitted by Maryland law. Therefore, our directors and officers are subject to monetary liability resulting only from: actual receipt of an improper benefit or profit in money, property or services; or active and deliberate dishonesty by the director or officer that was established by a final judgment and was material to the cause of action adjudicated.

As a result, we and our stockholders have rights against our directors and officers that are more limited than might otherwise exist. Accordingly, if actions taken by any of our directors or officers impede the performance of our company, your and our ability to recover damages from such director or officer will be limited.

We are a holding company with no direct operations and rely on funds received from our Operating Partnership to make any distributions to stockholders and to pay liabilities.

We are a holding company and conduct substantially all of our operations through our Operating Partnership. We do not have any independent operations, and our only material asset is our interest in our Operating Partnership. As a result, we rely on distributions from our Operating Partnership to pay any distributions our Board declares on shares of our common stock. We also rely on distributions from our Operating Partnership to meet any of our obligations, including any tax liability on taxable income allocated to us from our Operating Partnership. In addition, because we are a holding company, claims by our stockholders will be structurally subordinated to all existing and future liabilities and obligations (whether or not for borrowed money) of our Operating Partnership and its subsidiaries. Therefore, in the event of our bankruptcy, liquidation or reorganization, our assets and those of our Operating Partnership and its subsidiaries will be able to satisfy the claims of our stockholders only after all of our and our Operating Partnership's and its subsidiaries' liabilities and obligations have been paid in full.

In connection with our future acquisition of properties or otherwise, we may issue units of our Operating Partnership to third parties. Such issuances would reduce our ownership in our Operating Partnership. If you do not directly own units of our Operating Partnership, you will not have any voting rights with respect to any such issuances or other partnership level activities of our Operating Partnership.

Conflicts of interest could arise in the future between the interests of our stockholders and the interests of holders of units in our Operating Partnership, which may impede business decisions that could benefit our stockholders.

Under the terms of the partnership agreement of our Operating Partnership, if there is a conflict between the interests of our stockholders, on one hand, and any limited partners, on the other, we will endeavor in good faith to resolve the conflict in a manner not adverse to either our stockholders or any limited partners; provided, however, that so long as we own a controlling economic interest in our Operating Partnership, any conflict that cannot be resolved in a manner not adverse to either our stockholders or any limited partners shall be resolved in favor of our stockholders.

Certain mergers, consolidations and other transactions require the approval of a majority in interest of the outside limited partners in our Operating Partnership (which excludes us and our subsidiaries), which could prevent certain transactions that may result in our stockholders receiving a premium for their shares or otherwise be in their best interest.

The partnership agreement requires the general partner or us, as the parent of the general partner, to obtain the approval of a majority in interest of the outside limited partners in our Operating Partnership (which excludes us and our subsidiaries) in connection with certain mergers, consolidations or other combinations of us, or a sale of all or substantially all of our assets. This approval right could prevent a transaction that might be in the best interests of our stockholders.

Risks Related to Our Status as a REIT

Failure to continue to qualify as a REIT would materially and adversely affect us and the value of our common stock, and even if we continue to qualify as a REIT, we may be subject to certain additional taxes.

We elected to be taxed as a REIT for U.S. federal income tax purposes beginning with our taxable year ended December 31, 2018, and we believe that our current organization and operations have allowed and will continue to allow us to qualify as a REIT. We have not requested and do not plan to request a ruling from the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, that we qualify as a REIT, and the statements in this Annual Report are not binding on the IRS or any court. Therefore, we cannot assure you that we will remain qualified as a REIT in the future. If we lose our REIT status, we will face significant tax consequences that would substantially reduce our cash available for distribution to our stockholders for each of the years involved because: we would not be allowed a deduction for distributions to stockholders in computing our taxable income and would be subject to U.S. federal income tax at the corporate rate; we also could be subject to increased state and local taxes; and unless we are entitled to relief under applicable statutory provisions, we could not elect to be taxed as a REIT for four taxable years following the year during which we were disqualified.

Any such corporate tax liability could be substantial and would reduce our cash available for, among other things, our operations and distributions to stockholders. In addition, if we fail to remain qualified as a REIT, we will not be required to make distributions to our stockholders. As a result of all these factors, our failure to remain qualified as a REIT also could impair our ability to expand our business and raise capital and could materially and adversely affect the trading price of our common stock.

Qualification as a REIT involves the application of highly technical and complex Code provisions for which there are only limited judicial and administrative interpretations. The determination of various factual matters and circumstances not entirely within our control may affect our ability to continue to qualify as a REIT. In order to continue to qualify as a REIT, we must satisfy a number of requirements, including requirements regarding the ownership of our stock, requirements regarding the composition of our assets and a requirement that at least 95% of our gross income in any year must be derived from qualifying sources, such as “rents from real property.” Also, we must make distributions to stockholders aggregating annually at least 90% of our REIT taxable income, determined without regard to the dividends paid deduction and excluding any net capital gains. In addition, legislation, new regulations, administrative interpretations or court decisions may materially and adversely affect our investors, our ability to continue to qualify as a REIT for U.S. federal income tax purposes or the desirability of an investment in a REIT relative to other investments.

Even if we continue to qualify as a REIT for U.S. federal income tax purposes, we may be subject to some U.S. federal, state and local income, property and excise taxes on our income or property and, in certain cases, a 100% penalty tax, in the event we sell property as a dealer. In addition, any taxable REIT subsidiaries will be subject to tax as regular corporations in the jurisdictions in which they operate.

If our Operating Partnership fails to qualify as a partnership for U.S. federal income tax purposes, we will cease to qualify as a REIT and suffer other adverse consequences.

We believe that our Operating Partnership will be treated as a partnership for U.S. federal income tax purposes and, as a result, will generally not be subject to U.S. federal income tax on its income. Instead, for U.S. federal income tax purposes each of the partners of the Operating Partnership, including us, will be allocated, and may be required to pay tax with respect to, such partner's share of its income. Our Operating Partnership will generally be required to determine and pay an imputed underpayment of tax (plus interest and penalties) resulting from an adjustment of the Operating Partnership's items of income, gain, loss, deduction or credit at the partnership level. We cannot assure you that the IRS will not challenge the tax classification of our Operating Partnership or any other subsidiary partnership in which we own an interest, or that a court will not sustain such a challenge. If the IRS were successful in treating our Operating Partnership or any such other subsidiary partnership as an entity taxable as a corporation for U.S. federal income tax purposes, we will fail to meet the gross income tests and certain of the asset tests applicable to REITs and, accordingly, we will likely cease to qualify as a REIT. Also, the failure of our Operating Partnership or any subsidiary partnerships to qualify as a disregarded entity or partnership could cause it to become subject to U.S. federal and state corporate income tax, which will reduce significantly the amount of cash available for debt service and for distribution to its partners, including us.

To maintain our REIT status, we may be forced to borrow funds during unfavorable market conditions, and the unavailability of such capital on favorable terms at the desired times, or at all, may cause us to curtail our investment activities and/or to dispose of assets at inopportune times.

To continue to qualify as a REIT, we generally must distribute to our stockholders at least 90% of our REIT taxable income each year, determined without regard to the dividends-paid deduction and excluding any net capital gains, and we will be subject to U.S. corporate income tax on our undistributed taxable income to the extent that we distribute less than 100% of our REIT taxable income, determined without regard to the dividends-paid deduction and including any net capital gains, each year. In addition, we will be subject to a 4% nondeductible excise tax on the amount, if any, by which distributions paid by us in any calendar year are less than the sum of 85% of our ordinary income, 95% of our capital gain net income and 100% of our undistributed income from prior years.

In order to maintain our REIT status and avoid the payment of income and excise taxes, we may need to borrow funds to meet the REIT distribution requirements even if market conditions are not favorable for these borrowings. We cannot assure you that we will have access to such capital on favorable terms at the desired times, or at all, which may cause us to curtail our investment activities and/or to dispose of assets at inopportune times, and could materially and adversely affect us and the per share trading price of our common stock.

Our ability to provide certain services to our tenants may be limited by the REIT rules or may have to be provided through a taxable REIT subsidiary.

As a REIT, we generally cannot provide services to our tenants other than those that are customarily provided by landlords, nor can we derive income from a third party that provides such services. If we forego providing such services to our tenants, we may be at a disadvantage to competitors that are not subject to the same restrictions. However, we can provide such non-customary services to our tenants and receive our share in the revenue from such services if we do so through a taxable REIT subsidiary (“TRS”), though income earned by such TRS will be subject to U.S. federal and state corporate income tax.

The IRS may treat sale-leaseback transactions as loans, which could jeopardize our REIT status or require us to make an unexpected distribution.

A significant portion of our investments were obtained through sale-leaseback transactions, where we purchase owner-occupied real estate and lease it back to the seller. We expect that a majority of our future investments will be obtained this way. The IRS may take the position that specific sale-leaseback transactions that we treat as leases are not true leases for U.S. federal income tax purposes but, instead, should be re-characterized as financing arrangements or loans.

If a sale-leaseback transaction were so re-characterized, we might fail to satisfy the REIT asset tests, the income tests or distribution requirements and consequently lose our REIT status effective with the year of re-characterization unless we elect to make an additional distribution to maintain our REIT status. The primary risk relates to our loss of previously incurred depreciation expenses, which could affect the calculation of our REIT taxable income and could cause us to fail the REIT distribution test that requires a REIT to distribute at least 90% of its REIT taxable income, determined without regard to the dividends-paid deduction and excluding any net capital gain. In this circumstance, we may elect to distribute an additional dividend of the increased taxable income so as not to fail the REIT distribution test. This distribution would be paid to all stockholders at the time of declaration rather than the stockholders existing in the taxable year affected by the re-characterization.

Dividends payable by REITs do not qualify for the reduced tax rates available for some dividends.

The maximum tax rate applicable to income from "qualified dividends" payable to U.S. stockholders that are individuals, trusts and estates is 20%. Dividends payable by REITs, however, generally are not eligible for the 20% rate except to the extent the REIT dividends are attributable to "qualified dividends" received by the REIT itself. However, for non-corporate U.S. stockholders, dividends payable by REITs that are not designated as capital gain dividends or otherwise treated as "qualified dividends" generally are eligible for a deduction of 20% of the amount of such dividends. More favorable rates will nevertheless continue to apply for regular corporate "qualified dividends." Although these rules do not adversely affect the taxation of REITs or dividends payable by REITs, if the 20% rate continues to apply to regular corporate qualified dividends, investors who are individuals, trusts and estates may regard investments in REITs to be relatively less attractive than investments in the stocks of non-REIT corporations.

The tax imposed on REITs engaging in “prohibited transactions” may limit our ability to engage in transactions which would be treated as sales for U.S. federal income tax purposes.

A REIT's net income from “prohibited transactions” is subject to a 100% penalty tax. In general, prohibited transactions are sales or other dispositions of property, other than foreclosure property, held primarily for sale to customers in the ordinary course of business. Although we do not intend to hold any properties that would be characterized as held for sale to customers in the ordinary course of our business, unless a sale or disposition qualifies under certain statutory safe harbors, no guarantee can be given that the IRS would agree with our characterization of our properties or that we will always be able to make use of the available safe harbors.

Complying with REIT requirements may limit our ability to hedge effectively and may cause us to incur tax liabilities.

The REIT provisions of the Code substantially limit our ability to hedge our assets and liabilities. Any income from a hedging transaction that we enter into to manage the risk of interest rate changes with respect to borrowings made or to be made to acquire or carry real estate assets, or from certain terminations of such hedging positions, does not constitute “gross income” for purposes of the 75% or 95% gross income tests that apply to REITs, provided

that certain identification requirements are met. To the extent that we enter into other types of hedging transactions or fail to properly identify such transaction as a hedge, the income is likely to be treated as non-qualifying income for purposes of both of the gross income tests. As a result of these rules, we may be required to limit our use of advantageous hedging techniques or implement those hedges through a TRS. This could increase the cost of our hedging activities because any TRS in which we own an interest may be subject to tax on gains or expose us to greater risks associated with changes in interest rates than we would otherwise want to bear. In addition, losses in any TRS in which we own an interest will generally not provide any tax benefit, except that such losses could theoretically be carried forward against future taxable income in such TRS.

Complying with REIT requirements may affect our profitability and may force us to liquidate or forgo otherwise attractive investments.

To qualify as a REIT, we must continually satisfy tests concerning, among other things, the nature and diversification of our assets, the sources of our income and the amounts we distribute to our stockholders. We may be required to liquidate or forgo otherwise attractive investments in order to satisfy the asset and income tests or to qualify under certain statutory relief provisions. We also may be required to make distributions to stockholders at disadvantageous times or when we do not have funds readily available for distribution. As a result, having to comply with the distribution requirement could cause us to: (i) sell assets in adverse market conditions; (ii) borrow on unfavorable terms; or (iii) distribute amounts that would otherwise be invested in future acquisitions, capital expenditures or repayment of debt. Accordingly, satisfying the REIT requirements could materially and adversely affect us. Moreover, if we are compelled to liquidate our investments to meet any of these asset, income or distribution tests, or to repay obligations to our lenders, we may be unable to comply with one or more of the requirements applicable to REITs or may be subject to a 100% tax on any resulting gain if such sales are prohibited transactions.

There is a risk of changes in the tax law applicable to REITs.

Because the IRS, the United States Treasury Department and Congress frequently review U.S. federal income tax legislation, we cannot predict whether, when or to what extent new U.S. federal tax laws, regulations, interpretations or rulings will be adopted. Any of such legislative actions may prospectively or retroactively modify our tax treatment and, therefore, may adversely affect taxation of us and/or our investors. For example, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (the “TCJA”) and the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act have significantly changed the U.S. federal income taxation of U.S. businesses and their owners, including REITs and their stockholders. You are urged to consult with your tax advisor with respect to the status of legislative, regulatory, judicial or administrative developments and proposals and their potential effect on an investment in our securities.

Risks Related to the Ownership of Our Common Stock

Changes in market conditions and volatility of stock prices could adversely affect the market price of our common stock.

The market price of our common stock will fluctuate, and such fluctuations could be significant and frequent; accordingly, our common stockholders may experience a significant decrease in the value of their shares, including decreases that may be related to technical market factors and may be unrelated to our operating performance or prospects. Similarly, the trading volume of our common stock may decline, and our common stockholders could experience a decrease in liquidity. A number of factors could negatively affect the price per share of our common stock, including: actual or anticipated variations in our quarterly operating results or distributions; changes in our funds from operations (“FFO”), core FFO (“Core FFO”), adjusted FFO (“AFFO”) or guidance; changes in our net investment activity; difficulties or inability to access equity or debt capital on attractive terms or extend or refinance existing debt; increases in our leverage; changes in our management or business strategy; failure to comply with the NYSE listing requirements or other regulatory requirements; and the other factors described in this Risk Factors section. Many of these factors are beyond our control. These factors may cause the market price of shares of our common stock to decline significantly, regardless of our financial condition, results of operations, business or our prospects.

Increases in market interest rates may result in a decrease in the value of shares of our common stock.

One of the factors that may influence the price of shares of our common stock is the distribution yield on shares of our common stock (as a percentage of the price of shares of our common stock) relative to market

interest rates. An increase in market interest rates may lead prospective purchasers of shares of our common stock to expect a higher distribution yield. Additionally, higher interest rates would likely increase our borrowing costs and potentially decrease funds available for distribution. Thus, higher market interest rates could cause the per share trading price of our common stock to decrease. Higher borrowing costs and a reduced trading price of our common stock would increase our overall cost of capital and adversely affect our ability to make accretive acquisitions.

We may be unable to continue to make distributions at our current distribution level, and our Board may change our distribution policy in the future.

While we expect to continue to make regular quarterly distributions to the holders of our common stock, if sufficient cash is not available for distribution from our operations, we may have to fund distributions from working capital or net proceeds from asset sales, borrow to provide funds for such distributions, or reduce the amount of such distributions. To the extent we borrow to fund distributions, our future interest costs would increase, thereby reducing our earnings and cash available for distribution from what they otherwise would have been. If cash available for distribution generated by our assets is less than expected, or if such cash available for distribution decreases in future periods from expected levels, our inability to make distributions could result in a decrease in the market price of our common stock.

The decision to declare and pay distributions on our common stock, as well as the form, timing and amount of any such future distributions, is at the sole discretion of our Board and depends upon a number of factors, including our actual and projected results of operations, FFO, Core FFO, AFFO, liquidity, cash flows and financial condition, the revenue we actually receive from our properties, our operating expenses, our debt service requirements, our capital expenditures, prohibitions and other limitations under our financing arrangements, our REIT taxable income, the annual REIT distribution requirements, applicable law and such other factors as our Board deems relevant. We may not be able to make distributions in the future, and our inability to make distributions, or to make distributions at expected levels, could have a material adverse effect on the market price of our common stock.

The incurrence of additional debt, which would be senior to shares of our common stock upon liquidation, and/or preferred equity securities that may be senior to shares of our common stock for purposes of distributions or upon liquidation, may materially and adversely affect the market price of shares of our common stock.

In the future, we may attempt to increase our capital resources by making additional offerings of debt or preferred equity securities, including by causing our Operating Partnership or its subsidiaries to issue additional debt securities, or by otherwise incurring additional indebtedness. Upon liquidation, holders of our debt securities, other lenders and creditors, and any holders of preferred stock with a liquidation preference, will receive distributions of our available assets prior to our stockholders. Additionally, any convertible or exchangeable securities that we issue in the future may have rights, preferences and privileges more favorable than those of our common stock and may result in dilution to owners of our common stock. Our stockholders are not entitled to preemptive rights or other protections against dilution. Our preferred stock, if issued, could have a preference on liquidating distributions or a preference on distribution payments that could limit our right to make distributions to our stockholders. Because our decision to issue securities in any future offering will depend on market conditions and other factors beyond our control, we cannot predict or estimate the amount, timing or nature of our future offerings. Our stockholders bear the risk of our future offerings reducing per share trading price of our common stock.

Sales of substantial amounts of our common stock or securities convertible into or exercisable or exchangeable therefor, or the perception that such sales might occur, could reduce the price of our common stock and may dilute your voting power and your ownership interest in us.

Sales of substantial amounts of our common stock or securities convertible into or exercisable or exchangeable therefor (such as OP Units), or the perception that such sales might occur, could adversely affect the market price of our common stock. OP Units (“OP Units”) are limited partnership interests in the Operating Partnership. Generally, beginning on and after the date that is 12 months after the issuance of OP Units, each limited partner of the Operating Partnership has the right to require the Operating Partnership to redeem part or all of its OP Units for cash, based upon the value of an equivalent number of shares of our common stock at the time of the redemption, or, at our election, shares of common stock on a one-for-one basis, subject to certain adjustments and the restrictions on ownership and transfer of our stock. Additionally, such sales would dilute the voting power and ownership interest of existing common stockholders. Our charter provides that we may issue up to

500,000,000 shares of common stock, and a majority of our entire Board has the power to amend our charter to increase the aggregate number of shares of stock or the number of shares of stock of any class or series that we are authorized to issue without stockholder approval. As of December 31, 2025, we had 209,702,433 shares of common stock outstanding and 553,847 OP Units outstanding (excluding OP Units held directly or indirectly by us). Any exchange of OP Units for common stock may result in stockholder dilution. In the future we may acquire properties through tax deferred contribution transactions in exchange for OP Units. This acquisition structure may have the effect of, among other things, reducing the amount of tax depreciation we could deduct over the tax life of the acquired properties, and may require that we agree to protect the contributors' ability to defer recognition of taxable gain through restrictions on our ability to dispose of the acquired properties and/or the allocation of partnership debt to the contributors to maintain their tax bases. These restrictions could limit our ability to sell an asset at a time, or on terms, that would be favorable absent such restrictions. As of December 31, 2025, 3,689,632 shares remain available for issuance under our 2023 Incentive Plan.

General Risk Factors

We may be vulnerable to security breaches or cyber attacks which could disrupt our operations and have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and operating results.

We rely on information systems across our operations and corporate functions, including finance and accounting, and depend on such systems to ensure payment of obligations, collection of cash, data warehousing to support analytics, and other various processes and procedures. Our ability to efficiently manage our business depends significantly on the reliability and capacity of these systems. Security breaches, cyber attacks, or disruption, of our or our third-party service providers’ physical or information technology infrastructure, networks and related management systems could result in, among other things, a breach of our networks and information technology infrastructure, the misappropriation of our or our tenants’ proprietary or confidential information, interruptions or malfunctions in our or our tenants’ operations, misstated financial reports, violations of loan covenants, an inability to monitor compliance with REIT qualification requirements, breach of our legal, regulatory or contractual obligations, our inability to access or rely upon critical business records, unauthorized access to our facilities or other disruptions in our operations. Numerous sources can cause these types of incidents, including physical or electronic security breaches; viruses, ransomware or other malware; hardware vulnerabilities; accident or human error by our own personnel or third parties; criminal activity or malfeasance (including by our own personnel); fraud or impersonation scams perpetrated against us or our partners or tenants; or security events impacting our third-party service providers or our partners or tenants.

We may be required to expend significant financial resources and management time to protect against or respond to such breaches. Techniques used to breach security change frequently and are generally not recognized until launched against a target, so we may not be able to promptly detect that a security breach or unauthorized access has occurred. We also may not be able to implement security measures in a timely manner or, if and when implemented, we may not be able to determine the extent to which these measures could be circumvented. If an actual or perceived security breach occurs, the market’s perception of our security measures could be harmed and we could lose current and potential tenants, and such a breach could be harmful to our brand and reputation. Any breaches that may occur could expose us to increased risk of lawsuits, material monetary damages, potential violations of applicable privacy and other laws, penalties and fines, harm to our reputation and increases in our security and insurance costs. In the event of a breach resulting in loss of data, such as personally identifiable information or other such data protected by data privacy or other laws, we may be liable for damages, fines and penalties for such losses under applicable regulatory frameworks despite not handling the data. We cannot guarantee that any backup systems, regular data backups, security protocols, network protection mechanisms and other procedures currently in place, or that may be in place in the future, will be adequate to prevent network and service interruption, system failure, damage to one or more of our systems or data loss in the event of a security breach or attack.

In addition, the regulatory framework around data custody, data privacy and breaches varies by jurisdiction and is an evolving area of law with increasingly complex and rigorous regulatory standards enacted to protect business and personal data in the United States. We may not be able to limit our liability or damages in the event of such a loss. Data protection legislation is becoming increasingly common in the United States at both the federal and state level and may require us to further modify our data processing practices and policies. Compliance with existing, proposed and recently enacted laws and regulations can be costly; any failure to comply with these regulatory standards could subject us to legal and reputational risks. Misuse of or failure to secure personal

information could also result in violation of data privacy laws and regulations, proceedings against us by governmental entities or others, fines and penalties, or damage to our reputation and credibility with regulators, tenants and investors.

An epidemic or pandemic (such as the outbreak and worldwide spread of a novel strain of coronavirus, and its variants ("COVID-19")), and the measures that international, federal, state and local governments, agencies, law enforcement and/or health authorities implement to address it, may precipitate or materially exacerbate one or more of the other risks, and may significantly disrupt our tenants' ability to operate their businesses and/or pay rent to us or prevent us from operating its business in the ordinary course for an extended period.

An epidemic or pandemic could have a material and adverse effect on or cause disruption to our business or financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and the market value and trading price of our securities due to, among other factors:

• A complete or partial closure of, or other operational issues with, our properties as a result of government or tenant action;

• The declines in or instability of the economy or financial markets may result in a recession or negatively impact consumer discretionary spending, which could adversely affect our tenants and consumers;

• The reduction of economic activity may severely impact our tenants' business operations, financial condition, liquidity and access to capital resources and may cause one or more of our tenants to be unable to meet their obligations to us in full, or at all, to default on their lease, or to otherwise seek modifications of such obligations;

• The inability to access debt and equity capital on favorable terms, if at all, or a severe disruption and instability in the global financial markets or deteriorations in credit and financing conditions may affect our access to capital necessary to fund business operations, pursue acquisition and investment opportunities, refinance existing debt, reduce our ability to make cash distributions to our stockholders and increase our future interest expense;

• A general decline in business activity and demand for real estate transactions would adversely affect our ability to successfully execute our investment strategy and grow our business;

• A significant reduction in our cash flows could impact our ability to continue paying cash dividends to our stockholders at expected levels or at all;

• The financial impact could negatively affect our future compliance with financial and other covenants under agreements relating to our indebtedness, and the failure to comply with such covenants could result in a default that accelerates the payment of such debt; and

• The potential negative impact on the health of our officers, other employees and members of our Board, particularly if a significant number are impacted, or the impact of government actions or restrictions, including stay-at-home orders, restricting access to our headquarters, could result in a deterioration in our ability to ensure business continuity during a disruption.

Additionally, an increase in the number of vacant properties would increase our real estate expenses, including expenses associated with ongoing maintenance and repairs, utilities, real estate taxes and assessments, and property and liability insurance.

The rapid development and fluidity of an epidemic or pandemic precludes any prediction as to the ultimate adverse impact on us. Nevertheless, an epidemic or pandemic would present a material uncertainty and risk with respect to our performance, business or financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. While our leases generally do not allow tenants to withhold rent if the tenants are not operating at the property leased from us, some

tenants may pay rent under protest, not pay rent at all, request rent deferrals, and assert legal or equitable claims in the courts that such tenants are not obligated to pay rent while closed or while operating at reduced capacity, because of an epidemic or pandemic.

We may become subject to litigation, which could materially and adversely affect us.

From time to time, we may become party to various lawsuits, claims and other legal proceedings. These matters may involve significant expense and may result in judgments or settlements, which may be significant. There can be no assurance that insurance will be available to cover losses related to legal proceedings or that our tenants will meet any indemnification obligations that they have to us. Litigation may result in significant defense costs and potentially significant judgments against us, some of which are not, or cannot be, insured against. Resolution of these types of matters against us may result in our having to pay significant fines, judgments or settlements, which, if uninsured, or if the fines, judgments, and settlements exceed insured levels, could materially and adversely affect us.

We depend on key personnel.

We depend on the efforts of our executive officers and key employees. The loss of the services of our executive officers and key employees could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations or financial condition and on our ability to pay the principal and interest on our debt securities and other indebtedness and to make distributions to our stockholders. It is possible that we will not be able to recruit additional personnel with equivalent experience in the net lease industry or retain employees to the same extent as in the past.

Material weaknesses in or a failure to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting or disclosure controls could prevent us from accurately and timely reporting our financial results, which could materially and adversely affect us.

Effective internal controls over financial reporting are necessary for us to provide reliable financial reports, effectively prevent fraud and operate successfully as a public company. If we cannot provide reliable financial reports or prevent fraud, our reputation and operating results would be harmed. We are required to perform system and process evaluation and testing of our internal control over financial reporting to allow management to report on, and our independent registered public accounting firm to attest to, the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, as required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Designing and implementing an effective system of internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures is a continuous effort that requires significant resources, including the expenditure of a significant amount of time by senior members of our management team.

In connection with our ongoing monitoring of our internal control over financial reporting or audits of our financial statements, we or our auditors may identify deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting that may be significant or rise to the level of material weaknesses. Any failure to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting or disclosure controls and procedures or to timely effect any necessary improvements to such controls, could harm our operating results or cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations (which could affect the listing of our common stock on the NYSE). Additionally, ineffective internal control over financial reporting or disclosure controls and procedures could also adversely affect our ability to prevent or detect fraud, harm our reputation and cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information, which would likely have a negative effect on the trading price of our common stock.

Changes in accounting standards may materially and adversely affect us.

From time to time FASB and the SEC, who create and interpret accounting standards, may change the financial accounting and reporting standards or their interpretation and application of these standards that will govern the preparation of our financial statements. These changes could materially and adversely affect our reported financial condition and results of operations, and, under certain circumstances, may cause us to fail to comply with financial covenants contained in agreements relating to our indebtedness. In some cases, we could be required to apply a new or revised standard retroactively, resulting in restating prior period financial statements. Similarly, these changes could materially and adversely affect our tenants’ reported financial condition or results of operations and affect their preferences regarding leasing real estate.

Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments.

None.

Cybersecurity.

Cyber criminals are becoming more sophisticated and effective every day, and all companies utilizing technology are subject to threats of breaches of their cybersecurity programs. To mitigate the threat to our business, we take a comprehensive approach to cybersecurity risk management and make securing our systems and data a top priority. Our Board and our management are actively involved in our overall enterprise risk management program, of which cybersecurity represents an important component. As described in more detail below, we have established policies, procedures and processes for assessing, identifying, and managing material risks from cybersecurity threats. There can be no guarantee that our policies, procedures and processes will be properly followed in every instance or that those policies, procedures and processes will be effective. We are not aware of any risks from cybersecurity threats, including as a result of any previous cybersecurity incidents, that have materially affected or are reasonably likely to materially affect us, including our business strategy, results of operations or financial condition. However, we can provide no assurance that there will not be incidents in the future or that they will not materially affect us. For more information about risks relating to cybersecurity matters see “Item 1A.”

Risk Management and Strategy

Our policies, procedures and processes for assessing, identifying, and managing material risks from cybersecurity threats are integrated into our overall enterprise risk management program. Our cybersecurity program in particular focuses on the following key areas:

Collaboration

Our cybersecurity risks are identified and addressed through a comprehensive, cross-functional approach. Personnel primarily responsible for security, risk and compliance matters meet periodically to develop strategies for preserving the confidentiality, integrity and availability of Company and tenant information, identifying, preventing and mitigating cybersecurity threats, and responding to any cybersecurity incidents. We maintain controls and procedures that are designed to ensure prompt escalation of material cybersecurity incidents so that decisions regarding public disclosure and reporting of such incidents can be made by management and the Board in a timely manner.

Risk Assessment

At least annually, we, with the assistance of an external cybersecurity consultant, conduct a cybersecurity risk assessment that takes into account information from internal personnel, known potential information security vulnerabilities and information from external sources (e.g., reported security incidents that have impacted other companies, industry trends, and evaluations by third parties and consultants). The results of the assessment are used to drive alignment on, and prioritization of, initiatives to enhance our security controls, make recommendations to improve processes, and inform a broader enterprise-level risk assessment that is presented to our Board, its Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee, and members of management.

Technical Safeguards

We periodically assess and deploy technical safeguards designed to protect our information systems from cybersecurity threats. Such safeguards are periodically evaluated and improved based on vulnerability assessments, cybersecurity threat intelligence and incident response experience.

Incident Response and Recovery Planning

We have established comprehensive incident response and recovery plans and continue to periodically test and evaluate the effectiveness of those plans. Our incident response and recovery plans address—and guide our employees, management and the Board on—our response to a cybersecurity incident.

Third-Party Risk Management

We have implemented controls designed to identify and mitigate cybersecurity threats associated with our use of third-party service providers. Such providers are subject to security risk assessments at the time of engagement, contract renewal and upon detection of an increase in risk profile. We use a variety of inputs in such risk assessments, including information supplied by providers and third parties, and investigate security incidents that have impacted our third-party providers, as appropriate.

Education and Awareness

Each of our employees is required to comply with our cybersecurity policies. We regularly remind employees of the importance of handling and protecting our data, including through annual privacy and security training to enhance employee awareness of how to detect and respond to cybersecurity threats.

External Assessments

Our cybersecurity policies and procedures are periodically assessed by our external cybersecurity consultant. These assessments include a variety of activities including information security maturity assessments, penetration tests, and independent reviews of our information security control environment and operating effectiveness. The results of significant assessments are reported to management, the Board and its Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. Cybersecurity processes are adjusted based on the information provided from these assessments.

Governance

Board Oversight

Our Board, in coordination with its Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee, oversees our management of cybersecurity risk. They receive periodic reports from management and our external cybersecurity consultant about the identification, prevention, detection, mitigation and remediation of cybersecurity incidents, including material security risks and information security vulnerabilities. Our Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee oversees risks arising from our cybersecurity program. The Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee receives periodic updates from management and our external cybersecurity consultant on cybersecurity risk resulting from risk assessments, progress of risk reduction initiatives, external auditor feedback, control maturity assessments, and relevant internal and industry cybersecurity incidents.

Management’s Role

Our Chief Financial Officer has primary responsibility for assessing and managing material risks from cybersecurity threats. The Chief Financial Officer meets periodically with our external cybersecurity consultant to review security performance metrics and identify security risks. The Chief Financial Officer and our external cybersecurity consultant also consider and make recommendations on security policies and procedures, security service requirements and risk mitigation strategies to the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee.

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