Business description of BROADSTONE-NET-LEASE-INC from last 10-k form

The Company

We are an externally managed real estate investment trust formed as a Maryland corporation in 2007 to acquire and hold single-tenant, commercial real estate properties throughout the United States that are leased to the properties’ operators under long-term net leases. Under a “net lease,” the tenant occupying the leased property (usually as a single tenant) does so in much the same manner as if the tenant were the owner of the property. There are various forms of net leases, most typically classified as triple-net or double-net. Triple-net leases typically require that the tenant pay all expenses associated with the property (e.g., real estate taxes, insurance, maintenance and repairs). Double net leases typically require that the tenant pay all operating expenses associated with the property (e.g., real estate taxes, insurance and maintenance), but exclude some or all major repairs (e.g., roof, structure and parking lot). Accordingly, the owner receives the rent “net” of these expenses, rendering the cash flow associated with the lease predictable for the term of the lease. Under a net lease, the tenant generally agrees to lease the property for a significant term and agrees that it will either have no ability or only limited ability to terminate the lease or abate rent prior to the expiration of the term of the lease as a result of real estate driven events such as casualty, condemnation or failure by the landlord to fulfill its obligations under the lease.

We focus on real estate that is operated by a single tenant where the real estate is an integral part of the tenant’s business. Our diversified portfolio of real estate includes retail properties, such as quick service and casual dining restaurants, healthcare facilities, industrial manufacturing facilities, warehouse and distribution centers, and corporate offices, among others. We target properties with credit-worthy tenants that look to engage in a long-term lease relationship. Through long-term leases, our tenants are able to retain operational control of their critical locations, while conserving their debt and equity capital to fund their fundamental business operations.

As of December 31, 2017, we owned a diversified portfolio of 528 individual net leased commercial properties located in 40 states comprising approximately 15.9 million rentable square feet of operational space. As of December 31, 2017, our properties were 100% leased to 134 different commercial tenants, with no single tenant accounting for more than 4% of our annual rental stream.

We elected to qualify as a REIT under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Internal Revenue Code”), beginning with our taxable year ended December 31, 2008. As a REIT, we are not subject to federal income tax to the extent that we meet certain requirements, including that we distribute at least 90% of our annual taxable income to our stockholders and satisfy other requirements based on the composition of our asset portfolio and sources of income.

We operate under the direction of our board of directors, which is responsible for the management and control of our affairs. Our board of directors has retained Broadstone Real Estate, LLC (the “Manager”), to provide certain property management services for our properties, and Broadstone Asset Management, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Manager (the “Asset Manager”), to manage our day-to-day affairs and implement our investment strategy, subject to our board of directors’ direction, oversight, and approval. The agreements governing the services provided by the Manager and the Asset Manager have been renewed through the year ended December 31, 2021, and will automatically renew for successive additional three-year terms thereafter, subject to earlier termination as detailed in the respective agreements (as further discussed in Item 13. “Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence” within this Form 10-K).

We conduct substantially all of our activities through, and all of our properties are held directly or indirectly by, the Operating Company. We are the sole managing member of the Operating Company and as of December 31, 2017, we owned approximately 92.4% of its issued and outstanding membership units, with the remaining 7.6% of its membership units held by persons who were issued membership units in exchange for their interests in properties acquired by the Operating Company.

As we conduct substantially all of our operations through the Operating Company, we are structured as what is referred to as an Umbrella Partnership Real Estate Investment Trust (“UPREIT”). The UPREIT structure allows a property owner to contribute their property to the Operating Company in exchange for membership units in the Operating Company and generally defer taxation of a resulting gain until the contributor later disposes of the membership units or the property is sold in a taxable transaction. The membership units of the Operating Company held by members of the Operating Company other than us are referred to herein and in our consolidated financial statements as “non-controlling interests,” “non-controlling membership units,” or “membership units,” and are convertible into shares of our common stock on a one-for-one basis, subject to certain restrictions. We allocate consolidated earnings to holders of our common stock and non-controlling membership unit holders of the Operating Company based on the weighted average number of shares of our common stock and non-controlling membership units outstanding during the year. Approximately 1.6 million non-controlling membership units were outstanding as of December 31, 2017. For the year ended December 31, 2017, the weighted average number of units outstanding was 1.5 million.

We commenced our ongoing private offering of shares of our common stock (our “private offering”) in 2007. The first closing of our private offering occurred on December 31, 2007, and we have conducted additional closings at least once every calendar quarter since then. Currently, we close sales of additional shares of our common stock monthly. We instituted a monthly cap on new and additional investments in our common stock beginning in November 2017. The cap does not apply to investments made pursuant to our distribution reinvestment plan or equity capital received in connection with UPREIT transactions. See Item 5. “Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchase of Equity Securities” of this Form 10-K for further information.

Our shares of common stock are sold by us at a price equal to a determined share value (the “Determined Share Value”), which is established quarterly by the committee of our board of directors comprised of our independent directors (“Independent Directors Committee”) based on the net asset value (“NAV”) of our portfolio, input from management and third-party consultants, and other such factors as the Independent Directors Committee may determine. Our determination of NAV applies valuation definitions and methodologies prescribed by the Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 820, Fair Value Measurements and Disclosures, in order to fair value our net assets. Our net assets are primarily comprised of our investment in rental property and debt. See further discussion related to Determined Share Value in Item 5. “Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities” of this Form 10-K under the caption Determined Share Value. Shares of our common stock are currently being offered in our private offering at $81.00 per share, provided that the per share offering price may be adjusted quarterly by the Independent Directors Committee based on the Determined Share Value. For the year ended December 31, 2017, we issued 3.8 million shares of our common stock in our private offering, including 0.5 million shares of common stock issued pursuant to our Distribution Reinvestment Plan (“distribution reinvestment plan” or “DRIP”). Cash received for newly issued shares totaled $263.1 million and shares with a value of $40.2 million were issued pursuant to DRIP transactions. In addition, we issued 161,418 units in our Operating Company valued at $12.9 million during the year ended December 31, 2017, in exchange for properties contributed through UPREIT transactions. We intend to use substantially all of the net proceeds from our private offering, supplemented with additional borrowings, to continue to invest in additional net leased properties and for general corporate purposes. We conduct our private offering in reliance upon the exemption from registration under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), provided by Rule 506(c) of Regulation D promulgated under the Securities Act.

As of December 31, 2017, there were 18.9 million shares of our common stock issued and outstanding, and 1.6 million membership units in the Operating Company issued and outstanding.

2017 Highlights

FFO and AFFO are performance measures that are not calculated in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”). We present these non-GAAP measures as we believe certain investors and other users of our financial information use them as part of their evaluation of our historical operating performance. Please see our discussion in Item 7. “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” of this Form 10-K under the heading Net Income and Non-GAAP Measures (FFO and AFFO), which includes discussion of the definition, purpose, and use of these non-GAAP measures as well as a reconciliation of each to the most comparable GAAP measure.

Our Properties and Investment Objectives

We target acquisitions of fee simple interests in individual properties priced between $5 million and $75 million. Portfolios may be significantly larger, depending on balance sheet capacity and whether the portfolio is diversified or concentrated by tenant, geography, or brand. Our investment policy (“Investment Policy”) has three primary objectives that drive the investments we make:

We primarily acquire freestanding, single-tenant commercial properties located in the United States either directly from our credit-worthy tenants in sale-leaseback transactions, where they sell us their properties and simultaneously lease them back through long-term, net leases, or through the purchase of properties already under a net lease (i.e., a lease assumption). Under either scenario, our properties are generally under lease and fully occupied at the time of acquisition. Our real estate portfolio as of December 31, 2017, is reflective of our Investment Policy, with a focus on properties in growth markets with at least ten years of lease term remaining. Throughout much of 2017, the Investment Policy required that the portfolio achieve financial returns on equity of greater than 10%, net of fees, provided that all acquisitions must have had a minimum remaining lease term of seven years and a minimum return on equity of 9.5%, unless approved by our Independent Directors Committee. As part of its regular review of our Investment Policy at its November 2017 meeting, the Independent Directors Committee approved an update to such policy to require a 9.5% minimum return on equity, net of fees, calculated based on the average return recognized across all acquisitions during a calendar year, with a minimum required return of 8.5%, net of fees, for any particular transaction. We believe the changes will allow us greater flexibility in deploying capital in investment opportunities that maximize the risk-adjusted return to our stockholders. Our criteria for selecting properties (“Property Selection Criteria”) is based on the following underwriting principles: