AGREE REALTY CORP

General

The Company is a fully integrated REIT primarily focused on the ownership, acquisition, development and management of retail properties net leased to industry leading tenants. The Company was founded in 1971 by its current Executive Chairman, Richard Agree, and its common stock was listed on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) in 1994. The Company’s assets are held by, and all of its operations are conducted through, directly or indirectly, the Operating Partnership of which the Company is the sole general partner and in which it held a 99.7% common interest as of December 31, 2023. Under the agreement of limited partnership of the Operating Partnership, the Company, as the sole general partner, has exclusive responsibility and discretion in the management and control of the Operating Partnership.

As of December 31, 2023, the Company’s portfolio consisted of 2,135 properties located in 49 states and totaling approximately 44.2 million square feet of Gross Leasable Area (“GLA”). The portfolio was approximately 99.8% leased and had a weighted average remaining lease term of approximately 8.4 years. A significant majority of the Company’s properties are leased to national tenants and approximately 69.1% of our annualized base rent was derived from tenants, or parent entities thereof, with an investment grade credit rating from S&P Global Ratings, Moody’s Investors Service, Fitch Ratings or the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Substantially all of our tenants are subject to net lease agreements. A net lease typically requires the tenant to be responsible for minimum monthly rent and property operating expenses including property taxes, insurance and maintenance.

As of December 31, 2023, the Company had 72 full-time employees, covering acquisitions, development, legal, asset management, accounting, finance, administrative and executive functions.

The Company was incorporated in December 1993 under the laws of the State of Maryland. The Company believes that it has operated, and it intends to continue to operate, in such a manner to qualify as a REIT under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Internal Revenue Code”). In order to maintain qualification as a REIT, the Company must, among other things, distribute at least 90% of its REIT taxable income each year and meet asset and income tests. Additionally, its charter limits ownership of the Company, directly or constructively, by any single person to 9.8% of the value or number of shares, whichever is more restrictive, of its outstanding common stock and 9.8% of the value of the aggregate of all of its outstanding stock, subject to certain exceptions. As a REIT, the Company is not subject to federal income tax with respect to that portion of its income that is distributed currently to its stockholders.

The Company’s principal executive offices are located at 32301 Woodward Avenue, Royal Oak MI 48073 and its telephone number is (248) 737-4190. The Company’s website is www.agreerealty.com. The Company’s reports are electronically filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act and can be accessed through this site, free of charge, as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file or furnish such reports. These filings are also available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. The Company’s website also contains copies of its corporate governance guidelines and code of business conduct and ethics, as well as the charters of its audit, compensation and nominating and governance committees. The information on the Company’s website is not part of this report.

Recent Developments

For a discussion of business developments that occurred in 2023, see “Item 7 – Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” later in this report. Certain summarized highlights are contained below.

Investments and Disposition Activity

During 2023, the Company completed approximately $1.28 billion of investments in net leased retail real estate. Total investment volume includes the acquisition of 282 properties for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $1.19 billion, and the completed development of 21 properties for an aggregate cost of approximately $86.2 million. These 303 properties are net leased to tenants operating in 27 sectors and are located in 40 states. These assets are 100% leased for a weighted average lease term of approximately 11.4 years.

During 2023, the Company sold six assets, including one former corporate headquarters office building, for net proceeds of $13.8 million.

Leasing

During 2023, excluding properties that were sold, the Company executed new leases, extensions or options on approximately 1,873,000 square feet of GLA throughout its portfolio. The annualized base contractual rent associated with these new leases, extensions or options is approximately $15.8 million.

Dividends

The Company increased its monthly dividend per common share from $0.24 to $0.243 in April 2023 and further increased the monthly dividend per common share to $0.247 in October 2023.

The December 2023 dividend per share of $0.247 represents an annualized dividend of $2.964 per share and an annualized dividend yield of approximately 4.7% based on the last reported sales price of our common stock listed on the NYSE of $62.95 on December 29, 2023.

The Company has routinely paid cash dividends to our common shareholders. Common cash dividends were paid quarterly for 107 consecutive quarters between 1994 and 2020 prior to moving to monthly common cash dividends in 2021. We have since paid 37 consecutive monthly dividends. Although we expect to continue our policy of paying regular dividends, we cannot guarantee that we will maintain our current level of common dividends, that we will continue our recent pattern of increasing dividends per share or what our actual dividend yield will be in any future period.

In addition to its common dividends, the Company paid monthly cash dividends on its 4.25% Series A Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock.

Financing

Equity

In September 2022, the Company entered into a $750 million at-the-market (“ATM”) program (the “2022 ATM Program”) through which the Company, from time to time, may sell shares of common stock and/or enter into forward sale agreements.

As of December 31, 2023, the Company completed forward sale agreements under the 2022 ATM Program for 10,197,230 shares of common stock, for anticipated future net proceeds of $669.1 million, after deducting fees and expenses. The Company has settled 6,363,359 shares of these forward sale agreements as of December 31, 2023 for net proceeds of approximately $433.4 million, after deducting fees and expenses. The Company is required to settle the remaining forward agreements by January 2025.

The Company had approximately $75.8 million of availability remaining under the 2022 ATM Program as of December 31, 2023.

Debt

In July 2023, the Company closed on an unsecured $350 million 5.5-year term loan (the “2029 Unsecured Term Loan”) which includes an accordion option that allows the Company to request additional lender commitments up to a total of $500 million and matures in January 2029. Borrowings under the 2029 Unsecured Term Loan are priced at SOFR plus a spread of 80 to 160 basis points over SOFR, depending on the Company’s credit ratings, plus a SOFR adjustment of 10 basis points. Based on the Company’s credit ratings at the time of closing, pricing on the 2029 Unsecured Term Loan was 95 basis points over SOFR. The Company used the existing $350 million of forward starting interest rate swaps to hedge the variable SOFR priced interest to a weighted average fixed rate of 3.57% until January 2029.

Business Strategies

Our primary business objectives are to capitalize on distinct market positioning in the retail net lease space, focus on 21st century industry-leading retailers through our external growth platforms, leverage our real estate acumen and relationships to identify superior risk-adjusted opportunities, maintain a conservative and flexible capital structure that enables growth, and provide consistent, high-quality earnings growth and a well-covered growing dividend. The following is a discussion of our investment, financing and asset management strategies.

Investment

We are primarily focused on the long-term, fee simple ownership of properties net leased to national or large, regional retailers operating in sectors we believe to be more e-commerce and recession resistant than other retail sectors. Our leases are typically long-term net leases that require the tenant to pay all property operating expenses, including real estate taxes, insurance and maintenance. We believe that a diversified portfolio of such properties provides for stable and predictable cash flow.

We seek to expand and enhance our portfolio by identifying the best risk-adjusted investment opportunities across our three external avenues for growth: development, Developer Funding Platform (“DFP”) and acquisitions.

Development: We have been developing retail properties since the formation of our predecessor company in 1971 and our development platform seeks to employ our capabilities to direct all aspects of the development process, including site selection, land acquisition, lease negotiation, due diligence, design and construction. Our developments are typically build-to-suit projects that result in fee simple ownership of the property upon completion.

Developer Funding Platform: Our DFP, previously called Partner Capital Solutions, collaborates with developers or retailers on their in-process developments. We offer construction expertise and access to capital to facilitate the successful completion of their projects. We typically take fee simple ownership of DFP projects upon completion.

Acquisitions: Our acquisitions platform expands our investment capabilities by pursuing opportunities that meet both our real estate and return on investment criteria.

We believe that development and DFP projects have the potential to generate superior risk-adjusted returns on investment in properties that are substantially similar to those we acquire.

We focus on four core principles that underlie our investment criteria:

Each platform leverages the Company’s real estate acumen to pursue investments in net lease retail real estate. Factors that we consider when evaluating an investment include but are not limited to:

size, market positioning, geographic footprint, management team, industry and/or sector-specific trends and other characteristics specific to the tenant and parent thereof;

Financing

We seek to maintain a capital structure that provides us with the flexibility to manage our business and pursue our growth strategies, while allowing us to service our debt requirements and generate appropriate risk-adjusted returns for our stockholders. We believe these objectives are best achieved by a capital structure that consists primarily of common equity and prudent amounts of preferred equity and debt financing. However, we may raise capital in any form and under terms that we deem acceptable and in the best interest of our stockholders.

We have previously utilized common and preferred stock equity offerings, secured mortgage borrowings, unsecured bank borrowings, private placements and public offerings of senior unsecured notes and the sale of properties to meet our capital requirements. We continually evaluate our financing policies on an on-going basis in light of current economic conditions, access to various capital markets, relative costs of equity and debt securities, the market value of our properties and other factors.

We occasionally sell common stock through forward sale agreements, enabling the Company to set the price of shares upon pricing the offering while delaying the issuance of shares and the receipt of the net proceeds by the Company.

As of December 31, 2023, the Company’s ratio of total debt to enterprise value, assuming the conversion of common limited partnership interests in the Operating Partnership (“Operating Partnership Common Units”) into shares of common stock, was approximately 27.2%, and its ratio of total debt to total gross assets (before accumulated depreciation) was approximately 29.6%.

As of December 31, 2023, our total debt outstanding before deferred financing costs and original issue discount was $2.43 billion, including $44.9 million of secured mortgage debt that had a weighted average fixed interest rate of 3.78% and a weighted average maturity of 5.8 years, $2.16 billion of unsecured borrowings, which includes $350.0 million of unsecured term loans and $1.81 billion of unsecured notes, that had a weighted average fixed interest rate of 3.50% (including the effects of interest rate swap agreements) and a weighted average maturity of 6.5 years, and $227.0 million of floating rate borrowings under our revolving credit facility at a weighted average interest rate of approximately 6.27%.

Certain financial agreements to which the Company is a party contain covenants that limit its ability to incur debt under certain circumstances; however, our organizational documents do not limit the absolute amount or percentage of indebtedness that we may incur. As such, we may modify our borrowing policies at any time without stockholder approval.

Asset Management

We maintain a proactive leasing and capital improvement program that, combined with the quality and locations of our properties, has made our properties attractive to tenants. We intend to continue to hold our properties for long-term investment and, accordingly, place a strong emphasis on the quality of construction and an on-going program of regular and preventative maintenance. Our properties are designed and built to require minimal capital improvements other than renovations or alterations, typically paid for by tenants. Personnel from our corporate headquarters conduct regular inspections of each property, maintain regular contact with major tenants and engage in consistent dialogue to understand store performance and tenant sustainability.

We have a management information system designed to provide our management with the operating data necessary to make informed business decisions on a timely basis. This system provides us rapid access to lease data, tenants’ sales history, cash flow budgets and forecasts. Such a system helps us to maximize cash flow from operations and closely monitor corporate expenses.

Competition

The U.S. commercial real estate investment market is a highly competitive industry. We actively compete with many entities engaged in the acquisition, development and operation of commercial properties. As such, we compete with other investors for a limited supply of properties and financing for these properties. Investors include traded and non-traded public REITs, private equity firms, institutional investment funds, insurance companies and private individuals, many of which have greater financial resources than we do and the ability to accept more risk than we believe we can prudently manage. There can be no assurance that we will be able to compete successfully with such entities in our acquisition, development and leasing activities in the future.

Significant Tenants

No tenant accounted for more than 10.0% of our annualized base rent as of December 31, 2023. See “Item 2 – Properties” for additional information on our top tenants and the composition of our tenant base.

Regulation

Environmental

Investments in real property create the potential for environmental liability on the part of the owner or operator of such real property. If hazardous substances are discovered on or emanating from a property, the owner or operator of the property may under certain statutory schemes be held strictly liable for all costs and liabilities relating to such hazardous substances. We have obtained a Phase I environmental study (which involves inspection without soil sampling or ground water analysis) conducted by independent environmental consultants on each of our properties and, in certain instances, have conducted additional investigation, including Phase II environmental assessments.

We have no knowledge of any hazardous substances existing on our properties in violation of any applicable laws; however, no assurance can be given that such substances are not currently located on any of our properties.

We believe that we are in compliance, in all material respects, with all federal, state and local ordinances and regulations regarding hazardous or toxic substances. Furthermore, we have not received notice from any governmental authority of any noncompliance, liability or other claim in connection with any of our properties.

Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990

Our properties, as commercial facilities, are required to comply with Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and similar state and local laws and regulations (collectively, the “ADA”). Investigation of a property may reveal non-compliance with the ADA. Our tenants will typically have primary responsibility for complying with the ADA, but we may incur costs if the tenant does not comply. As of December 31, 2023, we have not received notice from any governmental authority, nor are we otherwise aware, of any non-compliance with the ADA that we believe would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position or results of operations.

Human Capital

Team Members and Values

As of December 31, 2023, the Company had 72 full-time team members covering acquisitions, development, legal, asset management, accounting, finance, administrative, and executive functions as compared to 76 full-time team members as of December 31, 2022.

Our core values are the foundation of our Company culture and include:

We work to attract the best talent externally to meet the current and future demands of our business. We utilize social media, professional recruiters and other organizations to find motivated and talented team members and employ competency-based behavioral interviewing techniques.

Talent Management

Professional development is a cornerstone of our talent management system, and we diligently work to develop talent from within. We emphasize professional development through both technical and soft-skill development and training. To empower team members to reach their potential, the Company provides a range of on-the-job training and mentoring, knowledge sharing, continuing education and “lunch-and-learn” programs. Our talent management practices include the utilization of our core competency frameworks, professional development plans, career pathing and succession planning and carefully designed promotion and internal mobility opportunities.

Our team members’ goal setting and performance feedback processes include formal quarterly and annual reviews and self and team leader reviews, as well as ongoing one-on-one meetings with team leaders. Professional development plans based on critical core competencies are created and monitored to ensure progress is made along established timelines.

Financial and Health Wellness

As part of our compensation philosophy, we offer and maintain market competitive total rewards programs for team members in order to attract and retain superior talent. These programs not only include wages and incentives, but also health, welfare, and retirement benefits.

Our compensation philosophies include:

The structure of our compensation programs balance incentive earnings for both short-term and long-term performance. Specifically, the programs include a base salary, incentive compensation through annual cash bonuses and equity participation, and a retirement plan with Company match.

The “Agree Wellness Program” affords team members paid time off and holidays, fully equipped on-site fitness amenities, and leaves of absence for specified events. Insurance coverages are provided for all team members and their dependents, including medical, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance. The Company pays 100% of medical, short-term, long-term, and life insurance premiums for team members and their families.

Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”)

As part of the Company’s commitment to continuously improving our understanding of and performance across material ESG topics, the Company engaged a third-party consultant since 2022 to help identify opportunities for improvement across our programs, policies, and disclosures to meet the expectations of our stakeholders. The Company executed an

ongoing sustainability and ESG strategy to enhance our oversight structure, risk management, policies, data collection, reporting, and stakeholder engagement. Additionally, the Company received Gold Level recognition from Green Lease Leaders.

Environmental Sustainability

We understand that environmental sustainability is an ongoing endeavor and embrace the responsibility to be a steward of the environment, use natural resources carefully, and work with our retail partners on shared sustainability initiatives. We remain committed to using our time, talents, resources, and relationships to grow in a manner that makes the world and the environment better for future generations.

Our focus on industry-leading, national and super-regional retailers provides for long-term relationships with many environmentally conscientious retailers. This is particularly meaningful because the Company’s portfolio is primarily comprised of properties that are leased to tenants under long-term net leases where the tenant is generally responsible for maintaining the property and implementing environmentally responsible practices.

In 2023, we engaged with our retail partners on shared sustainability initiatives at our properties, and executing green leases with various tenants, as well as systematically monitoring ESG policies for current and prospective tenants. We will continue working with our tenants and consultant to update our greenhouse gas emissions inventory.

Social Company Culture and Team Members

The Agree Wellness Program focuses on physical and financial wellness to enhance team members’ well-being. The Company believes that team members who are healthy, fit, financially secure and motivated are team members who achieve personal and professional success. Ongoing professional development is offered to help all team members advance their careers. The Company regularly sponsors local charities and has received numerous local awards recognizing its outstanding corporate culture and wellness initiatives. The Company supports healthy living through enhanced health insurance, an on-site gym, training and education, various complementary meal programs and many other benefits.

We support team members with generous cash compensation plans, equity ownership programs, retirement plans and ongoing access to financial planning resources. Team members are compensated for their performance and rewarded for their outstanding work. Alignment of individual, team, corporate and stockholder objectives provides for continuity, teamwork and increased collaboration. Our team members are paid commensurate with their qualifications, responsibilities, productivity, quality of work and adherence to our core values.

The Agree Culture Committee is composed of team members from departments throughout the organization. The Company’s Culture Committee hosts a variety of events that are focused on team building and camaraderie as well as contributing to the communities in which they live.

Governance Fiduciary Duties and Ethics

We believe that nothing is more important than a company’s reputation for integrity and serving as a responsible fiduciary for its stockholders. We are committed to managing the Company for the benefit of our stockholders and are focused on maintaining good corporate governance.

Our board of directors has 10 directors, eight of whom are independent, including the Company’s new independent director added in 2024. Six new independent directors have been added since 2018. Independent directors meet regularly, without the presence of officers or team members. A Lead Independent Director was appointed in 2019.

The board of directors has adopted an insider trading policy that applies to all directors, officers and team members. The Company does not have a stockholder rights plan (“poison pill”) and maintains stock ownership guidelines for directors and named executive officers requiring specified levels of stock ownership. Time-vested stock grants to officers and team members vest over a three-year period to provide long-term alignment, while performance-based stock grants to named executive officers utilize total shareholder return, with the amount of the grants intended to increase as total returns to

stockholders increase, further enhancing alignment. Our board of directors has established a succession plan for the Chief Executive Officer to cover emergencies and other occurrences. Finally, the Company annually submits “say-on-pay” advisory votes to its stockholders.

Available Information

We make available free of charge through our website at www.agreerealty.com all reports we electronically file with, or furnish to, the SEC, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K, as well as any amendments to those reports, as soon as reasonably practicable after those documents are filed with, or furnished to, the SEC. These filings are also accessible on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.