Item 1. Business

Regency Centers Corporation is a fully integrated real estate company and self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust that began its operations as a publicly-traded REIT in 1993. Our corporate headquarters are located at One Independent Drive, Suite 114, Jacksonville, Florida. Regency Centers L.P. is the entity through which Regency Centers Corporation conducts substantially all of its operations and owns substantially all of its assets. Our business consists of acquiring, developing, owning and operating income-producing retail real estate principally located in top markets within the United States. We generate revenues by leasing space to necessity, service, convenience and value retailers serving the essential needs of our communities. Regency has been an S&P 500 Index member since 2017.

As of December 31, 2021, we had full or partial ownership interests in 405 properties, primarily anchored by market leading grocery stores, encompassing 51.2 million square feet (“SF”) of gross leasable area (“GLA”). Our Pro-rata share of this GLA is 42.6 million square feet, including our share of the partially owned properties.

We are a preeminent national owner, operator, and developer of shopping centers located in suburban trade areas with compelling demographics. Our mission is to create thriving environments for retailers and service providers to connect with surrounding neighborhoods and communities. Our vision is to elevate quality of life as an integral thread in the fabric of our communities. Our portfolio includes thriving properties merchandised with highly productive grocers, restaurants, service providers, and best-in-class retailers that connect to their neighborhoods, communities, and customers.

Our values:

We are our people: Our people are our greatest asset, and we believe a talented team from differing backgrounds and experiences make us better.

We do what is right: We act with unwavering standards of honesty and integrity.

We connect with our communities: We promote philanthropic ideas and strive for the betterment of our neighborhoods by giving our time and financial support.

We are responsible: Our duty is to balance purpose and profit, being good stewards of capital and the environment for the benefit of all our stakeholders.

We strive for excellence: When we are passionate about what we do, it is reflected in our performance.

We are better together: When we listen to each other and our customers, we will succeed together.

Our goals are to:

Own and manage a portfolio of high-quality neighborhood and community shopping centers primarily anchored by market leading grocers and primarily located in suburban trade areas in the country’s most desirable metro areas. We expect that this

strategy will result in highly desirable and attractive centers with best-in-class retailers. These centers should command higher rental and occupancy rates resulting in excellent prospects to grow net operating income (“NOI”);

Maintain an industry leading and disciplined development and redevelopment platform to create exceptional retail centers that deliver higher returns as compared to acquisitions;

Support our business activities with a conservative capital structure, including a strong balance sheet with sufficient liquidity to meet our capital needs together with a well-laddered debt maturity profile;

Implement leading environmental, social, and governance practices through our Corporate Responsibility Program;

Engage and retain an exceptional and diverse team that is guided by our strong values, while fostering an environment of innovation and continuous improvement; and

Create shareholder value by increasing earnings and dividends per share that generate total returns at or near the top of our shopping center peers.

Key strategies to achieve our goals are to:

Generate same property NOI growth that over the long-term consistently ranks at or near the top of our shopping center peers;

Reinvest free cash flow and portfolio enhancement disposition proceeds into high-quality developments, redevelopments and acquisitions in a long term accretive manner;

Maintain a conservative balance sheet that provides liquidity, financial flexibility and cost effective funding of investment opportunities, while also managing debt maturities that enable us to weather economic downturns;

Pursue best-in-class environmental, social, and governance practices; and

Attract, retain, and engage an exceptional and diverse team that is guided by our values while fostering an environment of innovation and continuous improvement.

COVID-19 Update

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact our business performance as it relates to occupancy and leasing volumes and how revenue recognition is impacted by rent collections and tenant credit risk. Rent collection rates since the pandemic began have been lower than historical pre-pandemic averages, but have steadily increased during 2021 since the low point in the second quarter of 2020. Collection rates may remain lower than historical pre-pandemic averages for the foreseeable future. The ability of tenants to successfully operate their businesses and pay rent continues to be significantly influenced by pandemic-related challenges such as rising costs, labor shortages, supply chain constraints, reduced in-store sales, the emergence of new variants of the COVID-19 virus, effectiveness of vaccines against variants, and the impact of mask and vaccine mandates. We anticipate that the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact our financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows will continue to depend on the severity of COVID-19 variants, the effectiveness of vaccines against them, and the ability of our current and prospective tenants to operate their businesses in the face of these pandemic-related challenges.

Competition

We are among the largest owners of shopping centers in the nation based on revenues, number of properties, GLA, and market capitalization. There are numerous companies and individuals engaged in the ownership, development, acquisition, and operation of shopping centers that compete with us in our targeted markets, including grocery store chains that also anchor some of our shopping centers. This results in competition for attracting tenants as well as acquiring existing shopping centers and new development sites. In addition, brick and mortar shopping centers face continued competition from alternative shopping and delivery methods. We believe that our competitive advantages are driven by:

the locations of our shopping centers within our market areas;

the design of our shopping centers including our practice of maintaining and renovating these centers to our high standards of quality;

the compelling demographics surrounding our shopping centers;

our relationships with our anchor, shop, and out-parcel tenants;

our management experience and expertise; and

our ability to develop, redevelop, and acquire shopping centers.

Corporate Responsibility and Human Capital

We presently maintain 22 market offices nationwide, including our corporate headquarters in Jacksonville, Florida, where we conduct management, leasing, construction, and investment activities. We currently have 432 employees throughout the United States.

Our mission is to create thriving environments for retailers and service providers to connect with surrounding neighborhoods and communities while striving to achieve best-in-class corporate responsibility. Executive management, with oversight by our Board of Directors, embed corporate responsibility in our mission, strategy and objectives. Our focus is on three key overarching concepts: long-term value creation, our Regency brand and reputation, and the importance of maintaining our culture.

We have established four pillars for our corporate responsibility program that we believe enable us to support our mission and implement these concepts:

Our People;

Our Communities;

Ethics and Governance; and

Environmental Stewardship.

Our People – Our people are our most important asset and we strive to ensure that they are engaged, passionate about their work, connected to their teams, and supported to deliver their best performance. Our values encourage our people to work together for the success of our Company and mission. We recognize and value the importance of attracting and retaining talented individuals to Regency’s performance and growth. We strive to maintain a safe and healthy workspace, promote employee well-being, and empower our employees by focusing on their training and education. To achieve this, we provide opportunities for training and development for each eligible employee, as well as competitive compensation, benefits, and wellness programs. We offer a hybrid work environment that allows a meaningful level of flexibility for our employees to work in office and remote. Another key element is our understanding and appreciation of the value of an inclusive and diverse workforce. In 2021, we continued implementing a comprehensive three-year diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”) strategy and roadmap, which is focused on four key areas: Talent, Culture, Marketplace, and Communities, and includes training, recruitment, and engagement. Our employees have been directly engaged in the development of our DEI strategy to ensure they are connected to and actively involved in its implementation across the entirety of our business, including the launch of two employee resource groups in 2021.

Our Communities – Our predominately grocery-anchored neighborhood centers provide many benefits to the communities in which we live and work, including significant local economic impacts in the form of investment, jobs and taxes. Our local teams are also passionate about investing in and engaging with our communities, as they customize and cultivate our centers to create a distinctive environment to bring our tenants and shoppers together for the best retail experience. In addition, philanthropy and giving back are cornerstones of what we do and who Regency is. Charitable contributions are made directly by the Company as well as by the vast majority of our employees who donate their time and money to local non-profits serving their communities.

Ethics and Governance – As long-term stewards of our investors’ capital, we are committed to best-in-class corporate governance. To create long-term value for our stakeholders, we place great emphasis on our culture and core values, the integrity and transparency of our reporting practices, and our overall governance structure in respect of oversight and shareholder rights.

Environmental Stewardship – We believe sustainability is in the best interest of our investors, tenants, employees, and the communities in which we operate, and we strive to integrate sustainable practices throughout our business. We have six strategic priorities when it comes to identifying and implementing sustainable business practices and minimizing our environmental impact: green building, energy efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions reduction, water conservation, waste minimization and management, and climate resilience. We believe these commitments are not only the right thing to do to address environmental concerns such as air pollution, climate change, and resource scarcity, but also support us in achieving key strategic objectives in our operations and development projects. We believe climate change is a priority for many of our stakeholders and we have increased our efforts to understand and address the risks that climate change may pose to our business.

We regularly review our corporate responsibility strategies, goals, and objectives with our Board of Directors and its committees, which oversee our programs. More information about our corporate responsibility strategy, goals, performance, and reporting, including our annual Corporate Responsibility report, our Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (“TCFD”) report and our policies and practices related to corporate responsibility, is available on our website at www.regencycenters.com. Additionally, our most recent EEO-1 survey data can be found on our website, including information related to employee gender and ethnic

diversity. The content of our website, including these reports and other information contained therein relating to corporate responsibility, is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or in any other report or document we file with the SEC, and any references to our website are intended to be inactive textual references only.

Compliance with Governmental Regulations

We are subject to various regulatory and tax-related requirements within the jurisdictions in which we operate. Changes to such requirements may result in unanticipated financial impacts or adverse tax consequences, and could affect our operating results and financial condition. Significant regulatory requirements include the laws and regulations described below.

REIT Laws and Regulations

We have elected to be taxed as a REIT under the federal income tax laws. As a REIT, we are generally not subject to federal income tax on taxable income that we distribute to our stockholders. Under the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”), REITs are subject to numerous regulatory requirements, including the requirement to generally distribute at least 90% of taxable income each year. We will be subject to federal income tax on our taxable income at regular corporate rates if we fail to qualify as a REIT for tax purposes in any taxable year, or to the extent we distribute less than 100% of our taxable income. We will also generally not qualify for treatment as a REIT for federal income tax purposes for four years following the year during which qualification is lost. Even if we qualify as a REIT for federal income tax purposes, we may be subject to certain state and local income and franchise taxes and to federal income and excise taxes on our undistributed taxable income.

We have elected to treat certain of our subsidiaries as taxable REIT subsidiaries (“TRS”). In general, a TRS may engage in any real estate business and certain non-real estate businesses, subject to certain limitations under the Code. A TRS is subject to federal and state income taxes which, to date, have not been material to us.

Environmental Laws and Regulations

Under various federal, state and local laws, ordinances and regulations, we may be liable for the cost to assess and remediate certain hazardous substances at our shopping centers. To the extent any environmental issues arise, they most typically stem from the historic practices of current and former dry cleaners, gas stations, and other similar businesses at our centers, as well as the presence of asbestos in some structures. These requirements often impose liability without regard to whether the owner knew of, or committed the acts or omissions that caused the presence of the hazardous substances. The presence of such substances, or the failure to properly address contamination caused by such substances, may adversely affect our ability to sell or lease the property or borrow using the property as collateral. Although we have a number of properties that could require or are currently undergoing varying levels of assessment and remediation, known environmental liabilities are not currently expected to have a material impact on our financial condition.

Executive Officers

Our executive officers are appointed each year by our Board of Directors. Each of our executive officers has been employed by us for more than five years and, as of December 31, 2021, included the following:

Name	Age	Title	Executive Officer in Position Shown Since
Martin E. Stein, Jr.	69	Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors	2020 (1)
Lisa Palmer	54	President and Chief Executive Officer	2020 (2)
Michael J. Mas	46	Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer	2019 (3)
James D. Thompson	66	Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer	2019 (4)

(1)

Mr. Stein was appointed Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors effective January 1, 2020. Prior to this appointment, Mr. Stein served as Chief Executive Officer from 1993 through December 31, 2019 and Chairman of the Board since 1999.

(2)

Ms. Palmer was named Chief Executive Officer effective January 1, 2020, in addition to her responsibilities as President, which position she has held since January 2016. Prior to this appointment, Ms. Palmer served as Chief Financial Officer since January 2013. Prior to that, Ms. Palmer served as Senior Vice President of Capital Markets since 2003 and has been with the Company since 1996.

(3)

Mr. Mas assumed the responsibilities of Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer effective August 2019. Prior to this appointment, Mr. Mas served as Managing Director, Finance, since February 2017, and Senior Vice President, Capital Markets, since 2013.

(4)

Mr. Thompson assumed the role of Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, effective August 2019, and Executive Vice President of Operations in 2016. Mr. Thompson previously served as our Managing Director - East since 1993.

Company Website Access and SEC Filings

Our website may be accessed at www.regencycenters.com. All of our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) can be accessed free of charge through our website promptly after filing; however, in the event that the website is inaccessible, we will provide paper copies of our most recent annual report on Form 10-K, the most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q, current reports filed or furnished on Form 8-K, and all related amendments, excluding exhibits, free of charge upon request. These filings are also accessible on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. The content of our website is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or in any other report or document we file with the SEC, and any references to our website are intended to be inactive textual references only.

General Information

Our registrar and stock transfer agent is Broadridge Corporate Issuer Solutions, Inc. (“Broadridge”), Lake Success, NY. We offer a dividend reinvestment plan (“DRIP”) that enables our shareholders to reinvest dividends automatically, as well as to make voluntary cash payments toward the purchase of additional shares. For more information, contact Broadridge toll free at (877) 830-4936 or our Shareholder Relations Department at (904) 598-7000.

The Company’s common stock is listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market and trades under the stock symbol “REG”.

Our independent registered public accounting firm is KPMG LLP, Jacksonville, Florida, Firm ID 185. Our legal counsel is Foley & Lardner LLP, Jacksonville, Florida.

Annual Meeting of Shareholders

Our 2022 annual meeting of shareholders is currently expected to be held on Friday, April 29, 2022. In light of public health concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and to help protect the safety of our shareholders, directors, employees, and other participants, the Company’s annual meeting may be conducted in a virtual-only format to the extent permitted by applicable law.

Non-GAAP Measures

In addition to the required Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“GAAP”) presentations, we use certain non-GAAP performance measures as we believe these measures improve the understanding of the Company's operational results. We believe these non-GAAP measures provide useful information to our Board of Directors, management and investors regarding certain trends relating to our financial condition and results of operations. Our management uses these non-GAAP measures to compare our performance to that of prior periods for trend analyses, purposes of determining management incentive compensation and budgeting, forecasting and planning purposes. We continually evaluate the usefulness, relevance, limitations, and calculation of our reported non-GAAP performance measures to determine how best to provide relevant information to the public, and thus such reported measures could change.

We do not consider non-GAAP measures an alternative to financial measures determined in accordance with GAAP, rather they supplement GAAP measures by providing additional information we believe to be useful to our shareholders. The principal limitation of these non-GAAP financial measures is they may exclude significant expense and income items that are required by GAAP to be recognized in our consolidated financial statements. In addition, they reflect the exercise of management’s judgment about which expense and income items are excluded or included in determining these non-GAAP financial measures. In order to compensate for these limitations, reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measures we use to their most directly comparable GAAP measures are provided. Non-GAAP financial measures should not be relied upon in evaluating the financial condition, results of operations or future prospects of the Company.

Defined Terms

The following terms, as defined, are commonly used by management and the investing public to understand and evaluate our operational results:

Core Operating Earnings is an additional performance measure we use because the computation of Nareit Funds from Operations (“Nareit FFO”) includes certain non-comparable items that affect our period-over-period performance. Core Operating Earnings excludes from Nareit FFO: (i) transaction related income or expenses, (ii) gains or losses from the early extinguishment of debt, (iii) certain non-cash components of earnings derived from above and below market rent amortization, straight-line rents, and amortization of mark-to-market debt adjustments, and (iv) other amounts as they occur. We provide reconciliations of both Net income attributable to common stockholders to Nareit FFO and Nareit FFO to Core Operating Earnings.

Development Completion is a property in development that is deemed complete upon the earlier of: (i) 90% of total estimated net development costs have been incurred and percent leased equals or exceeds 95%, or (ii) the property features at least two years of anchor operations. Once deemed complete, the property is termed a Retail Operating Property the following calendar year.

Fixed Charge Coverage Ratio is defined as Operating EBITDAre divided by the sum of the gross interest and scheduled mortgage principal paid to our lenders.

Nareit EBITDAre is a measure of REIT performance, which the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (“Nareit”) defines as net income, computed in accordance with GAAP, excluding (i) interest expense, (ii) income tax expense, (iii) depreciation and amortization, (iv) gains on sales of real estate, (v) impairments of real estate, and (vi) adjustments to reflect the Company’s share of unconsolidated partnerships and joint ventures.

Nareit Funds from Operations (“Nareit FFO”) is a commonly used measure of REIT performance, which Nareit defines as net income, computed in accordance with GAAP, excluding gains on sales and impairments of real estate, net of tax, plus depreciation and amortization, and after adjustments for unconsolidated partnerships and joint ventures. We compute Nareit FFO for all periods presented in accordance with Nareit’s definition.

Companies use different depreciable lives and methods, and real estate values historically fluctuate with market conditions. Since Nareit FFO excludes depreciation and amortization and gains on sale and impairments of real estate, it provides a performance measure that, when compared year over year, reflects the impact on operations from trends in percent leased, rental rates, operating costs, acquisition and development activities, and financing costs. This provides a perspective of our financial performance not immediately apparent from net income determined in accordance with GAAP. Thus, Nareit FFO is a supplemental non-GAAP financial measure of our operating performance, which does not represent cash generated from operating activities in accordance with GAAP; and, therefore, should not be considered a substitute measure of cash flows from operations. We provide a reconciliation of Net Income Attributable to Common Stockholders to Nareit FFO.

Net Operating Income (“NOI”) is the sum of base rent, percentage rent, recoveries from tenants, other lease income, and other property income, less operating and maintenance expenses, real estate taxes, ground rent, and uncollectible lease income. NOI excludes straight-line rental income and expense, above and below market rent and ground rent amortization, tenant lease inducement amortization, and other fees. We also provide disclosure of NOI excluding termination fees, which excludes both termination fee income and expenses.

Non-Same Property is any property, during either calendar year period being compared, that was acquired, sold, a Property in Development, a Development Completion, or a property under, or being positioned for, significant redevelopment that distorts comparability between periods. Non-retail properties and corporate activities, including the captive insurance program, are part of Non-Same Property.

Operating EBITDAre begins with the Nareit EBITDAre and excludes certain non-cash components of earnings derived from above and below market rent amortization and straight-line rents. We provide a reconciliation of Net Income to Nareit EBITDAre to Operating EBITDAre.

Pro-rata information includes 100% of our consolidated properties plus our economic share (based on our ownership interest) in our unconsolidated real estate investment partnerships.

We provide Pro-rata financial information because we believe it assists investors and analysts in estimating our economic interest in our consolidated and unconsolidated partnerships, when read in conjunction with the Company’s reported results under GAAP. We believe presenting our Pro-rata share of assets, liabilities, operating results, and other metrics, along with certain other non-GAAP measures, makes comparisons of other REITs’ operating results to ours more meaningful. The Pro-rata information provided is not, nor is it intended to be, presented in accordance with GAAP. The Pro-rata supplemental details of assets and liabilities and supplemental details of operations reflect our proportionate economic ownership of the assets, liabilities, and operating results of the properties in our portfolio

The Pro-rata information is prepared on a basis consistent with the comparable consolidated amounts and is intended to more accurately reflect our proportionate economic interest in the assets, liabilities, and operating results of properties in our portfolio. We do not control the unconsolidated investment partnerships, and the Pro-rata presentations of the assets and liabilities, and revenues and expenses do not represent our legal claim to such items. The partners are entitled to profit or loss allocations and distributions of cash flows according to the operating agreements, which generally provide for such allocations according to their invested capital. Our share of invested capital establishes the ownership interests we use to prepare our Pro-rata share.

The presentation of Pro-rata information has limitations which include, but are not limited to, the following:

o

The amounts shown on the individual line items were derived by applying our overall economic ownership interest percentage determined when applying the equity method of accounting and do not necessarily represent our legal claim to the assets and liabilities, or the revenues and expenses; and

o

Other companies in our industry may calculate their Pro-rata interest differently, limiting the comparability of Pro-rata information.

Because of these limitations, the Pro-rata financial information should not be considered independently or as a substitute for our financial statements as reported under GAAP. We compensate for these limitations by relying primarily on our GAAP financial statements, using the Pro-rata information as a supplement.

Property In Development includes properties in various stages of ground-up development.

Property In Redevelopment includes Retail Operating Properties under redevelopment or being positioned for redevelopment. Unless otherwise indicated, a Property in Redevelopment is included in the Same Property pool.

Redevelopment Completion is a property in redevelopment that is deemed complete upon the earlier of: (i) 90% of total estimated project costs have been incurred and percent leased equals or exceeds 95% for the Company owned GLA related to the project, or (ii) the property features at least two years of anchor operations.

Retail Operating Property is any retail property not termed a Property in Development. A retail property is any property where the majority of the income is generated from retail uses.

Same Property is a Retail Operating Property that was owned and operated for the entirety of both calendar year periods being compared. This term excludes Properties in Development, prior year Development Completions, and Non-Same Properties. Properties in Redevelopment are included unless otherwise indicated.