Good morning, everybody. I think we're all connected to our live webcast now. My name is Tim Melton. It's my pleasure to chair the 57th Annual General Meeting of Melcor Developments. These things come up very quickly every year, and it's nice enjoying visiting everybody before the meeting, have a snack. All of a sudden, we're ready to go here. I want to first of all thanks and acknowledge the people that have sort of organized this, Aaron and some of our staff for setting us up here today. We've had our meetings in various locations, our AGMs throughout the years, and then hotels and what have you, and then COVID came along. Of course, this is our coming out party. We're finally out of the bubble. Through COVID, of course, we did all our AGMs virtually.
This is a step out of the bubble for us, and we're doing it in Randy and our team would rather see this space occupied by rent-paying tenants, but it was available, and so we thought it'd be a good fit. Plus, we have a lot of staff shareholders, and we want to keep them productive and close to their desks, so shareholders like that. We're very pleased to meet in person here again. We are webcasting today's proceedings for those that are joining us from elsewhere. Elsewhere could be some of our other regions, too. I want to welcome and thank our staff who are in attendance in some of the other regions, Calgary, Lethbridge, Red Deer, Kelowna, Arizona. Anyhow, a warm welcome to both people in person and the online audience.
We've got some guests in attendance who are not shareholders, and just remind everybody that only shareholders are allowed to vote on motions. We're going to move very quickly through the formal part of the meeting with Nicole Forsythe and Robyn Salik acting as motioner and seconder. Following this formal component, Naomi Stefura, our very capable CFO, COO, will provide an update on the company. After that presentation, there'll be opportunity for questions. I think at this time, I'll turn it over to Robyn, and Robyn will fill us in on some housekeeping items.
Thank you, Tim. Just a couple of housekeeping items. Meeting materials. Melcor uses the notice and access model for delivery of meeting materials to our shareholders. Meeting materials, including the information circular, MD&A, and annual financial statements are available on our website at melcor.ca. Physical copies are available on request. Non-standard measures. When it comes to financial results, we report in Canadian dollars and in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards or IFRS. We supplement our financial reporting with non-standard measures, including funds from operations and net operating income. We believe these measures are important in evaluating our performance, but caution listeners that they may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. These non-standard measures are defined and reconciled in our MD&A. As for voting, advanced votes were received prior to today's meeting and were sufficient to meet quorum and pass all matters.
Voting on meeting matters will be conducted by a show of hands. Following management's presentation, we will open the floor for questions and answers. For in-person attendees, please raise your hand to ask questions. If there are questions that come up during the course of the formal presentations, feel free to ask questions throughout. We ask that you limit yourself to one or two questions to ensure that we are able to hear from all shareholders. If time permits, you are welcome to approach again. For our webcast audience, please type your question in the text box at the bottom of the webcast screen and hit send. You may submit a question at any time during the meeting. Note that questions may be paraphrased for brevity and clarity if necessary, and there is a slight time delay for those of you submitting webcast questions to be received on our end.
Finally, I will remind you that certain statements made during this meeting may be forward-looking. For a complete discussion of items that may cause actual results to differ, please refer to the Business Environment and Risks section of our annual MD&A. I'll now turn the meeting back to Tim.
Thank you, Robyn. I got to acknowledge because I know we are a very intense hockey city that unfortunately, we couldn't deliver a win last night, but I know our team's going to deliver a win on their reports for the company. It's not our warm, typical spring day out there that we always love. We'll have a little visit after, and the warmth of this good crowd will make up for that unseasonably cooler weather we got there today. Before we proceed in the formal part of the meeting, I'd just like to introduce the directors of Melcor that are here in attendance. Hope I don't miss anybody. I see Catherine Roozen, our Lead Director, is here, and Doug Goss is here. Andy just drove in hot from Calgary. We have Ralph Young, and I think that's our directors that are available today.
The others may be on webcast, and I welcome as well. Yeah, that would be Kathleen Melton and Bruce Pennock, Janet Riopel are attending online. Welcome. Now I'll call the meeting to order, and I will chair this meeting, and Naomi Stefura will act as secretary. Gloria Grassam, who was at the front desk there from Odyssey Trust Company, will act as scrutineer. However, as Robyn noted, all motions have been passed in advance. Notice of this annual meeting of shareholders was sent to all shareholders of record. I have an affidavit of the mailing, which indicates a mailing date of March 24th, 2026, as proof that this notice of meeting has been properly served. It's certified by our transfer agent. As such, I would request a motion dispensing with the reading of the notice.
I move that the reading of the notice be dispensed with.
I second the motion.
Those in favor? Thank you. Motion carried. I will ask the secretary to keep a copy of the notice and proof of mailing with the records of this meeting. We have received a report on the shareholders' attendance at this meeting from our scrutineer. We have a quorum with over 23 million shares voted, representing 76.95% of Melcor's issued and outstanding shares as of the record date. I can now declare that the meeting is regularly called and properly constituted to conduct company business. I now request a motion to dispense with the reading of the minutes of Melcor's last Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, which was held on June 24th, 2025.
I move that the reading of the minutes of the last Annual General Meeting of Shareholders be dispensed with and that the minutes be approved as written.
I second the motion.
Thank you. Those in favor? Thank you. Motion carried. The next item of business is a presentation of the financial statements for the period ending December 31st, 2025, and the related auditor's report. Well, when you received notice of the meeting, you've also received instructions for accessing Melcor's annual report online or requesting that a printed copy be sent to you. This information is also available on our website at melcor.ca or sedarplus.ca. It will be mailed to anybody who requests it. As you've had ample time to review this material, I would request a motion dispensing with the reading of the financial statements and the auditor's report.
I move that the reading of the financial statements for the period ended December 31st, 2025, and the auditor's report be dispensed with.
I second the motion.
All in favor? Thank you. Motion carried. The next item of business is to fix the number of directors to be elected at this meeting.
I move that eight directors be elected at this meeting.
I second the motion.
Motion. All in favor? Thank you. Motion carried. Next, we have the election of directors. All directors elected today will hold office until the next annual general meeting unless his or her office is earlier vacated. The eight nominees, as listed in the information circular, are proposed for election. They are Doug Goss, Andrew Melton, Kathleen Melton, myself, Timothy Melton, Bruce Pennock, Janet Riopel, Kathy Roozen, and Ralph Young. We have received sufficient proxies to individually elect these nominees and will not be seeking nominations from the floor.
I move that Douglas Goss, Andrew Melton, Kathleen Melton, Timothy Melton, Bruce Pennock, Janet Riopel, Catherine Roozen, and Ralph Young be individually elected to serve as directors of Melcor.
I second the motion.
All in favor of the motion? Thank you. Motion carried. The final item of formal business is to appoint the external auditors and to authorize the directors to set their remuneration.
I move that PricewaterhouseCoopers be appointed as Melcor's auditors until the next annual meeting or until a successor is appointed at remuneration to be determined by Melcor's board of directors.
I second the motion.
All in favor? Motion carried. I know our great auditors from PwC. I see David and Shauna here I saw, and Ryan, I believe. You're all relieved, and we're looking forward to working with you folks for another year. This concludes the formal business of the annual general meeting as described in the notice of meeting.
I move that the meeting be adjourned.
I second the motion.
All in favor? Thank you. I declare the formal portion of the meeting to be terminated. Now we'll get on to the more informal portion of the meeting, and I'll just make a few comments before turning over things to Naomi. I just got to reiterate that last year was a tremendous year for the company. Naomi is going to speak to that in greater detail, so I won't be redundant and give you the numbers twice. But it was a real milestone year for the company and totally reflects the dedication and work of our entire Melcor team, including the board of directors, who provide the strategy and oversight, and also a result of good investments that we've made throughout the years that came to fruition last year. This can't be all ourselves that are responsible for the great results.
We're also blessed to be in the right geographic areas. We're very cognizant of that fact as well. It was a good year, a year to celebrate. We also completed the REIT transaction. We purchased out the public interest in the REIT, and that was a chapter of the company that began 10 years ago or more. At the time, it seemed to be the prudent thing to do. With the changes in the investment climate, etc , we've acquired the public interest and have taken all the assets in-house, which is really a simpler, more efficient way to position the company and operate, and the best way to optimize returns on the company in our view.
Throughout the year, we continued doing what has served the company well across the generations, remaining focused and acting prudently, investing for long-term value while returning capital to shareholders when appropriate. We maintained our share buyback program, and we had to curtail it somewhat while we were building up reserves to make the REIT transaction. We were able to increase dividends through the second half of last year, and you'll all notice that there's been a nice increase to dividends so far at the start of this year, and maybe Naomi will give you some highlights on that. We continue to operate by the golden rule that has been passed down through the last century, and that's treat others as you'd like to be treated, and that continues to guide how we operate.
It's a principle that's sort of entrenched in the company DNA, and we think that's at the heart of our success. I'm just going to mention a couple of general items. Naomi will give much better flavor on what the company operations were in more detail. We're basically, the company's operations are guided by sticking to our four pillars of the company. Essentially they are, number one, keeping the company financially strong balance sheet. Because when you've got a strong financial position, everyone wants to do business with you and business is simpler, and you can take advantage of opportunities. We keep a strong balance sheet. We've learned to do that through many years of experience. Second pillar is we like to increase returns to our shareholders by increasing dividends, and that's a pillar.
We believe the shareholder has been patient and are entitled to a good return on their investment. We're also acquiring more shares because we think share repurchase is as good an investment as the company can make. We're slowly, we're limited by not only cash reserves, but also the regulations and the rules of share buybacks, so that we're buying more shares. That is number three. Number four, strategically, we're still looking for opportunities, but we're looking very selectively and strategically. We're not on a real expansion mode. I think our emphasis is more harvesting assets because we've got a pretty big portfolio of assets in the company. We know we come up against the reality that as your assets increase, your equity increases, and it's tougher and tougher to get that return on equity that shareholders like.
If we can't get the return on equity, we say, "Well, we'll give our dividends back to our shareholders." Anyhow, in terms of the future, we're cautiously optimistic. We always say we're cautiously optimistic. Last year was excellent. I don't know if we'd be ecstatic if we could duplicate that, but I think it's going to be a little bit tough. It was a very good year. There's a lot of uncertainty that are facing us, facing the economy and all sections of business in a way. We're aware of that. In our budgets, we were fairly cautious. I can say after the first quarter, I'm pleasantly surprised that Alberta seems to still be holding up, still pretty resilient. We've got some promising things in the States.
People always ask about the future, and futures are very difficult to predict, and I always maintain that the best way to predict the future for any entity is to look at their track record in the past. Part of our culture is we don't like to overpromise and underperform. We like to do it the other way. We like to underpromise and overperform. Just general comments from myself. I know you're looking forward to hearing more specifics about the operation, and I'll turn it over to our most capable COO and CFO.
Okay.
Many hats.
Correct, yes.
It's my pleasure to have the opportunity to work with Naomi and this outstanding crew of good young people that we have. I've always said that our business is real estate, and our assets are real estate, but our real strength is our good people. Thank you all, and I look forward to seeing you after for a little coffee and visit if you've got time to stay. Thanks.
Thank you, Tim. Speaking of, I'll just pick up where you left off. I think our most important piece of the results I'm about to speak on are our people. I'd like to first introduce our senior leadership team. Most of our Edmonton-based senior leadership team are actually here in the room as well, so maybe you can give a little wave when I introduce you. In order of the slide, we have Randy Ferguson. Randy is our Senior Vice President of our properties division. We have Susan Keating. There she is. She's our VP of land, running our Edmonton region. She's also responsible for Red Deer and Kelowna. We have Leah Margiotta. There she is, VP of our properties. Graeme Melton, who is the VP of our land Calgary, who's not with us here in attendance but is online.
He's also responsible for Lethbridge and the U.S.A. Sinéad O'Meara, VP Finance, who's over here. Robyn Salik, our VP of Accounting and Corporate Services. Quick extra shout-out right now to Robyn, who, as part of her portfolio, is in charge of IT, and so she had to, in short order, figure out how to make all of this work today. Congratulations. Thank you, Robyn. No small task. 2025, what a year. I sort of feel like I'm really inappropriately dressed. I feel like I was attending a funeral, and I realized when I got here today that I really should have been wearing pink or white or something bright because this is really like an AGM sort of celebration. I don't know if I'm maybe just mourning the weather or the Oilers lost. Something sort of defined my outfit today, but it wasn't Melcor.
This past year definitely stands out as a defining year for Melcor. We delivered record results and at the same time positioned the business for long-term growth through the completion of the REIT transaction and a disciplined focus on our balance sheets. Revenue reached CAD 410 million this year, the first time in our history that we've exceeded CAD 400 million in revenue. That's up 17.5% from 2024. Our gross margin came in at 46.2%, up from 45% last year. Net income was CAD 58 million, up 73% year-over-year. Funds from operations, or FFO, reached CAD 122 million, or CAD 4.04 per share, up 30% from 2024. We continue to deliver on our longstanding commitment to shareholder returns. We paid regular dividends of CAD 0.48 per share in 2025, with our quarterly dividend increasing from CAD 0.11 to CAD 0.13 per share during the year.
We have since raised it again to CAD 0.15 per share. These results reflect strong execution across all of our divisions. Once again, I would just like to recognize all of the talented members of our management committee team who were instrumental in making these numbers happen. As I've mentioned in past years, net income under IFRS includes a number of non-cash items, which can skew the picture of how the business is actually performing. With the acquisition of the REIT this year, at least you'll never have to hear me talk again about how the changes in the REIT share price up or down inversely affects the company's performance. That is now gone, thank goodness. However, non-cash IFRS adjustments still exist. Things like fair value adjustments on our investment properties and deferred tax impacts.
Management continues to focus on funds from operations as a better measure of our true performance and cash generation. As you can see on this graph, 2025 marked a new high for FFO, crossing the CAD 100 million mark for the first time and continuing the strong upward trend of the past few years. Let me now share some of the operating highlights behind those financial results. It was a very busy year across every division. Our Canadian land division sold 1,454 single-family lots and 172 acres of land, up from 1,296 lots and 53 acres in the prior- year. This increase in demand reflects the continued strength of Alberta's housing market. In the U.S., we sold 198 acres of approved but unserviced land, what we call paper lots, in Arizona. This was the largest single transaction contributing to our 2025 results, and I'll speak more about that later.
Our properties team completed construction and leasing of seven retail buildings totaling over 82,000 sq ft spread across four developments, Winterburn Point in West Edmonton, Greenwich Village in Calgary, Woodbend Market in Leduc, and Chestermere Station. Committed occupancy across our Canadian portfolio ended the year at 83.7%, notably down from the prior year. However, I have to indicate that this was skewed by the departure of one significant tenant, the Hudson's Bay Company, who closed all stores across Canada, and unfortunately, we held one of those locations in our Lethbridge property. Our golf division saw 129,612 rounds played across four courses, up 5.5% from last year. Zooming out and taking a quick view now at our balance sheet. As of December 31st, 2025, Melcor had just over CAD 2 billion in assets.
Our land portfolio includes approximately 9,000 acres of land in strategic growth areas across Western Canada and the U.S., 549 fully developed single-family lots in inventory at the end of the year, and roughly 147 acres ready for multifamily or commercial sale. Our Properties division owns and manages 4.37 million sq ft of commercial property and 445 residential units. The division grew our portfolio by completing 82,000 sq ft last year. We have four championship golf courses, all of which add meaningful amenity value to Melcor's communities that they sit within and also provide cash flow to the organization. Let's look at each division individually and how they contribute to overall performance. As you can see here, our golf division delivers reliable revenue within the natural limits of the playing season of our four courses.
Weather unfortunately dictates both how long a season runs and how many available tee times actually get played. No better example than this year, where unfortunately we still have not opened our Edmonton golf courses. They are opening later than usual, fingers crossed, that we'll all be teeing off next week. Our properties division generates steady, predictable rental income. The relative stability of this revenue stream is exactly why we value it. It smooths out the more cyclical nature of our development divisions. Because land, as you can see by contrast, is very dynamic. Revenue and margins in this division can vary significantly based on market demand, timing of plan registration, and the mix of what's being sold in any given year. While you can see properties and golf provide a stable foundation, our land division acts as a swing factor.
In 2025, those results did really work in our favor. Land was once again the standout contributor this year, generating CAD 292.5 million in revenue, up nearly 29% from the prior- year. Our Alberta markets remained very strong. Edmonton and Calgary continued to deliver stable results as our largest regional contributors, with revenues of CAD 100 million each. Together, Edmonton and Calgary represents approximately two-thirds of the land division revenue. Two of our other regional centers, Red Deer and Lethbridge, also delivered solid revenue performance with strong lot sales. These are smaller contributors to the overall mix, but the direction is positive and consistent with the broader Alberta growth story. Again, the biggest driver of our 2025 land revenue growth over the prior- year was the sale of 198 acres of unserviced land in Arizona for CAD 62 million in revenue.
This sale reflects our paper lot strategy in the U.S., where we advance land through planning and approvals and then monetize larger parcels when the timing and pricing are right. These transactions can be years in the making, which is why results from our U.S. region can vary significantly from year- to- year. Our properties division generated revenue of CAD 106 million, which is notably down from the prior- year. However, the key story here is the strategic reshaping of the portfolio. Following the REIT acquisition, we performed a complete portfolio review and undertook a strategy of selectively divesting of specific assets. In 2025, we sold four commercial properties, including Melcor Crossing in Grande Prairie, Evans Business Center in Scottsdale, Coast Home Centre in Edmonton, and Westgrove Common in Spruce Grove, along with seven residential units at our Edge property in Arizona.
Together, these dispositions generated approximately CAD 90 million in sale proceeds prior to the repayment of mortgages. At the same time, we continued to grow our income-generating portfolio in a measured way, completing the construction of 82,000 sq ft. Our goal is to rebuild the income portfolio in commercial assets that fit our long-term strategy. Community-centric, retail-anchored developments that create a shared hub for our Melcor neighboring communities while generating stable cash flow over time. Winterburn Point in West Edmonton is a great example of this strategy in action. Our approach to new development remains measured. We advance commercial projects only when pre-leasing and market conditions justify them. At year-end, we had no additional buildings currently under active construction, though planning is underway for densification opportunities at existing sites, and we continue to evaluate sites in our portfolio of new neighborhoods.
Our golf division had another strong year, with revenue of CAD 12.5 million, up 9% from 2024, and the gross margin remained stable at 43%. Favorable weather conditions in 2025 translated directly into more rounds played. Black Mountain in Kelowna, who'd suffered from smoke in prior- years, was able to get many more playing days, which really helped contribute to their strong performance. Rounds played was up about 5.5% across all the courses. Each course contributes positively to the company while serving as a valued amenity to the communities that they anchor. Throughout Melcor's 57-year history as a public company, we paid dividends in all but three of those years, and we've had a Normal Course Issuer Bid or share buyback program in place for much of the past decade.
We continue to view buying back our own shares as one of the best investments available to us, given the significant discount to book value that our shares trade at. In 2025, dividends paid to shareholders increased to CAD 0.48 per share, up from CAD 0.44 the prior- year. Alongside the release of our 2025 annual results, the board declared a regular quarterly dividend of CAD 0.15 per share, along with a special dividend CAD of 0.35 per share. Both were paid on March 31st. The special dividend reflects the strength of our 2025 results and our commitment to returning value to shareholders. Under NCIB, we repurchased 345,000 shares for cancellation at a cost of CAD 4.8 million. As we've discussed in prior- years, our ability to execute meaningful buybacks continues to be constrained by trading liquidity of our shares.
Block purchases remains the only practical way for us to achieve scale, but we'll continue to evaluate the best way to execute on buying back under the NCIB. I couldn't get through a presentation on 2025 without taking a minute to highlight the very significant buyback of the Melcor REIT. The single biggest capital event of the year was the completion of the REIT transaction. In April, we acquired approximately 44.6% of Melcor REIT that we didn't already own at CAD 5.50 per unit, a total cash outlay to the company of CAD 71.3 million. This transaction was a major milestone for Melcor, simplifying our structure under one balance sheet and eliminating duplicative public company costs over time.
Now, the more important point here, though, is that while the REIT transaction required a significant CAD 71 million cash outlay, we still managed to meaningfully strengthen our balance sheet over the course of the year, and we actually reduced general debt by CAD 62.6 million year- over- year, including fully paying out and closing the REIT line of credit. Our debt-to-equity ratio improved to 0.62 at December 31st, down from 0.7 a year earlier. We achieved that by pairing disciplined capital management with the strategic sale of investment property assets that I mentioned earlier. Together, these actions strengthened our financial footing and improved our flexibility to reinvest in opportunities that align with our long-term strategy. In closing, Melcor remains committed to the conservative financial strategies that have contributed to our longevity over 100 years.
We grow by acquiring strategic land and property and by exploring opportunities to build new income streams through vertical construction on land that we own. We sustain by remaining disciplined in how we manage our balance sheet, our key performance drivers, and our reputation. We diversify across business lines and geographies to manage risk and create new sources of revenue. At the heart of it all are our people, the exceptional team that makes everything that we do possible. The ability to evolve and adapt has been a cornerstone of Melcor's success. Combined with our disciplined approach to debt and a strong balance sheet, we believe this adaptability will enable Melcor to continue to thrive. The achievements of the past year were made possible by the unwavering commitment and hard work of the entire Melcor team. I'm incredibly proud of our collective efforts.
To our customers, partners, and the communities where we operate, thank you for the trust you place in Melcor, and to our shareholders, thank you for your confidence as we continue to steward this business with a long-term view. This concludes my management presentation. Very happy to take any questions people might have here. Just a reminder that there is, for those in the room, the ability to sort of mingle after with some coffee, donuts, as well. With that, I will open it to the floor for questions maybe first, and I know that Robyn and Nicole are sort of manning the online system of questions.
It's not on. I just need your mic.
Oh, take it away.
Thank you. We have a question here, so I will bring the microphone over. I feel like I'm not trained to do this, but here we go.
Congratulations. With the work done in the United States, it was a great year. Now, going forward, U.S., there's trade problems and everything like that. Has the business environment changed in the United States?
I believe that the business environment that we operate has continued to mostly be challenged, I'd say, by the higher interest rates, which continue to stay unfortunately high in the United States and probably will for the foreseeable future. I think what's mostly affecting our land development opportunities in Denver is just the demand for single-family housing. As the interest rates down there stay high, the demand continues to be a bit of a challenge. Having said that, it seems optimistically better. I would give Tim's cautious optimism that we are sort of seeing some signs of maybe there being more demand for housing in the U.S., and hopefully there will be a return to the Denver market and us being able to service some lots down there. Yeah.
We do have a question from one of our webcast audience. I'll just read aloud. The company has been doing great operationally, and management has done a great job strengthening an already strong balance sheet. With debt so low relative to assets and significant cash flow coming in regularly from the owned real estate, which is no longer shared with REIT shareholders, can the company not significantly increase the regular distribution? Also, with the company currently cautious on investment, can Melcor pay even higher special distributions?
I think Tim sort of addressed that in one of his opening comments with regards to the four pillars. It's definitely a conversation that would occur at the board table every single quarter. It's one of the four pillars, so it's something we focus on. We did make the meaningful special distribution this one time. We did increase the dividend in Q1, and it's definitely something we'll continue to monitor.
I do have one more. I'll read from the webcast, and then we'll go back to the live audience. What kind of returns, yield on cost or IRR, are you seeing on new developments?
Like on our commercial new developments? Let's go with that. I would say that many of the new projects that we're looking at are sort of in the 7% yielding as far as our Winter burn Point. Yeah. As far as land, that's a greater variation of an answer. If we're speaking to commercial projects, yeah.
Sorry. Just one sec.
This question's of a general nature. Okay. Edmonton, they have these massive LRT projects. Is there any way you could put pressure on the city to complete these more quickly?
If only I had that much power. There's all sorts of things I would like to put pressure on the city for. No. I think things like the LRT expansion, we're hoping ultimately do help Melcor's business in the future. We own a really great commercial site at the very end of where the LRT station is going to be someday. We're really excited for when that West 10 Day LRT station is open. One of our office buildings downtown, Westcor on 124th Street, is going to be right across the street from one of the new LRT stations. We're really hoping to see some positive benefit from that LRT construction. If only it could speed up and stay on track and on budget.
Yeah.
I will just read another one here from our webcast. Has Melcor considered a substantial issuer bid as an alternative to the regular buybacks?
Yes, we have, and in the past when we've looked at it, there's very significant rules around a substantial issuer bid that require you to have sufficient liquidity in your share trading going into the bid and coming out of the bid. Historically, we don't even have enough share liquidity going into a substantial issuer bid, let alone coming out of it. Having said that, I think there's always capital markets means to look at different options, and in the past sort of 24 months, call it, we've been very focused, all of our capital markets sort of efforts on the REIT acquisition. We were really saving our cash for that and getting through that transaction. Now that that's been put to rest, we'll continue to look at other options for capital.
Got a live question here.
Thank you. I heard Tim say that you don't like to promise too much about the future. You want to underpromise, overdeliver. I was wondering if you can say anything about the expected number of lots to be developed this year, and then as well in the next. I was actually asked to, by somebody interested in the industry, to pass along this question. How many lots this year, and how many lots are you thinking of in the next two-three years? If you can't get into too many specifics this year, you probably know how many new phases you're bringing on.
Without getting into too many specifics, I think the number of lots that we will be bringing on will be definitely down from the prior- year. We had a very strong, active construction program in 2025. We definitely loaded up the builders with a fair amount of inventory by the end of the year. I would say this year we're focusing on selling off the inventory that we had left at the end of last year and being a little bit more strategic with starting new developments. Now, that's not to say we're not building. I think that surprisingly, at the end of Q3 and Q4 last year, a lot of the builders were concerned that maybe we had sort of overdeveloped and they had overcommitted. Q1 of this year has proved surprisingly strong.
I think the builders are seeing that sales activity is a lot better in Q1 than it might have even been in Q3 and Q4. We're just sort of monitoring the situation, and we're very able and quick to adapt to be able to bring on new inventory if there is a need. I think that's one of the sort of positives of the way we operate under a credit facility, where we can go ahead and develop at any time without having to go through all the process of project financing. In answering your question in general terms, Sean, I think we'll be developing less this year. Yeah.
I've got a few more actually. It's okay.
No tough questions, though. Well, do you have any plans to raise the profile with investors and analysts? Now you don't have to do the REIT conference calls. It's talked about the share price being quite a bit below the book value, and is there any way to. It seems like investors just don't know about this company for the most part, other than a small group of us here.
Yes.
I got a few.
Yeah. It definitely continues to be one of our challenges. Because our shares trade so thinly, it's very difficult, to your point, to get analyst coverage. It costs a lot of money for banks to put analysts onto our shares, and then they don't really see the value if not enough shares are trading, unfortunately. We used to have RBC cover us. They no longer do. You're correct. We don't have any analyst coverage. And I think by nature, the company itself has always been a little bit humble in its results. We like to put our results out and let them speak for themselves. As far as do we have any active plans on trying to get more coverage? Currently, no, we don't. We don't have any analysts, and unfortunately, no one currently is interested. It's something that is top of mind and I do think about.
Okay. I got a few more since we're here but if anybody else wants the microphone now. Anyway, a couple of things. On that block purchase, I'm always curious how does that come about? Do major shareholders come and approach you or you might have access to knowing some major shareholders through the registered shareholders? You've had a few of those years ago. You had quite a few in one year, and then I'm just wondering how those came about without getting into confidences.
Yeah. The way they come about is by people contacting our NCIB trade broker. If you were a shareholder with a large block of shares that you wanted purchased, you would tell your broker to contact our broker, which currently is CIBC World Markets. It's really just sort of a broker to broker arranged transaction. Melcor, in fact, can't have any part of it. I think more of the senior lending advisors of some of these shareholders with large blocks are aware of who our broker is, and they would just make contact directly. When a block becomes available, our broker calls us and says, "Do you want to buy it? Yes or no?" We answer and then the trade gets executed.
Okay, just one more. Over the years you've been selling those, I picture it as condos in, I think you said Arizona, Edge, or I thought it was Grayhawk or something, but.
Same thing. The Edge at Grayhawk.
Yeah. Edge at Grayhawk. I always wonder, well, is there any more left or what's the inventory that you still have there? Can you tell us anything about that building? How does it come up that you're selling them? I think at one point you sold a lot, maybe 100 of them, and then it was sort of dribs and drabs, and I'm just curious how that building is working.
Yeah, that's a really good success story for Melcor. After the U.S. housing crash, we did go down and purchase a significant amount of condos in Phoenix between several properties. A couple of years ago, we sold out of an entire property, which was over 100 units. The Edge specifically, we had approximately 90 units that we bought post housing crash. We've sold about, call it half of them. We have about half left. We just sort of sell them as we can through a realtor, just through regular MLS means. Sort of our strategy there is that to sell those in bulk, I don't think we would achieve the same sort of margins that we're achieving by selling them individually, and that seems to be the best path on those. It's been very successful. Yeah.
Are there any other questions? We have none from the webcast at this point, so anything else from our live audience?
Okay. Thank you. Again, this ends sort of, I guess maybe the online webcast. To anybody who joined us online, we appreciate very much that you were able to join. As always, we do have an IR email that you're welcome to send questions to if you weren't able to ask them today on the chat. Feel free to reach out to us on our IR email address on our website. For anybody who's here in the room, feel free to stay. We will all be here for the next half hour or so or as long as people want, and we're happy to have any questions answered. Feel free to reach out to the team that I mentioned. Those are probably the experts in all of your questions. With that, thank you.
The meeting is now concluded. We wish you all a fantastic summer. It was how the script was written, but just hope for better weather and cheer in for the Oilers. Thank you all for attending.