Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the 2025 Annual Meeting of Shareholders for Centerspace. Before we get started, I would like to go over a few items regarding participation in today's meeting. You have joined the annual meeting via live webcast. At the end of the meeting, you will have the opportunity to submit questions to today's presenters by typing your questions into the Questions chat panel of the Control Panel. You may also send in your questions at any time during the meeting. We will collect these and address them during the Q&A session at the end of today's shareholder meeting. Today's meeting is being recorded. I would like to now introduce John Schissel, Chair of the Board of Trustees of Centerspace.
Thank you, Anne, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Centerspace's 55th Annual Meeting of Shareholders. My name is John Schissel, and I'm the Chair of the Board of Trustees. On behalf of the board and Centerspace, I want to thank you for your participation in this virtual meeting and your continued interest in the company. As Chair, I will be presiding over the meeting, and Heeral Gondalia will act as the Recording Secretary of the meeting. I now hereby call this meeting to order. First, I would like to acknowledge the other current members of the Board of Trustees who are joining us virtually: Jeff Caira, Emily Nagle Green, Ola Hixon, Rodney Jones-Tyson, Jay Rosenberg, and Mary Twinem. I would also like to note the virtual attendance of Grant Thornton LLP, Centerspace's independent auditor.
There are also panelists present with us today, and they include Anne Olson, a fellow trustee who is also the Chief Executive Officer and President, and Bhairav Patel, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Anne Olson and Bhairav Patel will also be serving as the inspectors of elections for this annual meeting. Finally, on behalf of the entire Board of Trustees, I would like to recognize all the Centerspace associates joining us today and throughout the organization to thank each of you for all you do for both our residents and your fellow teammates. We are all very grateful for your hard work, commitment, and individual sacrifices over the past year in support of our mission of providing great homes for the residents of our communities.
Each of you attending this meeting should have registered online where a meeting agenda has been posted and which should be visible to you on your screen. Only shareholders may address the meeting. Shareholders can post questions online either before or during the meeting. We ask that you restrict your remarks and questions to the four proposals on the agenda. At this time, I will note that the Secretary has delivered an affidavit of distribution establishing that notice of this meeting was duly given. A copy of the notice of the meeting and the affidavit of distribution will be incorporated into the minutes of this meeting. All shareholders of record at the close of business on March 20th, 2025, are entitled to vote at this annual meeting.
Our first order of business at this meeting is to determine whether the shares represented at this meeting, either in person or by proxy, are sufficient to constitute a quorum for the purposes of transacting business. Based on a report from the Secretary, as of March 20th, 2025, the record date, there were 16,726,594 common shares outstanding. At the beginning of the meeting, there were represented in person or by proxy 14,681,024 shares, or approximately 87.8% of all shares entitled to vote at this meeting. Accordingly, a quorum is present, and I declare this meeting to be duly convened for purposes of transacting such business as may properly come before it. Now, there are four proposals that were presented in the proxy statement to the shareholders for voting.
The election of seven trustees as set forth in the proxy statement: John Schissel, Emily Nagle Green, Ola Hixon, Rodney Jones-Tyson, Anne Olson, Jay Rosenberg, and Mary Twinem. An advisory vote on executive compensation, the approval of Centerspace's 2025 Incentive Plan, and the ratification of Grant Thornton, LLP, as the company's independent auditor for the year ending December 31, 2025. The board recommends a vote for each of the nominees in proposal one and for each of the proposals in two, three, and four. We will now open the polls for voting online for those who have not already voted their shares or if you would like to change your prior vote. If you wish to vote your shares now, you will need to provide the 16-digit control number provided to you when you access the meeting website.
If you are a beneficial shareholder, you'll be required to present a legal proxy from your broker in order to vote at this meeting. As a reminder, if you have previously voted by proxy, you do not need to vote today unless you wish to change your vote. The polls are open, and we'll pause to record any activity. I hereby declare that the polls are now closed. We will review the preliminary vote totals now. As to proposal one, based on a report from the Secretary as of the beginning of the meeting, each of the nominees had received significant support from the shareholders, with each trustee receiving at least 93.5% of the voted shares in favor.
Because each of the nominees received the affirmative vote of a majority of the votes of the shareholders present in person or by proxy and entitled to vote for the election of trustees, all the nominees have been elected as trustees. As to proposal two, based on a preliminary report from the Secretary, as of the beginning of the meeting, the proposal received substantial support from the shareholders with more than 12 million votes, representing 96.1% of the shares cast by the shareholders present in person or by proxy voted in the affirmative. Accordingly, this proposal has been approved on an advisory basis. As to proposal three, based on a report from the Secretary as of the beginning of the meeting, more than 12 million shares representing 95.95% of the shares cast by the shareholders present in person or by proxy voted in the affirmative.
Accordingly, this proposal has been approved. As to proposal four, based on a report from the Secretary as of the beginning of the meeting, more than 14 million shares representing 99.1% of the shares cast by the shareholders present in person or by proxy voted in the affirmative. Accordingly, this proposal has been approved. Now, the final vote on each of these proposals will be disclosed in the current report on Form 8-K to be filed with the SEC no later than four business days from this meeting and will be placed on Centerspace's website. Prior to adjourning, I would like to formally recognize Jeff Caira, who will be retiring from the Centerspace board at the conclusion of this annual meeting. On behalf of the board, I'd like to thank Jeff for his 10 years of service on behalf of Centerspace and its shareholders.
Jeff, your contributions, insights, and passion for Centerspace and its shareholders have been invaluable in serving all the stakeholders of the company, and your presence will be missed. There being no additional business to be properly brought before the meeting, the annual meeting is hereby officially closed, and the 2025 annual meeting is hereby adjourned. On behalf of the Centerspace company, board, and all those present today, I would like to thank the shareholders who attended today's virtual meeting as well as those who submitted their proxies but were not able to attend. The board is committed to creating long-term value for our shareholders, and we appreciate your continued interest and value your investment in the company.
Thank you, John. We do not have any questions at this time. As a reminder, you can still submit questions through the Questions chat pane in the Control Panel. There being no questions, we're going to conclude the annual meeting of shareholders. Thank you to all shareholders for attending today's meeting. Enjoy the rest of your day.
This concludes the meeting. You may now disconnect.