Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the special meeting of shareholders of Centerspace. Please note that there will be no question-and-answer portion of the special meeting. Recording of the special meeting is prohibited. I would now like to introduce John Schissel, Chair of the Board of Trustees of Centerspace.
Thank you very much. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Centerspace's special meeting of shareholders. My name is John Schissel, and I'm Chair of the Board of Trustees. On behalf of the Board and the Centerspace team, I want to thank you for your participation in this virtual meeting and your continued interest in the company. As Chair, I'll be presiding over the meeting, and Traci Sorenson will act as the recording secretary of the meeting. I hereby call this meeting to order. First, I'd like to acknowledge the other current members of the Board of Trustees who are joining us virtually. We have Rodney Jones-Tyson, Jay Rosenberg, and Mary Twinem. We are also joined by Heather Obie of Broadridge, who was appointed to serve as the inspector of elections at this meeting.
She has taken an oath as the inspector of election, and in this capacity, she will determine the presence of a quorum and judge the voting on all matters requiring a shareholder vote at this meeting. Also present with us today are Anne Olson, who's a fellow trustee and is also the Chief Executive Officer and President of Centerspace, and Bhairav Patel, who's Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Centerspace. Before we begin, I'd like to go over the procedures for today's meeting. By way of reminder, each of you attending this meeting should log in as a shareholder by entering the 16-digit control number you received with your proxy materials. You need to have held stock as of the close of business on the record date of October 13, 2026, to vote while participating in this virtual special meeting.
If you have voted your shares prior to the start of the special meeting, your vote has been received, and there's no need to vote those shares during the special meeting unless you wish to change your vote. Please also take note of the rules of conduct for this meeting. They are available in the meeting materials section on the lower right of your screen. At this time, I will note that the recording secretary has delivered an affidavit of distribution confirming that mailing of the notice of this special meeting, together with the definitive proxy statement and form of proxy to shareholders entitled to vote at this meeting, commenced on October 7th, 2026. 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 October 13th, 2026, are entitled to vote at this special meeting. Our first order of business at this meeting is to determine whether the shares represented at the meeting, either in person or by proxy, are sufficient to constitute a quorum for the purpose of transacting business. Based on a report from the inspector of elections as of October 13th, 2026, the record date, there were 16,823,940 common shares outstanding. At the beginning of the meeting, there were represented in person or by proxy 13,575,913 shares, or approximately 81% 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.
I will present the three proposals to be voted on, each of which was described in detail in the definitive proxy statement sent to shareholders. The first proposal, which we refer to as the Centerspace adjournment proposal, is a proposal to approve the merger of Centerspace with and into Islanders Sub, LLC, which is referred to as IRT Merger Sub, with IRT Merger Sub continuing as the surviving entity and a wholly owned subsidiary of Independence Realty Trust, Inc. on the terms subject to the conditions of the agreement and plan of merger dated as of September 8th, 2026, and as amended from time- to- time by and among Centerspace, LP, Independence Realty Trust, Inc., Independence Realty Operating Partnership, LP, Islanders OP Sub, LLC, and IRT Merger Sub.
The second proposal, which we refer to as the Centerspace compensation proposal, is a proposal to approve by non-binding advisory vote the compensation that may be paid or become payable to the named executive officers of Centerspace in connection with the merger of Centerspace with and into IRT Merger Sub. The third proposal, which we refer to as the Centerspace adjournment proposal, is a proposal to adjourn the Centerspace special meeting from time- to- time, if necessary or appropriate, to solicit additional proxies in favor of the Centerspace adjournment proposal if there are not sufficient votes to approve such proposal. The Centerspace adjournment proposal will only be brought to a vote if there are not sufficient votes to approve the Centerspace adjournment proposal. The board recommends a vote for each of the proposals, one, two, and if necessary, three.
We will now open the polls for online voting by those who have not already voted the shares or who would like to change their prior vote. If you wish to vote your shares now, you will need to provide the 16-digit control number included with your proxy materials. If you are a beneficial shareholder, you will be required to present a legal proxy from your broker in order to vote at the 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 now open, and we will wait to record any activity. We will pause for a minute or two here. I hereby declare that the polls are now closed and ask that the inspector of elections tabulate the ballots.
The proxies and any ballots previously submitted have been tabulated by the inspector of elections, and I have the preliminary voting results. Any votes cast today, including those submitted electronically during this meeting, will be counted in the final tally. I can, however, confirm that the preliminary voting results are that the Centerspace merger proposal has been approved, and the Centerspace compensation proposal has been approved. Because there are sufficient votes to approve the Centerspace merger proposal, the adjournment contemplated by the Centerspace adjournment proposal is not necessary and is therefore not brought to a vote. These results are preliminary until we receive a final report from the inspector of elections. The final vote on each of the proposals will be disclosed in a current report on Form 8-K to be filed with the SEC within four business days after this meeting. This concludes today's meeting.
On behalf of Centerspace and the Board, I'd 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.
This concludes the special meeting. We invite you to visit our investor relations website for additional information. Thank you for participating in today's special meeting and for your continued support of Centerspace.