EPR Properties

EPR owns the underlying real estate of experiential venues — megaplex theaters, Topgolf and Andretti Karting locations, ski resorts, waterparks, and cultural attractions. The firm typically purchases a property from a developer or operator and immediately leases it back under a long-term triple-net agreement. AMC Entertainment, Regal Cinemas, and Vail Resorts are among the tenants whose buildings sit on EPR's balance sheet.

Under EPR's triple-net leases, the tenant pays property taxes, building insurance, and all maintenance costs in addition to base rent. The lease terms typically span 15 to 20 years with fixed annual escalators, effectively turning EPR into a fixed-income vehicle collateralized by real estate. The core risk EPR retains is tenant credit — if a movie chain files for bankruptcy, EPR must re-lease or sell the property, which happened with AMC's near-restructuring in 2020.

Gregory Silvers, President and CEO, has led the firm since 2009 and chairs the investment committee that approves every acquisition and disposition. Mark Peterson, the CFO, oversees capital markets and balance-sheet strategy. The board, chaired by Robert Druten, maintains a majority of independent directors, consistent with the firm's REIT governance standards.

EPR historically maintained an education segment that owned private school and early childhood education facilities. The firm announced a strategic shift toward pure-play experiential real estate and completed the full divestiture of its education assets in September 2024. Proceeds from the sale were recycled into experiential acquisitions and debt reduction.

EPR collected approximately 85% of contractual theater rent during 2020 by negotiating deferral agreements rather than abatements — a strategy backed by the fact that its largest tenant, AMC, could not afford to lose access to prime real estate. The REIT also diversified away from pure theater exposure before the pandemic, building out the eat-and-play segment with Topgolf and attractions with ski resort acquisitions.

EPR is a publicly traded equity REIT on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker EPR, meaning it must distribute at least 90% of taxable income to shareholders. The firm employs no external manager and takes no carried interest or promote on its deals — all revenue flows from lease payments, which the firm collects without involvement in the operations of the venues sitting on its land.

EPR avoids any real estate category where the underlying experience can be replicated digitally or delivered to the home. Office buildings, data centers, industrial warehouses, multifamily apartments, and net-lease retail are all explicitly outside the mandate. The firm's investment committee screens out any proposed acquisition that does not fit within its three experiential verticals: theaters, eat-and-play, and attractions.