Shareholders' Equity

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

Stockholders' Equity Note [Abstract]

Shareholders' Equity

Shareholders' Equity of the General Partner and Partners' Capital of the Partnership

General Partner

The General Partner has an ATM equity program that allows it to issue and sell its common shares through sales agents from time to time. Actual sales under the ATM equity program depend on a variety of factors to be determined by the General Partner, including, among others, market conditions, the trading price of the General Partner’s common stock, determinations by the General Partner of the appropriate sources of funding and potential uses of funding available.

In August 2019, the General Partner terminated its previous equity distribution agreement for the ATM equity program and entered into a new equity distribution agreement to sell shares of its common stock, $0.01 par value per share, from time to time, up to an aggregate offering price of $400.0 million.

During 2019, the General Partner issued 8.0 million common shares pursuant to its ATM equity programs, generating gross proceeds of $266.3 million and, after deducting commissions and other costs, net proceeds of $263.3 million. The proceeds from these offerings were contributed to the Partnership and used to fund development activities.

During 2018, the General Partner issued 990,400 common shares pursuant to its ATM equity program, generating gross proceeds of approximately $29.0 million and, after deducting commissions and other costs, net proceeds of approximately $28.4 million. The proceeds from these offerings were contributed to the Partnership and used to fund development activities.

During 2017, the General Partner did not issue any common shares pursuant to its ATM equity programs.

Partnership

For each common share or preferred share that the General Partner issues, the Partnership issues a corresponding Common Unit or Preferred Unit, as applicable, to the General Partner in exchange for the contribution of the proceeds from the stock issuance. Similarly, when the General Partner redeems or repurchases common shares or preferred shares, the Partnership redeems the corresponding Common Units or Preferred Units held by the General Partner at the same price.