Net Income Available to Common Unitholders Per Unit of the Operating Partnership

The following table reconciles the numerator and denominator in computing the Operating Partnership’s basic and diluted per-unit computations for net income available to common unitholders for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014:



	Year Ended December 31,
	2016			2015			2014
	(in thousands, except unit and per unit amounts)
Numerator:
Income from continuing operations	$	303,798		$	238,604		$	59,313
Income from continuing operations attributable to noncontrolling interests in consolidated subsidiaries	(3,735		)	(467		)	(247		)
Preferred distributions	(13,250		)	(13,250		)	(13,250		)
Allocation to participating securities ⁽¹⁾	(3,839		)	(1,634		)	(1,699		)
Numerator for basic and diluted income from continuing operations available to common unitholders	282,974			223,253			44,117
Income from discontinued operations ⁽²⁾	—			—			124,495
(Income) loss from discontinued operations attributable to noncontrolling interests in consolidated subsidiaries ⁽²⁾	—			—			(13		)
Numerator for basic and diluted net income available to common unitholders	$	282,974		$	223,253		$	168,599
Denominator:
Basic weighted average vested units outstanding	94,771,688			91,645,578			84,894,498
Effect of dilutive securities - contingently issuable shares and stock options	680,551			541,679			1,877,485
Diluted weighted average vested units and common unit equivalents outstanding	95,452,239			92,187,257			86,771,983
Basic earnings per unit:
Income from continuing operations available to common unitholders per unit	$	2.99		$	2.44		$	0.52
Income from discontinued operations per common unit ⁽²⁾	—			—			1.47
Net income available to common unitholders per unit	$	2.99		$	2.44		$	1.99
Diluted earnings per unit:
Income from continuing operations available to common unitholders per unit	$	2.96		$	2.42		$	0.51
Income from discontinued operations per common unit ⁽²⁾	—			—			1.43
Net income available to common unitholders per unit	$	2.96		$	2.42		$	1.94

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(1)	Participating securities include nonvested shares, certain time-based RSUs and vested market measure-based RSUs.


(2)	The Operating Partnership adopted ASU 2014-08 effective January 1, 2015 (see Note 2 “Basis of Presentation and Significant Accounting Policies” for additional information). As a result, properties classified as held for sale and/or disposed of subsequent to January 1, 2015 that do not represent a strategic shift are no longer presented as discontinued operations.

Share-based payment awards that contain non-forfeitable rights to dividends or dividend equivalents (whether paid or unpaid) are considered participating securities. The impact of potentially dilutive common units, including stock options, RSUs and other securities are considered in our diluted earnings per share calculation for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015, and 2014. Additionally, for the year ended December 31, 2014, contingently issuable shares included the impact of the 4.25% Exchangeable Notes prior to their maturity and settlement in November 2014. Certain market measure-based RSUs are not included in dilutive securities as of December 31, 2016 and 2015 as not all performance metrics had been met by the end of the applicable reporting periods.

See Note 15 “Share-Based Compensation” for additional information regarding the stock options and other share-based compensation.