Stock Based Compensation

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2011

11.

Stock Based Compensation

A detail of Piedmont's outstanding employee deferred stock awards as of March 31, 2011 is as follows:


Date of grant	Net Shares Granted⁽¹⁾		Grant Date Fair Value		Vesting Schedule	Unvested Shares as of March 31, 2011
April 21, 2008		119,078	$	26.10	Of the shares granted, 25% vested on the date of grant, and 25% vested or will vest on April 21, 2009, 2010, and 2011, respectively.		36,040
May 6, 2009		152,834	$	22.20	Of the shares granted, 25% vested on the date of grant, and 25% vested or will vest on May 6, 2010, 2011, and 2012, respectively.		91,627
May 24, 2010		201,699	$	18.71	Of the shares granted, 25% vested on the date of grant, and 25% will vest on May 24, 2011, 2012, and 2013, respectively.		165,901
May 24, 2010		53,447	$	18.71	Of the shares granted, 33.33% will vest on May 24, 2011, 2012, and 2013, respectively.		53,447

Total							347,015

⁽¹⁾	Net of shares surrendered upon vesting to satisfy required minimum tax withholding obligations

During the three months ended March 31, 2011, and 2010, Piedmont recognized approximately $1.0 million and $0.7 million of compensation expense, respectively, all of which relates to the amortization of nonvested shares. As of March 31, 2011, approximately $3.8 million of unrecognized compensation cost related to unearned or non-vested, share-based compensation remained, which Piedmont will record in its statements of income over a weighted-average vesting period of approximately 1 year.