Property and Equipment

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2017

Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract]

Property and equipment at December 31, 2016 and 2017 consisted of the following:



	Useful Life	2016		2017
		(in thousands)
Land	—	$	9,244	$	9,244
Building and building improvements	27.5 - 39 years	54,691		54,408
Leasehold improvements	up to 15 years	1,208		1,437
Office equipment	5 years	2,219		2,248
Computer equipment	3 years	22,492		22,736
Furniture and fixtures	7 years	8,036		8,022
Other capital assets	5 years	128		128
Software development	5 years	79,452		84,178
Program development	3 years	6,966		9,150
		184,436		191,551
Accumulated depreciation and amortization		86,749		99,177
		$	97,687	$	92,374

Assets held for sale of $2.1 million at December 31, 2016 are excluded from the $97.7 million in property and equipment in the above table. For additional information see “Note 5. Assets Held for Sale” below, in these Consolidated Financial Statements.

For the year ended December 31, 2016, the Company disposed of long-lived assets resulting in a loss of $6.0 million, primarily consisting of a loss that resulted from the abandoned development of a new student course registration system in the APEI Segment. It was no longer probable that development would be completed and the software placed in service due to programming difficulties that could not be resolved in a timely basis and without additional cost. The original carrying value of the software and incurred cost was $4.0 million. For the year ended December 31, 2017, the Company disposed of long-lived assets resulting in a loss of $2.1 million, primarily consisting of assets no longer in use. The losses on long-lived assets are included as loss on disposals of long-lived assets in these Consolidated Financial Statements.

During the years ended December 31, 2015, 2016 and 2017, the Company recorded depreciation expense of $19,626,000, $18,674,000 and $18,178,000, respectively. In addition, the Company recorded amortization expense related to other assets of $894,000, $710,000, and $598,000 during the years ended December 31, 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively.