Earnings Per Share or Unit

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2016

Earnings Per Share [Abstract]

Earnings Per Share or Unit

Earnings Per Share or Unit

Basic earnings per share or unit is calculated based on the weighted average number of common shares or units outstanding during the period.  Diluted earnings per share or unit is determined based on the weighted average common number of shares or units outstanding during the period combined with the incremental average common shares or units that would have been outstanding assuming the conversion of all potentially dilutive common shares or units into common shares or units as of the earliest date possible.

Potentially dilutive securities include outstanding options to acquire common shares; Limited Partner Units, which may be exchanged for either cash or common shares, at the Parent Company’s option and under certain circumstances; units under our Outperformance Plan; potential settlement of redeemable noncontrolling interests in certain joint ventures; and deferred common share units, which may be credited to the personal accounts of non-employee trustees in lieu of the payment of cash compensation or the issuance of common shares to such trustees.  Limited Partner Units have been omitted from the Parent Company’s denominator for the purpose of computing diluted earnings per share because the effect of including these amounts in the denominator would have no dilutive impact. Weighted average Limited Partner Units outstanding for the three months ended March 31, 2016 and 2015 were 1.9 million and 1.6 million, respectively.

Approximately 0.1 million outstanding options to acquire common shares were excluded from the computations of diluted earnings per share or unit for both the three months ended March 31, 2016 and 2015, because the impact was not dilutive.