DERIVATIVES

The Company is exposed to certain risk arising from both its business operations and economic conditions. The Company principally manages its exposures to a wide variety of business and operational risks through management of its core business activities. The Company manages economic risks, including interest rate, liquidity, and credit risk primarily by managing the amount, sources and duration of its debt funding and the use of derivative financial instruments. Specifically, the Company enters into derivative financial instruments to manage exposures that arise from business activities that result in the receipt or payment of future known and uncertain cash amounts, the value of which are determined by interest rates. The Company’s derivative financial instruments are used to manage differences in the amount, timing and duration of the Company’s known or expected cash receipts and its known or expected cash payments principally related to the Company’s investments and borrowings.

Cash Flow Hedges of Interest Rate Risk

The Company’s objectives in using interest rate derivatives are to add stability to interest expense and to manage its exposure to interest rate movements. To accomplish this objective, the Company primarily uses interest rate swaps as part of its interest rate risk management strategy. Interest rate swaps designated as cash flow hedges involve the receipt of variable amounts from a counterparty in exchange for the Company making fixed-rate payments over the life of the agreements without exchange of the underlying notional amount.

The effective portion of changes in the fair value of derivatives designated and that qualify as cash flow hedges is recorded in accumulated other comprehensive income (“OCI”) and is subsequently reclassified into earnings in the period that the hedged forecasted transaction affects earnings. A portion of these changes is excluded from accumulated other comprehensive income as it is allocated to noncontrolling interests. During the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016, such derivatives were used to hedge the variable cash flows associated with existing variable-rate debt. During 2019, the Company estimates that $17,439 will be reclassified as a decrease to interest expense.

The following table summarizes the terms of the Company’s 28 derivative financial instruments, which have a total combined notional amount of $2,231,162 as of December 31, 2018:



Hedge Product	Range of Notional Amounts	Strike	Effective Dates	Maturity Dates
Swap Agreements	$4,873 - $267,431	1.13% - 3.87%	2/29/2012 - 12/31/2018	2/28/2019 - 7/12/2025

Fair Values of Derivative Instruments

The table below presents the fair value of the Company’s derivative financial instruments as well as their classification on the consolidated balance sheets:



	Asset / Liability Derivatives
	December 31, 2018		December 31, 2017
Derivatives designated as hedging instruments:	Fair Value
Other assets	$	42,324	$	38,365
Other liabilities	$	2,131	$	9

Effect of Derivative Instruments

The tables below present the effect of the Company’s derivative financial instruments on the consolidated statements of operations for the periods presented. No tax effect has been presented as the derivative instruments are held by the Company:



	Gain (loss) recognized in OCI For the Year Ended December 31,				Location of amounts reclassified from OCI into income	Gain (loss) reclassified from OCI For the Year Ended December 31,
Type	2018		2017		Location of amounts reclassified from OCI into income	2018		2017			2016
Swap Agreements	$	9,889	$	8,499	Interest expense	$	8,258	$	(8,853	)	$	(18,800	)

Credit-Risk-Related Contingent Features

The Company has agreements with some of its derivative counterparties that contain provisions pursuant to which, the Company could be declared in default of its derivative obligations if the Company defaults on any of its indebtedness, including default where repayment of the indebtedness has not been accelerated by the lender.

The Company also has an agreement with some of its derivative counterparties that incorporates the loan covenant provisions of the Company’s indebtedness with a lender affiliate of the derivative counterparty. Failure to comply with the loan covenant provisions would result in the Company being in default on any derivative instrument obligations covered by the agreement.

As of December 31, 2018, the fair value of derivatives in a net liability position, which includes accrued interest but excludes any adjustment for nonperformance risk, related to these agreements was $1,785. As of December 31, 2018, the Company had not posted any collateral related to these agreements. If the Company had breached any of these provisions as of December 31, 2018, it could have been required to cash settle its obligations under these agreements at their termination value of $2,422.