SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES

Business and Organization

American Assets Trust, Inc. (which may be referred to in these financial statements as the “Company,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) is a Maryland corporation formed on July 16, 2010 that did not have any operating activity until the consummation of our initial public offering on January 19, 2011. The Company is the sole general partner of American Assets Trust, L.P., a Maryland limited partnership formed on July 16, 2010 (the “Operating Partnership”). The Company’s operations are carried on through our Operating Partnership and its subsidiaries, including our taxable real estate investment trust ("REIT") subsidiary ("TRS"). Since the formation of our Operating Partnership, the Company has controlled our Operating Partnership as its general partner and has consolidated its assets, liabilities and results of operations.

We are a full service vertically integrated and self-administered REIT with approximately 178 employees providing substantial in-house expertise in asset management, property management, property development, leasing, tenant improvement construction, acquisitions, repositioning, redevelopment and financing.

As of September 30, 2017, we owned or had a controlling interest in 26 office, retail, multifamily and mixed-use operating properties, the operations of which we consolidate. Additionally, as of September 30, 2017, we owned land at four of our properties that we classify as held for development and/or construction in progress. A summary of the properties owned by us is as follows:



Retail
Carmel Country Plaza	Gateway Marketplace	Alamo Quarry Market
Carmel Mountain Plaza	Del Monte Center	Hassalo on Eighth - Retail
South Bay Marketplace	Geary Marketplace
Lomas Santa Fe Plaza	The Shops at Kalakaua
Solana Beach Towne Centre	Waikele Center

Office
Torrey Reserve Campus	Lloyd District Portfolio
Solana Beach Corporate Centre	City Center Bellevue
The Landmark at One Market
One Beach Street
First & Main

Multifamily
Loma Palisades
Imperial Beach Gardens
Mariner's Point
Santa Fe Park RV Resort
Pacific Ridge Apartments
Hassalo on Eighth - Residential

Mixed-Use
Waikiki Beach Walk Retail and Embassy Suites™ Hotel

Held for Development and/or Construction in Progress
Solana Beach Corporate Centre – Land
Solana Beach – Highway 101 – Land
Torrey Point – Construction in Progress
Lloyd District Portfolio – Construction in Progress

Basis of Presentation

Our consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the Company, our Operating Partnership and our subsidiaries. The equity interests of other investors in our Operating Partnership are reflected as noncontrolling interests.

All significant intercompany transactions and balances are eliminated in consolidation.

The accompanying consolidated financial statements of the Company and the Operating Partnership have been prepared in accordance with the rules applicable to Form 10-Q and include all information and footnotes required for interim financial statement presentation, but do not include all disclosures required under accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (“GAAP”) for annual financial statements. In the opinion of management, all adjustments (consisting of normal recurring adjustments, except as otherwise noted) considered necessary for a fair presentation have been included. These financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and notes therein included in the Company's and Operating Partnership's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016.

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires us to make estimates and assumptions that in certain circumstances affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities, and revenues and expenses. These estimates are prepared using our best judgment, after considering past, current and expected events and economic conditions. Actual results could differ from these estimates.

Any reference to the number of properties, number of units, square footage, employee numbers or percentages of beneficial ownership of our shares are unaudited and outside the scope of our independent registered public accounting firm’s review of our financial statements in accordance with the standards of the United States Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows—Supplemental Disclosures

The following table provides supplemental disclosures related to the Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (in thousands):



	Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2017			2016
Supplemental cash flow information
Total interest costs incurred	$	41,009		$	40,368
Interest capitalized	$	1,153		$	1,220
Interest expense	$	39,856		$	39,148
Cash paid for interest, net of amounts capitalized	$	33,720		$	36,070
Cash paid for income taxes	$	296		$	459
Supplemental schedule of noncash investing and financing activities
Accounts payable and accrued liabilities for construction in progress	$	(3,019	)	$	(471	)
Accrued leasing commissions	$	1,410		$	275
Reduction to capital for prepaid offering costs	$	129		$	—

Significant Accounting Policies

We describe our significant accounting policies in Note 1 to the consolidated financial statements in Item 8 of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016. Except for the adoption of the accounting standards during the first quarter of 2017 as discussed below, there have been no changes to our significant accounting policies during the nine months ended September 30, 2017.

Segment Information

Segment information is prepared on the same basis that our chief operating decision maker reviews information for operational decision-making purposes. We operate in four business segments: the acquisition, redevelopment, ownership and management of retail real estate, office real estate, multifamily real estate and mixed-use real estate. The products for our retail segment primarily include rental of retail space and other tenant services, including tenant reimbursements, parking and storage space rental. The products for our office segment primarily include rental of office space and other tenant services, including tenant reimbursements, parking and storage space rental. The products for our multifamily segment include rental of apartments and other tenant services. The products of our mixed-use segment include rental of retail space and other tenant services, including tenant reimbursements, parking and storage space rental and operation of a 369-room all-suite hotel.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

In January 2017, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) No. 2017-1, Business Combinations: Clarifying the Definition of a Business. The pronouncement changes the definition of a business to assist entities with evaluating when a set of transferred assets and activities is a business. The pronouncement requires an entity to evaluate if substantially all of the fair value of the gross assets acquired is concentrated in a single identifiable asset or a group of similar identifiable assets; if so, the set of transferred assets and activities is not a business. The pronouncement is effective for fiscal years, and for interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2018, with early adoption permitted. The Company adopted the provisions of ASU 2017-01 effective January 1, 2017. For the period from January 1, 2017 through September 30, 2017, the Company acquired three properties for which we concluded that substantially all of the fair value of the assets acquired were concentrated in a single identifiable asset and that the assets therefore did not meet the definition of a business under ASU 2017-01. Acquisition transaction costs associated with these property acquisitions were approximately $0.2 million and were capitalized to real estate investments.

In November 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-18, Restricted Cash. This pronouncement will require companies to include restricted cash and restricted cash equivalents with cash and cash equivalents when reconciling the beginning-of-period and end-of-period total amounts shown on the statement of cash flows. The pronouncement will require a disclosure of a reconciliation between the statement of financial position and the statement of cash flows when the balance sheet includes more than one line item for cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and restricted cash equivalents. Entities with material restricted cash and restricted cash equivalents balances will be required to disclose the nature of the restrictions. The ASU is effective for reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2017, with early adoption permitted, and will be applied retrospectively to all periods presented. As of September 30, 2017 and December 31, 2016 , we had $10.1 million and $10.0 million of restricted cash, respectively, on our consolidated balance sheets. Upon adoption of this ASU, restricted cash balances will be included along with cash and cash equivalents as of the end of period and beginning of period, respectively, on our consolidated statement of cash flows for all periods presented; separate line items showing changes in restricted cash balances will be eliminated from our consolidated statement of cash flows.

In March 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-09, Improvements to Employee Share-Based Payment Accounting, which amends ASC 718, Compensation – Stock Compensation. This pronouncement simplifies several aspects of the accounting for share-based payment transactions, including the income tax consequences, classification of awards as either equity or liabilities, and classification on the statement of cash flows. ASU 2016-09 is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2016, and interim periods within those fiscal years. The Company adopted ASU 2016-09 in the first quarter of 2017 and the adoption did not have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements.

In February 2016, the FASB issued an ASU that establishes a right-of-use model that requires a lessee to record a right-of-use asset and a lease liability on the balance sheet for all leases with terms longer than twelve months. The accounting applied by lessors under this ASU is largely unchanged. Leases will be either classified as sales-type, finance or operating, with classification affecting the pattern of expense recognition in the income statement. The ASU also requires significant additional disclosures about the amount, timing and uncertainty of cash flows from leases. The ASU is effective for fiscal years, and for interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2018. A modified retrospective transition approach is required for lessors for sales-type, direct financing, and operating leases existing at, or entered into after, the beginning of the earliest comparative period presented in the financial statements, with certain practical expedients available. We are in the process of evaluating the impact this pronouncement will have on our consolidated financial statements.

In May 2014, the FASB issued ASU No. 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers. The pronouncement was issued to clarify the principles for recognizing revenue and to develop a common revenue standard and disclosure requirements for U.S. GAAP and International Financial Reporting Standards. The pronouncement is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2017. The Company will adopt ASU 2014-09 in the first quarter of 2018 using the modified retrospective approach. We have begun our process for implementing this standard, including performing a preliminary review of all revenue streams to identify any differences in the timing, measurement or presentation of revenue recognition. As of September 30, 2017, we have completed our assessment of the impact of this pronouncement for revenue generated from our Multifamily segment. The majority of revenue from our Multifamily segment is generated from leases that are specifically excluded from ASC 606. Additionally, we do not believe that ASC 606 will impact the amount or timing of revenue recognition for other revenue types generated from the Multifamily segment. We are continuing to evaluate this standard for revenue streams for our other segments and the allowable methods of adoption; however, the majority of our revenue from these other segments also consists of rental income from leasing arrangements, which are excluded from this standard. As the Company progresses further in its analysis, the scope of this assessment could be expanded to include other contract elements that could have an accounting impact under the new standard. The Company is also continuing to assess the potential effect that this new standard is expected to have on our consolidated financial statements as it relates to our leasing arrangements with our tenants and in concert with our assessment and anticipated adoption of the new leasing guidance under ASU 2016-02, Leases (see above). The ultimate impacts are currently unknown or not reasonably estimable at this time. The Company continues to evaluate other areas of the standard and is currently assessing the impact on its consolidated financial statements and notes to its consolidated financial statements and cannot reasonably estimate quantitative information related to the impact of the new standard on its consolidated financial statements at this time.