XML 37 R24.htm IDEA: XBRL DOCUMENT

SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES (Policies)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2018

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 196 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, 2018, we owned or had a controlling interest in 27 office, retail, multifamily and mixed-use operating properties, the operations of which we consolidate. Additionally, as of September 30, 2018, we owned land at three 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	First & Main
Torrey Point	Lloyd District Portfolio
Solana Beach Corporate Centre	City Center Bellevue
The Landmark at One Market
One Beach Street

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

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
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, 2017.

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.

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, 2017. Except for the adoption of the accounting standards during the first quarter of 2018 as discussed below, there have been no changes to our significant accounting policies during the nine months ended September 30, 2018.

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 February 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (the "FASB") issued Accounting Standards Update ("ASU") No. 2016-2, Leases (Topic 842), which provides the principles for the recognition, measurement, presentation and disclosure of leases. This ASU significantly changes the accounting for leases by requiring lessees to recognize assets and liabilities for leases greater than 12 months on their balance sheet. The lessor model stays substantially the same; however, there were modifications to conform lessor accounting with the lessee model, eliminate real estate specific guidance, further define certain lease and non-lease components, and change the definition of initial direct costs of leases requiring significantly more leasing related costs to be expensed upfront.

The pronouncement is effective for fiscal years, and for interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2018. We plan to adopt the provisions of ASU No. 2016-2 effective January 1, 2019 using the modified retrospective approach. In July 2018, the FASB issued ASU 2018-11, Leases (Topic 842): Targeted Improvements, which allows lessors to elect a practical expedient by class of underlying assets to not separate non-lease components from the lease component if certain conditions are met. The lessor’s practical expedient election would be limited to circumstances in which the non-lease components otherwise would be accounted for under the new revenue guidance and both (i) the timing and pattern of transfer are the same for the non-lease component and the related lease component and (ii) the lease component would be classified as an operating lease. The Company expects to elect the practical expedient which would allow the Company the ability to combine the lease and non-lease components if the underlying asset meets the criteria above. ASU 2018-11 also includes an optional transition method in addition to the existing requirements for transition to the new standard by recognizing a cumulative effect adjustment to the opening balance sheet of retained earnings in the period of adoption. Consequently, a company’s reporting for the comparative periods presented in the financial statements would continue to be in accordance with current GAAP (Topic 840). The Company plans to elect this practical expedient as well.

While we continue to evaluate the impact this pronouncement will have on our consolidated financial statements, we expect that the real estate leases designated as operating leases in Note 11 - Commitments and Contingencies, will be recognized as right-of-use assets and corresponding lease liabilities on our consolidated balance sheets upon adoption. The Company is currently assessing the potential changes to its accounting and whether such changes will have a material impact on its consolidated financial statements and condensed notes to its consolidated financial statements, as well as its business processes, controls and systems.

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 reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2017. We adopted the provisions of the ASU effective January 1, 2018 using the modified retrospective approach. As discussed above, leases are specifically excluded from this and will be governed by the applicable lease codification.

We evaluated the revenue recognition for all contracts within this scope under existing accounting standards and under the new revenue recognition ASU and confirmed that there were no differences in the amounts recognized or the pattern of recognition. This evaluation included revenues from the hotel portion of our mixed-use property, parking income and excise taxes charged to customers. Therefore, the adoption of this ASU did not result in an adjustment to our retained earnings on January 1, 2018.

Fair Value Measurement, Policy

A fair value measurement is based on the assumptions that market participants would use in pricing an asset or liability. The hierarchy for inputs used in measuring fair value is as follows:


1.	Level 1 Inputs—quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities


2.	Level 2 Inputs—observable inputs other than quoted prices in active markets for identical assets and liabilities


3.	Level 3 Inputs—unobservable inputs

Except as disclosed below, the carrying amounts of our financial instruments approximate their fair value. In certain cases, the inputs used to measure fair value may fall into different levels of the fair value hierarchy. In such cases, for disclosure purposes, the level within which the fair value measurement is categorized is based on the lowest level input that is significant to the fair value measurement.