Organization and significant accounting policies (Policies)

12 Months Ended

Oct. 31, 2020

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

First Real Estate Investment Trust of New Jersey ("FREIT" or the “Company” or “Trust”) was organized on November 1, 1961 as a New Jersey Business Trust. FREIT is engaged in owning residential and commercial income producing properties located primarily in New Jersey, Maryland and New York.

FREIT has elected to be taxed as a Real Estate Investment Trust under the provisions of Sections 856-860 of the Internal Revenue Code, as amended. Accordingly, FREIT does not pay federal income tax on income whenever income distributed to shareholders is equal to at least 90% of real estate investment trust taxable income. Further, FREIT pays no federal income tax on capital gains distributed to shareholders.

FREIT is subject to federal income tax on undistributed taxable income and capital gains. FREIT may make an annual election under Section 858 of the Internal Revenue Code to apply part of the regular dividends paid in each respective subsequent year as a distribution for the immediately preceding year.

Recently issued accounting standards:

In May 2014, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued Accounting Standard Update (“ASU”) No. 2014-09, “Revenue from Contracts with Customers”, which was codified as Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 606 and effective for fiscal years, and interim periods within those years, beginning on or after December 15, 2017. ASC 606 outlines a new, single comprehensive model for entities to use in accounting for revenue arising from contracts with customers and supersedes most current revenue recognition guidance, including industry specific guidance. On November 1, 2018, FREIT adopted ASU No. 2014-09 using the modified retrospective approach. Since FREIT’s primary source of revenue is operating leases, which falls under the scope of “Leases, Topic 842” adopted in the first quarter of Fiscal 2020, the adoption of ASU No. 2014-09 did not have a significant impact on its consolidated financial statements and footnote disclosures and FREIT did not record any cumulative adjustment in Fiscal 2019 in connection with the implementation of ASU No. 2014-09.

In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-02, “Leases (Topic 842)”, which supersedes the existing guidance for lease accounting, “Leases (Topic 840)”. ASU 2016-02 requires lessees to recognize leases on their balance sheets, and leaves lessor accounting largely unchanged; however, certain refinements were made to conform the standard with the recently issued revenue recognition guidance in ASU 2014-09, specifically related to the allocation and recognition of contract consideration earned from lease and non-lease revenue components. ASU 2016-02 requires a modified retrospective approach for all leases existing at, or entered into after, the date of initial application, with an option to elect to use certain transition relief. The Leasing Standard was amended by ASU 2018-11, “Targeted Improvements” (the “Practical Expedient Amendment”) in July of 2018, also codified as ASC 842, which created a practical expedient that provides lessors an option not to separate lease and non-lease components when certain criteria are met and instead account for those components as a single lease component. The Company determined that its lease arrangements meet the criteria under the practical expedient to account for lease and non-lease components as a single lease component, which alleviates the requirement upon adoption of ASC 842 that we reallocate or separately present consideration from lease and non-lease components. As such, the Company elected the practical expedient as allowed by the Practical Expedient Amendment and adopted ASU 2016-02 in the first quarter of Fiscal 2020.

Substantially all of FREIT’s revenues are within the scope of ASC 842. FREIT will continue to account for its leases as operating leases. Leases for FREIT’s apartment buildings and complexes are generally short-term in nature (one to two-years in duration), based on fixed payments and contain separate lease components within the contract for each revenue stream (i.e. base rent, garage rent, etc.). Given the nature of these leases, the adoption of ASU No. 2016-02 had no impact on the accounting for the Company’s leases within the residential segment.

With respect to most of FREIT’s commercial properties, lease terms range from five years to twenty-five years with options, which if exercised would extend the terms of such leases. These lease agreements generally provide for reimbursement of real estate taxes, maintenance, insurance and certain other operating expenses of the properties (known as common area maintenance costs (“CAM”)). Some of FREIT’s leases in its commercial segment may contain lease and non-lease components. Generally, the primary lease component in most of FREIT’s commercial leases is base rent charged for the rental of space in an office complex/shopping center. Depending on the lease, the following non-lease components could be present: 1) fixed (or in substance fixed) payments related to real estate taxes and insurance; 2) variable payments that depend on an index or rate initially measured using the index or rate at the commencement date; and 3) fixed CAM reimbursements or CAM expense reimbursements based on the tenant’s proportionate share of the allocable operating expenses and CAM capital expenditures for the property.

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FREIT accrues fixed lease income on a straight-line basis over the terms of the leases. FREIT accrues reimbursements from tenants for recoverable portions of real estate taxes, insurance, and CAM as variable lease consideration in the period the applicable expenditures are incurred recognizing differences between estimated recoveries and the final billed amounts in the subsequent year. Some of FREIT’s retail tenants are also required to pay overage rents based on sales over a stated base amount during the lease year. FREIT recognizes this variable lease consideration only when each tenant’s sales exceed the applicable sales threshold. Given that this standard has minimal impact on real estate operating lessors, the adoption of this new accounting guidance did not have a significant impact on FREIT’s consolidated financial statements and footnote disclosures. As a result, there was no cumulative effect adjustment to opening equity. Additionally, based on this new accounting guidance, the Company will no longer be able to capitalize certain leasing costs, such as legal expenses, as it relates to activities before a lease is entered into. (See Note 7 to FREIT’s consolidated financial statements for further details).

In June 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-13 "Financial Instruments – Credit Losses (Topic 326)", which amends the current approach to estimate credit losses on certain financial assets, including trade and other receivables, available-for-sale securities, and other financial instruments. Generally, this amendment requires entities to establish a valuation allowance for the expected lifetime losses of these certain financial assets. Subsequent changes in the valuation allowance are recorded in current earnings and reversal of previous losses are permitted. Currently, U.S. GAAP requires entities to write down credit losses only when losses are probable and loss reversals are not permitted. The ASU is effective for fiscal years, and interim periods within those fiscal years, beginning after December 15, 2022. In November 2018, the FASB issued ASU 2018-19 “Codification Improvements to Topic 326, Financial Instruments—Credit Losses”, which clarifies that operating lease receivables are outside the scope of the new standard. Instead, impairment of receivables arising from operating leases should be accounted for in accordance with Topic 842, “Leases (Topic 842)”. FREIT does not expect the adoption of this new accounting guidance to have a significant impact on its consolidated financial statements and footnote disclosures.

In August 2017, the FASB issued ASU 2017-12, “Targeted Improvements to Accounting for Hedging Activities to ASC Topic 815, Derivatives and Hedging ("ASC 815")” which amends the hedge accounting recognition and presentation requirements in ASC 815. The update is intended to more closely align hedge accounting with companies’ risk management strategies, simplify the application of hedge accounting and increase transparency as to the scope and results of hedge programs. ASU 2017-12 is effective for interim and annual reporting periods in fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018. FREIT adopted ASU 2017-12 in the first quarter of Fiscal 2020. This guidance requires that for cash flow and net investment hedges, all changes in the fair value of the hedging instrument (i.e. both the effective and ineffective portions) will be deferred in other comprehensive income and recognized in earnings at the same time that the hedged item affects earnings. For cash flow and net investment hedges existing at the date of adoption, an entity should apply a cumulative-effect adjustment related to eliminating the separate measurement of ineffectiveness to accumulated other comprehensive income with a corresponding adjustment to the opening balance of retained earnings as of the beginning of the fiscal year that an entity adopts the amendments in this update. The amended presentation and disclosure guidance is required only prospectively.

The adoption of ASU 2017-12 had no impact on the accounting for FREIT’s interest rate swap contracts, which were previously deemed effective cash flow hedges, on the following entities: Damascus Centre, LLC (“Damascus Centre”), Wayne PSC, LLC (“Wayne PSC”), FREIT Regency, LLC (“Regency”) and Station Place on Monmouth, LLC (“Station Place”). Accordingly, these interest rate swap contracts will continue to be accounted for by marking these contracts to market, taking into account present interest rates compared to the contracted fixed rate over the life of the contract and recording the unrealized gain or loss on the swaps in comprehensive income. The adoption of this accounting guidance has an impact on the accounting for Grande Rotunda, LLC’s (“Grande Rotunda”) interest rate cap, which was previously deemed an ineffective cash flow hedge and for which previous to the adoption of this guidance, the change in the fair value was reported in the statement of income. Based on this new guidance, FREIT will record the change in the fair value of Grande Rotunda’s interest rate cap in other comprehensive income on a prospective basis. FREIT did not record an adjustment in Fiscal 2020 to the opening balance of retained earnings as the value of Grande Rotunda’s interest rate cap was $0 as of October 31, 2019. (See Note 6 to FREIT’s consolidated financial statements for additional details).

In October 2018, the FASB issued ASU 2018-16 “Inclusion of the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) Overnight Index Swap (OIS) Rate as a Benchmark Interest Rate for Hedge Accounting Purposes to ASC Topic 815, Derivatives and Hedging”. ASU 2018-16 expands the list of U.S benchmark interest rates permitted in the application of hedge accounting by adding the OIS rate based on SOFR as an eligible benchmark interest rate. ASU 2018-16 is effective for interim and annual reporting periods in fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018. FREIT adopted this update in the first quarter of Fiscal 2020 which did not have an impact on the consolidated financial statements or footnote disclosures.

In April 2020, the FASB staff issued a question and answer document (the “Lease Modification Q&A”) focused on the application of lease accounting guidance to lease concessions provided as a result of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Under existing GAAP, the Company would have to determine, on a lease by lease basis, if a lease

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concession was the result of a new arrangement reached with the tenant (treated within the lease modification accounting framework) or if a lease concession was under the enforceable rights and obligations within the existing lease agreement (precluded from applying the lease modification accounting framework). The Lease Modification Q&A allows the Company, if certain criteria have been met, to bypass the lease by lease analysis, and instead elect to either apply the lease modification accounting framework or not, with such election applied consistently to leases with similar characteristics and similar circumstances. This election is only available when total cash flows resulting from lease concessions are substantially similar to or less than the cash flows in the original lease. FREIT has made this election in the second quarter of Fiscal 2020 and accounts for rent deferrals by increasing its rent receivables as receivables accrue and continuing to recognize income during the deferral period. The adoption of this guidance did not have a significant impact on the consolidated financial statements or footnote disclosures.

Principles of consolidation:

The consolidated financial statements include the accounts of FREIT and the following subsidiaries in which FREIT has a controlling financial interest, including two LLCs in which FREIT is the managing member with a 40% ownership interest:

Subsidiary	Owning Entity		% Ownership		Year Acquired/Organized

Westwood Hills, LLC		FREIT		40%		1994
Wayne PSC, LLC		FREIT		40%		2002
Damascus Centre, LLC		FREIT		70%		2003
Grande Rotunda, LLC		FREIT		60%		2005
WestFREIT, Corp		FREIT		100%		2007
FREIT Regency, LLC		FREIT		100%		2014
Station Place on Monmouth, LLC		FREIT		100%		2017
Berdan Court, LLC		FREIT		100%		2019

The consolidated financial statements include 100% of each subsidiary’s assets, liabilities, operations and cash flows, with the interests not owned by FREIT reflected as "noncontrolling interests in subsidiaries”. All significant inter-company accounts and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation.

Investment in tenancy-in-common:

On February 28, 2020, FREIT reorganized its subsidiary S and A Commercial Associates Limited Partnership (“S&A”) from a partnership into a tenancy-in-common form of ownership (“TIC”). Prior to this reorganization, FREIT owned a 65% membership interest in S&A, which owned 100% of the Pierre Towers property located in Hackensack, New Jersey through its 100% interest in Pierre Towers, LLC. Accordingly, FREIT consolidated the financial statements of S&A and its subsidiary to include 100% of the subsidiary’s assets, liabilities, operations and cash flows with the interest not owned by FREIT reflected as “noncontrolling interests in subsidiary” and all significant intercompany accounts and transactions were eliminated in consolidation.

Pursuant to the TIC agreement, FREIT ultimately acquired a 65% undivided interest in the Pierre Towers property which was formerly owned by S&A. Based on the guidance of ASC 810, “Consolidation”, FREIT’s investment in the TIC is accounted for under the equity method of accounting. While FREIT’s effective ownership percentage interest in the Pierre Towers property remains unchanged after the reorganization to a TIC, FREIT no longer has a controlling interest as the TIC is now under joint control. Since FREIT retained a noncontrolling financial interest in the TIC, and the deconsolidation (as of February 28, 2020) of the subsidiary is not the result of a nonreciprocal transfer to owners, a gain on deconsolidation in the amount of approximately $27.7 million was recognized in the accompanying consolidated statement of income for the year ended October 31, 2020. This gain was measured at the date of deconsolidation as the difference between the fair value of the investment in the TIC at the date the entity was deconsolidated and the carrying amount of the former subsidiary’s assets and liabilities. (See Note 17 to FREIT’s consolidated financial statements for further details.)

Reclassification:

Certain prior year statement of income and cash flow line items have been reclassified to conform to the current year presentation.

Use of estimates:

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”) requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect certain reported amounts and disclosures. Accordingly, actual results could differ from those estimates.

Cash and cash equivalents:

Financial instruments that potentially subject FREIT to concentrations of credit risk consist primarily of cash and cash equivalents. FREIT considers all highly liquid investments purchased with an original maturity of three months or less to be cash equivalents. FREIT maintains its cash and cash equivalents in bank and other accounts, the balances of which, at times, may exceed federally insured limits.

Real estate development costs:

It is FREIT’s policy to capitalize pre-development costs, which generally include legal and other professional fees and other directly related third-party costs. Real estate taxes and interest costs incurred during the development and construction phases are also capitalized. FREIT ceases capitalization of these costs when the project or portion thereof becomes operational, or when construction has been postponed. In the event of a postponement, capitalization of these costs will recommence once construction on the project resumes.

Depreciation:

Real estate and equipment are depreciated on the straight-line method by annual charges to operations calculated to absorb costs of assets over their estimated useful lives.

Impairment of long-lived assets:

Impairment losses on long-lived assets, such as real estate and equipment, are recognized when events or changes in circumstances indicate that the undiscounted cash flows estimated to be generated by such assets are less than their carrying value and, accordingly, all or a portion of such carrying value may not be recoverable. Impairment losses are then measured by comparing the fair value of assets to their carrying amounts. In Fiscal 2020, Cobb Theatre, an anchor tenant movie theatre at the Rotunda retail property filed for bankruptcy and rejected its lease at the Rotunda property as of June 30, 2020. In the fourth quarter of Fiscal 2020, management determined that it would be unable to re-let the space on similar terms and as such tenant improvements in the amount of approximately $7.3 million (with a consolidated impact to FREIT of approximately $4.4 million) related to Cobb Theatre were deemed impaired and written off. (See Note 16) There were no other impairments of long-lived assets for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2020. For the fiscal years ended October 31, 2019 and 2018, there were no impairments of long-lived assets.

Deferred charges:

Deferred charges consist of leasing commissions which are amortized on the straight-line method over the terms of the applicable leases.

Debt issuance costs:

Debt issuance costs are amortized on the straight-line method by annual charges to income over the terms of the mortgages. Amortization of such costs is included in interest expense and approximated $1,089,000, $1,139,000 and $1,050,000 in Fiscal 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively. Unamortized debt issuance costs are a direct deduction from mortgages payable on the consolidated balance sheets.

Revenue recognition:

Income from leases is recognized on a straight-line basis regardless of when payment is due. Lease agreements between FREIT and commercial tenants generally provide for additional rentals and reimbursements based on such factors as increases in real estate taxes, Consumer Price Indices, common area maintenance charges and percentage of tenants' sales in excess of specified volumes. These additional rentals are generally included in income when reported to FREIT when earned, or ratably over the appropriate period.

Interest rate cap and swap contracts:

FREIT utilizes derivative financial instruments to reduce interest rate risk. FREIT does not hold or issue derivative financial instruments for trading purposes. FREIT recognizes all derivatives as either assets or liabilities in the consolidated balance sheets and measures those instruments at fair value. Changes in fair value of those instruments, which qualify as cash flow hedges, are reported in other comprehensive income. (see Note 6 to FREIT’s consolidated financial statements).

Advertising:

FREIT expenses the cost of advertising and promotions as incurred. Advertising costs charged to operations amounted to approximately $297,000, $281,000 and $296,000 in Fiscal 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively.

Stock-based compensation:

FREIT has a stock-based compensation plan that was approved by FREIT’s Board of Trustees (the “Board”), and ratified by FREIT’s shareholders. Stock based awards are accounted for based on their grant-date fair value (see Note 10 to FREIT’s consolidated financial statements).