INVESTMENTS

Investments. As of December 31, 2016, the investment portfolio included the legacy real estate assets of ALLETE Properties, debt and equity securities consisting primarily of securities held in other postretirement plans to fund employee benefits, the cash equivalents within these plans and other assets consisting primarily of land in Minnesota.



Other Investments
As of December 31	2016		2015
Millions
ALLETE Properties (a)		$31.7		$50.1
Available-for-sale Securities (b)	18.8		18.5
Cash Equivalents	1.3		2.0
Other	3.8		4.0
Total Other Investments		$55.6		$74.6

(a)

On September 22, 2016, ALLETE Properties sold its Ormond Crossings project and Lake Swamp wetland mitigation bank for consideration of approximately $21 million. The consideration included a down payment in the form of 0.1 million shares of ALLETE common stock with a value of $8.0 million, with the remaining purchase price to be paid under the terms of a finance receivable due over a five-year period which bears interest at market rates. The finance receivable is collateralized by the property sold.


(b)	As of December 31, 2016, the aggregate amount of available-for-sale corporate and governmental debt securities maturing in one year or less was $0.2 million, in one year to less than three years was $3.2 million, in three years to less than five years was $5.0 million, and in five or more years was $3.3 million.

Land Inventory. Land inventory is accounted for as held for use and is recorded at cost, unless the carrying value is determined not to be recoverable in accordance with the accounting standards for property, plant and equipment, in which case the land inventory is written down to estimated fair value. Land values are reviewed for indicators of impairment on a quarterly basis and no impairment was recorded in 2016 ($36.3 million in 2015; none in 2014). (See Note 1. Operations and Significant Accounting Policies.)

NOTE 8. INVESTMENTS (Continued)

Available-for-Sale Investments. We account for our available-for-sale portfolio in accordance with the guidance for certain investments in debt and equity securities. Our available-for-sale securities portfolio consisted primarily of securities held in other postretirement plans to fund employee benefits.

Gross realized and unrealized gains and losses on our available-for-sale investments were immaterial in 2016, 2015 and 2014.