Share Options and Awards

In April 2011, our Long-Term Incentive Plan for the issuance of options and share awards expired, and issued options of .4 million remain outstanding as of December 31, 2017.

In May 2010, our shareholders approved the adoption of the Amended and Restated 2010 Long-Term Incentive Plan, under which 3.0 million of our common shares were reserved for issuance, and options and share awards of .5 million are available for future grant at December 31, 2017. This plan expires in May 2020.

Compensation expense, net of forfeitures, associated with share options and restricted shares totaled $8.6 million in 2017, $8.5 million in 2016 and $7.4 million in 2015, of which $1.7 million in 2017, $1.9 million in 2016 and $1.5 million in 2015 was capitalized.

Options

The fair value of share options issued prior to 2012 was estimated on the date of grant using the Black-Scholes option pricing method based on the expected weighted average assumptions.

Following is a summary of the option activity for the three years ended December 31, 2017:



	Shares Under Option		Weighted Average Exercise Price
Outstanding, January 1, 2015	2,897,123		$	28.76
Forfeited or expired	(435,840	)	37.37
Exercised	(94,633	)	26.55
Outstanding, December 31, 2015	2,366,650		27.26
Forfeited or expired	(460,722	)	47.42
Exercised	(971,727	)	21.95
Outstanding, December 31, 2016	934,201		22.85
Forfeited or expired	(4,042	)	43.37
Exercised	(101,805	)	16.11
Outstanding, December 31, 2017	828,354		$	23.58

The total intrinsic value of options exercised was $1.7 million in 2017, $14.9 million in 2016 and $.9 million in 2015. All share options were vested, and there was no unrecognized compensation cost related to share options.

The following table summarizes information about share options outstanding and exercisable at December 31, 2017:



Range of Exercise Prices	Outstanding						Exercisable
Range of Exercise Prices	Number	Weighted Average Remaining Contractual Life	Weighted Average Exercise Price		Aggregate Intrinsic Value (000’s)		Number	Weighted Average Remaining Contractual Life	Weighted Average Exercise Price		Aggregate Intrinsic Value (000’s)
$11.85 - $17.78	166,981	1.2 years	$	11.85			166,981	1.2 years	$	11.85
$17.79 - $26.69	465,214	2.9 years	$	24.14			465,214	2.9 years	$	24.14
$26.70 - $40.05	196,159	0.2 years	$	32.22			196,159	0.2 years	$	32.22
Total	828,354	1.9 years	$	23.58	$	7,695	828,354	1.9 years	$	23.58	$	7,695

Share Awards

The fair value of the market-based share awards was estimated on the date of grant using a Monte Carlo valuation model based on the following assumptions:



	Year Ended December 31, 2017
	Minimum		Maximum
Dividend yield	0.0	%	4.1	%
Expected volatility ⁽¹⁾	16.1	%	19.1	%
Expected life (in years)	N/A		3
Risk-free interest rate	0.7	%	1.5	%

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(1)	Includes the volatility of the FTSE NAREIT U.S. Shopping Center Index and Weingarten Realty Investors.

A summary of the status of unvested share awards for the year ended December 31, 2017 is as follows:



	Unvested Share Awards		Weighted Average Grant Date Fair Value
Outstanding, January 1, 2017	590,854		$	32.52
Granted:
Service-based awards	124,549		35.77
Market-based awards relative to FTSE NAREIT U.S. Shopping Center Index	54,454		39.00
Market-based awards relative to three-year absolute TSR	54,454		25.65
Trust manager awards	28,280		32.77
Vested	(231,056	)	30.77
Forfeited	(1,929	)	34.00
Outstanding, December 31, 2017	619,606		$	33.81

As of December 31, 2017 and 2016, there was approximately $2.2 million and $2.0 million, respectively, of total unrecognized compensation cost related to unvested share awards, which is expected to be amortized over a weighted average of 1.7 years and 1.8 years, respectively.