Organization Consolidation And Presentation Of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Principles of Consolidation

The interim consolidated financial statements include the consolidated accounts of the Company and its investments in partnerships and limited liability companies in which the Company has control in accordance with Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) Topic 810 “Consolidation” (“ASC Topic 810”). The ownership interests of other investors in these entities are recorded as noncontrolling interests. All significant intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation. Investments in entities for which the Company has the ability to exercise significant influence over, but does not have financial or operating control, are accounted for using the equity method of accounting. Accordingly, the Company’s share of the earnings (or losses) of these entities are included in consolidated net income.

The interim consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (“GAAP”) for interim financial information and with the rules and regulations of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and footnotes required by GAAP for complete financial statements. Operating results for the interim periods presented are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the full fiscal year. The information furnished in the accompanying consolidated financial statements reflects all adjustments that, in the opinion of management, are necessary for a fair presentation of the aforementioned consolidated financial statements for the interim periods. Such adjustments consisted of normal recurring items.

These interim consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the Company’s 2018 Annual Report on Form 10-K, as filed with the SEC on February 19, 2019.

Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements

Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements

Lease Accounting

In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-02, Leases (Topic 842). ASU 2016-02 outlines a new model for accounting by lessees, whereby their rights and obligations under substantially all leases, existing and new, will be capitalized and recorded on the balance sheet. For lessors, however, the accounting remains largely unchanged from the former model, with the distinction between operating, sales-type and direct-financing leases retained, but updated to align with certain changes to the lessee model and the new revenue recognition standard, ASC Topic 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (“Topic 606”). To ease the transition, the new lease accounting guidance permits companies to utilize certain practical expedients in their implementation of the new standard:

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A package of three practical expedients that must be elected together for all leases and includes: (i) not reassessing expired or existing contracts as to whether they are or contain leases; (ii) not reassessing lease classification of existing leases and (iii) not reassessing the amount of capitalized initial direct costs for existing leases;

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A practical expedient to use hindsight in determining the lease term or assessing purchase options for existing leases and in assessing impairment of right of use assets;

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Lessees may make an accounting policy election by class of underlying asset not to separate lease components from non-lease components; and

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Lessees may make an accounting policy election not to apply the recognition and measurement requirements to short-term leases.

ASU 2016-02 was modified by the following subsequently issued ASU’s (together with ASU 2016-02, “Topic 842”), many of which provided additional transition practical expedients:

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ASU 2018-01, Land Easements Practical Expedient for Transition to Topic 842 added a transition practical expedient to not reassess existing or expired land easement agreements not previously accounted for as leases

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ASU No. 2018-10, Codification Improvements to Topic 842, Leases. These amendments provide minor clarifications and corrections to ASU 2016-02.

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ASU 2018-11, Leases (Topic 842): Targeted Improvements.

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The amendments in this Update provide entities with an additional optional transition method to adopt ASU 2016-02. Under this new transition method, an entity initially applies the new leases standard at the adoption date and recognizes a cumulative-effect adjustment to the opening balance of retained earnings in the period of adoption. Consequently, an entity’s reporting under this additional transition method for the comparative periods presented in the financial statements in which it adopts the new leases standard would continue to be in accordance with former GAAP (Topic 840, Leases).

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The amendments in this Update also provide lessors with a practical expedient, by class of underlying asset, to make a policy election to not separate non-lease components from the associated lease component and, instead, to account for those components as a single component if the non-lease components otherwise would be accounted for under the new revenue guidance (Topic 606). Conditions are required to elect the practical expedient, and if met, the single component will be accounted for under either under Topic 842 or Topic 606 depending on which component(s) are predominant. The lessor practical expedient to not separate non-lease components from the associated component must be elected for all existing and new leases.

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ASU 2018-20, Leases (Topic 842), Narrow-Scope Improvements for Lessors. This ASU modifies ASU No. 2016-02 to permit lessors, as an accounting policy election, not to evaluate whether certain sales taxes and other similar taxes are lessor costs or lessee costs. Instead, those lessors will account for those costs as if they are lessee costs. Consequently, a lessor making this election will exclude from the consideration in the contract and from variable payments not included in the consideration in the contract all collections from lessees of taxes within the scope of the election and will provide certain disclosures (includes sales, use, value added, and some excise taxes and excludes real estate taxes).

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ASU 2019-01, Leases (Topic 842), Codification Improvements. There are three codification updates to Topic 842 covered by this ASU: Issue 1 provides guidance on how to compute fair value of leased items for lessors who are non-dealers or manufacturers; Issue 2 relates to cash flow presentation for lessors of sales-type and direct financing leases; and Issue 3 clarifies that certain transition disclosures will only be required in annual disclosures.

Under the new leasing guidance, contract consideration shall be allocated to its lease components (such as the lease of retail properties) and non-lease components (such as maintenance). For lessors, any non-lease components will be accounted for under Topic 606 unless the entity elects the lessor practical expedient to not separate the non-lease components from the associated lease component as described above. The new guidance also includes a definition of initial direct costs that is narrower than the prior definition in former GAAP (Topic 840, Leases). Topic 842 was effective for the Company beginning January 1, 2019.

The Company adopted Topic 842 effective January 1, 2019 utilizing the new transition method described in ASU 2018-11 and has availed itself of all the available practical expedients described above except it did not use hindsight in determining the lease term or assessing purchase options for existing leases and in assessing impairment of right of use assets.

As lessor, the Company has more than 1,000 leases primarily with retail tenants and to a lesser extent with office and residential tenants. A significant majority of its leases are on a triple-net basis. The impact of adoption of ASU 2016-02 for the Company as lessor was as follows:

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The Company has elected the lessor practical expedient to not separate common area maintenance from the associated lease for all existing and new leases and to account for the combined component as a single lease component. Common area maintenance is considered a non-lease component within the scope of Topic 606 and reimbursements of taxes and insurance are considered contractual payments that do not transfer a good or service to the tenant; however, such revenues related to leases, which were formerly reported as reimbursed expenses, will be reported within lease revenues in the presentation of the statement of income subsequent to the implementation of ASC 842. Prior year classifications under ASC 840 will not be adjusted.

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Due to its election of available practical expedients, the Company expects that post-adoption substantially all existing leases, and new leases compared to similar existing leases, will have no change in the timing of revenue recognition.

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The Company’s internal leasing costs will be expensed as incurred, as opposed to being capitalized and deferred. Commissions subsequent to successful lease execution will continue to be capitalized. After adoption, the Company will no longer capitalize internal leasing costs that were previously capitalized (the Company capitalized $1.8 million of internal leasing costs during the year ended December 31, 2018).

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The Company has existing easement arrangements that have not been previously identified as leases. The Company expects that its existing and similar future easement arrangements will not be classified as rental revenue but as other revenues as these arrangements do not transfer control to the counterparty.

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The Company makes a policy election to continue to account for only those taxes described under ASU 2018-20 that it pays on behalf of the tenant as reimbursable costs and will not account for those taxes paid directly by the lessee which are considered lessee costs.

As lessee, the Company is party to 13 ground, office and equipment leases with future payment obligations aggregating $203.1 million at December 31, 2018. The impact of adoption of ASU 2016-02 for the Company as lessee was as follows (Note 11):

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As lessee, the Company has applied the following practical expedients in the implementation ASU 2016-02: (i) to not separate non-lease components from the associated lease component as described above and (ii) to not apply the right-of-use recognition requirements to short-term leases. As such, there were no changes in the timing of recognition of expenses related to its operating leases.

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The Company recognized right-of-use assets and lease liabilities of $11.9 million and $12.8 million, respectively, related to its operating leases.

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The Company reclassified its existing capital lease asset of $77.0 million and capital lease liability of $71.1 million to a right-of-use asset and a lease liability, respectively, pertaining to finance leases.

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Subsequent to the adoption of and in accordance with Topic 842, the Company reassessed the circumstances surrounding three of its operating ground leases and determined that it had made significant leasehold improvements and was now reasonably certain to exercise their purchase options. Accordingly, the Company reclassified the existing right-of-use assets and lease liabilities from operating leases to finance leases and adjusted the leases’ right-of-use assets and corresponding lease liabilities to $5.7 million and $5.7 million, respectively, to incorporate the present value of the purchase options, which totaled $4.7 million at January 1, 2019.

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With the adoption of ASC Topic 842, the Company will no longer provide a reserve for uncollectible receivables; they will be written-off. Accordingly, tenant receivables will not be presented net of an allowance for doubtful accounts on the balance sheet. The write-off of the tenant receivables will be presented as a reduction of revenue rather than as an operating expense on the income statement. In addition, rental income related to tenants with uncollectible receivables will be recorded on a cash basis and straight-line rent will be suspended.

The Company did not record any cumulative effect of change in accounting principle upon the adoption of ASC Topic 842 as lessor or lessee. Consistent with the transition guidance under ASU 2018-11, all prior period disclosures remain in accordance with ASC Topic 840.

Other Accounting Topics

In February 2018, the FASB issued ASU No. 2018-02, Income Statement-Reporting Comprehensive Income (Topic 220): Reclassification of Certain Tax Effects from Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income. These amendments provide financial statement preparers with an option to reclassify stranded tax effects within accumulated other comprehensive income to retained earnings in each period in which the effect of the change in the U.S. federal corporate income tax rate in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is recorded. This guidance is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018, and interim periods therein. The Company adopted this guidance effective January 1, 2019, which had no effect on the Company’s financial statements.

In July 2018, the FASB issued ASU No. 2018-09, Codification Improvements. These amendments provide clarifications and corrections to certain ASC subtopics including the following: 220-10 (Income Statement - Reporting Comprehensive Income - Overall), 470-50 (Debt - Modifications and Extinguishments), 480-10 (Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity - Overall), 718-740 (Compensation - Stock Compensation - Income Taxes), 805-740 (Business Combinations - Income Taxes), 815-10 (Derivatives and Hedging - Overall), and 820-10 (Fair Value Measurement - Overall). Some of the amendments in ASU 2018-09 do not require transition guidance and were effective upon issuance; however, many of the amendments do have transition guidance with effective dates for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2018. For those amendments that were effective January 1, 2019 or earlier, there was no material effect on the Company’s financial statements.

Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements

In November 2018, the FASB issued ASU No. 2018-19 Codification Improvements to Topic 326, Financial Instruments – Credit Losses. This ASU modifies ASU 2016-13 (discussed below). The amendment clarifies that receivables arising from operating leases are not within the scope of Subtopic 326-20, Financial Instruments – Credit Losses – Measure at Amortized Cost. Instead, impairment of receivables arising from operating leases should be accounted for in accordance with Topic 842, Leases. ASU 2018-19 is effective for periods beginning after December 15, 2019, with adoption permitted for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018. The Company is currently evaluating the impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements.

In June 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-13, Financial Instruments – Credit Losses. ASU 2016-13 introduces a new model for estimating credit losses for certain types of financial instruments, including loans receivable, held-to-maturity debt securities, and net investments in direct financing leases, amongst other financial instruments. ASU 2016-13 also modifies the impairment model for available-for-sale debt securities and expands the disclosure requirements regarding an entity’s assumptions, models, and methods for estimating the allowance for losses. ASU 2016-13 is effective for periods beginning after December 15, 2019, with adoption permitted for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018. Retrospective adjustments shall be applied through a cumulative-effect adjustment to retained earnings. The Company is currently evaluating the impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements.

In June 2018, the FASB issued ASU No. 2018-07, Compensation—Stock Compensation (Topic 718): Improvements to Nonemployee Share-Based Payment Accounting. These amendments provide specific guidance for transactions for acquiring goods and services from nonemployees and specify that Topic 718 applies to all share-based payment transactions in which a grantor acquires goods or services to be used or consumed in a grantor’s own operations by issuing share-based payment awards. The amendments also clarify that Topic 718 does not apply to share-based payments used to effectively provide (i) financing to the issuer or (ii) awards granted in conjunction with selling goods or services to customers as part of a contract accounted for under Topic 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers. This guidance is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018, and interim periods beginning after December 15, 2020. Early adoption is permitted but not earlier than the adoption of Topic 606. The Company does not believe that this guidance will have a material effect on its consolidated financial statements as it has not historically issued share-based payments in exchange for goods or services to be consumed within its operations.

In August 2018, the FASB issued ASU No. 2018-13, Disclosure Framework — Changes to the Disclosure Requirements for Fair Value Measurement which removes, modifies, and adds certain disclosure requirements related to fair value measurements in ASC 820. This guidance is effective for public companies in fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2019 with early adoption permitted. The Company is currently assessing the impact this guidance will have on its consolidated financial statements.

In August 2018, the FASB issued ASU No. 2018-15 Customer’s Accounting for Implementation Costs Incurred in a Cloud Computing Arrangement That Is a Service Contract to provide guidance on implementation costs incurred in a cloud computing arrangement that is a service contract. The ASU aligns the accounting for such costs with the guidance on capitalizing costs associated with developing or obtaining internal-use software. Specifically, the ASU amends ASC 350 to include in its scope implementation costs of such arrangements that are service contracts and clarifies that a customer should apply ASC 350-40 to determine which implementation costs should be capitalized. This ASU, which is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2019, is not expected to have a material impact on the Company’s financial statements as the Company has not incurred any significant costs associated with cloud computing arrangements