Related Party Transactions

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

13.

RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS

In 2011, 2010 and 2009, the Company held investments in Apartment LLC's accounted for under the equity method of accounting (see note 3). In 2011, 2010 and 2009, the Company recorded, before elimination of the Company's equity interests, project management fees, property management fees and expense reimbursements (primarily personnel costs) of approximately $3,978, $3,894 and $3,489, respectively, from these related companies. The Company's portion of all significant intercompany transactions was eliminated in the accompanying consolidated financial statements.

At December 31, 2010, the Company had outstanding loan balances to certain current and former company executives totaling $165. These loans matured in 2011. Proceeds from these loans were used by these executives to acquire the Company's common shares. Additionally, at December 31, 2010, the Company had outstanding an additional loan to a company executive totaling $100. As the executive was continuously employed by the Company, the loan was forgiven annually over a ten year period that ended in 2011. The annual loan forgiveness under this loan of $100 was recorded as compensation expense in each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2011.

- Definition

The entire disclosure for related party transactions, including the nature of the relationship(s), a description of the transactions, the amount of the transactions, the effects of any change in the method of establishing the terms of the transaction from the previous period, stated interest rate, expiration date, terms and manner of settlement per the agreement with the related party, and amounts due to or from related parties. If the entity and one or more other entities are under common ownership or management control and this control affects the operating results or financial position, disclosure includes the nature of the control relationship even if there are no transactions between the entities. Disclosure may also include the aggregate amount of current and deferred tax expense for each statement of earnings presented where the entity is a member of a group that files a consolidated tax return, the amount of any tax related balances due to or from affiliates as of the date of each statement of financial position presented, the principal provisions of the method by which the consolidated amount of current and deferred tax expense is allocated to the members of the group and the nature and effect of any changes in that method. Examples of related party transactions include transactions between (a) a parent company and its subsidiary; (b) subsidiaries of a common parent; (c) and entity and its principal owners; and (d) affiliates.

+ References

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+ Details