Equity

Shareholders' Equity. During the three months ended March 31, 2017, the Company issued 1,593,603 common shares under its At-The-Market offering program and generated aggregate gross proceeds of $17,362.

During the three months ended March 31, 2018 and 2017, the Company granted common shares to certain employees as follows:



	Three Months ended March 31,
	2018	2017
Performance Shares⁽¹⁾
Shares granted:
Index - 1Q	331,025	106,706
Peer - 1Q	331,019	106,705

Grant date fair value per share:⁽²⁾
Index - 1Q	$5.81	$6.82
Peer - 1Q	$5.37	$6.34

Non-Vested Common Shares:⁽³⁾
Shares issued	237,570	237,560
Grant date fair value	$2,190	$2,551

(1)

The shares vest based on the Company's total shareholder return growth after a three-year measurement period relative to an index and a group of Company peers. Dividends will not be paid on these grants until earned. Once the performance criteria are met and the actual number of shares earned is determined, such shares vest immediately. During the three months ended March 31, 2018, 116,926 of the 642,029 performance shares issued in 2015 vested.


(2)	The fair value of grants was determined at the grant date using a Monte Carlo simulation model.


(3)	The shares vest ratably over a three-year service period.

In addition, during the three months ended March 31, 2018 and 2017, the Company issued 35,581 and 30,070, respectively, of fully vested common shares to non-management members of the Company's Board of Trustees with a fair value of $337 and $318, respectively.

In July 2015, the Company's Board of Trustees authorized the repurchase of up to 10,000,000 common shares. During the three months ended March 31, 2018, the Company repurchased and retired 795,775 common shares, at an average price of $7.94 per common share. No repurchases occurred during the three months ended March 31, 2017.

A summary of the changes in accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) related to the Company's cash flow hedges is as follows:



	Three Months ended March 31,
	2018			2017
Balance at beginning of period	$	1,065		$	(1,033	)
Other comprehensive income before reclassifications	494			688
Amounts of (income) loss reclassified from accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) to interest expense	(248		)	604
Balance at end of period	$	1,311		$	259

Noncontrolling Interests. In conjunction with several of the Company's acquisitions in prior years, sellers were issued OP units as a form of consideration. All OP units, other than OP units owned by the Company, are redeemable for common shares at certain times, at the option of the holders, and are generally not otherwise mandatorily redeemable by the Company. The OP units are classified as a component of permanent equity as the Company has determined that the OP units are not redeemable securities as defined by GAAP. Each OP unit is currently redeemable at the holder's option for approximately 1.13 common shares, subject to future adjustments.

As of March 31, 2018, there were approximately 3,223,000 OP units outstanding other than OP units owned by the Company. All OP units receive distributions in accordance with the LCIF partnership agreement. To the extent that the Company's dividend per common share is less than the stated distribution per OP unit per the LCIF partnership agreement, the distributions per OP unit are reduced by the percentage reduction in the Company's dividend per common share. No OP units have a liquidation preference.