Description of Business and Significant Accounting Policies (Policies)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2018

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Our Consolidated Financial Statements are prepared in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”).

The Company's Consolidated Financial Statements include the Operating Partnership, wholly owned subsidiaries and those entities in which the Company has the controlling interest. The Operating Partnership's Consolidated Financial Statements include wholly owned subsidiaries and those entities in which the Operating Partnership has the controlling interest. All intercompany transactions and accounts have been eliminated.

The unaudited interim consolidated financial statements and accompanying unaudited consolidated financial information, in the opinion of management, contain all adjustments (including normal recurring accruals) necessary for a fair presentation of our financial position, results of operations and cash flows. We have condensed or omitted certain notes and other information from the interim Consolidated Financial Statements presented in this Quarterly Report as permitted by SEC rules and regulations. These Consolidated Financial Statements should be read in conjunction with our 2017 Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Use of Estimates

The preparation of consolidated financial statements in accordance with GAAP requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in our Consolidated Financial Statements and accompanying notes. Actual results could differ from those estimates.

Insurance

Beginning in 2018, we are primarily self-insured for health care claims for participating employees. We have stop-loss coverage to limit our exposure to significant claims on a per claim and annual aggregate basis. We determine our liabilities for claims, including incurred but not reported losses, based on all relevant information, including actuarial estimates of claim liabilities.

Recently Issued Accounting Standards

The Financial Accounting Standards Board ("FASB") issued an accounting standards update ("ASU") that superseded the revenue recognition requirements under previous guidance, which we adopted as of January 1, 2018. Several updates have been issued subsequently that are intended to promote a more consistent interpretation and application of the principles outlined in the ASU. The ASU requires the use of a new five-step model to recognize revenue from contracts with customers. The five-step model requires that we identify the contract with the customer, identify the performance obligations in the contract, determine the transaction price, allocate the transaction price to the performance obligations in the contract and recognize revenue when we satisfy the performance obligations. We are also required to disclose information regarding the nature, amount, timing and uncertainty of revenue and cash flows arising from contracts with customers. In analyzing our contracts with customers, we determined that the most material potential impact from the adoption of this ASU would be in how revenue is recognized for sales of real estate with continuing involvement. Prior to the adoption of this ASU, profit for such sales transactions was recognized and then reduced by the maximum exposure to loss related to the nature of the continuing involvement at the time of sale. Upon adoption of this ASU, any continuing involvement must be analyzed as a separate performance obligation in the contract and a portion of the sales price allocated to each performance obligation. When the continuing involvement performance obligation is satisfied, the sales price allocated to it will be recognized. We had no sales of real estate with continuing involvement during the nine months ended September 30, 2018 or prior periods; however, we will use such methodology for any future real estate sales with continuing involvement. Our internal controls with respect to accounting for such sales have been updated accordingly. Adoption of this ASU resulted in no other changes with respect to the timing of revenue recognition or internal controls related to contracts other than leases, such as management, development and construction fees and transient parking income, all of which are not material to our Consolidated Financial Statements. As such, there is no cumulative-effect adjustment from the adoption of this ASU reflected in our Consolidated Financial Statements.

The FASB issued an ASU that requires entities to show changes in total cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and restricted cash equivalents in the statement of cash flows. As a result, restricted cash and restricted cash equivalents will be included with cash and cash equivalents when reconciling the beginning of period and end of period balances rather than presented as transfers between cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash and restricted cash equivalents in the statement of cash flows. We adopted the ASU as of January 1, 2018 with retrospective application to our Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows. Accordingly, our Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows present a reconciliation of the changes in cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash. The effect of the adoption resulted in an $18.6 million decrease in net cash used in investing activities for the nine months ended September 30, 2017. Restricted cash represents cash deposits that are legally restricted or held by third parties on our behalf, such as construction-related escrows, property disposition proceeds set aside and designated or intended to fund future tax-deferred exchanges of qualifying real estate investments and escrows and reserves for debt service, real estate taxes and property insurance established pursuant to certain mortgage financing arrangements.

The FASB issued an ASU that clarifies and narrows the definition of a business used in determining whether to account for a transaction as an asset acquisition or business combination. The guidance requires evaluation of the fair value of the assets acquired to determine if it is concentrated in a single identifiable asset or a group of similar identifiable assets. If so, the transferred assets would not be a business. The guidance also requires a business to include at least one substantive process and narrows the definition of outputs. We adopted the ASU prospectively as of January 1, 2018. We expect that the majority of our future acquisitions would not meet the definition of a business; therefore, the related acquisition costs would be capitalized as part of the purchase price.

The FASB issued an ASU that clarifies when changes to the terms or conditions of a share-based payment award must be accounted for as modifications. The guidance requires modification accounting if the value, vesting conditions or classification of the award changes. We adopted the ASU as of January 1, 2018 with no effect on our Consolidated Financial Statements.

1. Description of Business and Significant Accounting Policies – Continued

The FASB issued an ASU that sets out the principles for the recognition, measurement, presentation and disclosure of leases for both lessees and lessors. The new standard requires lessors to account for leases using an approach that is substantially equivalent to existing guidance for sales-type leases, direct financing leases and operating leases. In addition, the guidance requires lessors to capitalize and amortize only incremental direct leasing costs. The new standard requires lessees to apply a dual approach, classifying leases as either finance or operating leases based on the principle of whether or not the lease is effectively a financed purchase by the lessee. This classification will determine whether lease expense is recognized based on an effective interest method or on a straight-line basis over the term of the lease, respectively. A lessee is also required to record a right of use asset and a lease liability for all leases with a term of greater than a year regardless of their classification. Leases with a term of a year or less will be accounted for in the same manner as operating leases today. The guidance supersedes previously issued guidance under ASC Topic 840 “Leases.”

An entity may elect a package of practical expedients, which allows for the following:


•	An entity need not reassess whether any expired or existing contracts are or contain leases;


•	An entity need not reassess the lease classification for any expired or existing leases; and


•	An entity need not reassess initial direct costs for any existing leases.

This package of practical expedients is available as a single election that must be consistently applied to all existing leases at the date of adoption.

Furthermore, the FASB finalized an amendment that allows entities to present comparative periods, in the year of adoption, under ASC 840, which effectively allows for an initial date of adoption of January 1, 2019. The amendment also provides a practical expedient to lessors that removes the requirement to separate lease and non-lease components, provided certain conditions are met.

Our analysis of our leases indicates that the lease component is the predominant component, that the timing and pattern of transfer of our material non-lease components (primarily cost recovery income) are the same as the lease components and the lease component, if it were accounted for separately, would be classified as an operating lease. As such, we believe the adoption of the ASU will not significantly change the accounting or the related internal controls for rental and other revenues from operating leases where we are the lessor, and that such leases will be accounted for in a manner similar to existing standards with the underlying leased asset being reported and recognized as a real estate asset. Upon the adoption of the ASU, we will no longer be able to capitalize and amortize certain leasing related costs and instead will expense these costs as incurred. Such capitalized costs have averaged approximately $2.5 million annually.

Leases where we are the lessee include primarily our operating ground leases. We currently believe that existing ground leases executed before the adoption date will continue to be accounted for as operating leases and the new guidance will not have a material impact on our recognition of ground lease expense or our results of operations. However, we will be required to recognize a right of use asset and a lease liability on our Consolidated Balance Sheets equal to the present value of the minimum lease payments required under each ground lease. See Note 8 to our Consolidated Financial Statements in our 2017 Annual Report on Form 10-K for information regarding our ground lease commitments.

We will adopt the new ASU effective January 1, 2019 using the modified retrospective approach and will elect the use of all practical expedients provided by the ASU and related amendments as mentioned above.

The FASB issued an ASU that eliminates the requirement to separately measure and report hedge ineffectiveness and generally requires the entire change in the fair value of a hedging instrument to be presented in the same income statement line as the hedged item when the hedged item affects earnings. The ASU is required to be adopted in 2019 using a modified retrospective approach. We do not expect such adoption to have a material effect on our Consolidated Financial Statements.

1. Description of Business and Significant Accounting Policies – Continued

The FASB issued an ASU that requires, among other things, the use of a new current expected credit loss ("CECL") model in determining our allowances for doubtful accounts with respect to accounts receivable, accrued straight-line rents receivable and mortgages and notes receivable. The CECL model requires that we estimate our lifetime expected credit loss with respect to these receivables and record allowances that, when deducted from the balance of the receivables, represent the net amounts expected to be collected. We will also be required to disclose information about how we developed the allowances, including changes in the factors (e.g., portfolio mix, credit trends, unemployment, gross domestic product, etc.) that influenced our estimate of expected credit losses and the reasons for those changes. We continue to monitor FASB activity with respect to a recent proposal to exclude operating lease receivables from the scope of this ASU. We will apply the ASU’s provisions as a cumulative-effect adjustment to retained earnings upon adoption in 2020. We are in the process of evaluating this ASU.

The FASB issued an ASU that changes certain disclosure requirements for fair value measurements. The ASU is required to be adopted in 2020 and applied prospectively. We do not expect such adoption to have a material effect on our Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.