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Derivative and Hedging Instruments (Notes) | 12 Months Ended
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Dec. 31, 2015
Derivatives and Hedging Activities [Abstract] |
Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities Disclosure [Text Block] | 7. Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities On February 19, 2015, Boston Properties Limited Partnership commenced a planned interest rate hedging program. During the year ended December 31, 2015, Boston Properties Limited Partnership entered into seventeen forward-starting interest rate swap contracts that fix the 10-year swap rate at a weighted-average rate of approximately 2.423% per annum on notional amounts aggregating $550.0 million. These interest rate swap contracts were entered into in advance of a financing with a target commencement date in September 2016 and maturity in September 2026. In addition, during the year ended December 31, 2015, 767 Fifth Partners LLC, which is the consolidated entity (in which the Company has a 60% interest and owns 767 Fifth Avenue (the General Motors Building) in New York City), entered into fourteen forward-starting interest rate swap contracts, which fix the 10-year swap rate at a weighted-average rate of approximately 2.646% per annum on notional amounts aggregating $400.0 million. These interest rate swap contracts were entered into in advance of a financing with a target commencement date in June 2017 and maturity in June 2027 (See Note 20). Boston Properties Limited Partnership’s and 767 Fifth Avenue Partners LLC’s interest rate swap contracts consisted of the following at December 31, 2015 (dollars in thousands):
Derivative Instrument |  | Aggregate Notional Amount |  | Effective Date |  | Maturity Date |  | Strike Rate Range |  | Balance Sheet Location |  | Fair Value
|  |  |  | Low |  | High |  |
Boston Properties Limited Partnership: |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Interest Rate Swaps |  | $ | 400,000 |  |  | September 1, 2016 |  | September 1, 2026 |  | 2.348 | % | - | 2.571 | % |  | Other Liabilities |  | $ | (5,419 | )
Interest Rate Swaps |  | 150,000 |  |  | September 1, 2016 |  | September 1, 2026 |  | 2.129 | % | - | 2.325 | % |  | Prepaid Expenses and Other Assets |  | 1,188 |
|  | $ | 550,000 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | $ | (4,231 | )
767 Fifth Partners LLC: |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Interest Rate Swaps |  | $ | 250,000 |  |  | June 7, 2017 |  | June 7, 2027 |  | 2.677 | % | - | 2.950 | % |  | Other Liabilities |  | $ | (7,247 | )
Interest Rate Swaps |  | 150,000 |  |  | June 7, 2017 |  | June 7, 2027 |  | 2.336 | % | - | 2.430 | % |  | Prepaid Expenses and Other Assets |  | 1,176 |
|  | $ | 400,000 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | $ | (6,071 | )
|  | $ | 950,000 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | $ | (10,302 | )
Boston Properties Limited Partnership entered into the interest rate swap contracts designated and qualifying as cash flow hedges to reduce its exposure to the variability in future cash flows attributable to changes in the 10-year swap rate in contemplation of obtaining 10-year fixed-rate financing in September 2016. The Company’s 767 Fifth Partners LLC consolidated entity entered into the interest rate swap contracts designated and qualifying as cash flow hedges to reduce its exposure to the variability in future cash flows attributable to changes in the 10-year swap rate in contemplation of obtaining 10-year fixed-rate financing in June 2017. Boston Properties Limited Partnership has formally documented all of its relationships between hedging instruments and hedged items, as well as its risk-management objective and strategy for undertaking various hedge transactions. Boston Properties Limited Partnership also assesses and documents, both at the hedging instrument’s inception and on an ongoing basis, whether the derivatives that are used in hedging transactions are highly effective in offsetting changes in cash flows associated with the hedged items. All components of the forward-starting interest rate swap contracts were included in the assessment of hedge effectiveness. Boston Properties Limited Partnership has agreements with each of its derivative counterparties that contain a provision where it could be declared in default on its derivative obligations if repayment of its indebtedness is accelerated by the lender due to its default on the indebtedness. As of December 31, 2015, the fair value of derivatives is in a net liability position, which excludes any adjustment for nonperformance risk and excludes accrued interest, of approximately $11.7 million. As of December 31, 2015, Boston Properties Limited Partnership has not posted any collateral related to these agreements. If Boston Properties Limited Partnership had breached any of these provisions at December 31, 2015, it could have been required to settle its obligations under the agreements at their termination value of approximately $11.7 million. The Company accounts for the effective portion of changes in the fair value of a derivative in accumulated other comprehensive loss and subsequently reclassifies the effective portion to earnings over the term that the hedged transaction affects earnings. The Company accounts for the ineffective portion of changes in the fair value of a derivative directly in earnings. During the year ended December 31, 2015, the Company has recorded the changes in fair value of the swap contracts related to the effective portion of the interest rate contracts aggregating approximately $12.7 million in Other Liabilities and approximately $2.4 million in Prepaid Expenses and Other Assets and Accumulated Other Comprehensive Loss within the Company’s Consolidated Balance Sheets. During the year ended December 31, 2015, the Company did not record any hedge ineffectiveness. The Company expects that within the next twelve months it will reclassify into earnings as an increase to interest expense approximately $141,000 of the amounts recorded within Accumulated Other Comprehensive Loss relating to the forward-starting interest rate swap contracts in effect and as of December 31, 2015. The following table presents the location in the financial statements of the losses recognized related to the Company’s cash flow hedges for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014 and 2013:
|  | Year ended December 31,
|  | 2015 |  | 2014 |  | 2013
|  | (in thousands)
Amount of loss related to the effective portion recognized in other comprehensive loss |  | $ | (10,302 | ) |  | $ | — |  |  | $ | — |
Amount of loss related to the effective portion subsequently reclassified to earnings (1) |  | $ | (2,510 | ) |  | $ | (2,508 | ) |  | $ | (2,513 | )
Amount of gain (loss) related to the ineffective portion and amount excluded from effectiveness testing |  | $ | — |  |  | $ | — |  |  | $ | — |
___________
(1) | Consists of amounts from interest rate hedging programs entered into prior to 2015.
Boston Properties, Inc. The following table reflects the changes in accumulated other comprehensive loss for Boston Properties, Inc. for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014 and 2013 (in thousands):
Balance at December 31, 2012 |  | $ | (13,817 | )
Amortization of interest rate contracts (1) |  | 2,513 |
Other comprehensive income attributable to noncontrolling interests |  | (252 | )
Balance at December 31, 2013 |  | (11,556 | )
Amortization of interest rate contracts (1) |  | 2,508 |
Other comprehensive income attributable to noncontrolling interests |  | (256 | )
Balance at December 31, 2014 |  | (9,304 | )
Effective portion of interest rate contracts |  | (10,302 | )
Amortization of interest rate contracts (1) |  | 2,510 |
Other comprehensive loss attributable to noncontrolling interests |  | 2,982 |
Balance at December 31, 2015 |  | $ | (14,114 | )
___________
(1) | Consists of amounts from interest rate hedging programs entered into prior to 2015.
Boston Properties Limited Partnership The following table reflects the changes in accumulated other comprehensive loss for Boston Properties Limited Partnership for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014 and 2013 (in thousands):
Balance at December 31, 2012 |  | $ | (17,994 | )
Amortization of interest rate contracts (1) |  | 2,513 |
Balance at December 31, 2013 |  | (15,481 | )
Amortization of interest rate contracts (1) |  | 2,508 |
Balance at December 31, 2014 |  | (12,973 | )
Effective portion of interest rate contracts |  | (10,302 | )
Amortization of interest rate contracts (1) |  | 2,510 |
Other comprehensive loss attributable to noncontrolling interests in property partnership |  | 2,428 |
Balance at December 31, 2015 |  | $ | (18,337 | )
___________
(1) | Consists of amounts from interest rate hedging programs entered into prior to 2015.

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- Definition The entire disclosure for derivative instruments and hedging activities including, but not limited to, risk management strategies, non-hedging derivative instruments, assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses, and methodologies and assumptions used in determining the amounts. + References Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 815 -SubTopic 30 -Section 45 -Paragraph 1 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6441202&loc=d3e80720-113993 Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 815 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 4C -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=56946850&loc=SL5624171-113959 Reference 3: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 815 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 2 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=56946850&loc=d3e41620-113959 Reference 4: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 815 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 4B -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=56946850&loc=SL5624163-113959 Reference 5: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 815 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 1 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=56946850&loc=SL5579240-113959 Reference 6: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 815 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 4D -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=56946850&loc=SL5624177-113959 Reference 7: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 815 -SubTopic 30 -Section 50 -Paragraph 2 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=35736893&loc=d3e80784-113994 Reference 8: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 815 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 5 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=56946850&loc=d3e41641-113959 Reference 9: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 815 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 1A -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=56946850&loc=SL5579245-113959 Reference 10: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 815 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 4H -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=56946850&loc=SL5624258-113959 Reference 11: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 815 -SubTopic 30 -Section 50 -Paragraph 1 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=35736893&loc=d3e80748-113994 Reference 12: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 815 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 4K -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=56946850&loc=SL5708775-113959 Reference 13: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 815 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 4J -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=56946850&loc=SL5708773-113959 Reference 14: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 815 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 4A -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=56946850&loc=SL5618551-113959 Reference 15: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 815 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 1B -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=56946850&loc=SL5580258-113959 Reference 16: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 815 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 4E -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=56946850&loc=SL5624181-113959 Reference 17: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 815 -SubTopic 25 -Section 50 -Paragraph 1 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6886632&loc=d3e76258-113986 Reference 18: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 815 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 4 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=56946850&loc=d3e41638-113959 Reference 19: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 235 -SubTopic 10 -Section S99 -Paragraph 1 -Subparagraph (SX 210.4-08.(n)) -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=26873400&loc=d3e23780-122690 + Details
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