Share and Unit-Based Plans

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2020

Share-based Payment Arrangement [Abstract]

Share and Unit-Based Plans:

Under the Long-Term Incentive Plan ("LTIP"), each award recipient is issued a form of units ("LTIP Units") in the Operating Partnership. Upon the occurrence of specified events and subject to the satisfaction of applicable vesting conditions, LTIP Units (after conversion into OP Units) are ultimately redeemable for common stock of the Company, or cash at the Company's option, on a one-unit for one-share basis. LTIP Units receive cash dividends based on the dividend amount paid on the common stock of the Company. The LTIP may include both market-indexed awards and service-based awards.

The market-indexed LTIP Units vest over the service period of the award based on the percentile ranking of the Company in terms of total return to stockholders (the "Total Return") per share of common stock relative to the Total Return of a group of peer REITs, as measured at the end of the measurement period.

During the nine months ended September 30, 2020, the Company granted the following LTIP Units:


Grant Date	Units	Type	Fair Value per LTIP Unit		Vest Date
1/1/2020	154,158	Service-based	$	26.92	12/31/2022
1/1/2020	321,940	Market-indexed	$	27.80	12/31/2022
3/1/2020	39,176	Service-based	$	20.42	2/28/2023
3/1/2020	37,592	Market-indexed	$	21.28	2/28/2023
	552,866

The fair value of the market-indexed LTIP Units (Level 3) granted on January 1, 2020 was estimated on the date of grant using a Monte Carlo Simulation model that assumed a risk free interest rate of 1.62% and an expected volatility of 26.08%. The fair value of the market-indexed LTIP Units (Level 3) granted on March 1, 2020 was estimated on the date of grant using a Monte Carlo Simulation model that assumed a risk free interest rate of 0.85% and an expected volatility of 28.34%.

The following table summarizes the activity of the non-vested LTIP Units, phantom stock units and stock units:


	LTIP Units			Phantom Stock Units		Stock Units
	Units	Value(1)			Units	Value(1)		Units	Value(1)
Balance at January 1, 2020	616,219	$	39.04		7,216	$	43.29	199,987	$	43.59
Granted	552,866	26.59			23,222	17.46		250,889	14.17
Vested	(4,872)	54.75			(20,948)	20.90		(111,856)	42.89
Forfeited	(6,714)	39.66			—	—		(3,102)	32.62
Balance at September 30, 2020	1,157,499	$	33.03		9,490	$	29.51	335,918	$	21.95


(1) Value represents the weighted average grant date fair value.

The following table summarizes the activity of the stock options outstanding:


	Stock Options
		Units	Value(1)
Balance at January 1, 2020		35,565	$	57.32
Granted(2)		1,950	54.34
Exercised		—	—

Balance at September 30, 2020		37,515	$	54.34


(1) Value represents the weighted average exercise price.
(2) Pursuant to the terms of the Company's equity plan, the exercise price
and number of options were adjusted so that the stock dividend paid on
June 3, 2020 had no negative impact on the outstanding stock options
(See Note 14 - Stockholders' Equity).

The following summarizes the compensation cost under the share and unit-based plans:


	For the Three Months Ended September 30,				For the Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2020		2019		2020		2019
LTIP Units	$	3,354	$	2,498	$	9,918	$	8,859

Stock units	684		632		3,580		3,836
Stock options	—		—		—		51

Phantom stock units	85		185		438		607
	$	4,123	$	3,315	$	13,936	$	13,353

The Company capitalized share and unit-based compensation costs of $626 and $993 for the three months ended September 30, 2020 and 2019, respectively, and $2,946 and $3,598 for the nine months ended September 30, 2020 and 2019, respectively. Unrecognized compensation costs of share and unit-based plans at September 30, 2020 consisted of $6,395 from LTIP Units, $2,844 from stock units and $280 from phantom stock units.