Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2019

Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

The following paragraphs describe the impact on the Company's consolidated financial statements from the adoption of Accounting Standards Updates ("ASUs") on January 1, 2019.

ASU 2016-02 and ASU 2018-11—Accounting Standards Update ("ASU") 2016-02, Leases ("ASU 2016-02") required the recognition of right-of-use lease assets and lease liabilities by the Company as lessee for those leases classified as operating or finance leases, both measured at the present value of the lease payments, on its consolidated balance sheets. For operating lease arrangements as of December 31, 2018 for which the Company was the lessee, primarily under leases of office space and certain ground leases, and a finance lease the Company entered into during the first quarter of 2019, the Company recorded operating lease right-of-use assets of $31.6 million and a finance lease right-of-use asset of $68.1 million in "Deferred expenses and other assets, net" and operating lease liabilities of $31.6 million and a finance lease liability of $68.1 million in "Accounts payable, accrued expenses and other liabilities" on its consolidated balance sheets (refer to Significant Accounting Policies below).

The Company, as lessor, recognizes certain of its leases on net lease properties as sales-type leases and records the leases as "Net investment in leases" on the Company's consolidated balance sheets (refer to Note 5). For the Company's leases which qualify as sales-type leases, the Company records "Interest income from sales-type leases" in the Company's consolidated statements of operations. The amount recorded as interest income from sales-type leases in any given period will likely be different than the straight-line lease income that would have been recorded under the superseded guidance.

Management elected the practical expedient package that allowed the Company: (a) to not reassess whether any expired or existing contracts entered into prior to January 1, 2019 are or contain leases; (b) to not reassess the lease classification for any expired or existing leases entered into prior to January 1, 2019; and (c) to not reassess initial direct costs for any expired or existing leases entered into prior to January 1, 2019. In addition, the Company elected to not record on its consolidated balance sheets leases whose term is less than 12 months at lease inception.

ASU 2018-11, Leases amended ASU 2016-02 so that: (i) entities could elect to not recast the comparative periods presented when transitioning to ASC 842 by allowing entities to change their initial application to the beginning of the period of adoption; and (ii) provided lessors with a practical expedient to not separate non-lease components from the associated lease component of the contractual payments if certain conditions are met. Management elected both of these provisions.

ASU 2018-16—ASU 2018-16, Derivatives and Hedging (Topic 815): Inclusion of the Secured Overnight Financing Rate ("SOFR") Overnight Index Swap ("OIS") Rate as a Benchmark Interest Rate for Hedge Accounting Purposes was issued in October 2018 and expands the list of U.S. benchmark interest rates permitted in the application of hedge accounting by adding the OIS rate based on SOFR as an eligible benchmark interest rate. The adoption of ASU 2018-16 did not have a material impact on the Company's consolidated financial statements.

Significant Accounting Policies

Real estate available and held for sale—The Company reports real estate assets to be sold at the lower of their carrying amount or estimated fair value less costs to sell and classifies them as “Real estate available and held for sale” on the Company's consolidated balance sheets. If the estimated fair value less costs to sell is less than the carrying value, the difference will be recorded as an impairment charge. Impairment for real estate assets disposed of or classified as held for sale are included in "Impairment of assets" in the Company's consolidated statements of operations. Once a real estate asset is classified as held for sale, depreciation expense is no longer recorded.

The Company classifies its real estate assets as held for sale in the period in which all of the following conditions are met: (i) the Company commits to a plan and has the authority to sell the asset; (ii) the asset is available for sale in its current condition; (iii) the Company has initiated an active marketing plan to locate a buyer for the asset; (iv) the sale of the asset is both probable and expected to qualify for full sales recognition within a period of 12 months; (v) the asset is being actively marketed for sale at a price that is reflective of its current fair value; and (vi) the Company does not anticipate changes to its plan to sell the asset.

Net Investment in Leases—Net investment in leases are recognized when the Company's leases qualify as sales-type leases. The net investment in leases is initially measured at the present value of the fixed and determinable lease payments, including any guaranteed or unguaranteed residual value of the asset at the end of the lease, discounted at the rate implicit in the lease. If a lease qualifies as a sales-type lease, it is further evaluated to determine whether the transaction is considered a sale leaseback transaction. If the sales-type lease meets the definition of a failed sale leaseback transaction, the lease is considered a financing receivable and is recognized in accordance with ASC 310 (refer to Note 5).

Interest Income from Sales-Type Leases—Interest income from sales-type leases is recognized in "Interest income from sales-type leases" in the Company's consolidated statements of operations under the effective interest method. The effective interest method produces a constant yield on the net investment in the lease over the term of the lease. Rent payments that are not fixed and determinable at lease inception, such as percentage rent and CPI adjustments, are not included in the effective interest method calculation and are recognized in "Interest income from sales-type leases" in the Company's consolidated statements of operations in the period earned.

Restricted cash—The following table provides a reconciliation of the cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash reported in the Company's consolidated balance sheets that total to the same amount as reported in the consolidated statements of cash flows (in thousands):



	June 30, 2019		December 31, 2018		June 30, 2018		December 31, 2017
Cash and cash equivalents	$	330,099	$	931,751	$	1,039,591	$	657,688
Restricted cash included in deferred expenses and other assets, net⁽¹⁾	64,154		42,793		27,399		20,045
Total cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash reported in the consolidated statements of cash flows	$	394,253	$	974,544	$	1,066,990	$	677,733

_______________________________________________________________________________


(1)	Restricted cash represents amounts required to be maintained under certain of the Company's debt obligations, loans, leasing, land development, sale and derivative transactions.

Deferred expenses and other assets and accounts payable, accrued expenses and other liabilities—Effective January 1, 2019 with the adoption of ASU 2016-02, the Company, as lessee, records right-of-use lease assets in "Deferred expenses and other assets" and lease liabilities in "Accounts payable, accrued expenses and other liabilities" on its consolidated balance sheets for operating and finance leases, both measured at the present value of the lease payments. Some of the Company's lease agreements include extension options, which are not included in the lease payments unless the extensions are reasonably certain to be exercised.

For operating leases, the Company recognizes a single lease cost for office leases in "General and administrative" and a single lease cost for ground leases in "Real estate expense" in the consolidated statements of operations, calculated so that the cost of the lease is allocated generally on a straight-line basis over the term of the lease, and classifies all cash payments within operating activities in the consolidated statements of cash flows. For finance leases, the Company recognizes amortization of the right-of-use assets on a straight-line basis over the term of the lease in "Depreciation and amortization" and interest expense on the lease liability using the effective interest method in "Interest expense" in the consolidated statements of operations. Repayments of the principal portion of the finance lease liability are classified within financing activities in the consolidated statements of cash flows and payments of interest on a finance lease liability are classified within operating activities in the consolidated statement of cash flows.

For the remainder of the Company's significant accounting policies, refer to the Company's 2018 Annual Report.

New Accounting Pronouncements—In June 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-13, Financial Instruments - Credit Losses: Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments ("ASU 2016-13"), which was issued to provide financial statement users with more decision-useful information about the expected credit losses on financial instruments held by a reporting entity. This amendment replaces the incurred loss impairment methodology in current GAAP with a methodology that reflects expected credit losses and requires consideration of a broader range of reasonable and supportable information to inform credit loss estimates. The Company currently records a general reserve that covers performing loans and reserves for loan losses are recorded when: (i) available information as of each balance sheet date indicates that it is probable a loss has occurred in the portfolio; and (ii) the amount of the loss can be reasonably estimated. The formula-based general reserve is derived from estimated principal default probabilities and loss severities applied to groups of loans based upon risk ratings assigned to loans with similar risk characteristics during our quarterly loan portfolio assessment. The Company estimates loss rates based on historical realized losses experienced within its portfolio and take into account current economic conditions affecting the commercial real estate market when establishing appropriate time frames to evaluate loss experience. ASU 2016-13 is effective for interim and annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2019. Early adoption is permitted for interim and annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018. Management is currently evaluating the impact from ASU 2016-13 on the Company's consolidated financial statements.

In May 2019, the FASB issued ASU 2019-04, Codification Improvements to Topic 326, Financial Instruments—Credit Losses, Topic 815, Derivatives and Hedging, and Topic 825, Financial Instruments ("ASU 2019-04") to clarify certain accounting topics from previously issued ASUs, including ASU 2016-13. ASU 2019-04 addresses certain aspects of ASU 2016-13, including but not limited to, accrued interest receivable, loan recoveries, interest rate projections for variable-rate financial instruments and expected prepayments. ASU 2019-04 provides alternatives that allow entities to measure credit losses on accrued interest separate from credit losses on the principal portion of a loan, clarifies that entities should include expected recoveries in the measurement of credit losses, allows entities to consider future interest rates when measuring credit losses and can elect to adjust effective interest rates used to discount expected cash flows for expected loan prepayments. ASU 2019-04 is effective upon the adoption of ASU 2016-13. Management is currently evaluating the impact of ASU 2019-04 on the Company’s consolidated financial statements.