Leases

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

Note 9. Leases

Leases. The Company is obligated as a lessee under certain non-cancelable operating leases for office space, and is also obligated to pay insurance, maintenance and other executory costs associated with the leases. In May 2016, the Company entered into a new lease of office space in Chicago, Illinois. The lease extends through June 2031 and monthly rental payments under the lease escalate by 2.5% each year throughout the lease. As of December 31, 2019, the Company’s scheduled future minimum lease payments under operating leases having initial noncancelable lease terms of more than one year, were as follows (in thousands):

2020	$	4,368
2021		4,013
2022		3,751
2023		3,850
2024		4,122
Thereafter		30,996
Total minimum lease payments		51,100
Less: Imputed interest ⁽¹⁾		(17,527	)
Present value of the minimum lease payments		33,573
Less: Current maturities of lease obligations		(1,951	)
Long-term lease obligations	$	31,622

(1)

The Company’s lease agreements do not provide a readily determinable implicit rate nor is it available from the Company’s lessors. Therefore, in order to discount lease payments to present value, the Company has estimated its incremental borrowing rate based on information available at either the lease transition date (for those leases that commenced prior to January 1, 2019) or the lease commencement date (for those leases that commenced after January 1, 2019).

As of December 31, 2019, the Company’s operating lease assets, included in Investments and other assets, were $16.9 million and operating lease liabilities were $33.6 million, the current maturities of which is included in Other accrued liabilities and the long-term portion of which is included in Other noncurrent liabilities. The difference between the operating lease assets and the operating lease liabilities is primarily due to a lease incentive received in 2017 related to the 300 South Riverside Lease in Chicago, Illinois.

Other information related to the Company’s operating leases for the year ended December 31, 2019 is as follows (in thousands, except months and percentage):


Income statement information:	Year Ended December 31, 2019
Operating lease cost	$	3,877
Short-term lease cost		1,202
Variable lease cost		2,565
Total lease cost	$	7,644

Other information:
Cash paid for operating leases for the year ended December 31, 2019	$	3,627
Weighted-average remaining lease term (in months) as of December 31, 2019		132
Weighted-average discount rate as of December 31, 2019		7.4	%

Rental expense in 2018 and 2017 was $8.2 million and $7.3 million, respectively.