Organization, Properties, Basis of Presentation, Financial Instruments and Recent Accounting Standards

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

Organization

Organization, Properties, Basis of Presentation, Financial Instruments and Recent Accounting Standards

1.  Organization, Properties, Basis of Presentation, Financial Instruments and Recent Accounting Standards

Organization

Franklin Street Properties Corp. (“FSP Corp.” or the “Company”) holds, directly and indirectly, 100% of the interest in FSP Investments LLC, FSP Property Management LLC, FSP Holdings LLC and FSP Protective TRS Corp. FSP Property Management LLC provides asset management and property management services. The Company also has a non-controlling common stock interest in two corporations organized to operate as real estate investment trusts (“REIT”). Collectively, the two REITs are referred to as the “Sponsored REITs”.

As of March 31, 2020, the Company owned and operated a portfolio of real estate consisting of 32 operating properties, three redevelopment properties and two managed Sponsored REITs and held one promissory note secured by a mortgage on real estate owned by a Sponsored REIT. From time-to-time, the Company may acquire real estate or make additional secured loans. The Company may also pursue, on a selective basis, the sale of its properties in order to take advantage of the value creation and demand for its properties, or for geographic or property specific reasons.

Properties

The following table summarizes the Company’s number of operating properties and rentable square feet of real estate. As of March 31, 2020 and March 31, 2019, the Company had three redevelopment properties, respectively, which are excluded from the table.

	As of March 31,
	2020	2019
Operating Properties:
Number of properties	32	32
Rentable square feet	9,506,513	9,495,118

Basis of Presentation

The unaudited consolidated financial statements of the Company include all of the accounts of the Company and its majority-owned subsidiaries. All significant intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated. These financial statements should be read in conjunction with the Company’s consolidated financial statements and notes thereto contained in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for its fiscal year ended December 31, 2019, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The accompanying interim financial statements are unaudited; however, the financial statements have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America (“GAAP”) for interim financial information and in conjunction with the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Accordingly, they do not include all of the disclosures required by GAAP for complete financial statements. In the opinion of management, all adjustments (consisting solely of normal recurring matters) necessary for a fair presentation of the financial statements for these interim periods have been included. Operating results for the three months ended March 31, 2020 are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the year ending December 31, 2020 or for any other period.

Financial Instruments

As disclosed in Note 4, the Company’s derivatives are recorded at fair value using Level 2 inputs. The Company estimates that the carrying values of cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, receivables, prepaid expenses, accounts payable and accrued expenses, accrued compensation, and tenant security deposits approximate their fair values based on their short-term

maturity and the bank note and term loans payable approximate their fair values as they bear interest at variable interest rates or at rates that are at market for similar investments.

Cash, Cash Equivalents and Restricted Cash

The following table provides a reconciliation of cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash reported within the consolidated balance sheets that sum to the total of the same such amounts shown in the consolidated statement of cash flows.

	March 31,		March 31,
(in thousands)	2020		2019
Cash and cash equivalents	$	17,283	$	8,832
Restricted cash		—		—
Total cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash	$	17,283	$	8,832

Recent Accounting Standards

In February 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued ASU No. 2016-02, Leases (“ASU 2016-02”); in July 2018, the FASB issued ASU No. 2018-10, Codification Improvements to Topic 842, Leases and ASU No. 2018-11, Leases (Topic 842): Targeted Improvements (“ASU 2018-11”); and in December 2018, the FASB issued ASU No. 2018-20 Leases (Topic 842), Narrow-Scope Improvements for Lessors. ASU 2016-02 requires lessees to establish a lease liability for the obligation to make lease payments and a right-of-use asset for the right to use the underlying asset for the lease term on their balance sheets. Lessees will continue to recognize lease expenses on their income statements in a manner similar to previous accounting. The guidance also eliminates current real estate-specific provisions for all entities. For lessors, the guidance modifies the classification criteria and the accounting for sales-type and direct financing leases. This new standard is effective for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2018, and interim periods thereafter with early adoption permitted. The Company adopted this standard on January 1, 2019 and applied the package of practical expedients that allows an entity to not reassess (i) whether any expired or existing contracts are or contain leases, (ii) lease classification for any expired or existing leases and (iii) initial direct costs for any expired or existing leases. Additionally, the Company’s leases met the criteria in ASU 2018-11 to not separate non-lease components from the related lease component, therefore the accounting for these leases remained largely unchanged from the previous standard. The Company applied the optional transition method in ASU 2018-11, which allows entities to initially apply the new lease standard at the adoption date. The Company recorded a right-of-use asset of $2.1 million and a lease liability of $2.2 million upon adoption of this standard.

In June 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-13, Financial Instruments - Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments (“ASU 2016-13”), which requires that entities use a new forward looking “expected loss” model that generally will result in the earlier recognition of allowance for credit losses. The measurement of expected credit losses is based upon historical experience, current conditions, and reasonable and supportable forecasts that affect the collectability of the reported amount. ASU 2016-13 is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2019, including interim periods within those fiscal years. The Company’s Sponsored REIT Loan (as defined in Note 2 below) receivables are within the scope of this standard and our analysis was completed using a Probability of Default / Loss Given Default Model. The Company’s receivables associated with its real estate operating leases are not within the scope of this standard. The Company adopted this standard on January 1, 2020. The adoption of this standard did not have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements.

In August 2017, the FASB issued ASU No. 2017-12, Derivatives and Hedging (Topic 815): Targeted Improvements to Accounting for Hedging Activities (“ASU 2017-12”), which amends and simplifies existing guidance in order to allow companies to more accurately present the economic effects of risk management activities in the financial statements. The amendment also eases the application of hedge accounting in certain situations, including eliminating the requirement to separately measure and report hedge ineffectiveness for cash flow hedges. ASU 2017-12 is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018, and earlier adoption is permitted. The Company adopted this new standard in the first quarter of 2019 using the modified retrospective method, which requires the Company to account for ASU 2017-12 as of the date of adoption with any retrospective adjustments applicable to prior periods included as a cumulative-effect adjustment to accumulated other comprehensive loss and retained earnings. No adjustment was necessary to account for the cumulative effect of the change on the opening balance of each affected component of equity in the consolidated balance sheet as of the

date of adoption because there was no cumulative ineffectiveness that had been recorded on the Company’s existing interest rate swaps as of December 31, 2018, and all trades were highly effective.