Commitments and Contingencies

Legal Proceedings

As of December 31, 2014, the Company and the Operating Partnership were not involved in any material litigation nor, to management's knowledge, was any material litigation threatened against us or our portfolio other than routine litigation arising in the ordinary course of business or litigation that is adequately covered by insurance.

Environmental Matters

Our management believes that the properties are in compliance in all material respects with applicable Federal, state and local ordinances and regulations regarding environmental issues. Management is not aware of any environmental liability that it believes would have a materially adverse impact on our financial position, results of operations or cash flows. Management is unaware of any instances in which it would incur significant environmental cost if any of our properties were sold.

Employment Agreements

We have entered into employment agreements with certain executives, which expire between January 2016 and January 2018. The minimum cash-based compensation, including base salary and guaranteed bonus payments, associated with these employment agreements total $4.6 million for 2015. In addition these employment agreements provide for deferred compensation awards based on our stock price and which were valued at $1.3 million on the grant date. The value of these awards may change based on fluctuations in our stock price.

Insurance

We maintain “all-risk” property and rental value coverage (including coverage regarding the perils of flood, earthquake and terrorism) within three property insurance portfolios and liability insurance. The first property portfolio maintains a blanket limit of $950.0 million per occurrence, including terrorism, for the majority of the New York City properties in our portfolio and expires December 31, 2015. The second portfolio maintains a limit of $700.0 million per occurrence, including terrorism, for several New York City properties and the majority of the Suburban properties and expires December 31, 2015. Each of these policies includes $100.0 million of flood coverage, with a lower sublimit for locations in high hazard flood zones. A third blanket property policy covers most of our residential assets and maintains a limit of $380 million per occurrence, including terrorism, for our residential properties and expires January 31, 2016. We maintain two liability policies which cover all our properties and provide limits of $201.0 million per occurrence and in the aggregate per location. The liability policies expire on October 31, 2015 and January 31, 2016 and cover our commercial and residential properties, respectively. Additional coverage may be purchased on a stand-alone basis for certain assets.

In October 2006, we formed a wholly-owned taxable REIT subsidiary, Belmont Insurance Company, or Belmont, to act as a captive insurance company and as one of the elements of our overall insurance program. Belmont is a subsidiary of ours. Belmont was formed in an effort to, among other reasons, stabilize to some extent the fluctuations of insurance market conditions. Belmont is licensed in New York to write Terrorism, NBCR (nuclear, biological, chemical, and radiological), General Liability, Environmental Liability and D&O coverage.

The Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, or TRIA, which was enacted in November 2002, was renewed December 31, 2005 and again on December 31, 2007. Congress extended TRIA, now called TRIPRA (Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization and Extension Act of 2007) until December 31, 2014. TRIPRA was not renewed by Congress and expired on December 31, 2014. However, on January 12, 2015, TRIPRA was reauthorized until December 31, 2020 (Terrorism Insurance Program Reauthorization and Extension Act of 2015).The law extends the federal Terrorism Insurance Program that requires insurance companies to offer terrorism coverage and provides for compensation for insured losses resulting from acts of certified terrorism, subject to the current program trigger of $100.0 million, which will increase by $20 million per annum, commencing December 31, 2015. Our debt instruments, consisting of mortgage loans secured by our properties (which are generally non-recourse to us), mezzanine loans, ground leases, our 2012 credit facility, senior unsecured notes and other corporate obligations, contain customary covenants requiring us to maintain insurance. Although we believe that we currently maintain sufficient insurance coverage to satisfy these obligations, there is no assurance that in the future we will be able to procure coverage at a reasonable cost. In such instances, there can be no assurance that the lenders or ground lessors under these instruments will not take the position that a total or partial exclusion from “all-risk” insurance coverage for losses due to terrorist acts is a breach of these debt and ground lease instruments allowing the lenders or ground lessors to declare an event of default and accelerate repayment of debt or recapture of ground lease positions. In addition, if lenders prevail in asserting that we are required to maintain full coverage for these risks, it could result in substantially higher insurance premiums.

We own Belmont and the accounts of Belmont are part of our consolidated financial statements. If Belmont experiences a loss and is required to pay under its insurance policy, we would ultimately record the loss to the extent of Belmont’s required payment. Therefore, insurance coverage provided by Belmont should not be considered as the equivalent of third-party insurance, but rather as a modified form of self-insurance.

We monitor all properties that are subject to triple net leases to ensure that tenants are providing adequate coverage. Certain joint ventures may be covered under policies separate from our policies, at coverage limits which we deem to be adequate. We continually monitor these policies. Although we consider our insurance coverage to be appropriate, in the event of a major catastrophe, we may not have sufficient coverage to replace certain properties.

Belmont had loss reserves of $6.1 million and $7.0 million as of December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively.

Capital and Ground Leases Arrangements

In November 2013, we renewed and extended the maturity date of the ground lease at 420 Lexington Avenue from December 31, 2029 through December 31, 2050, with two options for further extension through December 2085. Ground lease rent payments will be $10.9 million annually through December 2019, $11.2 million annually through December 2029 and then beginning in January 2030 through the remaining lease term, a minimum annual rent of $12.3 million, subject to a one-time adjustment based on 6% of the fair value of the land.

In October 2012, we, together with Stonehenge Partners, acquired a leasehold position at 1080 Amsterdam Avenue. The joint venture prepaid $13.0 million of ground lease rent, which will be applied against rental payments over the term of the lease. The lease will expire on July 31, 2111 or earlier in accordance with the terms of the lease agreement. Land was estimated to be 40% of the fair market value of the property. The portion of the lease attributed to land was classified as an operating lease and the remainder as a capital lease which had a cost basis of $27.4 million and accumulated amortization of $0.4 million as of December 31, 2014.

The property located at 711 Third Avenue operates under an operating sub-lease, which expires in 2083. The ground rent was reset in July 2011. Following the reset, we are responsible for ground rent payments of $5.25 million annually through July 2016 and then $5.5 million annually thereafter on the 50% portion of the fee that we do not own.

The property located at 461 Fifth Avenue operates under a ground lease ($2.1 million of ground rent annually) with a term expiration date of 2027 and with two options to renew for an additional 21 years each, followed by a third option for 15 years. We also have an option to purchase the ground lease for a fixed price on a specific date.

The property located at 625 Madison Avenue operates under a ground lease ($4.6 million of ground rent annually) with a term expiration date of 2022 and with two options to renew for an additional 23 years.

The property located at 1185 Avenue of the Americas operates under a ground lease ($6.9 million of ground rent annually) with a term expiration of 2043 and with an option to renew for an additional 23 years.

The following is a schedule of future minimum lease payments under capital leases and noncancellable operating leases with initial terms in excess of one year as of December 31, 2014 (in thousands):



	Capital lease			Non-cancellable operating leases
2015	$	145		$	30,491
2016	170			30,612
2017	291			30,845
2018	291			30,845
2019	315			30,862
Thereafter	56,569			720,698
Total minimum lease payments	57,781			$	874,353
Less amount representing interest	(36,959		)
Capital lease obligations	$	20,822