GAAP requires a company to present ownership interests in subsidiaries held by parties other than the company in the consolidated financial statements within the equity section, but separate from the company’s equity. It also requires the amount of consolidated net income attributable to the parent and to the noncontrolling interest to be clearly identified and presented on the face of the consolidated statement of operations and requires changes in ownership interest to be accounted for similarly as equity transactions. If noncontrolling interests are determined to be redeemable, they are to be carried at their redemption value as of the balance sheet date and reported as temporary equity.

The Company has evaluated the terms of the Operating Partnership’s preferred units and classifies the noncontrolling interest represented by such preferred units as stockholders’ equity in the accompanying consolidated balance sheets. The Company will periodically evaluate individual noncontrolling interests for the ability to continue to recognize the noncontrolling amount as permanent equity in the consolidated balance sheets. Any noncontrolling interests that fail to qualify as permanent equity will be reclassified as temporary equity and adjusted to the greater of (1) the carrying amount, or (2) its redemption value as of the end of the period in which the determination is made.

At December 31, 2023 and 2022, the noncontrolling interests represented by the Preferred OP Units qualified for classification as permanent equity on the Company's consolidated balance sheets. The partnership agreement of the Operating Partnership (as amended, the "Partnership Agreement") provides for the designation and issuance of the OP Units. As of December 31, 2023 and 2022, noncontrolling interests in Preferred OP Units were presented net of notes receivable from Preferred Operating Partnership unit holders of $100,000 as of December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively, as more fully described below. The balances for each of the specific preferred OP units as presented in the Statement of Noncontrolling Interests and Equity as of the periods indicated is as follows:

The Partnership Agreement provides for the designation and issuance of the Series A Units. The Series A Units have priority over all other partnership interests of the Operating Partnership with respect to distributions and liquidation.

The Series A Units were issued in June 2007. Series A Units in the amount of $101,700 bear a fixed priority return of 2.3%, and originally had a fixed liquidation value of $115,000. The remaining balance participates in distributions with, and has a liquidation value equal to, that of the common OP Units. The Series A Units are redeemable at the option of the holder, which redemption obligation may be satisfied, at the Company’s option, in cash or shares of its common stock. As a result of the redemption of 114,500 Series A Units in October 2014, the remaining fixed liquidation value was reduced to $101,700 which represents 875,480 Series A Units.

On June 25, 2007, the Operating Partnership loaned the holders of the Series A Units $100,000. The note receivable bears interest at 2.1%. The loan is secured by the borrower’s Series A Units. No future redemption of Series A Units can be made unless the loan secured by the Series A Units is also repaid. The Series A Units are shown on the balance sheet net of the $100,000 loan because the borrower under the loan is also the holder of the Series A Units.

On January 25, 2023, the redemption obligation for all outstanding Series A Units was satisfied in $5,000 cash and 851,698 shares of its common stock, which was net of the noncash settlement of the $100,000 loan. As a

The Partnership Agreement provides for the designation and issuance of the Series B Units. The Series B Units rank junior to the Series A Units, on parity with the Series C Units (defined below) and Series D Units, and senior to all other partnership interests of the Operating Partnership with respect to distributions and liquidation.

The Series B Units were issued in 2013 and 2014, have been redeemed at various times, and have a liquidation value of $25.00 per unit for a current fixed liquidation value of $33,567 which represents 1,342,727 Series B Units outstanding at December 31, 2023. Holders of the Series B Units receive distributions at an annual rate of 6.0%. These distributions are cumulative. The Series B Units became redeemable at the option of the holder on the first anniversary of the date of issuance, which redemption obligations may be satisfied at the Company’s option in cash or shares of its common stock.

The Partnership Agreement provides for the designation and issuance of the Series D Units. The Series D Units rank junior to the Series A Units, on parity with the Series B Units and Series C Units, and senior to all other partnership interest of the Operating Partnership with respect to distributions and liquidation.

The Series D Units have a liquidation value of $25.00 per unit, for a current fixed liquidation value of $188,793 which represents 7,551,735 Series D Units outstanding at December 31, 2023. Holders of the Series D Units receive distributions at an annual rate between 3.0% and 5.0%. These distributions are cumulative. The Series D Units become redeemable at the option of the holder on the first anniversary of the date of issuance, which redemption obligation may be satisfied at the Company’s option in cash or shares of its common stock. In addition, certain of the Series D Units are exchangeable for common OP Units until the tenth anniversary of the date of issuance, with the number of common OP Units to be issued equal to $25.00 per Series D Unit, divided by the value of a share of common stock as of the exchange date.

The Company’s interest in its stores is held through the Operating Partnership. Between its general partner and limited partner interests, the Company held a 95.2% majority ownership interest in the Operating Partnership as of December 31, 2023. The remaining ownership interests in the Operating Partnership (including Preferred OP Units) of 4.8% are held by certain former owners of assets acquired by the Operating Partnership. As of December 31, 2023 and 2022, the noncontrolling interests in the Operating Partnership are shown on the balance sheet net of notes receivable of $1,900 and $1,900, respectively, because the borrowers under the loan receivable are also holders of OP Units (Note 12). This loan receivable bears interest at 5.0% per annum and matures on December 15, 2024.

The noncontrolling interest in the Operating Partnership represents OP Units that are not owned by the Company. OP Units are redeemable at the option of the holder, which redemption may be satisfied at the Company's option in cash based upon the fair market value of an equivalent number of shares of the Company’s common stock (based on the ten-day average trading price) at the time of the redemption, or shares of the Company's common stock on a one-for-one basis, subject to anti-dilution adjustments provided in the Operating Partnership agreement. As of December 31, 2023, the ten-day average closing stock price was $156.68 and there were 8,885,594 OP Units outstanding. Assuming that all of the OP Unit holders exercised their right to redeem all of their OP Units on December 31, 2023 and the Company elected to pay the OP Unit holders cash, the Company would have paid $1,392,195 in cash consideration to redeem the units.

OP Unit activity is summarized as follows for the periods presented:


	For the Year Ended December 31,
	2023		2022		2021
OP Units redeemed for common stock	2,803		—		165,652
OP Units redeemed for cash	1,000		24,824		4,500
Cash paid for OP Units redeemed	$	108	$	4,617	$	788
OP Units issued in conjunction with business combination and acquisitions	1,674,748		711,037		897,803
Value of OP Units issued in conjunction with business combination and acquisitions	$	249,470	$	141,000	$	188,319

GAAP requires a company to present ownership interests in subsidiaries held by parties other than the company in the consolidated financial statements within the equity section but separate from the company’s equity. It also requires the amount of consolidated net income attributable to the parent and to the noncontrolling interest to be clearly identified and presented on the face of the consolidated statement of operations and requires changes in ownership interest to be accounted for similarly as equity transactions. If noncontrolling interests are determined to be redeemable, they are to be carried at their redemption value as of the balance sheet date and reported as temporary equity.

The Company has evaluated the terms of the common OP Units and classifies the noncontrolling interest represented by the common OP Units as stockholders’ equity in the accompanying consolidated balance sheets. The Company will periodically evaluate individual noncontrolling interests for the ability to continue to recognize the noncontrolling amount as permanent equity in the consolidated balance sheets. Any noncontrolling interests that fail to qualify as permanent equity will be reclassified as temporary equity and adjusted to the greater of (1) the carrying amount, or (2) its redemption value as of the end of the period in which the determination is made.

Other noncontrolling interests represent the ownership interest of partners in nine consolidated joint ventures as of December 31, 2023. These joint ventures have ownership in 12 stores; two are operating and the remaining are under development. The voting interests of the partners are 31% or less.