2. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Basis of Presentation

The consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the Lightstone REIT and its Operating Partnership and its subsidiaries (over which the Company exercises financial and operating control). All inter-company balances and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation. In addition, interests in entities acquired are evaluated based on applicable GAAP, and if deemed to be variable interest entities (“VIE”) in which the Company is the primary beneficiary are also consolidated. If the interest in the entity is determined not to be a VIE, then the entity is evaluated for consolidation based on legal form, economic substance, and the extent to which the Company has control, substantive participating rights or both under the respective ownership agreement. For entities in which the Company has less than a controlling interest but have significant influence, the Company accounts for the investment using the equity method of accounting.

There are judgments and estimates involved in determining if an entity in which the Company has made an investment is a VIE and, if so, whether the Company is the primary beneficiary. The entity is evaluated to determine if it is a VIE by, among other things, calculating the percentage of equity being risked compared to the total equity of the entity. Determining expected future losses involves assumptions of various possibilities of the results of future operations of the entity, assigning a probability to each possibility and using a discount rate to determine the net present value of those future losses. A change in the judgments, assumptions, and estimates outlined above could result in consolidating an entity that should not be consolidated or accounting for an investment using the equity method that should in fact be consolidated, the effects of which could be material to our financial statements.

The accompanying unaudited interim consolidated financial statements and related notes should be read in conjunction with the audited Consolidated Financial Statements of the Company and related notes as contained in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10‑K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018. The unaudited interim consolidated financial statements include all adjustments (consisting only of normal recurring adjustments) and accruals necessary in the judgment of management for a fair presentation of the results for the periods presented. The accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements of Lightstone Value Plus Real Estate Investment Trust, Inc. and its Subsidiaries have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”) for interim financial information and with the instructions to Form 10‑Q and Article 10 of Regulation S-X. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and footnotes required by accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America for complete financial statements.

GAAP requires the Company’s management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during a reporting period. The most significant assumptions and estimates relate to the valuation of real estate and real-estate related investments, marketable securities, notes receivable, depreciable lives, and revenue recognition. Application of these assumptions requires the exercise of judgment as to future uncertainties and, as a result, actual results could differ from these estimates.

The consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2018 included herein has been derived from the consolidated balance sheet included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10‑K.

The unaudited consolidated statements of operations for interim periods are not necessarily indicative of results for the full year or any other period.

Consolidated VIEs

The Company consolidates the certain joint ventures which have originated nonrecourse loans to unaffiliated third-party borrowers (see Note 5) which are variable interest entities, or VIEs, for which the Company is the primary beneficiary. Generally, a VIE is a legal entity in which the equity investors do not have the characteristics of a controlling financial interest or the equity investors lack sufficient equity at risk for the entity to finance its activities without additional subordinated financial support. A limited partnership, or legal entities such as an LLC, are considered a VIE when the majority of the limited partners unrelated to the general partner possess neither the right to remove the general partner without cause, nor certain rights to participate in the decisions that most significantly affect the financial results of the partnership. In determining whether the Company is the primary beneficiary of a VIE, the Company considers qualitative and quantitative factors, including, but not limited to: which activities most significantly impact the VIE’s economic performance and which party controls such activities; the amount and characteristics of our investment; the obligation or likelihood for us or other investors to provide financial support; and the similarity with and significance to our business activities and the business activities of the other investors. Significant judgments related to these determinations include estimates about the current and future fair values and performance of real estate held by these VIEs and general market conditions.

Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements

In August 2018, the SEC adopted the final rule amending certain disclosure requirements that have become redundant, duplicative, overlapping, outdated, or superseded. In addition, the amendments expand the disclosure requirements on the analysis of stockholders' equity for interim financial statements. Under the amendments, an analysis of changes in each caption of stockholders' equity presented in the balance sheet must be provided in a note or separate statements. The rule was effective on November 5, 2018 and will be effective for the quarter that begins after the effective date. Since the Company already includes a year to date consolidated statement of stockholders’ equity in our interim financial statement filings, the adoption of this guidance resulted in the inclusion of a quarter to date consolidated statement of stockholders equity in our second and third quarter interim financial statement filings and the inclusion of corresponding prior periods statement of stockholders’ equity for all periods presented.

In February 2016, the FASB issued an accounting standards update (“ASU”) that amends the existing lease accounting guidance and requires lessees to recognize a lease liability and a right-of-use asset for all leases on their balance sheets. Lessees of operating leases will continue to recognize lease expense in a manner similar to current accounting. For lessors, accounting for leases under the new guidance is substantially the same as in prior periods, but eliminates current real estate- specific provisions and changes the treatment of initial direct costs. The standard became effective for the Company on January 1, 2019.

The Company elected the following package of practical expedients provided by the standard: (i) an entity need not reassess whether any expired or existing contract is a lease or contains a lease, (ii) an entity need not reassess the lease classification of any expired or existing leases, and (iii) an entity need not reassess initial direct costs for any existing leases. The Company also elected the short-term lease exception provided for in the standard and therefore will only recognize right-of-use assets and lease liabilities for leases with a term greater than one year.

The Company did not recognize any right-of-use assets or lease liabilities upon adoption of the standard. The Company does not have any material leases such as ground leases or building leases or any material leases for leases with a term greater than one year. From time to time the Company will enter into immaterial leases for office equipment such as copiers. The resulting right-of-use assets or lease liabilities would be immaterial in the aggregate and are recognized in the period they are incurred as lease expense.

The ASU provides a practical expedient which allows lessors to not separate lease and non-lease components in a contract and allocate the consideration in the contract to the separate components if both: (i) the timing and pattern of revenue recognition for the non-lease component and the related lease component are the same and (ii) the combined single lease component would be classified as an operating lease. The Company elected the practical expedient to account for lease and non-lease components as a single component in lease contracts where we are the lessor. The ASU also provides a transition option that permits entities to not recast the comparative periods presented when transitioning to the standard, which the Company also elected.

The adoption of this standard did not have a material effect on our consolidated financial position or our results of operations.

New Accounting Pronouncements

In June 2016, the FASB issued an accounting standards update which replaces the incurred loss impairment methodology currently in use 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 new guidance is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2022, including interim periods within those fiscal years. The Company is currently in the process of evaluating the impact the adoption of this standard will have on the Company’s consolidated financial statements.

The Company has reviewed and determined that other recently issued accounting pronouncements will not have a material impact on its financial position, results of operations and cash flows, or do not apply to its current operations.

Supplemental Cash Flow Information

Supplemental cash flow information for the periods indicated is as follows:


	For the Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2019		2018

Cash paid for interest	$	5,621	$	5,163
Distributions declared but not paid	$	3,992	$	4,240
Investment property acquired but not paid	$	300	$	6
Assets transferred due to foreclosure	$	37,299	$	13,521
Liabilities extinguished/credited in foreclosure	$	50,914	$	20,658
Reclassification of accumulated other comprehensive income and noncontrolling interests to accumulated surplus	$	—	$	15,476
Holding gain/loss on marketable securities	$	2,430	$	1,289
Value of shares issued from distribution reinvestment program	$	200	$	—
Transfer of membership interests from noncontrolling interests to additional paid-in-capital	$	—	$	1,500

Reclassifications

Certain prior period amounts may have been reclassified to conform to the current year presentation.