Retirement Plans

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2022

Compensation And Retirement Disclosure [Abstract]

Retirement Plans

9. Retirement Plans

401(k) Plan - We maintain a 401(k) plan for qualified employees which is subject to “safe harbor” provisions.  Those provisions include a matching employer contribution consisting of 100.0% of the first 3.0% of employee contributions and 50.0% of the next 2.0% of employee contributions.  In addition, all employer matching funds vest immediately.  We ceased making matching employer contributions effective May 16, 2020 and reinstated them in January 2022.  Contributions to the plan totaled $23,139 and $0, for the three months ended March 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively.

Employee Stock Ownership Plan - The Company adopted an Employee Stock Ownership Plan in December 2016, effective January 1, 2016, which is a non-contributory defined contribution plan covering all employees of the Company. The Company sponsors and maintains the ESOP and related trust for the benefit of its eligible employees.  The ESOP is a leveraged ESOP, meaning funds are loaned to the ESOP from the Company.  The Company entered into a loan agreement with the ESOP on December 29, 2016, pursuant to which the ESOP may borrow up to $5.0 million to purchase shares of the Company’s common stock on the open market, which serve as collateral for the loan.  Between January 3, 2017 and February 28, 2017, the Company’s ESOP purchased 682,500 shares of the Company’s common stock of an aggregate cost of $4.9 million.  

Between January 3, 2017 and February 28, 2017, the Company’s ESOP had purchased 682,500 shares of the Company’s common stock in the open market at a cost of approximately $4.9 million.  Shares purchased by the ESOP are held in a suspense account for allocation among participants as contributions are made to the ESOP by the Company.  The share allocations will be accounted for at fair value at the date of allocation.  

A total of 254,682 shares with a fair value of $524,644 remained allocated or committed to be released from the suspense account, as of March 31, 2022.  We recognized as compensation cost $14,154 and $22,086, during the three months ended March 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively.  The remaining 424,621 unallocated shares have an approximate fair value of $874,720, as of March 31, 2022.  As of March 31, 2022, the ESOP held a total of 247,606 allocated shares, 7,076 committed-to-be-released shares and 424,621 suspense shares.  Dividends on allocated and unallocated shares are used to pay down the ESOP loan from the Operating Partnership.

The share allocations are accounted for at fair value on the date of allocation as follows:

	March 31, 2022				December 31, 2021
	Number of Shares		Fair Value		Number of Shares		Fair Value
Allocated shares		247,606	$	510,066		247,606	$	517,496
Committed to be released shares		7,076		14,578		-		-
Total Allocated and Committed-to-be-Released		254,682	$	524,644		247,606	$	517,496
Unallocated shares		424,621		874,720		431,697		902,247
Total ESOP Shares		679,303	$	1,399,364		679,303	$	1,419,743