SHARE-BASED COMPENSATION (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2015

Disclosure of Compensation Related Costs, Share-based Payments [Abstract]

All stock options granted have ten-year contractual lives, containing vesting terms of three to five years. As of December 31, 2015, the weighted average contractual term of shares under option outstanding at the end of the period is 9.1 years. The following table presents stock option activity during the year ended December 31, 2015:



	Shares Under Options		Weighted Average Exercise Price per Share		Weighted Average Remaining Expected Term
					(In years)
Outstanding at January 1, 2015	—		—		—
Granted	2,302,762		$	23.89	6.15
Exercised	—		—		—
Forfeited or expired	(13,623	)	24.46		—
Outstanding at December 31, 2015	2,289,139		$	23.89	6.15
Exercisable at December 31, 2015	6,812		24.46		—

Schedule of fair value assumptions

During the year ended December 31, 2015, the fair value of the options granted was estimated on the grant date using the Black-Scholes pricing model with the following assumptions:



	February 17, 2015	March 12, 2015	April 20, 2015	August 17, 2015
Risk-free interest rate	1.76%	1.91%	1.60%	1.95%
Expected option life	6	6.5	6.25	6.25
Expected volatility	24.00%	25.00%	26.00%	27.00%

Schedule of restricted stock activity

The following table presents information regarding restricted share activity during the year ended December 31, 2015:



	Shares		Weighted Average Grant Date Fair Value per Share
Unvested at January 1, 2015	—		—
Granted	35,460		$	22.84
Vested	(1,022	)	24.46
Forfeited	(3,721	)	24.18
Unvested at December 31, 2015	30,717		$	22.62

Summary of share-based compensation expense

Share-based compensation expense, which is included in general and administrative (“G&A”) expenses in our consolidated statements of income, is summarized as follows:



	Year Ended December 31,
(Amounts in thousands)	2015
Share-based compensation expense components included in G&A⁽²⁾:
Restricted share expense	$	282
Stock option expense	1,901
LTIP expense	7,748
2015 OPP expense	153
OPP expense⁽¹⁾	177
Total Share-based compensation expense	$	10,261

⁽¹⁾OPP Expense for the year ended December 31, 2015 is the unrecognized compensation expense of awards issued under Vornado’s OPP for UE employees who were previously Vornado employees. The remaining OPP unrecognized compensation expense was transferred from Vornado to UE as of the separation date and is amortized on a straight-line basis over the remaining life of the OPP awards issued.

⁽²⁾We did not have any equity awards issued prior to the date of the separation. Share-based compensation expense amounts of $3.9 million and $2.7 million included in general and administrative expenses in our combined statements of income for the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively, are related to Vornado equity awards issued prior to the separation for Vornado employees.