The Company has an Equity Participation Plan (as amended and/or restated, the “Equity Plan”), which provides for a maximum of 10,000,000 shares of the Company’s common stock to be reserved for the issuance of stock options, stock appreciation rights, restricted stock, restricted stock units, performance awards, dividend equivalents, LTIP Units, stock payments and deferred stock awards. At March 31, 2025, the Company had 2.9 million shares of common stock available for issuance under the Equity Plan.

The Company accounts for equity awards in accordance with FASB’s compensation – Stock Compensation guidance, which requires that all share-based payments to employees, including grants of employee stock options, restricted stock, performance shares and LTIP Units, be recognized in the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations over the service period based on their fair values. Fair value of restricted shares and Time-Based LTIP Units are calculated based on the on the Company’s common stock closing share price on the date of grant. Fair value of performance awards and Performance-Based LTIP Units are determined using the Monte Carlo method, which is intended to estimate the fair value of the awards at the grant date. Granted Time-Based LTIP Units and Performance-Based LTIP Units do not have redemption rights into shares of Company common stock, but any OP Units into which LTIP Units may be converted are entitled to redemption rights.

The Company recognized expenses associated with its equity awards of $6.7 million and $10.0 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. As of March 31, 2025, the Company had $39.8 million of total unrecognized compensation cost related to unvested stock compensation granted under the Plans. That cost is expected to be recognized over a weighted-average period of approximately 2.5 years.

Information with respect to restricted stock under the Plan for the three months ended March 31, 2025 and 2024 is as follows:


	2025			2024
Restricted stock outstanding as of January 1,		2,745,884			2,746,116
Granted (1)		-			872,150
Vested		(654,548	)		(679,546	)
Forfeited		(3,306	)		(15,562	)
Restricted stock outstanding as of March 31,		2,088,030			2,923,158

(1)

The weighted-average grant date fair value for restricted stock issued during the three months ended March 31, 2024 was $19.47.

Information with respect to performance share awards under the Plan for the three months ended March 31, 2025 and 2024 is as follows:


	2025		2024
Performance share awards outstanding as of January 1,		908,890		989,860
Granted (1)		-		377,690
Vested		-		(458,660	)
Performance share awards outstanding as of March 31,		908,890		908,890

(1)

The weighted-average grant date fair value for performance shares issued during the three months ended March 31, 2024 was $18.14.

For the three months ended March 31, 2025 and 2024, the Company issued 524,636 and 1,094,621 common shares, respectively, in connection with vested performance share awards, including performance dividend equivalent shares.

The significant assumptions underlying the determination of fair values using Monte Carlo simulations for the performance share awards granted during 2024 were as follows:


	2024
Stock price	$	19.53
Dividend yield (1)		-
Risk-free interest rate		4.39	%
Volatility (2)		28.85	%
Term of the award (years)		2.87

(1)

Total Shareholder Returns, as used in the performance share awards computation, are measured based on cumulative dividend stock prices, as such a zero percent dividend yield is utilized.

(2)

Volatility is based on the annualized standard deviation of the daily logarithmic returns on dividend-adjusted closing prices over the look-back period based on the term of the award.

Information with respect to Time-Based LTIP Units awards with time-based vesting requirements under the Plan for the three months ended March 31, 2025 and 2024 is as follows:


	2025			2024
Time-Based LTIP unit awards outstanding as of January 1,		120,700			-
Granted (1)		-			120,700
Vested		(24,140	)		-
Time-Based LTIP unit awards outstanding as of March 31,		96,560			120,700

(1)

The weighted-average grant date fair value for Time-Based LTIP Units issued during the three months ended March 31, 2024 was $19.47.

Information with respect to Performance-Based LTIP Units under the Plan for the three months ended March 31, 2025 and 2024 is as follows:


	2025		2024
Performance-Based LTIP unit awards outstanding as of January 1,		474,611		-
Granted (1)		-		474,611
Performance-Based LTIP unit awards outstanding as of March 31,		474,611		474,611

(1)

The weighted-average grant date fair value for Performance-Based LTIP Units issued during the three months ended March 31, 2024 was $9.07.

The significant assumptions underlying the determination of fair values using Monte Carlo simulations for the Performance-Based LTIP Units granted during 2024 were as follows:


	2024
Stock price	$	19.53
Dividend yield (1)		-
Risk-free interest rate		4.39	%
Volatility (2)		28.85	%
Term of the award (years)		2.87

(1)

Total Shareholder Returns, as used in the Performance-Based LTIP Unit computation, are measured based on cumulative dividend stock prices, as such a zero percent dividend yield is utilized.

(2)

Volatility is based on the annualized standard deviation of the daily logarithmic returns on dividend-adjusted closing prices over the look-back period based on the term of the award.