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Transactions with Related Parties
 12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2014
Related Party Transactions [Abstract]  
Transactions with Related Parties

14.

Transactions with Related Parties

Transactions with the Company’s equity affiliates are described in Note 2.

As discussed in Note 2, on April 28, 2014, affiliates of DDR sold to Mr. Alexander Otto (the “Investor”) and certain of his affiliates (collectively with the Investor, the “Purchasers”) the Company’s 50% ownership interest in SSB for approximately $343.6 million, which represented the Company’s entire investment in Brazil.  The Investor is deemed to be a related party as a result of his common stock ownership in DDR.  Furthermore, Dr. Finne, a director of DDR, is a Managing Director of certain entities affiliated with the Investor, which entities purchased a portion of the Company’s ownership interest in SSB.  The Company believes that the sales price and other terms of the transaction were negotiated on terms equivalent to those prevailing in an arms’ length transaction.  The transaction was approved by the Company’s Board of Directors, with the two board members recommended for nomination by the Investor recusing themselves.  

In 2010, the Company funded a $31.7 million mezzanine loan to a subsidiary of EDT Retail Trust (“EDT”) collateralized by equity interests in six shopping center assets managed by the Company.  Although the Company’s interest in EDT was redeemed in 2009, the Company retained two positions on EDT’s board of directors through June 2012.  The mezzanine loan bore interest at a fixed rate of 10%.  For the first six months of 2012, the period in which EDT owned the assets, the Company recorded $1.5 million of interest income.  The loan was assumed by the Company’s unconsolidated joint venture BRE DDR Retail Holdings I, LLC and reclassified into Investments in and Advances to Joint Ventures in the Company’s consolidated balance sheet at December 31, 2012 (Note 2).  In 2013, this loan was repaid in its entirety and applied to fund the Blackstone I Acquisition (Notes 2 and 3).