Derivative Instruments

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2015

Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities Disclosure [Abstract]

Interest rate swaps [Text Block]

Derivative Instruments

The Company borrows funds at a combination of fixed and variable rates. Borrowings under the Company's revolving credit facility and certain bank mortgage loans bear interest at variable rates. Our long-term debt typically bears interest at fixed rates. Our interest rate risk management objectives are to limit generally the impact of interest rate changes on earnings and cash flows and to lower our overall borrowing costs. To achieve these objectives, from time to time, we enter into interest rate hedge contracts such as collars, swaps, caps and treasury lock agreements in order to mitigate our interest rate risk with respect to various debt instruments. We generally do not hold or issue these derivative contracts for trading or speculative purposes. The interest rate on all of our variable rate debt is generally adjusted at one or three month intervals, subject to settlements under interest rate hedge contracts.

Interest rate swaps involve the receipt of variable-rate amounts from a counterparty in exchange for making fixed-rate payments over the life of the agreements without exchange of the underlying notional amount. The effective portion of changes in the fair value of derivatives designated and that qualify as cash flow hedges is recorded in accumulated other comprehensive (loss) income (for the Trust) and general partner's equity and limited partners' equity - common units (for the Operating Partnership) and is subsequently reclassified into interest expense in the period that the hedged forecasted transaction affects earnings.

The Company determines the fair value of its interest rate swaps by using the standard methodology of netting discounted future fixed cash payments with the discounted expected variable cash receipts. These variable cash receipts of interest rate swaps are based on expectations of future LIBOR interest rates (forward curves) estimated by observing market LIBOR interest rate curves. This is a Level 2 fair value calculation. Also, credit valuation adjustments are factored into the fair value calculations to account for potential nonperformance risk. These credit valuation adjustments were concluded to be not significant inputs for the fair value calculations for the periods presented.

The Company holds an interest in three interest rate swap contracts (“Swaps”) that eliminate the impact of changes in interest rates on the payments required under variable rate mortgages. The Swaps had aggregate notional amounts of $102.0 million and $103.6 million at September 30, 2015 and December 31, 2014, respectively, and expire at various dates between 2018 and 2020.

The Company accounts for the effective portion of changes in the fair value of a derivative in accumulated other comprehensive loss and subsequently reclassifies the effective portion to earnings over the term that the hedged transaction affects earnings. The Company accounts for the ineffective portion of changes in the fair value of a derivative directly in earnings.

The following table presents the location in the financial statements of the gains or losses recognized related to the Company’s cash flow hedges for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2015 and 2014:

	Three Months Ended						Nine Months Ended
	September 30, 2015			September 30, 2014			September 30, 2015			September 30, 2014
	(in thousands)
Amount of (loss) gain related to the effective portion recognized in other comprehensive (loss) income	$	(1,570	)	$	299		$	(2,592	)	$	(2,083	)
Amount of (loss) gain related to the effective portion subsequently reclassified to earnings	$	(350	)	$	(367	)	$	(1,053	)	$	(1,093	)
Amount of (loss) gain related to the ineffective portion	$	(51	)	$	13		$	(113	)	$	(42	)

The fair value of the Swaps in the amounts of $8.7 million and $8.5 million as of September 30, 2015 and December 31, 2014, respectively, is included in other liabilities in the accompanying consolidated balance sheets. The Company estimates that $1.2 million will be reclassified from accumulated other comprehensive loss as an increase to interest expense over the next 12 months.

The Company has agreements with its derivative counterparties that contain a provision whereby if the Company defaults on any of its indebtedness, including defaults where repayment of the indebtedness has not been accelerated by the lender, then the Company could also be declared in default on its derivative obligations. If the Company were to breach any of the contractual provisions of the derivative contracts, it would be required to settle its obligations under the agreements at their termination value including accrued interest, which totaled approximately $8.8 million as of September 30, 2015.