9. COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES
The Company is obligated under certain tenant leases to fund tenant improvements and the expansion of the underlying leased properties.
Under various federal, state and local laws, ordinances and regulations relating to the protection of the environment, a current or previous owner or operator of real estate may be liable for the cost of removal or remediation of certain hazardous or toxic substances disposed, stored, generated, released, manufactured or discharged from, on, at, under, or in a property. As such, the Company may be potentially liable for costs associated with any potential environmental remediation at any of its formerly or currently owned properties.
The Company believes that it is in compliance in all material respects with all federal, state and local ordinances and regulations regarding hazardous or toxic substances. Management is not aware of any environmental liability that it believes would have a material adverse impact on the Company’s financial position or results of operations. Management is unaware of any instances in which the Company would incur significant environmental costs if any or all properties were sold, disposed of or abandoned. However, there can be no assurance that any such non-compliance, liability, claim or expenditure will not arise in the future.
The Company is involved from time to time in lawsuits and other disputes which arise in the ordinary course of business. As of September 30, 2019, management believes that these matters will not have a material adverse effect, individually or in the aggregate, on the Company’s financial position or results of operations.
10. SERIES B MANDATORILY REDEEMABLE PREFERRED STOCK
In August 2014, the Company closed on a private placement offering of its mandatorily redeemable Series B Preferred Stock (“Series B Preferred Stock”). The financing was funded in installments and completed on December 24, 2015. As of December 31, 2015, the Company had issued 35,000 shares of its Series B Preferred Stock. As of September 30, 2019 and December 31, 2018, the outstanding number of shares was zero and 16,900, respectively. The Company has classified the Series B Preferred Stock as a liability in accordance with ASC Topic No. 480, “Distinguishing Liabilities from Equity,” which states that mandatorily redeemable financial instruments should be classified as liabilities and therefore the related dividend payments are treated as a component of interest expense in the accompanying consolidated statements of operations.
The Series B Preferred Stock was scheduled to be redeemed on August 1, 2017; however, the Company had two one-year options to extend the redemption date. The Company exercised both one-year option to extend the redemption date to August 1, 2019 and paid total extension fees of $307,000. The Company incurred approximately $3.1 million in legal and underwriting costs related to this offering. These costs were recorded as deferred financing costs on the accompanying consolidated balance sheets as a direct deduction from the carrying amount of that debt liability and are being amortized over the term of the agreement. Amortization expense totaling approximately $0 and $47,000 was included in interest expense for the three months ended September 30, 2019 and 2018, respectively and approximately $122,000 and $269,000 was included in interest expense for the nine months ended September 30, 2019 and 2018, respectively in the accompanying condensed consolidated statements of operations. The unamortized deferred costs totaled $0 and $122,000 as of September 30, 2019 and December 31, 2018, respectively.
During the nine months ended September 30, 2019, the Company redeemed all of the 16,900 shares of its remaining outstanding Series B Preferred Stock for $16.9 million. During the year ended December 31, 2018, the Company redeemed 13,800 shares of its Series B Preferred Stock for $13.8 million. As of September 30, 2019, no Series B Preferred Stock remained outstanding and as of December 31, 2018, 16,900 shares were outstanding, which were redeemed for $16.9 million in cash.
11. STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY
Preferred Stock. The Company is authorized to issue up to 8,990,000 shares of preferred stock (the “Preferred Stock”). The Preferred Stock may be issued from time to time in one or more series. The Board of Directors is authorized to
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