Operating Partnership and Long-Term Incentive Plan Units
On April 2, 2014, Bluerock Residential entered into the Second Amended and Restated Agreement of Limited Partnership of its Operating Partnership, Bluerock Residential Holdings, L.P. (the “Partnership Agreement”), pursuant to which Bluerock Residential was the sole general partner of the Operating Partnership. In connection with the Distribution, the Partnership Agreement was amended by the Thirteenth Amendment thereto, pursuant to which Bluerock Residential withdrew as the general partner of the Operating Partnership and the Company was admitted as the sole general partner thereof. The Company may not be removed as general partner of the Operating Partnership by the limited partners with or without cause.
The Partnership Agreement, as amended, provides, among other things, that the Operating Partnership initially has two classes of limited partnership interests: OP Units and LTIP Units. Certain OP units will be designated as “C-OP Units” and certain LTIP units will be designated as “C-LTIP Units.” The Company expects that its Operating Partnership will issue OP units to limited partners, including the Company, in exchange for capital contributions of cash or property, including in connection with the contribution of the net proceeds of any future offering of the Company’s shares, as described above, and that the Company’s Operating Partnership will issue LTIP units, pursuant to the BHM Incentive Plans, to persons (including our Manager, directors and employees) or entities who provide services to the Company. In addition, the Company’s Operating Partnership will issue C-LTIP Units to the Company’s Manager pursuant to the Management Agreement. In calculating the percentage interests of the partners in the Operating Partnership, LTIP Units are treated as OP Units. Additional C-LTIP Units will also be issuable to the Company’s executive officers or other service providers of the Company at the discretion of the Company’s Board.
Pursuant to the Partnership Agreement the Company will be obligated to file a registration statement covering the issuance or resale of shares of common stock received by limited partners who held their Partnership Units as of the date of the partnership agreement (including their transferees and assigns) upon such limited partners’ redemption of their OP units, under which the Company will agree to use reasonable efforts to have the registration statement declared effective, to register or qualify such shares under the securities or blue sky laws of such jurisdictions within the United States as required by law, to list the Company’s shares of common stock issued pursuant to the exercise of redemption rights on any securities exchange or national market system upon which the Company’s shares of common stock are then listed, and to indemnify limited partners exercising redemption rights against all losses caused by any untrue statement of a material fact contained in the registration statement, preliminary prospectus or prospectus or caused by any omission to state a material fact required to be stated or necessary to make the statements therein not misleading, except insofar as such losses are caused by any untrue statement or omission based upon information furnished to us by such limited partners.
In general, LTIP Units will receive the same per-unit distributions as the OP Units. Initially, each LTIP Unit will have a capital account balance of zero and, therefore, will not have full parity with OP Units with respect to any liquidating distributions. However, the Partnership Agreement, as amended provides that “book gain,” or economic appreciation, in the Company’s assets realized by the Operating Partnership as a result of the actual sale of all or substantially all of the Operating Partnership’s assets, or the revaluation of the Operating Partnership’s assets as provided by applicable U.S. Department of Treasury regulations, will be allocated first to the holders of LTIP Units until their capital account per unit is equal to the average capital account per-unit of the Company’s OP Unit holders in the Operating Partnership.
As of December 31, 2023, limited partners other than the Company owned approximately 68.68% of the common units of the Operating Partnership (7,365,735 OP Units, or 59.45%, is held by OP Unit holders, and 1,143,442 LTIP Units, or 9.23%, is held by LTIP Unit holders, including 3.76% which are not vested at December 31, 2023). Subject to certain restrictions set forth in the Operating Partnership’s Partnership Agreement, OP Units are exchangeable for Class A common stock on a one-for-one basis, or, at the Company’s election, redeemable for cash. LTIP Units and C - LTIP Units may be convertible into OP Units under certain conditions and then may be settled in shares of the Company’s Class A common stock, or, at the Company’s election, cash.
During the year ended December 31, 2023, the Company granted C-LTIP Units to the Manager pursuant to the Management Agreement in payment of (i) the base management fee and (ii) the operating expense reimbursement as follows: (a) 85,750 and 17,462 C-LTIP Units, respectively, granted on February 22, 2023 for the fourth quarter 2022, (b) 114,391 and 20,531 C-LTIP Units, respectively, granted on May 17, 2023 for the first quarter 2023, (c) 125,491 and 24,753 C-LTIP Units, respectively, granted on August 15, 2023 for the second quarter 2023, and (d) 142,144 and 27,835 C-LTIP Units, respectively, granted on November 14, 2023 for the third quarter 2023. Such C-LTIP Units were fully vested upon issuance.
In the future, the Operating Partnership may issue OP Units or preferred OP Units from time to time in connection with acquisitions of properties or for financing, compensation or other reasons.