## NOTE 13. NEW ACCOUNTING PRONOUNCEMENTS 

In November 2002, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued Interpretation No. 45, “Guarantor’s Accounting and Disclosure Requirements for Guarantees, Including Indirect Guarantees of Indebtedness of Others” (“FIN 45”). FIN 45 provides disclosure requirements to be made by a guarantor about its obligations under certain guarantees as well as clarifies when a guarantor is required to recognize, at the inception of a guarantee, a liability for undertaking the obligation. FIN 45 was effective for guarantees issued or modified after December 31, 2002. From time to time we may enter into guarantee arrangements on behalf of our unconsolidated joint venture entities, however, the relative amount of these guarantees to the overall amount of our share of joint venture indebtedness is not material. In addition, the impact of the adoption of FIN 45 was not material to our financial statements during the year ended December 31, 2003. 

In May 2003, the FASB issued SFAS No. 150, “Accounting for Certain Financial Instruments with Characteristics of both Liabilities and Equity”. SFAS No. 150 establishes standards for how an issuer classifies and measures certain financial instruments with characteristics of both liabilities and equity. It requires that an issuer classify a financial instrument that is within its scope as a liability (or an asset in some circumstances). This pronouncement initially affected our limited life consolidated partnerships that have a minority limited partner and that include a termination date in their respective partnership agreements at which point the partnership must redeem the outstanding equity interests for cash. However, on October 29, 2003, the FASB deferred recording the provisions of SFAS No. 150 that applied to limited life subsidiaries indefinitely. As a result, we do not have any instruments that qualify within the scope of SFAS No. 150 as of December 31, 2003. In ten of our partnerships the applicable partnership agreements provide for a contractual termination date based on specific dates or events. SFAS No. 150 requires disclosure of the estimated settlement value of these non-controlling interests. As of December 31, 2003 the estimated settlement value of these non-controlling interests was approximately $38.8 million. 

In January 2003, the FASB issued Interpretation No. 46, “Consolidation of Variable Interest Entities, an Interpretation of Accounting Research Bulletin No. 51” (“FIN 46”). On December 24, 2003, the FASB announced that it had delayed the effective date of this interpretation to periods ending after March 15, 2004 for certain variable interest entities, including the majority of our potentially affected entities. FIN 46 requires the consolidation of entities that meet the definition of a variable interest entity in which an enterprise absorbs the majority of the entity’s expected losses, receives a majority of the entity’s expected residual returns, or both, as a result of ownership, contractual or other financial interests in the entity. Currently, we consolidate entities that we control, as defined in Note 2. 

Our joint venture interests in variable interest entities consist of real estate assets and are for the purpose of owning, operating and/or developing real estate. Our property partnerships rely primarily on financing from third party lenders, which is secured by first liens on the Property of the partnership and partner equity. Our maximum exposure to loss as a result of our involvement in these partnerships is represented by the carrying amount of our investments in unconsolidated entities as disclosed on the accompanying balance sheets plus our guarantees of joint venture debt as disclosed in Note 11. We are currently finalizing the evaluation of the full effects of the issuance of FIN 46 on the accounting for our ownership interests in each unconsolidated entity. However, we believe that we will consolidate at least two of our investments in unconsolidated entities as a result of the adoption of FIN 46. We will adopt the interpretation for the variable interest entities subject to the delayed effective date on March 31, 2004. 

We have consolidated one joint venture property that was created in 2003 for the purpose of developing one regional mall. The carrying amount of the property’s investment property at cost was approximately $40 million as of December 31, 2003 and the property serves as collateral for the entity’s debt obligation. The creditors of the VIE have recourse to the extent of our guarantee of $38 million as of December 31, 2003 that is included in the total amount of guarantees disclosed in Note 11. 

