Restrictions on Transfer of Limited Partnership Interests (a) Subject to the provisions of 9.2(b), (c) and (d), no Limited Partner may offer, sell, assign, hypothecate, pledge or otherwise transfer all or any portion of its Limited Partnership Interest, or any of such Limited Partner’s economic rights as a Limited Partner, whether voluntarily or by operation of law or at judicial sale or otherwise (collectively, a “Transfer”) without the consent of the General Partner, which consent may be granted or withheld in its sole and absolute discretion. Any such purported transfer undertaken without such consent shall be considered to be null and void ab initio and shall not be given effect. The General Partner may require, as a condition of any Transfer to which it consents, that the transferor assume all costs incurred by the Partnership in connection therewith.
(b) No Limited Partner may withdraw from the Partnership other than as a result of a permitted Transfer (i.e., a Transfer consented to as contemplated by clause (a) above or clause (c) below or a Transfer pursuant to Section 9.5 below) of all of its Partnership Units pursuant to this Article 9 or pursuant to an exchange of all of its Partnership Units pursuant to Section 8.4. Upon the permitted Transfer or redemption of all of a Limited Partner’s Partnership Interest, such Limited Partner shall cease to be a Limited Partner.
(c) Subject to 9.2(d), (e) and (f) below, a Limited Partner may Transfer, with the consent of the General Partner, all or a portion of its Partnership Units to (i) a parent or parent’s spouse, natural or adopted descendant or descendants, spouse of such descendant, or brother or sister, or a trust created by such Limited Partner for the benefit of such Limited Partner and/or any such Person(s), of which trust such Limited Partner or any such Person(s) is a trustee, (ii) a corporation controlled by a Person or Persons named in (i) above, or (iii) if the Limited Partner is an entity, its beneficial owners.
(d) No Limited Partner may effect a Transfer of its Limited Partnership Interest, in whole or in part, if, in the opinion of legal counsel for the Partnership, such proposed Transfer would otherwise violate any applicable federal or state securities or blue sky law (including investment suitability standards).
(e) No Transfer by a Limited Partner of its Partnership Units, in whole or in part, may be made to any Person if (i) in the opinion of legal counsel for the Partnership, the transfer would result in the Partnership’s being treated as an association taxable as a corporation (other than a qualified REIT subsidiary within the meaning of Section 856(i) of the Code), (ii) in the opinion of legal counsel for the Partnership, it would adversely affect the ability of the General Partner to continue to qualify as a REIT or subject the General Partner to any additional taxes under Section 857 or Section 4981 of the Code, or (iii) such transfer is effectuated through an “established securities market” or a “secondary market (or the substantial equivalent thereof)” within the meaning of Section 7704 of the Code.
(f) No transfer of any Partnership Units may be made to a lender to the Partnership or any Person who is related (within the meaning of Regulations Section 1.752-4(b)) to any lender to the Partnership whose loan constitutes a nonrecourse liability (within the meaning of Regulations Section 1.752-1(a)(2)), without the consent of the General Partner, which may be withheld in its sole and absolute discretion, provided that as a condition to such consent the lender will be required to enter into an arrangement with the Partnership and the General Partner to exchange or redeem for the Cash Amount any Partnership Units in which a security interest is held simultaneously with the time at which such lender would be deemed to be a partner in the Partnership for purposes of allocating liabilities to such lender under Section 752 of the Code.
(g) Any Transfer in contravention of any of the provisions of this Article 9 shall be void and ineffectual and shall not be binding upon, or recognized by, the Partnership.
(h) Prior to the consummation of any Transfer under this Article 9, the transferor and/or the transferee shall deliver to the General Partner such opinions, certificates and other documents as the General Partner shall request in connection with such Transfer.
Restrictions on General Partner’s Authority A. The General Partner may not take any action in contravention of an express prohibition or limitation of this Agreement without the written Consent of the Limited Partners and the Special Limited Partner, and may not (i) perform any act that would subject a Limited Partner to liability as a general partner in any jurisdiction or any other liability except as provided herein or under the Act; or (ii) enter into any contract, mortgage, loan or other agreement that prohibits or restricts, or has the effect of prohibiting or restricting, the ability of a Limited Partner to exercise its rights to a Redemption in full, except in each case with the written consent of such Limited Partner.
B. The General Partner shall not, without the prior Consent of the Partners (in addition to any Consent of the Limited Partners required by any other provision hereof), or except as provided in Section 7.3D, amend, modify or terminate this Agreement.
C. The General Partner may not cause the Partnership to take any action which the General Partner would be prohibited from taking directly under the General Partner’s bylaws as in effect from time to time.
D. Notwithstanding Section 7.3B, the General Partner shall have the exclusive power to amend this Agreement as may be required to facilitate or implement any of the following purposes:
(1) to add to the obligations of the General Partner or surrender any right or power granted to the General Partner or any Affiliate of the General Partner for the benefit of the Limited Partners;
(2) to reflect the issuance of additional Partnership Interests pursuant to Sections 4.4B and 5.4 or the admission, substitution, termination, or withdrawal of Partners in accordance with this Agreement (which may be effected through the replacement of Exhibit A with an amended Exhibit A);
(3) to set forth or amend the designations, rights, powers, duties and preferences of the holders of any additional Partnership Interests issued pursuant to Article 4;
(4) to reflect a change that is of an inconsequential nature and does not adversely affect the Limited Partners in any material respect, or to cure any ambiguity, correct or supplement any provision in this Agreement not inconsistent with law or with other provisions, or make other changes with respect to matters arising under this Agreement that will not be inconsistent with law or with the provisions of this Agreement;
(5) to satisfy any requirements, conditions, or guidelines contained in any order, directive, opinion, ruling or regulation of a federal or state agency or contained in federal or state law;
(6) to reflect such changes as are reasonably necessary for the General Partner to maintain its status as a REIT, including changes which may be necessitated due to a change in applicable law (or an authoritative interpretation thereof) or a ruling of the IRS;
(7) to modify, as set forth in the definition of “Capital Account,” the manner in which Capital Accounts are computed; and
(8) to amend or modify any provision of this Agreement to reflect a statutory or regulatory change regarding the federal income tax treatment of the “profits interest” of the Special Limited Partner or to ensure that the receipt of the Special Limited Partner’s profits interest will not result in taxation to the Special Limited Partner. The General Partner will provide notice to the Limited Partners when any action under this Section 7.3D is taken.
E. Notwithstanding Sections 7.3B and 7.3D, this Agreement shall not be amended with respect to any Partner adversely affected, and no action may be taken by the General Partner, without the Consent of such Partner adversely affected if such amendment or action would (i) convert a Limited Partner’s interest in the Partnership into a general partner’s interest (except as the result of the General Partner acquiring such interest), (ii) modify the limited liability of a Limited Partner, (iii) alter rights of the Partner to receive distributions pursuant to Article 5 or Section 13.2A(4), or the allocations specified in Article 6 (except as permitted pursuant to Sections 4.4, 5.4, and Section 7.3D(2)), (iv) materially alter or modify the rights to a Redemption or the REIT Shares Amount as set forth in Section 8.6, and related definitions hereof, or (v) amend this Section 7.3E. Further, no amendment may alter the restrictions on the General Partner’s authority set forth elsewhere in this Section 7.3 or in Section 11.2A without the Consent specified in such section. This Section 7.3E does not require unanimous consent of all Partners adversely affected unless the amendment is to be effective against all partners adversely affected.
Outside Activities of Limited Partners Subject to any agreements entered into by a Limited Partner or its Affiliates with the General Partner, Partnership or a Subsidiary, any Limited Partner and any officer, director, employee, agent, trustee, Affiliate or stockholder of any Limited Partner shall be entitled to and may have business interests and engage in business activities in addition to those relating to the Partnership, including business interests and activities in direct competition with the Partnership or that are enhanced by the activities of the Partnership. Neither the Partnership nor any Partners shall have any rights by virtue of this Agreement in any business ventures of any Limited Partner or Assignee. Subject to such agreements, none of the Limited Partners nor any other Person shall have any rights by virtue of this Agreement or the partnership relationship established hereby in any business ventures of any other Person, other than the Limited Partners benefiting from the business conducted by the General Partner, and such Person shall have no obligation pursuant to this Agreement to offer any interest in any such business ventures to the Partnership, any Limited Partner or any such other Person, even if such opportunity is of a character which, if presented to the Partnership, any Limited Partner or such other Person, could be taken by such Person.
Transfers of Limited Partnership Interests 9.1 Restrictions on Transfer of Limited Partnership Interests.
(a) No Limited Partner may offer, sell, assign, hypothecate, pledge or otherwise transfer all or any portion of his Limited Partnership Interest, or any of such Limited Partner’s economic rights as a Limited Partner, whether voluntarily or by operation of law or at judicial sale or otherwise (collectively, a “Transfer”) without the consent of the General Partner, which consent may be granted or withheld in its sole and absolute discretion. Any such purported Transfer undertaken without such consent shall be considered to be null and void ab initio and shall not be given effect.
(b) No Limited Partner may withdraw from the Partnership other than as a result of a permitted Transfer of all of its Partnership Interest pursuant to this Article 9. Upon the permitted Transfer or redemption of all of a Limited Partner’s Partnership Interest, such Limited Partner shall cease to be a Limited Partner.
Restrictions on Owners' Power The Owners shall not direct the Owner Trustee to take or to refrain from taking any action if such action or inaction would be contrary to any obligation of the Issuer or the Owner Trustee under this Agreement or any of the other Basic Documents or would be contrary to the purpose of the Issuer as set forth in Section 2.03, nor shall the Owner Trustee be obligated to follow any such direction, if given.
Certification of Limited Liability Company and Limited Partnership Interests Each interest in any limited liability company or limited partnership controlled by any Grantor and pledged hereunder shall be represented by a certificate, shall be a “security” within the meaning of Article 8 of the New York UCC and shall be governed by Article 8 of the New York UCC.
Transfer of General Partner’s Partnership Interest A. Except in connection with a Termination Transaction permitted under Section 11.2.B, the General Partner shall not withdraw from the Partnership and shall not transfer all or any portion of its interest in the Partnership (whether by sale, statutory merger or consolidation, liquidation or otherwise), other than to an Affiliate, without the Consent of the Limited Partners, which may be given or withheld by each Limited Partner in its sole and absolute discretion, and only upon the admission of a successor General Partner pursuant to Section 12.1. Upon any transfer of a Partnership Interest in accordance with the provisions of this Section 11.2, the transferee shall become a substitute General Partner for all purposes herein, and shall be vested with the powers and rights of the transferor General Partner, and shall be liable for all obligations and responsible for all duties of the General Partner, once such transferee has executed such instruments as may be necessary to effectuate such admission and to confirm the agreement of such transferee to be bound by all the terms and provisions of this Agreement with respect to the Partnership Interest so acquired. It is a condition to any transfer otherwise permitted hereunder that the transferee assumes, by operation of law or express agreement, all of the obligations of the transferor General Partner under this Agreement with respect to such transferred Partnership Interest, and no such transfer (other than pursuant to a statutory merger or consolidation wherein all obligations and liabilities of the transferor General Partner are assumed by a successor corporation by operation of law) shall relieve the transferor General Partner of its obligations under this Agreement without the Consent of the Limited Partners, in their reasonable discretion. In the event the General Partner withdraws from the Partnership, in violation of this Agreement or otherwise, or otherwise dissolves or terminates, or upon the Incapacity of the General Partner, all of the remaining Partners may elect to continue the Partnership business by selecting a substitute General Partner in accordance with the Act.
B. The General Partner shall not engage in any merger, consolidation or other combination with or into another person, sale of all or substantially all of its assets or any reclassification, recapitalization or change of its outstanding equity interests (“Termination Transaction”) unless (1) the Termination Transaction has been approved by a Consent of the Partners and (2) either clause (a) or (b) below is satisfied:
(a) in connection with such Termination Transaction all Limited Partners either will receive, or will have the right to elect to receive, for each Common Unit an amount of cash, securities, or other property equal to the product of the REIT Shares Amount and the greatest amount of cash, securities or other property paid to a holder of one REIT Share in consideration of one REIT Share in connection with the Termination Transaction; provided, that, if, in connection with the Termination Transaction, a purchase, tender or exchange offer shall have been made to and accepted by the holders of more than fifty percent (50%) of the outstanding REIT Shares, each Holder of Common Units shall receive, or shall have the right to elect to receive, the greatest amount of cash, securities, or other property which such holder would have received had it exercised its right to Redemption (as set forth in Section 8.6) and received REIT Shares in exchange for its Common Units immediately prior to the expiration of such purchase, tender or exchange offer and had thereupon accepted such purchase, tender or exchange offer and then such Termination Transaction shall have been consummated; or
(b) the following conditions are met: (i) substantially all of the assets directly or indirectly owned by the surviving entity are held directly or indirectly by the Partnership or another limited partnership or limited liability company which is the survivor of a merger, consolidation or combination of assets with the Partnership (in each case, the “Surviving Partnership”); (ii) the holders of Common-Equivalent Units own a percentage interest of the Surviving Partnership based on the relative fair market value of the net assets of the Partnership and the other net assets of the Surviving Partnership immediately prior to the consummation of such transaction; (iii) the rights, preferences and privileges of such holders in the Surviving Partnership are at least as favorable as those in effect immediately prior to the consummation of such transaction and as those applicable to any other limited partners or non-managing members of the Surviving Partnership; and (iv) such rights of the Limited Partners include at least one of the following: (a) the right to redeem their interests in the Surviving Partnership for the consideration available to such persons pursuant to Section 11.2.B(a); or (b) the right to redeem their Common Units for cash on terms equivalent to those in effect with respect to their Common Units immediately prior to the consummation of such transaction, or, if the ultimate controlling person of the Surviving Partnership has publicly traded common equity securities, such common equity securities, with an exchange ratio based on the determination of relative fair market value of such securities and the REIT Shares.
Restrictions on Holders Each Holder agrees by acquisition of a Transfer Restricted Security that, upon receipt of the notice referred to in Section 6(c)(iii)(C) or any notice from the Company of the existence of any fact of the kind described in Section 6(c)(iii)(D) hereof (in each case, a "SUSPENSION NOTICE"), such Holder will forthwith discontinue disposition of Transfer Restricted Securities pursuant to the applicable Registration Statement until (i) such Holder has received copies of the supplemented or amended Prospectus contemplated by Section 6(c)(iv) hereof, or (ii) such Holder is advised in writing by the Company that the use of the Prospectus may be resumed, and has received copies of any additional or supplemental filings that are incorporated by reference in the Prospectus (in each case, the "RECOMMENCEMENT DATE"). Each Holder receiving a Suspension Notice hereby agrees that it will either (i) destroy any Prospectuses, other than permanent file copies, then in such Holder's possession which have been replaced by the Company with more recently dated Prospectuses or (ii) deliver to the Company (at the Company's expense) all copies, other than permanent file copies, then in such Holder's possession of the Prospectus covering such Transfer Restricted Securities that was current at the time of receipt of the Suspension Notice. The time period regarding the effectiveness of such Registration Statement set forth in Section 3 or 4 hereof, as applicable, shall be extended by a number of days equal to the number of days in the period from and including the date of delivery of the Suspension Notice to the date of delivery of the Recommencement Date.
General Partner Right of First Refusal The transferring Partner shall give written notice of the proposed transfer to the General Partner, which notice shall state (i) the identity of the proposed transferee, and (ii) the amount and type of consideration proposed to be received for the transferred Partnership Units. The General Partner shall have ten (10) days upon which to give the transferring Partner notice of its election to acquire the Partnership Units on the proposed terms. If it so elects, it shall purchase the Partnership Units on such terms within ten (10) days after giving notice of such election. If it does not so elect, the transferring Partner may transfer such Partnership Units to a third party, on economic terms no more favorable to the transferee than the proposed terms, subject to the other conditions of this Section 11.3.
Substituted Limited Partners A. No Limited Partner shall have the right to substitute a transferee as a Limited Partner in his or her place (including any transferee permitted by Section 11.3). The General Partner shall, however, have the right to consent to the admission of a transferee of the interest of a Limited Partner pursuant to this Section 11.4 as a Substituted Limited Partner, which consent may be given or withheld by the General Partner in its sole and absolute discretion. The General Partner’s failure or refusal to permit a transferee of any such interests to become a Substituted Limited Partner shall not give rise to any cause of action, whether at law or in equity, against the Partnership or any Partner.
B. A transferee who has been admitted as a Substituted Limited Partner in accordance with this Article 11 shall have all the rights and powers and be subject to all the restrictions and liabilities of a Limited Partner under this Agreement. The admission of any transferee as a Substituted Limited Partner shall be subject to the transferee executing and delivering to the General Partner an acceptance of all of the terms and conditions of this Agreement (including without limitation, the provisions of Section 2.4 and such other documents or instruments as may be required to effect the admission), each in form and substance satisfactory to the General Partner) and the acknowledgment by such transferee that each of the representations and warranties set forth in Section 3.4 are true and correct with respect to such transferee as of the date of the transfer of the Partnership Interest to such transferee and will continue to be true to the extent required by such representations and warranties.
C. Upon the admission of a Substituted Limited Partner, the General Partner shall amend Exhibit A to reflect the name, address, number of OP Units, and Percentage Interest of such Substituted Limited Partner and to eliminate or adjust, if necessary, the name, address and interest of the predecessor of such Substituted Limited Partner.
