MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS The $19.5 million decrease in interest expense is primarily attributable to lower outstanding balances on the Company’s lines of credit associated with the financing of the Company’s investment and operating activities.
The Company has maintained a significantly lower balance on its lines of credit throughout 2001 compared to 2000, as a result of its property dispositions proceeds used to fund future development, combined with a lower development level as a result of the slower economy.
Additionally, the Company paid off $128.5 million of secured mortgage loans throughout 2001, as well as an $85 million unsecured term loan.
These decreases were partially offset by an increase in interest expense on unsecured debt as a result of the Company issuing $175.0 million of debt in February 2001, as well as a decrease in the amount of interest capitalized in 2001 versus 2000, because of the decrease in development activity by the Company.
As a result of the above-mentioned items, earnings from Rental Operations increased $28.9 million from $225.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2000, to $254.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2001.
Service Operations Service Operations revenues decreased from $82.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2000, to $80.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2001.
The Company experienced a decrease of $4.3 million in net general contractor revenues from third party jobs because of a decrease in the volume of construction in 2001, compared to 2000, as well as slightly lower profit margins.
This decrease is the effect of businesses delaying or terminating plans to expand in the wake of the slowed economy.
Property management, maintenance and leasing fee revenues decreased approximately $2.7 million mainly because of a decrease in landscaping maintenance revenue associated with the sale of the landscape business in the third quarter of 2001 (see discussion below).
Construction management and development activity income represents construction and development fees earned on projects where the Company acts as the construction manager along with profits from the Company’s held for sale program whereby the Company develops a property for sale upon completion.
The increase in revenues of $2.2 million in 2001 is primarily because of an increase in profits on the sale of properties from the held for sale program.
Other income increased approximately $2.4 million in 2001 over 2000; due to a $1.8 million gain the Company recognized on the sale of its landscape business in the third quarter of 2001.
The sale of the landscape business resulted in a total net profit of over $9 million after deducting all related expenses.
This gain will be recognized in varying amounts over the next seven years because the Company has an on-going contract to purchase future services from the buyer.
Service Operations expenses decreased by $4.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2001, compared to the same period in 2000, as the Company reduced total overhead costs throughout 2001 in an effort to minimize the effects of decreased construction and development activity.
The primary savings were experienced in employee salary and related costs through personnel reductions and reduced overhead costs from the sale of the landscaping business.
As a result, earnings from Service Operations increased from $32.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2000, to $35.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2001.
General and Administrative Expense General and Administrative Expense decreased from $21.1 million in 2000 to $15.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2001, through overhead cost reduction efforts.
In late 2000 and continuing throughout 2001, the Company introduced several cost cutting measures to reduce the amount of overhead, including personnel reductions, centralization of responsibilities and reduction of employee costs such as travel and entertainment.
Other Income and Expenses Gain on sale of land and depreciable property dispositions, net of impairment adjustment, was comprised of the following amounts in 2001 and 2000:
## Table 0 ##
Gain on sales of depreciable properties represent sales of previously held for investment rental properties.
Beginning in 2000 and continuing into 2001, the Company pursued favorable opportunities to dispose of real estate assets that no longer meet long-term investment objectives.
Gain on land sales represents sales of undeveloped land owned by the Company.
The Company pursues opportunities to dispose of land in markets with a high concentration of undeveloped land and those markets where the land no longer meets strategic development plans of the Company.
The Company recorded a $4.8 million asset impairment adjustment in 2001 on a single property that was sold in 2002.
Other expense for the year ended December 31, 2001, includes a $1.4 million expense related to an interest rate swap that does not qualify for hedge accounting.
Net Income Available for Common Shares Net income available for common shares for the year ended December 31, 2001 was $230.0 million compared to $213.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2000.
This increase results primarily from the operating result fluctuations in Rental and Service Operations and earnings from sales of real estate assets explained above.
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS To determine the fair value of derivative instruments, the Company uses standard market conventions and techniques such as discounted cash flow analysis, option pricing models and termination cost at each balance sheet date.
All methods of assessing fair value result in a general approximation of value, and such value may never actually be realized.
Use Of Estimates The preparation of the consolidated financial statements requires management of the Company to make a number of estimates and assumptions relating to the reported amount of assets and liabilities and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the consolidated financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the period.
Actual results could differ from those estimates.3.
RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS The Company provides property management, leasing, construction and other tenant related services to properties in which certain executives have ownership interests.
The Company has an option to acquire these executive officers’ interests in these properties (the “Option Properties”).
The Company received fees totaling $1.4 million, $1.7 million and $1.9 million in 2002, 2001 and 2000, respectively, for services provided to the Option Properties.
The fees charged by the Company for such services are equivalent to those charged to third-party owners for similar services.
On June 27, 2001, A.  Ray Weeks, Jr.  resigned his position as a director and Vice Chairman of the Company.
On August 17, 2001, the Company redeemed 620,156 limited partnership units beneficially owned by Mr.
Weeks and certain members of his immediate and extended family (the “Weeks Affiliates”).
The deemed value of the units redeemed was $15.7 million, which was based on the average closing stock price of the Company for a certain period of days preceding the redemption date.
As consideration for the redemption, the Weeks Affiliates received a distribution of seven industrial rental properties and one undeveloped tract of land located in the Atlanta, Georgia metropolitan area with a value of $31.7 million.
The Weeks Affiliates also assumed a loan in the amount of $16 million from Wachovia Bank, N. A.  to the Company.
The value of the properties distributed to the Weeks Affiliates was based on negotiations between Mr.
Weeks and members of the Company’s executive committee, and was approved by the unaffiliated members of the Board of Directors.
In 2002, the Company received lease termination fees totaling $7.7 million from a tenant that is a subsidiary of Progress Energy.
William Cavanaugh III is President and Chief Executive Officer of Progress Energy and a member of the Company’s Board of Directors.
The Company’s independent directors approved the transaction and management believes that the amount received approximates a value that would have been charged to tenants with similar lease terms and commitments.
The Company has other related party transactions that are insignificant and terms are considered to be at arm’s-length and equal to those negotiated with independent parties.4.
INVESTMENTS IN UNCONSOLIDATED COMPANIES The Company has equity interests ranging from 10–64% in unconsolidated partnerships and joint ventures that own and operate rental properties and hold land for development.
The equity method of accounting is used for these investments in which the Company has the ability to exercise significant influence, but not control, over operating and financial policies.
Any difference between the carrying amount of these investments and the underlying equity in net assets is amortized to equity in earnings of unconsolidated companies over the depreciable life of the property, generally 40 years.
Combined summarized financial information for all investments in unconsolidated companies as of December 31, 2002 and 2001, and for the years ended December 31, 2002, 2001, and 2000, are as follows (in thousands):
## Table 1 ##
assessment is recorded as a liability.
WWe have $10.2 million of such special assessment liabilities, which are included within other liabilities on our consolidated balance sheet, as of December 31, 2016.
Item 7A.
Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosure About Market Risks We are exposed to interest rate changes primarily as a result of our line of credit and long-term borrowings.
Our Winterest rate risk management objective is to limit the impact of interest rate changes on earnings and cash flows and to lower overall borrowing costs.
To achieve our objectives, we borrow primarily at fixed rates.
T WWe do not enter into derivative or interest rate transactions for speculative purposes.
WWe have one outstanding swap, which fixes the rates on one of our variable rate loans, and is not significant to our financial statements at December 31, 2016.
Our interest rate risk is monitored using a variety of techniques.
The table below presents the principal amounts (in thousands) of the expected annual maturities, weighted average interest rates for the average debt outstanding in the specified period, fair values (in thousands) and other terms required to evaluate the expected cash flows and sensitivity to interest rate changes.
## Table 2 ##
The Partnership's variable rate unsecured notes and unsecured line of credit are both reflected in the table above as maturing in January 2020, based on the ability to exercise a one-year extension option from their stated maturity dates of January 2019.
As the above table incorporates only those exposures that existed at December 31, 2016, it does not consider those exposures or positions that could arise after that date.
As a result, the ultimate impact of interest rate fluctuations will depend on future exposures that arise, our hedging strategies at that time, to the extent we are party to interest rate derivatives, and interest rates.
Interest expense on our unsecured line of credit, to the extent we have outstanding borrowings, and our variable rate unsecured notes will be afffected by fluctuations in the LIBOR indices as well as changes in our credit rating.
The interest rate at such point in the future as we may reneww, extend or replace our unsecured line of credit will be heavily dependent upon the state of the credit environment.
At December 31, 2016, the face value of our unsecured debt was $2.50 billion and we estimated the fair value of that unsecured debt to be $2.57 billion.
At December 31, 2015, the face value of our unsecured debt was $2.53 billion and our estimate of the fair value of that debt was $2.62 billion.

<table><tr><td></td><td>2001</td><td>2000</td></tr><tr><td>Gain on sales of depreciable properties</td><td>$45,428</td><td>$52,067</td></tr><tr><td>Gain on land sales</td><td>5,080</td><td>9,165</td></tr><tr><td>Impairment adjustment</td><td>-4,800</td><td>-540</td></tr><tr><td>Total</td><td>$45,708</td><td>$60,692</td></tr></table>
<table><tr><td></td><td> 2002</td><td> 2001</td><td> 2000</td></tr><tr><td>Land, buildings and tenant improvements, net</td><td>$1,232,026</td><td>$1,261,490</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Land held for development</td><td> 38,848</td><td>41,962</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Other assets</td><td> 67,590</td><td>62,017</td><td></td></tr><tr><td></td><td>$1,338,464</td><td>$1,365,469</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Property indebtedness</td><td>$579,893</td><td>$581,477</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Other liabilities</td><td> 52,057</td><td>60,609</td><td></td></tr><tr><td></td><td> 631,950</td><td>642,086</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Owners’ equity</td><td> 706,514</td><td>723,383</td><td></td></tr><tr><td></td><td>$1,338,464</td><td>$1,365,469</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Rental income</td><td>$169,683</td><td>$172,257</td><td>$92,082</td></tr><tr><td>Net income</td><td>$51,013</td><td>$58,091</td><td>$32,054</td></tr></table>
<table><tr><td></td><td>2017</td><td>2018</td><td>2019</td><td>2020</td><td>2021</td><td>Thereafter</td><td>Total</td><td>Fair Value</td></tr><tr><td>Fixed rate secured debt</td><td>$72,347</td><td>$4,783</td><td>$272,215</td><td>$3,583</td><td>$12,163</td><td>$16,489</td><td>$381,580</td><td>$415,231</td></tr><tr><td>Weighted average interest rate</td><td>5.88%</td><td>6.46%</td><td>7.63%</td><td>5.98%</td><td>5.73%</td><td>6.07%</td><td>7.14%</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Variable rate secured debt</td><td>$300</td><td>$300</td><td>$300</td><td>$300</td><td>$300</td><td>$1,300</td><td>$2,800</td><td>$2,800</td></tr><tr><td>Weighted average interest rate</td><td>0.79%</td><td>0.79%</td><td>0.79%</td><td>0.79%</td><td>0.79%</td><td>0.79%</td><td>0.79%</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Fixed rate unsecured debt</td><td>$2,523</td><td>$288,296</td><td>$2,859</td><td>$130,158</td><td>$250,000</td><td>$1,575,000</td><td>$2,248,836</td><td>$2,318,034</td></tr><tr><td>Weighted average interest rate</td><td>6.26%</td><td>6.08%</td><td>6.26%</td><td>6.74%</td><td>3.91%</td><td>3.96%</td><td>4.40%</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Variable rate unsecured notes</td><td>$—</td><td>$—</td><td>$—</td><td>$250,000</td><td>$—</td><td>$—</td><td>$250,000</td><td>$250,000</td></tr><tr><td>Rate at December 31, 2016</td><td>N/A</td><td>N/A</td><td>N/A</td><td>1.63%</td><td>N/A</td><td>N/A</td><td>1.63%</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Unsecured line of credit</td><td>$—</td><td>$—</td><td>$—</td><td>$48,000</td><td>$—</td><td>$—</td><td>$48,000</td><td>$48,000</td></tr><tr><td>Rate at December 31, 2016</td><td>N/A</td><td>N/A</td><td>N/A</td><td>1.70%</td><td>N/A</td><td>N/A</td><td>1.70%</td><td></td></tr></table>

Question: what was the percentage change in the earnings from service operations increased from 2000 to 2001
Answer: 0.07012