Suppose your lease doesn’t give a “problem tenant” a renewal option, but the tenant wants to stay in its space. You might be tempted to allow it to stay if the tenant is important to the synergy at your center or serves some important purpose in your office building. This is...
Unfortunately, tenant bankruptcies are something you’ll probably have to face if you own an office building or shopping center long enough. You need to take every step possible to protect yourself. The good news for shopping center owners is that bankruptcy laws give you more assignment...
Like many owners, you may have certain tenants that commit the same lease violation over and over. But they always cure—that is, correct—the violation before it becomes a lease default. For instance, they repeatedly pay their rent late each month.
If a tenant violates your lease but it doesn’t fall under a “chronic violations clause,” you’re probably required to notify the tenant in writing that if it doesn’t cure—that is, correct—the violation by a set deadline, you can take action against it. If...
Although the model of the traditional shopping mall—one or more big box or anchor stores as a destination and smaller in-line tenants that benefit from the foot traffic—has changed over the years, the concept of a synergistic relationship among tenants continues. Convenience is key...
With the start of the holiday season coming up, kicked off by Halloween and ending after Christmas, you should start to prepare for the inevitable increase in foot traffic at your shopping center. You can do this by addressing two issues: traffic and time.
An eviction right in your lease is invaluable if things go south with a tenant who fails to pay rent, but you could undo what might’ve been a hard-won right for you in negotiations if you accept some, but not all, of the overdue rent even after you’ve started the eviction proceeding...
Sometimes a lawsuit stems from someone being injured in your tenant’s space. Savvy shopping center and office building owners know that they can protect themselves by requiring the tenant to name them as an “additional insured” on their liability insurance policies. But if your...
When negotiating your leases, you may want to include a recapture right that you can exercise if the tenant intends to assign its lease or sublet all or part of its space. And you may want to include a profit-sharing clause that will require the tenant to pay all or part of any profit it makes...
If a tenant wants you to specify the number of its unit, store, or suite in the lease, then say in the lease that the tenant’s unit, store, or suite is “presently known as [insert Unit/Store/Suitenumber, e.g., 4B]. The phrase “presently known as” will...
Avoid using Latin phrases—such as, ipso facto and inter alia—in your leases. Instead, use English words that mean the same thing. For instance, instead of saying “ipso facto,” say “of itself” or “by the mere fact.” And instead of saying “...
When listing your remedies in a lease clause—for example, the option to terminate the tenant’s lease if the tenant stops operating its business—always start with the phrase: “In addition to any other rights and remedies available to Landlord under this Lease or at law or...
