Dos & Don'ts
December 16, 2016
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 from...
Dos & Don'ts
December 16, 2016
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/Suite number, e.g., 4B]. The phrase “presently known as” will give you the...
Dos & Don'ts
December 16, 2016
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 “inter...
Dos & Don'ts
December 16, 2016
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 in...
Feature
November 22, 2016
Setting a workable commencement date for a lease to begin is one of the most important aspects of lease negotiations. But it often isn’t thought through by either owners or tenants. As with many overlooked parts of a lease deal, it takes a back seat to big ticket items like cotenancy clauses...
Q & A
November 22, 2016
Q: I’m a first-time shopping center owner in a northern state where snow and ice is prevalent in the winter. I’m afraid that if shoppers slip and fall in the common areas outside tenants’ stores, they’ll sue me. If my leases make me responsible for plowing and shoveling...
Owner Wins
November 22, 2016
Facts: A restaurant with a 1950s American roadside diner theme leased space at a shopping center. Later, the owner signed a lease with a pancake house restaurant franchisee for space nearby. The tenant asserted that the new lease with the pancake restaurant violated a restrictive covenant in its...
Owner Loses
November 22, 2016
Facts: A tenant that operated a gym received a notice from the owner of its space ordering it to obtain the proper permits to operate its business, which were required by its lease. The tenant asked a New York trial court for a Yellowstone injunction, which would toll—that is, pause—the...
Dos & Don'ts
November 22, 2016
Be careful how you describe the termination right you give a tenant. If you grant the tenant a right to terminate its lease in the event its business is sold, for example, make sure the tenant is required to exercise that right within a specific time period of the sale date. Consider what happened...
Feature
October 21, 2016
Your shopping center leases probably require each tenant to pay its share of the center’s fire insurance, liability insurance, and other kinds of insurance. However, if you want to pass through your insurance costs to your tenants as a separate component of common area maintenance (CAM) costs...
