Owner Wins
April 18, 2016
Facts: The owner of a shopping center sued a tenant for breach of its lease. The owner had charged as part of common area maintenance (CAM) a prorated amount that it had to spend on fixing potholes in the parking lot and installing signs limiting the parking lot to customers. The owner classified...
Owner Wins
April 18, 2016
Facts: A car dealership leased a lot where its inventory was stored. It contracted with a car carrier company to transport its cars from certain locations to the lot. A mechanism devised by the dealership tenant to control traffic at the entrance to the lot pulled a brick wall down. A security...
Feature
March 31, 2016
The initially slow-growing movement towards environmental sustainability in past years has become a full-blown way of life for many people, chief among them business owners. In fact, some retail tenants have either staked their business model on being “green” or have improved...
Plugging Loopholes
March 31, 2016
Many people don’t know that retailers—namely drug stores, grocery stores, discount department stores, home improvement stores, music stores, and book stores—have special deals with manufacturers, vendors, or suppliers to promote certain products. And that might not mean much to...
Q & A
March 31, 2016
Q: Several years ago, I began subleasing my space at a shopping center to a new tenant. Recently, that space was affected when the city condemned a portion of the property for a public works project. As a result, the space became unusable. The owner of the center was compensated by the city for the...
Owner Loses
March 31, 2016
Facts: A restaurant tenant faced with an eviction order offered the owner of the space $40,000 to extend the time it could use the space after it was supposed to vacate. The tenant wanted to use the extra time to work out a deal with a potential buyer of the restaurant, who planned to use the same...
Feature
February 23, 2016
Shopping centers often have one or more parking areas available for tenants’ customers and employees. Without adequate parking at the property where they rent space, stores and offices couldn’t survive—and owners would lose them quickly. Providing parking seems as though it should...
Drafting Tips
February 23, 2016
Ideally, you’ll want to keep square footage and dimensions out of your lease or attached floor plan because those numbers can easily become the focus of a dispute. But you may have to include square footage or dimensions in certain circumstances—for example, if you’re dealing with...
Q & A
February 23, 2016
Q: My lease with a tenant gave me the right to evict it if it defaulted on the lease. After the tenant failed to pay rent, it also moved out of the space but left behind a few items that seemed worthless. I engaged in a self-help eviction, by hiring a company to dispose of the items left behind,...
Owner Wins
February 23, 2016
Facts: A shopping center owner sued its tenant for violating the permitted-use provision of its lease, which allowed it to operate a batting cage and hold agility classes for team sports. Specifically, the tenant had been offering strength-and-conditioning classes, fitness-training classes, dance...
