In the News
August 13, 2014
A Bradenton, Fla., 41-year-old shopping mall was on the online auction block recently, with the winning bid ultimately reaching $33.75 million. Empty storefronts have plagued DeSoto Square Mall for years, but a new owner isn’t necessarily the answer—and there will still be uncertainty...
Feature
July 25, 2014
Over the years, commercial real estate owners and tenants have hammered out many issues surrounding compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, often specifying in their leases which party will be responsible for compliance. But if you don’t draft your lease terms carefully with a...
Plugging Loopholes
July 25, 2014
If you haven’t negotiated a favorable holdover clause in your lease with a tenant, you may end up getting stuck with low rent and high costs if it won’t move out of the space when its lease term is over. That’s because to get rid of a tenant that doesn’t move out when its...
Owner Wins
July 25, 2014
Facts: If at any time during the lease a shopping center owner was unable to meet a cotenancy requirement, its tenant was permitted to pay a reduced “substitute rent.” The lease also provided that all disputes arising under the lease and regarding amounts less than $50,000 were to be...
Owner Loses
July 25, 2014
Facts: After an office tenant held over its space past its lease term and stopped paying rent, the owner sued the tenant’s president in his personal capacity, asserting that he was a guarantor of the lease and thus was responsible for paying the rent when the tenant stopped. The president...
Feature
June 25, 2014
Unlike office building tenants, many retail tenants rely on foot traffic to bring in at least some of their sales. If you own a shopping center for long enough, you’ve probably had to do maintenance work or make repairs to your property, which may have included erecting scaffolding or setting...
Q & A
June 25, 2014
Q: I’m contemplating signing a lease with a tenant that will require the tenant to construct its own building at my shopping center and require me to pay a construction allowance within a certain period of time after the tenant opens for business. The tenant is negotiating for provisions...
Drafting Tips
June 25, 2014
A prospective tenant that’s negotiating to lease an entire building or a large space may want to inspect the condition of the space or the underlying property before signing the lease. For example, it might want to do environmental testing or have an engineer or contractor check the condition...
Owner Loses
June 25, 2014
Facts: A dry cleaning business in a shopping center incorrectly installed commercial dryers in its space without using a professionally trained installer. It vented the dryers into the attic instead of to the building’s exterior. The shoddy installation later caused a fire. The center’s...
Owner Wins
June 25, 2014
Facts: The restrictive covenant in a restaurant’s lease with a shopping center owner prohibited the owner from leasing to other “diner type” restaurants. When the owner began building out a portion of the center for a national specialty-hamburger restaurant and began negotiations...
