Feature
January 29, 2019
Using a guarantor to secure your lease obligations—if you aren’t as financially strong or experienced as the owner for the space you want to lease would like—can be the difference between doing business in a desirable location or having to set up shop elsewhere. But while the...
Q & A
January 29, 2019
Q: I’m in negotiations with the owner of retail space I’ll be leasing. The operating expense provision is being heavily negotiated, mainly regarding specific items that I’ll be required to pay and those that will fall on the owner. Aside from actual costs, what else should I look...
Traps to Avoid
January 29, 2019
Even if you do your best to plan expenses for your business when it comes to the space you rent, a new operating expense or a significant increase in a current operating expense might arise after you sign a lease, or after the base year, if you sign a base year lease. It could be an increase that...
Tenant Wins
January 29, 2019
Facts:A landlord and a tenant signed a lease that provided that the landlord would insure the building and the tenant would insure its personal property inside the building. When the property was later damaged by a fire, the landlord’s insurance covered the loss. The landlord’s insurer...
Feature
December 18, 2018
Making a profit from running your business at a mall or shopping center is the ultimate goal, and to further that, you might be lured by reasonable, or even low, base rent. But an affordable base rent figure is only as good as the total when you add incidental costs—which can be so high that...
Tenant Wins
December 18, 2018
Facts: A tenant rented space for its office on two floors of a building. When it attempted to exercise its option to renew its lease for an additional five-year term, the landlord offered to buy out the lease, but the tenant rejected the offer. A few weeks later, the tenant received a termination...
Tenant Wins
December 18, 2018
Facts: A landlord leased so-called vanilla box space to a café tenant. The tenant was required to perform electrical work before it could open. Its contractor, an electrician, completed the work, and the landlord was informed that it had been done so the café could open. The tenant went out of...
In the News
December 18, 2018
There’s good news for the growing number of marijuana dispensary tenants: A new survey of commercial real estate brokers who have done lease deals for space for these businesses reveals that—despite the difficulty of negotiating such leases—they would try again. So tenants won...
Feature
November 21, 2018
Getting the right to “go dark”—that is, stop operating while continuing to pay rent—if your business isn’t generating enough revenue, is very valuable. That’s because going dark can save you the cost of stocking and staffing the space you rent, among other...
Q & A
November 21, 2018
Q: The lease I negotiated with the owner of the space I rent has an option to purchase, so that I can buy the property after a certain number of years as a tenant. The notice requirements for exercising the options are very clear; however, as I’m expanding my business, I’ll probably...
