If you are a retail tenant that wants to lease space at a mixed-use development, keep in mind that you are not dealing with a typical shopping center, warns Robert Mullins, senior counsel of PetSmart, Inc. Even if the owner agrees to use your standard lease form, you should expect to adapt it to a mixed-use setting. Mullins suggests that you consider 10 key issues when negotiating your lease at a mixed-use development.

For example, if the mixed-use development is under construction, figure out how much of the development--including the areas for residential and office uses--you want completed before you take possession of your space, says Mullins. You don't want to open your store in the middle of a construction zone.

Also, you don't want the development's residents or office tenant employees and clients parking in the spaces that your customers will use. Even if the owner reserves parking for residents and office tenants' employees, you need to know how those restrictions will be enforced, says Mullins. If a resident routinely parks in front of your store, find out what the owner will do to stop that.

To read all of the 10 key issues, contact the Commercial Lease Law Insider editor, Arthur Guess, at aguess@vendomegrp.com.