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In a good economy, where commercial properties enjoy low vacancy rates, owners can more easily avoid giving termination rights to tenants. But in the past few years, more tenants have been negotiating to get them. Allowing a tenant to terminate its lease should be a last and final resort; generally, owners should reserve a termination right only for large or national tenants that have the leverage to demand it.

Before a prospective tenant signs a lease for space in your shopping center, it will want to know certain information about the center to make sure that the space will be advantageous to its business. The information it's interested in will most likely include items like the location of the barriers, common areas, curb cuts, entrances, exits, loading zones, other tenants, and parking areas; the size of spaces; the means of access to a space; and the size and locatio...

Struggling tenants sometimes must prioritize which creditors to pay each month. If they think you'll put up with late rent, they may put you at the bottom of the list. If you don't want to lose the tenant for some reason—for example, the loss will upset the tenant mix or co-tenancy rights of the other tenants at your center or you're having trouble leasing up your office building—you may be tempted not to take any action the first couple of times...

Commercial real estate law has been applied largely the same way for hundreds of years, since feudal times. But a recent opinion by the Court of Appeals of New York, regarding a dispute between a Manhattan movie theater tenant and the owner of the building where it rented space for its multiplex cinema, has dramatically changed the amount of leeway owners will have when making unauthorized changes to tenant-occupied space.

Keeping the operating costs that you pass through to tenants low gives your shopping center or office building a competitive edge. So, to keep insurance costs low while making sure that you have adequate coverage, consider a policy with low premiums and a high deductible. But if you pass through a portion or all of those low premiums to tenants, you should negotiate the right to pass through a portion or all of the high deductible as well.

Don't be surprised if a prospective tenant—especially one with a growing business—asks for an expansion option in its lease. This clause reserves space owned by you, typically contiguous to the tenant's, when it becomes available. An expansion option is valuable to a tenant because if it needs to expand its operations, it'll have the opportunity to do so, but won't be obligated to take the space if it determines that it doesn't nee...

Don't be surprised when a new tenant that has decided to rent office building or shopping center space from you wants to make requests early in the lease negotiating process. Typically, tenants make these requests in a letter of intent (LOI), a document that's signed by the tenant and owner indicating both parties' intent to sign the lease that they're considering. The LOI is your chance to clarify key terms and make sure that the tenant doesn't appr...

By Peter D. Morris, SCLS, SCSM, SCMD

Conduct an Internet search for “creative leasing ideas” for retail properties, and you'll see a lot of references to leasing to nontraditional uses, such as libraries and community art galleries, or exploiting pop-up store opportunities. Used correctly, these are valid options that have filled space and increased traffic for shopping center owners. But when you start to consider creative leasing, you shou...

Effectively managing snow and ice accumulations is a critical component of maintaining commercial properties in a safe condition. Whether you're the owner of a large commercial property with sufficient in-house personnel and the appropriate equipment necessary to do your own snow removal, or you own a smaller property and must hire an outside contractor to perform this service, your lease provisions should specify who's responsible for the many aspects involved ...