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When listing your remedies in a lease clause—for example, the option to terminate the tenant’s lease if the tenant stops operating its business—always start with the phrase: “In addition to any other rights and remedies available to Landlord under this Lease or at law or in equity….” You should use this phrase because it gives you the right to resort to many types of remedies—not just the ones you’re listing in the partic...

Be careful when providing site plans to a tenant. It can accidentally lock you into plans for your center that you may want to change later without a hassle from the tenant. You never know what will happen that will require you to reconfigure any number of things at your property, and you need the freedom to do so.

The number of violent crimes taking place at public venues in recent years has skyrocketed, with the Oct. 1 mass shooting of concert-goers in Las Vegas being the biggest attack in United States history. Owners of public spaces are reevaluating their security, some by asking outside security firms to review their security systems and make recommendations for improvement.

The holiday shopping season—and its positive and negative effects on your property—won’t let up until the New Year. But you can start to prepare for a major issue, the inevitable increase in foot traffic at your shopping center, now by addressing two issues: traffic and time.

It’s important to keep your office building or shopping center property in its best condition. This includes aesthetics—especially if it’s a Class A property or is located in an “upscale” neighborhood. But what can you do when a valuable prospective tenant needs to install rooftop equipment to make its business function in the space it would lease from you, and you’re afraid the equipment will bring down the building’s appearanc...

When you think about settling a dispute with a tenant without going to court, arbitration as an alternate dispute resolution method might immediately come to mind. That’s because arbitration is widely known and talked about in commercial real estate. But before you pursue arbitration, consider resolving a dispute by submitting the dispute to mediation. Mediation is typically faster and more economical and efficient than either fighting in court or using the more t...

Although the model of the traditional shopping mall—one or more big box or anchor stores as a destination and smaller in-line tenants that benefit from the foot traffic—has changed over the years, the concept of a synergistic relationship among tenants continues. Convenience is key and if you don’t realize the benefit of synergy, which can create loyalty from shoppers who know they can get everything they need with one trip to your center, you’ll...

Signage rights are hotly contested for some leases, and particularly those with retail tenants. After all, prominent signs can draw foot traffic to a store. Ambiguous signage provisions can create a dispute that could’ve been avoided if signage had been addressed in negotiations and drafted in the lease. A Massachusetts landlord found out the hard way that its ownership interest in a pylon at its center wasn’t protected by the tenant’s lease.

Owning a large retail or office building property can be lucrative. After all, if the rent rate is based on the square footage that a tenant rents, a vast space has the potential to pull in more money than a small one. But profiting from the sheer size of your property isn’t a given. To collect rent, you need a tenant, and if you can’t find one, you’ll have vacant space on your hands. If you’ve thought about what you can do with that space, consi...

Sometimes, no matter how well-negotiated your lease is, you could still be subject to a tenant’s whim regarding certain issues, like the tenant giving its consent to changes at your shopping center or office building. And you might think that because you and the tenant are sophisticated parties, it’ll be reasonable about consent. You might even think that the covenant of “good faith and fair dealing” applies in such a scenario—which would r...