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The right to be the only tenant in a shopping center or mall that sells a certain type of product or operates a certain type of business is highly valuable—and, therefore, very strategically negotiated. If you give a tenant this right (in the exclusive use clause of its lease) it can contribute greatly to a tenant’s success at your center or mall, benefitting you too.

You may have a “wish list” for items you would like to include in your lease with a prospective tenant, but be careful not to overdo it. Making blatantly unfair requests during negotiations can offend tenants or give them the impression that you won’t be realistic with them if an issue arises once the lease begins. Plus, big box tenants or those with a lot of bargaining power are more likely to balk at requests for things that are too owner friendly, b...

If you tend to lease space to a lot of partnership and corporate tenants, you could be in for a rude awakening when you find out that you can’t enforce a lease with one of those corporate tenants. If a business hasn’t taken the necessary partnership or corporate actions to allow it to enter into a lease, you could end up having trouble enforcing the lease later.

Many office building and shopping center owners build remedies into their agreements so they can enforce the lease terms they’ve negotiated with their tenants. But even though an owner’s remedies can redress many situations, it still behooves you to give your tenant a strong incentive to stick to the lease terms in the first place—especially for big-ticket obligations like paying rent.

Q: A lease deal I’ve been working on with a tenant has taken more time that I anticipated. I’ll be reviewing the final document soon, and I don’t want any further delays. If there’s a minor mistake in the final copy of the lease, is it safe to make a handwritten correction for the sake of moving things along?

Despite protecting yourself from costly litigation by using an indemnification clause in your leases with tenants and reducing your exposure to personal injury lawsuits by properly maintaining your center or building, you may still be on the hook for an accident, unless you’re immune from liability. Having insurance that will cover the related costs helps soften the blow.

It’s not uncommon for tenants to plan to spend more than you’ve agreed to pay for a tenant improvement allowance (TIA). Owners have a dual goal when providing a TIA: It entices tenants to lease the space and, by being updated, the space is more valuable overall. But generally it takes some time—several weeks to several months—to complete a buildout in a commercial space. Ideally, the tenant would complete its im...

Q: A prospective tenant for my shopping center wants its cotenancy clause to provide that a specific well-known retailer that takes up a large space in the center must be replaced with a “major tenant” if the retailer goes out of business. I assume this means a tenant that’s large enough to fill the entire square footage of the vacant s...

If you’re like most commercial space owners, you’ve included the commonly used “cure period” in your leases, to give tenants some time to fix any lease defaults. This makes it easier for both parties—it gives the tenant, who might not have even been aware of a violation, the opportunity to resolve things without resorting to lease termination or other remedies. But a problem could arise for you if the tena...

While it can be a complicated process to “green a lease” for a tenant that requests environmentally friendly provisions, these agreements can work in your favor, too. Cost savings through energy efficiency, earning valuable credits toward LEED certification, and becoming attractive to green-centric prospective tenants are all major benefits.