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Hurricane Ike's push into Texas, home of nearly one quarter of the nation's refining capacity, had a significant impact on gas prices across the nation. Several states, many of which were not in the tropical storm's path, saw gas prices that surpassed the $4 a gallon mark, with some consumers paying as much as $5.09 per gallon.

A cell phone service provider's offer to lease a portion of your building's rooftop may seem like easy money. But if you agree to the provisions in a standard rooftop lease without carefully analyzing each clause in the agreement, you will probably regret the decision.

We'll review the seven main clauses in a standard rooftop lease agreement and make suggestions for negotiating lease language that's more owner-friendly than the industry's boile...

The safety of your tenants and their employees and customers is vital to the success of your business'as well as to your peace of mind. You don't want to wait until you are faced with an emergency, such as a fire, to find out that you don't have an adequate emergency response and evacuation plan.

As finding good tenants becomes increasingly difficult, owners will want to lock down good prospects as quickly as possible. But what happens when an otherwise excellent prospective tenant wants to sign the lease, but can't commit until it knows whether its financing has been approved?

Time kills deals, says New Jersey attorney Marc L. Ripp, and if you are like most owners, you want to close the deal as soon as possible. The solution: Rather than waiting to se...

Owning a mixed-use property—that is, a building with both residential occupants and retail tenants—has its advantages. For example, popular retail tenants benefit from the on-site customer foot traffic. And potential residents may enjoy the easy access to shopping, services, or entertainment. But there is a downside.

If your building or center has multiple tenants, at least one of them will want the unlimited right to expand its space if business grows, and the option to exercise the expansion right at its convenience.

As an owner, you might be hesitant to include an expansion option in the lease, because it indirectly ties up open space in your building, which ultimately ends up costing you money. However, since your goal is always 100 percent occupancy, you may have to grant...

By Scott Frank, Esq.

Leases with nationally branded retail franchise tenants can be a real boon to a shopping center. That coffee, donut, or hamburger shop, or the family hair salon, can become a great traffic generator that helps increase the revenues of all your center's tenants.

As a commercial property owner, you strive to maintain 100 percent occupancy with good, law-abiding tenants that always pay rent on time and in full. While no tenant can ever be a sure bet, you might think that a federal agency is about as close to perfect as you can get. Given the government's source of income—our tax dollars—it should be the safest deal available.

Medical office leasing is a hot market. And if you're like many office building owners, you're thinking about renting space in your building to a medical office tenant. But unlike regular tenants, medical office tenants bring certain environmental risks. For example, you can expect the space to become contaminated during the lease, when the medical office tenant starts generating hazardous materials and medical waste.