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In this era of post-COVID-19 uncertainty, commercial tenants are increasingly reluctant to lock themselves into spaces of fixed dimensions over the entire lease term. Their driving imperative is flexibility. In the early days of the pandemic, as telecommuting shrank the need for space, flexibility largely meant the ability to contract. Now that employees are returning to work, many tenants are now seeking to expand their space. In addition, tenants that signed long-term...
Nontraditional, short-term stores have been popping up in malls, shopping centers, department stores, and other retail settings for over a decade. While generally less desirable than long-term tenants, pop-ups offer landlords the opportunity to pocket extra cash on vacant or non-rent-generating space. Because they usually have a smaller set-up, pop-up tenants can also pay more per square foot than conventional tenants, especially if they’re associated with nationa...
Physician practices, pathology labs, ambulatory surgery centers, clinics, and other medical providers need commercial space to lease. To obtain it, they’re willing to go not only to offices but also malls, retail outlets, and other nontraditional properties. All of this creates new opportunities for landlords. But it also creates new challenges. Leasing to medical tenants raises unique issues for which standard lease forms are ill-equipped. Here’s a look at ...
During the pandemic, some of your tenants may have abandoned their office space to work from home, leaving the premises fully or partially furnished. Now that the leasing market is returning to something approaching normal, leasing these furnished offices may prove to be a windfall for your business. The problem is that many, if not most standard office leases are designed for leasing unfurnished space.
New York State has become something of a national laboratory of commercial leasing litigation testing the rights of retail and restaurant tenants that couldn’t meet their lease rental obligations due to COVID-19 shutdowns. A brand-new case brought by upscale retailer Hugo Boss is particularly compelling because it involves most of the leading theories for COVID-related rent relief. Your assignment: Figure out which, if any, of those theories the court found...
Throughout the course of this pandemic, landlords have found all kinds of creative ways to support COVID-19-strapped tenants who can’t pay rent. When the history is written, it is likely to show that working together to find mutually workable solutions was, in fact, the most effective approach.
Many, if not most, retail tenants hesitate to sign leases containing continuous operation clauses. Of course, this dogged determination to maintain the right to go dark and not be forced to operate no matter how bad business becomes is nothing new. But there can be no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has made it harder than ever for landlords to get tenants to accept a continuous operation clause.
In addition to their express terms, leases are governed by so-called common law rules that apply regardless of what the agreement actually says. One of these rules is a normally obscure and arcane doctrine known as “frustration of purpose,” which applies when performing lease duties is possible but pointless due to some unforeseen event or circumstance beyond the party’s control. A close cousin is the doctrine of impossibility, which comes into play wh...
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