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As retail and restaurant businesses contract and struggle to survive, many shopping center tenants are looking for ways to get out of their leases. One common exit strategy is for tenants to assign their lease interest or sublease some or all of the leased space to a third party. Tenants are generally allowed to do this, as long as the landlord gives consent to the arrangement.

Here’s a four-phase strategy for drafting a lease amendment letting a tenant contract its space.

In a post-pandemic world where a greater volume of work and business will be carried out remotely, many tenants will need the flexibility to not only expand but also contract their space. Accordingly, knowing how to negotiate and draft favorable contraction lease amendments can give your business a major advantage. And that’s what this analysis will show you how to do.

The COVID-19 pandemic has illustrated the need for landlords and tenants to be flexible and work together to find solutions to leases that have become disadvantageous. One approach is to enter into a buy-out agreement allowing the tenant to end the lease early in exchange for an agreed-to sum of money. Maybe there’s already a clause in your current lease that provides for a buy-out, or maybe you’ll have to negotiate a new agreement with the tenant. Either way, here’s a look at the key issues to consider in negotiating and structuring a lease buy-out.

Even before the pandemic, shopping center tenants were insisting on the right to terminate their lease in the event the anchor tenant leaves. Giving in to these demands may be unavoidable when tenants are a part of a national chain or otherwise enjoy negotiating leverage. But you should also impose reasonable restrictions so that an anchor’s departure doesn’t cause a mass exodus that turns your shopping center into a ghost town.

In these uncertain times, securing rock solid assurances against tenant default is of paramount importance. The challenge is great. COVID-19 has left many tenants strapped for cash and unable to scrape together a security deposit. As a result, landlords are having to ask for third-party guaranties from tenants’ corporate owners and affiliates.

The size, look, style, and content of the exterior signs listing a building’s name and tenants can have a significant impact on not only a property’s marketability and curb appeal but also on the landlord’s image and reputation. That’s why landlords should seek to negotiate and include appropriate lease language ensuring them control over placement of exterior signage at the property. Here are the five things to include, along with a Model Lease Clause created by a veteran New York City leasing attorney that you can adapt for your own circumstances.

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 leases before the pandemic now need extra space to meet social distancing requirements under public health orders.

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 national companies and name brands.

Make sure your arbitration rules cover all the bases.

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 the special 12 lease protections you need when leasing commercial space for medical use.