Malls · Office Properties · Uncategorized

Due diligence before the due diligence?

When we perform acquisition due diligence on behalf of a buyer, we find two types of issues. The first is where the seller has presented information that overstates the income or conditions. The seller may have presented that a tenant’s minimum rent is $10,000 per month, but the lease states $9,000. Or, perhaps the lease… Continue reading Due diligence before the due diligence?

Retail leases · Uncategorized

Let’s eat, Grandma! Let’s eat Grandma!

A comma can change the meaning of a sentence fairly drastically. And, for lease administration purposes, it can have an unexpected impact on cash flow. The clause below was from a center we worked on last week: “Tenant’s Proportionate Share” shall be equal to the number of rentable square feet included in the Premises divided… Continue reading Let’s eat, Grandma! Let’s eat Grandma!

Malls · Retail leases · Shopping Center · Uncategorized

Just how good was that tenant attorney?

One of our earliest blogs was about the landlord’s standard lease being the best case scenario. Changes that are made to that standard lease are being done at the tenant’s request because the tenants have seen, over and over, how not changing those clauses has impacted their financials. Tenants are dealing with tens or hundreds… Continue reading Just how good was that tenant attorney?

Malls · Office Properties · Shopping Center · Uncategorized

Strange things are afoot at the Circle K

As underwriters of commercial real estate, we deal in facts. We read the leases, calculate all of the rents and reimbursements, examine the critical non-financial covenants, analyze the prior year cash flows and provide an analysis of the assumptions that our clients have made on vacancies and lease up and Tis and inflation and so… Continue reading Strange things are afoot at the Circle K

Malls · Office Properties · Retail leases · Uncategorized

A couple of percentage rent/gross sales issues this week

This week, we were working on an acquisition of a property in the southeast. One tenant occupied the majority of the property, with a handful of other tenants accounting for about 10% of the leasable area, but about 20% of the income. There was a restaurant tenant that had a unique name that I had… Continue reading A couple of percentage rent/gross sales issues this week

Malls · Retail leases · Shopping Center · Uncategorized

Gross sales/percentage rent considerations when backfilling a department store/big box

Site plan of King of Prussia Plaza from the early 1960s with an Acme Supermarket: Since the 1970s, it has not been common to see certain types of tenants in regional malls as department stores enforced certain types of use restrictions that existed in their leases (often to protect parking).  However, as closures of former… Continue reading Gross sales/percentage rent considerations when backfilling a department store/big box

Malls · Office Properties · Retail leases · Shopping Center · Uncategorized

How many expense pools are required?

Over the years, we have worked on 150+ tenant regional malls where the sellesr had been using 3-4 expense pools per prorata expense category, and we have also worked on 20 tenant open air centers where the seller had been using 20 different expense pools. What’s right? As new variables are introduced into leases, the… Continue reading How many expense pools are required?