ICSC published a brief summary of a handful of timely legal issues discussed during its 50th U.S. Law Conference. Among the topics were a few percentage rent concerns. They are all relevant in the current environment and worthy of addressing the “whys” of the topics and expanding on them a bit. Before hitting those issues,… Continue reading Deductions and exclusions from reported gross sales
You may be thinking this is clickbait. It’s not. This past week, we had a truly “throwaway” lease clause that had cost the owner more than $10m in value on the property. Not one clause in every lease at the property, but one clause in one lease. The clause – “The tenant may offset percentage… Continue reading The throwaway lease clause that cost more than $10m in value
Last year, upon returning from ICSC’s John T. Riordan School of Professional Development in Minneapolis, I felt the need to write a blog entry on the use of “ALWAYS” and “NEVER” when referring to commercial leases. In short, the only absolute that may exist in commercial real estate is that there are no absolutes. This… Continue reading Two words that STILL don’t exist in commercial real estate (this time related to sales reporting and percentage rent)
A while back, we had addressed the “percentage rent unicorn” – that landlord dream within a dream (Hopefully, you are thinking The Princess Bride right now) – where landlords can bill percentage rent over a monthly breakpoint with no annual reconciliation. It is not something we see often, but when we do, it often leads… Continue reading The percentage rent unicorn revisited
Last week we addressed a few of the issues to consider related to excluded area contributions, but two properties that we worked on this week made me realize I missed discussing two very significant issues – refunds/credits and recaptures as they relate to excluded area tenants. At one of the properties, an excluded area tenant… Continue reading A few more issues related to excluded area contributions
Over the past 2 months, there have been a number of stories about tenants “distorting” sales including this one in Shopping Centers Today – https://www.icsc.org/news-and-views/icsc-exchange/tenants-should-include-more-internet-returns-in-reported-sales-simon-says It is almost presented as a “breaking news” type item, but this issue, including internet returns and its technological predecessor, catalog returns, has been an issue as long as tenants… Continue reading Distorted sales and sales audits
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
I grew up using the expression “same difference.” I think I used it when I said something that I believed was right, but someone pointed out something that was wrong about what I said – but it wasn’t important enough for me to care. I think today I would probably just say “whatever.” There are… Continue reading Same difference – more subtle changes in lease language
Way back when in high school, I was on stage crew for the school’s productions. What I realized was that after doing that for several years, whenever I went to a Broadway show or musical, I would be at least as interested in how the crew handled the sets and lighting and sound as I… Continue reading Looking behind the retail curtain at the holiday
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