E Is for Estoppel Certificate
With props to Rodney Dangerfield, some legal documents just don’t get no respect—or at least are not regarded with the importance deserved. That innocuous looking two-page form that the landlord just...
View ArticleThe Dirt Dictionary: L is for Lease (Or Maybe It’s a License)
“We need to lay-off three or four rooms in the new suite we’re renting, so let’s have a form of sublease—or is it a license?—ready to go.” As the above words were uttered by an experienced lawyer, we...
View ArticleThe Dirt Dictionary: N Is For Notices
From the mundane notice concerning window cleaning to a notice of default for nonpayment, the boilerplate notice clause in the lease has to be strictly followed to make the notice effective. Two of the...
View ArticleThe Dirt Dictionary: E is for EB-5 Green Card
What do real estate and green cards have in common? The Brooklyn Navy Yard, the Sky Hotel outside Seattle, Steiner Studios in Queens, Jay Peak Resort in Vermont and Gary Barnett’s Diamond Building on...
View ArticleThe Dirt Dictionary—E is for Exclusives
There is a special symbiotic relationship between shopping center landlords and tenants, with each looking to the other to promote the “product.” But negotiations of lease terms are often contentious....
View ArticleE is for EB-5 Green Card, Part II
O.K., before the International Council of Shopping Centers came to town, we were talking about a myriad of deals—nowadays, mostly office buildings and hotels (and yes, shopping centers too) are being...
View ArticleDirt Dictionary: C Is for Co-Tenancy
There is a special symbiotic relationship between shopping center landlords and tenants, with each looking to the other to promote the “product.” The same holds true for the tenant and other tenants of...
View ArticleM is for Medical Office Leasing
With Obamacare dominating the headlines, doctors (yes, and dentists, too) have gotten more than their fair share of publicity lately. For those of us in commercial leasing, that also brings to mind the...
View ArticleDirt Dictionary: F Is for Franchise Leasing
The franchise has become ubiquitous throughout the country and the world and, yes, even in cosmopolitan New York. Some recent statistics may be worth citing: There are an estimated 1,500 different...
View ArticleF is for Force Majeure
Sandy taught us a dramatic lesson as to nature’s vagaries and the sanctity of our commercial “home.” The force majeure clause stands high in the pantheon of mostly overlooked boilerplate provisions,...
View ArticleC is for Co-Tenancy
With ICSC deal making just behind us, I was looking to write about a complex, heavily negotiated, not freely given by landlords and potentially disastrous in its consequences to the overall fiscal...
View Article‘F’ Is for Food Halls (Please Don’t Call It a Food Court!)
Going out for a casual lunch ain’t what it used to be…and that’s good. This is in large part due to the superheated growth of the food hall concept with its diverse offerings and a side of millennial...
View Article‘S’ is for SNDA
In the universe of agreements that can protect a tenant’s fundamental right to life, liberty and undisturbed tenancy—at least until the end of the agreed upon term—one of the most important is the...
View Article‘R’ Is for Recognition Agreement
Last month we talked about the SNDA (subordination, nondisturbance and attornment) agreement, a device by which a tenant can protect its leasehold interests from termination by a defaulting landlord’s...
View ArticleT Is for Tenant Improvement Allowance
Yes, you know this, but this column is a dictionary (of sorts), so let’s define a TIA—tenant improvement allowance—as the amount of money a landlord will give toward preparing a space for occupancy and...
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