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A commercial lease is a long-term commitment — often five, ten, or more years. Business circumstances change over that time, and without a negotiated early termination right, a tenant locked into an unfavorable lease has very few options besides continuing to pay rent...

A shopping center's foot traffic often depends heavily on one or two anchor tenants — a grocery store, a major retailer, a movie theater. When an anchor leaves, smaller tenants can see sales drop sharply through no fault of their own. A co-tenancy clause is the lease...

Imagine signing a lease for a coffee shop, only to have the landlord lease the space next door to a competing coffee chain six months later. An exclusive use clause is the tool that prevents this — and it's one of the most valuable protections a retail tenant can...

Common in shopping centers and malls, percentage rent is a lease structure that ties part of a tenant's rent obligation directly to how much revenue the business generates. For retail tenants, understanding this structure — and negotiating it carefully — can...

Moving into a commercial space rarely means moving into a finished one. Whether it's a raw retail shell or an office that needs reconfiguring, buildout costs can run into six figures. A tenant improvement allowance — often shortened to "TI allowance" — is one of the...

Forming an LLC or corporation is supposed to protect your personal assets from business liabilities. A personal guaranty on a commercial lease can undo that protection — at least with respect to the lease itself. Many tenants sign one without fully understanding what...