Storage Space in a Retail Facility

With the high cost of rentable area within a retail facility, tenants increasingly are searching for ways to reduce their rental costs, while at the same time creating enough space to house their necessary equipment, storage and inventory. One method that tenants may use to reduce their rental cost is to lease storage space in addition to the retail floor area that the tenant will need to display and sell its goods. However, when leasing storage space within a retail facility, tenants should be certain to address certain terms concerning the storage space, which may include coordinating the expiration date of the storage space agreement (the “Term”) to coincide with the Term of the retail lease, rent issues, relocation issues and construction and utility issues. This article addresses those concerns, and suggests some ways in which a tenant can be certain that its storage space agreement works in concert with its retail lease.