Retail Hours of Operation: A Tenant's Perspective
July 30, 2008
In a retail setting, especially in situations where the landlord is receiving a percentage of the gross sales earned by the tenant, landlords will attempt to establish minimum (and maximum) hours of operation for the tenant. Also, the landlords quite often reserve the right to modify these hours of operation upon providing notice to the tenant. This requirement that the tenant be obligated to be open for business for certain specified hours may have far-reaching effects on the net income of the tenant derived from its business operation.
Marketplace
June 27, 2008
Highlights of the latest equipment leasing news from around the country.
Global Warming Litigation
June 27, 2008
In-house counsel and executives within the railroad, logistics, and transportation industries need to be aware of an increasing likelihood of litigation-related to global warming. In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2007 decision in <i>Massachusetts v. EPA</i>, suits have been filed seeking to impose liability on companies whose activities emit carbon dioxide. As additional suits arise, they will doubtless reach companies in the oil, electric power, auto, and railroad sectors. These developments raise an important question: Are companies in transportation-related fields adequately prepared for the acceleration of climate change-based tort cases that their industry will likely encounter in the near future?
Navigating Your Lease Through a Sea of Liens
June 27, 2008
Equipment lenders and lessors face specialized issues when the asset is a vessel. How is the lender secured in its collateral? Can a lessor be secured in a vessel titled in lessor's name? How does a lessor perfect its security interest in the vessel? Where does the lessor stand in relation to competing creditors? This article addresses these questions within the U.S. legal system and describes proposed legislation to expand opportunities for lease financing of vessels.
Movers & Shakers
June 26, 2008
Brian Short, a real estate finance attorney, has joined Texas law firm Winstead PC as a shareholder. He will be located in the firm's Dallas office, working with the Real Estate Structured Finance Practice Group in the Business & Transactions Department. Short returns to Winstead after a short tenure at Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP, where he was a partner in the firm's capital financial markets, commercial lending and real estate development and finance groups.…
The Leasing Hotline
June 26, 2008
Highlights of the latest commercial leasing cases from around the country.
Landlord Liability For Tenants Trading In Counterfeit Goods
June 26, 2008
In addition to targeting counterfeiters, copyright and trademark holders have started going after commercial landlords whose tenants deal in fake merchandise. It is felt that this new strategy is needed in part because the counterfeiting retailers possess very few assets that can be seized and liquidated to compensate the copyright or trademark holder.
In the Spotlight
June 26, 2008
During lease negotiations with an anchor or other national tenant, it is customary for the tenant to slap on a laundry list of prohibited or 'noxious' uses and to require the landlord to subject the shopping center to the restrictions contained therein. However, before the landlord concedes several other historically noxious uses, the owner of a modern-day lifestyle center or mixed-use center, particularly one still under development, should look carefully at these standard restrictions and consider softening the restrictions to allow certain types of uses which are finding their way into upscale and first-class shopping centers.
