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Negotiating in the Dark, i.e., by e-Mail Alone

December 18, 2011 By 9 Comments
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I thought I’d deviate from ruminating about nuts & bolts and digress into “process.” What happened to the telephone? Does anyone think that discussions by email are always more efficient or effective, that they really Get The Deal Done better, faster, and cheaper?

I’m not talking about effective and efficient transfers of information. I’m talking about the interactive negotiation process. Using email to negotiate complicated matters is like playing tennis in total darkness. You don’t know where to aim the ball, but you hit it over the net (if you can) anyway. The return can’t be seen, you only hear it bounce. That’s email for complicated issues. [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Buying and Selling Properties, Financing Properties, Retail Leases, Retail Real Estate Law Tagged With: , , ,

One Way How Not to Get The Deal Done (At Least, Not Quickly, Efficiently or Effectively)

October 17, 2011 By 8 Comments
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Mea Culpa. I’ve espoused the following principle for years but, on occasion, forget it myself, though less and less often. So, if nothing more than as an invitation to any reader who might be on the other side of a deal from me to remind me about it and to smack me back on track, here it goes.

Let’s say that you can make a list of your comments to a document, whether it be a loan document, a lease, a purchase contract or any other kind for that matter. Also, let’s say that you can rank your comments from number “1,” the most important one, to number “100,” the least important one. OK, don’t attack me just yet, go with the assumptions because if you can’t exactly rank them, you certainly know the difference between number “1” and number “10,” etc. [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Buying and Selling Properties, Financing Properties, Retail Leases, Retail Real Estate Law Tagged With: , , , ,

Certificates of Insurance are Worthless! What Now?

October 10, 2011 By 5 Comments
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Actually, Certificates of Insurance are worthless for what you want them for. But, you knew that.

In case you didn’t already know this, I’ll try to make it clear. Forget whatever you “used to know.” The rules have changed. The history isn’t important.

A Certificate of Insurance CONFERS NO RIGHTS on the Certificate Holder. It is not a contract between the insurance company and the Certificate Holder. The insurance company is not obligating itself to do anything for the Certificate Holder. The insurance company says it will “endeavor” to let the Certificate Holder know if the coverage is being terminated, but the Certificate Holder has no recourse against the insurance company if it doesn’t give such a notice. [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Buying and Selling Properties, Financing Properties, Retail Leases, Retail Real Estate Law Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

A Loaded Question: How Do You Calculate Rentable Square Footage Floor Areas?

October 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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Last year, the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) issued a major, major update to its well-regarded protocol for measuring office building floor areas. Although BOMA’s standards were designed for, and focus on, office properties and not retail properties (unless intrinsically a part of an office building), the principles and issues raised should be of great interest to those who focus on retail real estate law matters.

For that reason, here is a “bonus” Ruminations Blog posting prepared by Steven Gellerstein:

How do your clients with office buildings calculate the rentable square footage allocated to particular units in their building? Do they determine the load factor on a “floor by floor” methodology or do they use the relatively new “single load factor”?

So what’s the difference between rentable square footage and usable square footage? Aren’t they the same? Some tenants may think so and are surprised to learn that the usable square footage is actually smaller because rentable square footage includes a tenant’s pro rata portion of the common areas (such as lounges, bathrooms, etc.) and can also include its pro rata portion of building service areas (such as mechanical rooms, janitorial closets, elevators, and stairwells) within the building.

[Read more…]

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Filed Under: Buying and Selling Properties, Financing Properties, Retail Leases, Retail Real Estate Law Tagged With: , , , ,
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