As the past few years have shown, stakeholders in the retail/shopping center industry need to be ready for anything. Our retail team has substantial experience representing retailers, landlords and tenants, big and small, in commercial leasing matters involving outparcel lots, standalone structures, strip centers, shopping centers, traditional malls, and outlet malls. Our team provides a unique perspective when negotiating and documenting short, intermediate, and long-term leases with local tenants, national anchor tenants, and everything in between to help minimize risks and to help get landlords the flexibility needed to profitably operate for 10, 15, and 20 years. We have also assisted clients in connection with lease disputes, lease workouts and terminations, negotiating subordination and non-disturbance agreements and estoppels, and complex lease purchases and assignments, both in and out of chapter 11 bankruptcy cases. Additionally, our team has substantial experience assisting our clients in connection with general litigation issues and employment matters. Our team understands our clients’ financial and strategic goals, and our experience allows us to help our clients achieve them.

Our team also has significant experience representing national anchor tenants, including, but not limited to, grocery stores and general merchandise stores with grocery components. We understand the unique challenges that arise when grocery tenants enter a new market and the substantial considerations that go into the site selection process. Our team is well-seasoned when it comes to conducting due diligence reviews and negotiating leases (including, but not limited to, exclusive use provisions, go dark provisions, and tenant improvement allowances). We have also assisted clients in connection with lease disputes, lease workouts and terminations, and negotiating subordination and non-disturbance agreements and estoppels, and purchasing leases in chapter 11 bankruptcy cases.

Our shopping center team has deep expertise in all facets of the acquisition, development, financing, and disposition of shopping center assets across the country. Our team has substantial experience representing tenants, landlords, operators, and lenders of shopping center assets in connection with leasing disputes, negotiating and preparing equity documents and loan documents, slip and fall claims, employment discrimination claims, and bankruptcy proceedings. 

Our team routinely handles all types of sale-leaseback structures, from simple single-site sale-leasebacks to reverse-build-to-suit transactions to complex multi-state and national portfolio transactions. Our team has extensive experience and expertise supporting our clients in sale-leaseback transactions from both the landlord’s and tenant’s perspectives. Our team also provides full-service support for our clients, including acquisition and divesture of retail assets, financing for sale-leaseback and reverse-build-to-suit transactions and any other services needed to help our clients achieve their strategic goals. We also have significant expertise in negotiating ground leases and shopping center declarations for single-tenant outparcels to maximize sale prices and to minimize unforeseen complications when selling outparcels to buyers in the market for triple-net, single tenant properties.

Finally, dealing with a tenant’s bankruptcy is inevitable for most landlords, and the process can be rigid and unforgiving. Our shopping center team works closely with landlords, tenants, committees of unsecured creditors and lenders in connection with negotiating lease-workouts, filing proofs of claim, negotiating executory contracts, protecting landlords’ rights in connection with financing and sales, and restructuring leases. Our team also has substantial experience representing landlords in connection with liquidations of tenant assets (including, but not limited to, Section 363 sales), and lease guaranty enforcement actions.