I wrote about the importance of carefully crafting a retail use clause recently. Today, I read that greeting card and stationary company Paperchase has entered into wholesaling arrangements with Staples, an office supply company. This marks an expansion of the Staples use from office necessities to appealing to the general public by introducing greeting cards into their mix.
Paperchase also announced shop in shop concessions in the Hudson Bay stores in Canada and a desire to do the same in the USA.
Other uses such as grocery stores, pharmacies and many others are expanding their merchandising concepts as consumer’s tastes change and they grapple with omnichannel competition.
All this points to the need for carefully crafted restrictive use wording. Admittedly, I hate restrictive use clauses in leases when working for landlords; and attempt to get them in tenant leases when working with occupiers.
When working for tenants I start with getting an exclusivity clause that says something along the line of the following: “The Landlord won’t suffer or permit any other tenant to sell or permit to be sold any product, service or merchandise that conflicts with the Tenant’s use.” Please understand that I am not a lawyer and I’m not offering legal advice by providing this wording so please discuss this article with your lawyer and obtain the best wording for your circumstance.
But why do I start with that type of wording? The concept I want to get across in the negotiation is a true broad exclusivity within the property. Going back to the Staples/ Paperchase situation, let’s assume my client operated a card store. When my ficticous client entered into the lease, Staples was not in the greeting card business. Now they are a direct and large competitor.
While a prudent landlord would exclude large box stores, multi-department stores and anchors from any exclusivity restrictions; I’ve seen many leases that don’t exclude them.
From the landlord’s perspective, this type of wording is very dangerous. It is very difficult to manage a property with this type of wording, particularly when it is tied to poorly structured use clauses. For example, how would the landlord tell Staples, a national tenant, that they couldn’t sell greeting cards in this one specific location? If the landlord did nothing and my example greeting card tenant raised the exclusivity issue, then the Landlord has problems with this tenant. It creates an untenable situation.
The answer to the landlord’s conundrum is a well crafted use clause for each and every tenant, an exclusion to any restrictive covenants as noted above and wording in any granted exclusivities that is limited to the landlord leasing space to a competitor.
To learn more about this topic and how I can benefit your investments contact the author to arrange a 30-minute, no-obligation consultation.
Peter D. Morris is the principal consultant at Greenstead Consulting Group and an acknowledged expert of income-producing real estate.
He has a unique perspective gained from multiple roles in real estate including consulting, training, acquisition/disposition, leasing, asset management, development and property/facilities management as well as being the Chief Operating Officer of a publicly traded real estate company. He has a depth of knowledge in most real estate asset classes including multi-unit residential, mixed-use, retail, office, industrial and hospitality. Peter has worked with top companies such as Cadillac Fairview, Brookfield Properties, Marathon Realty, Grosvenor Americas and Colliers International. He also brings a global perspective having worked in 8 different countries including Canada, the USA, as well as countries in Asia, South America and the Middle East.