Special Holiday Leasing Issues Affecting Retail Leases

Tis the season for special shopping hours and a whole host of special issues that uniquely affect retail tenants—longer hours of operation, seasonal help, special decorations and possibly additional seasonal signage, special events, extra common area maintenance expenses and lots more advertising.

I could barely lift the paper this past week with all the special advertising inserts for “Black Friday.” Some stores that have rarely bought an ad for the last several months went all out for this huge shopping day.

Landlords and tenants don’t always think about the issues related to these special issues. 

Consider the special holiday hours most retail stores have this time of year. Does the lease require that the tenant stay open longer? On the other hand, does the tenant want to stay open longer than the lease addresses? And with multi-tenant retail site, such as a shopping center, how does the longer hours affect the common area charges? If one tenant keeps much longer hours than another, does it pick up more of the expenses for the common areas? What about all those extra seasonal employees? Where do they all park? Any requirements in the lease to park in specific areas? How does this get policed?

What about special holiday signage or decorations? Are there any limitations in the lease about the type of signage or decorations? Does the landlord have the right to approve the tenant’s signs or decorations before they go up?

What about special activities that a tenant might want to engage in, such as having the high school choir sign outside its storefront or handing out special promotional materials? How does the landlord deal with competing requests from tenants?  Tenants need to keep in mind that some of the rules and regulations affecting what they want to do may not be in their respective leases, but in the rules posted for the common areas.

The best time to think about these issues is long before the holiday shopping season starts. If your lease fails to cover any of the above issues, you should consider addressing any concerns prior to the start of next year’s holiday season.

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