Mall Tenants Demand Rent Cuts

A few months ago I wrote a short article regarding the ability of commericial tenants to negotiate rate reductions in a recession. In such a down economy, landlords are more willing to renegotiate rent rate reductions to keep their tenants. Tenants benefit from a lower lease rate. Landlords benefit from not losing tenants. Recently the Wall Street Journal published an article explaining that many tenants in malls are obtaining rent rate reductions. Often these rate reductions are based on key lease terms, relatively common in mall and shopping center leases, allowing tenants to demand rent rate cuts or rescission if key tenants or a specified percentage of tenants leave the mall or shopping center. This is just one of the several potential grounds a tenant may use to for a rental rate reduction request.