Leasing of Solar Energy Equipment
For traditional institutional equity investors in leveraged and single-investor equipment lease transactions, solar equipment may offer an attractive investment opportunity. Leasing solar equipment may also provide an attractive investment structure for traditional investors in power projects looking to expand investments in renewable energy projects.
Expand Your Confidentiality Clause
Confidentiality clauses are a common component of real estate management agreements, agency agreements, leases and many other agreements relating to commercial property. Nevertheless, they can leave parties with the uneasy feeling that comes from dealing with the unknown.
<b><i>In The Spotlight: </b></i>Strategies in Tenant Office Lease Renewal Negotiations
As tenants reconsider and update office space needs, it is imperative that they proactively develop a strong renewal/relocation negotiation strategy to maximize their future rights and benefits. Unfortunately, many tenants wait too long to focus on space needs and assume their lease will be renewed on reasonable terms. If a tenant waits until its notice period is upon it before it assesses its needs and develops a strategy or looks at the renewal rights in its current lease, it may become a 'captive tenant' forced to negotiate from a weakened position in the market.
Retail Hours of Operation: A Tenant's Perspective
In a retail setting, especially in situations where the landlord is receiving a percentage of the gross sales earned by the tenant, landlords will attempt to establish minimum (and maximum) hours of operation for the tenant. Also, the landlords quite often reserve the right to modify these hours of operation upon providing notice to the tenant. This requirement that the tenant be obligated to be open for business for certain specified hours may have far-reaching effects on the net income of the tenant derived from its business operation.
Marketplace
Highlights of the latest equipment leasing news from around the country.
Global Warming Litigation
In-house counsel and executives within the railroad, logistics, and transportation industries need to be aware of an increasing likelihood of litigation-related to global warming. In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2007 decision in <i>Massachusetts v. EPA</i>, suits have been filed seeking to impose liability on companies whose activities emit carbon dioxide. As additional suits arise, they will doubtless reach companies in the oil, electric power, auto, and railroad sectors. These developments raise an important question: Are companies in transportation-related fields adequately prepared for the acceleration of climate change-based tort cases that their industry will likely encounter in the near future?
Navigating Your Lease Through a Sea of Liens
Equipment lenders and lessors face specialized issues when the asset is a vessel. How is the lender secured in its collateral? Can a lessor be secured in a vessel titled in lessor's name? How does a lessor perfect its security interest in the vessel? Where does the lessor stand in relation to competing creditors? This article addresses these questions within the U.S. legal system and describes proposed legislation to expand opportunities for lease financing of vessels.