Top Provisions to Look Out for When Negotiating a Restaurant Lease (2025 Edition)

Most restaurant tenants are “clout challenged” when it comes to dealing with landlord’s (typically) onerous, one-sided lease forms. Sending a 300-comment memo will not advance tenant’s cause—in fact, may well backfire; tenant (unfairly) being branded as a troublemaker. And that goes for legal counsel, too! The objective of this CLE program is to discuss strategic analysis of the lease form and isolate those very significant legal and business provisions which have the greatest impact on the restaurant tenant. All commercial leases have a degree of complexity and uniqueness; negotiating a restaurant lease, however, comes with its own set of challenges…