Most well-negotiated restaurant leases contain a provision that states the tenant has exclusive rights to sell a certain style of food – e.g. that tenant will be the only one in the shopping center who can sell fast casual Mexican or sit-down Mediterranean or carry-out Chinese. If you do not have an exclusivity provision, there […]
Read more...Category: Real Estate
UPDATE: SHA Opts Not to Appeal Pre-Condemnation Ruling from Montgomery County
This is to provide an update on this story from earlier this year, where we successfully defended a property owner’s right to deny the State Highway Administration’s efforts to gain access to his property for environmental testing, and actually had the statute in question declared unconstitutional. As matters turned out, the State Highway Administration did not appeal this […]
Read more...Liquor License Provisions in “Fast Casual” Restaurant Leases
The Washington Post has an article today on the proliferation of Chipotle-inspired “fast casual” restaurants that allow customers to customize their meals with a variety of fresh ingredients. The article notes that, while more traditional fast food establishments (think McDonalds or Wendy’s or Taco) are struggling to find new opportunities for growth, fast casual restaurants are booming. […]
Read more...Montgomery County Judge Declares Key Maryland Eminent Domain Statute Unconstitutional
On Monday, July 14, a judge of the Montgomery County Circuit Court declared unconstitutional a long-standing law that permits the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) to obtain a court order allowing it to enter private property, without the landowner’s consent, and conduct intrusive drilling, soil sampling, and subsurface engineering studies. The law has been on […]
Read more...Bethesda Apartment Building Construction Causing Closures, Spawning Lawsuits
In the last two years, the Woodmont Triangle area of downtown Bethesda has seen a building boom in high-rise luxury apartment buildings. Construction of one of those buildings, however, appears to be taking its toll on some established local businesses, and has now caused the closing of two local restaurants and an automotive repair shop. […]
Read more...Maryland Announces Plans to Take Private Property for Purple Line
The Maryland Transit Administration has recently begun informing property owners and businesses along the route of the proposed Purple Line that they might have to make plans to move. That is because the state will begin purchasing property along the proposed route as soon as September 2013. For those property owners who will not agree […]
Read more...