Victoria’s Secret is facing allegations by its landlord that the company prematurely ended its stay at the Westfield World Trade Center Shopping Center, located in downtown Manhattan, in alleged violation of a lease agreement, YahooFinance.com reported. In a complaint filed in late May in New York state court, Westfield made claims for more than $30 million, alleging that the retailer had “refused to pay rent” and backed out part way through from a 12-year lease that was meant to end in 2029. The suit seeks more than $4.2 million in unpaid rent and roughly $28 million in damages for the alleged violation of the lease. “By virtue of Victoria’s Secret’s impermissible surrender of the premises, failure to continuously open for business and operate and failure to pay rental as it became due and owing, Westfield terminated the lease effective May 27, 2021,” Westfield wrote in its complaint. “As a result of Victoria Secret’s defaults under the lease and the resulting termination, Westfield is entitled to accelerate all rental as if the lease had not been terminated.” Lease agreements sometimes address these scenarios through what are known as co-tenancy clauses. Such provisions may allow tenants to reduce their rent or leave their premises during their lease term, if they can show other important tenants have already left. Victoria’s Secret allegedly invoked such co-tenancy failures and sought to terminate its lease. But Westfield argues in its suit that the retailer had not shown evidence for its claim about such co-tenancy issues. Read more. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/victoria-secret-hit-landlord-suit-215525…
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Occupancy issues are at the heart of many significant retail cases, as detailed in the ABI publication Retail and Office Bankruptcy: Landlord/Tenant Rights, available at the ABI Store. https://store.abi.org/retail-and-office-bankruptcy-landlord-tenant-righ…
