I just attended the BDO Restaurant CFO Roundtable where I presented the Top 10 Most Important Legal Provisions of a Restaurant Lease. Arranged by Dustin Minton and Floyd Roades of BDO, the Roundtable brings together restaurant industry executives to learn about industry trends. BDO is the industry leader when it comes to accounting services for restaurants. I was very impressed with every BDO person I met and I loved their new office. Wide open spaces designed to encourage collaboration. The best space was the employee dining room which had a ping pong table in it and an attached balcony overlooking Great American Ballpark.
I won’t recreate the whole presentation here, but I will say that the top most important lease provision (according to me) is the construction exhibit/clause. Between chargebacks, bonding requirements, security deposits, impact fees, requirements to work before permits are received, equipment requirements and design requirements, a tenant’s construction budget and opening schedule could be significantly affected. And these things are never covered in the LOI and typically are not even presented until the end of the lease process.
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Ohio added 4,000 new construction jobs in December, leading the country in gains for the month according to an analysis of Labor Department data released by The Associated General Contractors of America (“AGC”) last week.
From the standpoint of a construction lawyer, there is no prettier site than construction cranes in the air. Cleveland has seen its share over the last year, more so than since the mid-1990s when the Rock Hall, Gateway sports arenas and Science Center were constructed within a short span.
As the construction industry starts to rebound from a down market, rentals of project equipment are on the rise. Whether you are an owner, principal contractor, or specialty trade subcontractor, you may very well be renting equipment for use on an upcoming project. Here are five important points to bear in mind: