Changing signage
I’m managing a small strip center and am bothered by the inconsistent signage. I’m wondering if I want to make all the signage consistent, do the tenants have the right to block me from doing so? And can this be charged a CAM expense?
[{"id": "etvp40f", "text": "What's the lease say?", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "etvsppi", "text": "Don\u2019t do this. It will frustrate your tenants. \n\nPick a sign standard and implement the new standard through new leases and renewals/amendments. Over time the signage will become uniform. \n\nOn the CAM - Expenses for Tenant signage are not usually part of the CAM pool. Directional or way finding signage for the common area could be passed through CAM though.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "eu23i2y", "text": "I would definitely read the leases. In reference to the other poster, this is definitely something my company would pass through to the tenant. We actually just did this for one of our properties. I know what you mean; it can make it look more aesthetically pleasing if all the signs are consistent.\n\nSource: work in asset management and have portfolio of 11m sf of retail", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "eu32trh", "text": "If the current leases do not account for this, you cannot do it. \n\nAs for charging as CAM - what are you talking about? Are you trying to bill as CAM for the replacing of the signs? All tenant signage should be at the tenant's expense, so it should not be your cost at all. If the lease makes it your expense, then it is yours (or CAM in the unlikely event the lease says so).\n\nSpeaking from the tenant perspective (I represent national tenants), signs are a big deal and being able to put up signage without landlord interference is huge. National tenants want their signs to look like the signs they have everywhere else. The things my clients worry about are letter styles, colors and logo. They do not care (mostly) if the landlord wants everyone to have channel letters or to exclude box-signs or whatever and do not care if there are blade sign requirements. They do want to have as large a sign as possible (subject to local laws and not extending beyond the border).\n\nSo, my thought would be that you could set up a specific sign style (like channel letters) but allow for colors, font and logos. Also, you could restrict to tenant name (or dba) only -- as opposed to \"Book Store\" or other product name. Those would not impact new tenants. But, shy away from \"all signs must be _____ in color\" or similar.\n\nAs others have said, this will need to be addressed in new lease or renewals and you might need to give rent concessions if you are going to force a tenant to change their existing sign - they may not have the funds to replace a perfectly good sign to meet your ascetic concerns", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]