Philadelphia Metropolitan Area Real Estate Law Blog

Commercial real estate investors in Pennsylvania have probably heard about the suffering retail sector. With the popularity of e-commerce, consumers are buying their clothing and electronics online rather than in department stores and malls. While e-commerce is taking customers away from most brick-and-mortar retail, the restaurant sector has been growing, and landlords are now using food to lure shoppers back to retail spaces.

Prospective landlords and tenants are both well-served to familiarize themselves with Pennsylvania’s basic statutes concerning the proper handling of security deposits. When it comes to lease conflicts, most of them come back in some way or another to disputes about a security deposit (or lack of one). While the statutes offer a great deal of flexibility to creators of leases regarding how security deposits must be handled, there are some clearly defined guidelines that will help both tenants and landlords stay within the reasonable boundaries of good practices.

Under the right circumstances, leasing a piece of land for agricultural uses can be a lucrative option for both the landowner and the land user. A piece of land can have many uses, depending on how it zoned. Before leasing a piece of land for agricultural uses, it is wise to consider the advantages and disadvantages of this kind of arrangement.

Pennsylvanians who are interested in investing in real estate may not know where to begin. Real estate investments can be a good way for people to grow their money over a number of years. However, there are several things a potential investor should do before they put down capital on a property.

The commercial real estate landscape in Pennsylvania is experiencing some major movement in recent months. The Washington Crown Center mall south of Pittsburgh is under an agreement to be sold by Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, who is also seeking a buyer for another western Pennsylvania commercial property, the Beaver Valley Mall.

Pennsylvania recently joined a host of other states in legalizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes, and businesses are chomping at the bit to be some of the first to participate in the new industry. Although the law was signed on April 17, Governor Tom Wolf says that even those residents who qualify to receive medical marijuana products will not be able to do so until those products are produced within Pennsylvania. The new business sector means many new businesses will be vying for permits to grow the crop, not to mention the ancillary businesses which may have to acquire special licensing for extracting, processing and packaging medical marijuana products.

Commercial real estate investors and developers in Pennsylvania may already be aware of the ways in which augmented reality technology is expected to impact the industry. The technology is already growing by leaps and bounds, thanks in part to the game Pokémon Go, which utilizes augmented reality technology to create the game in the real world around the player, via the camera of his or her mobile device. The game has seen rapid success. Nintendo, which owns the rights to Pokémon, has increased its market cap by $20 billion since the game was released July 6.

An easement is a property right that may affect you whether or not you own real property in Pennsylvania. Briefly, an easement is an agreement that allows one party to use, for a particular purpose, the real property of another. While many easements are simple in principle or effect, the agreements creating and enforcing easements should be carefully crafted because they alter real property ownership rights.

Commercial real estate investors in Pennsylvania have probably noticed that prices are beginning to go sideways. After the recent real estate boom caused prices to increase to more than double what they were at in 2009, commercial real estate price increases started to slow down. Some of the factors that may be contributing to the leveling off of real estate prices are decreased job growth, increased supply from new construction and talks of higher interest rates.

Pennsylvania State Game Lands 97 may be seeing a significant increase in acreage soon. The area, which is located in Bedford County, is set to expand by 104 acres through a recently negotiated agreement, to the tune of $235,000.