GALS Real Estate, Inc. GALS sued 4 G Properties, LLC 4G alleging that 4G breached a commercial lease contract entered into by the parties in conjunction with 4G’s sale of a shopping center to GALS. After a bench trial, the trial court ruled in favor of GALS and 4G appeals. For the following reasons, we affirm. Evidence presented at the trial showed that, when 4G sold the shopping center to GALS, part of the commercial space in the shopping center was already leased to and occupied by various tenants, but 8,040 square feet of the shopping center was vacant and not leased to any tenant. In conjunction with the sale, 4G and GALS entered into a commercial lease contract, whereby 4G agreed for a period of one year to pay GALS $8,040 per month one dollar per square foot as rent on the vacant space. The lease contract provided that: “This lease is to be considered a ‘Master Lease’ and as additional units are rented in the shopping center, 4G will be allowed credit for the same and 4G’s obligation to GALS under this lease will be reduced by the number of square feet leased to other tenants subsequent to the date of this lease.” The lease contract between GALS and 4G is hereinafter referred to as the Master Lease.
The present dispute arose after GALS entered into a number of lease contracts with new tenants to build out and lease vacant space in the shopping center. The lease contracts typically gave a new tenant a period of time after the contract was signed to build out the space to make improvements necessary for the tenant’s business, after which the lease term commenced and rent was payable. In its breach of contract claim on the Master Lease, GALS agreed that the Master Lease provided that 4G was entitled to reduce the $8,040 monthly payment by the amount of square footage rented to new tenants, but it claimed that 4G breached the Master Lease by reducing the $8,040 payment during the new tenants’ build-out periods when GALS was not entitled to receive rent from the tenants. According to GALS, the Master Lease provided that 4G was entitled to reduce the $8,040 monthly payment only after each new tenant became obligated to pay rent. 4G’s defense, and the basis for its counterclaim for overpayment of amounts due, was that the Master Lease unambiguously provided that reduction of the $8,040 monthly payment commenced as to each new tenant when GALS signed a lease contract with each tenant, and therefore the reduction also applied during the pre-rent build-out period.
