Just outside the construction fence for the Major League Soccer stadium project in St. Paul is Big Top Liquors, a retailer that has been there for many years. In case any customer is unclear, a big sign on the corner of the building informed passersby: "Midway Businesses Open During Construction."
A couple of beer snobs in my neighborhood, loyal Big Top customers, can't understand how that Big Top location can still be open.
The answer, of course, is that Big Top has a lease.
It's surprising how often that has to be explained, in business meetings and in the neighborhood. A small business can't get pushed out in a redevelopment if it has a valid right to stay there.
The business might still leave, but that's because the lease term ends or — and this could be much better — it gets paid a lot of money to move.
If smart people in business don't really appreciate what kind of an asset a lease can be, maybe business owners could use a reminder, too. A lease means keeping control of your place of business. Doing that seems like a good idea.
You can understand why new business owners are a little bit reluctant to even sign a lease, what with the big financial obligation it represents. Commercial leases are not the short-term deals like those for an apartment but more like seven or 10 years. That can be painfully long if the enthusiasm for running the business seeps away well before the lease is scheduled to run out.
Leases have to be longer than a year, though, because unlike apartment renters the business owner needs a space that's customized to work for the business. Usually landlords foot most of the bill for that. The landlord needs to get that money back, of course, taking the repayment a month at a time as part of a monthly rent check.