Drafting ground leases manually requires extensive research across multiple sources—from property law databases to standard templates—while ensuring compliance with local regulations and best practices. Attorneys spend 6+ hours per lease coordinating complex provisions for rent escalation, improvement ownership, and 50+ year terms, all while cross-referencing uploaded documents for party-specific details.
Ground leases are among the most complex commercial real estate documents, requiring attorneys to balance multi-decade terms, sophisticated financing structures, and intricate risk allocation between landlords and tenants. Drafting a comprehensive ground lease manually takes 15-20 hours and demands expertise in construction law, environmental regulations, leasehold financing, and long-term property rights.
CaseMark automates ground lease drafting by analyzing your transaction documents and generating comprehensive agreements with all essential provisions including leasehold mortgage protections, casualty and condemnation terms, and multi-decade rent structures. Our AI handles the complexity while you maintain full control over customization and negotiated terms.
This workflow is applicable across multiple practice areas and use cases
Ground leases are fundamental commercial real estate transactions used for major development projects, retail centers, and long-term property investments where land ownership is separated from improvements.
Commercial real estate attorneys regularly draft ground leases for clients acquiring land rights for development without purchasing the underlying property, making this workflow essential for their practice.
Leasehold financing requires properly drafted ground leases that meet lender requirements and allow for mortgage assignments, subordination agreements, and leasehold estate pledges as loan collateral.
Finance attorneys must ensure ground leases contain appropriate provisions for leasehold mortgages and lender protections, making this workflow valuable for structuring secured financing transactions.
Ground leases are critical financing structures where corporations secure long-term land rights for facilities, headquarters, or retail locations, often involving complex leasehold financing arrangements.
Corporate finance attorneys structure transactions where ground leases serve as collateral for leasehold mortgages and need to draft these agreements to facilitate corporate real estate financing strategies.
Non-profit organizations frequently enter ground leases for community facilities, educational buildings, or healthcare centers on municipally-owned or donated land where fee simple ownership is not transferred.
Non-profit counsel regularly negotiate ground leases with government entities or donors for long-term facility development while preserving land ownership for public or charitable purposes.
CaseMark automatically includes comprehensive leasehold mortgage provisions that institutional lenders require, including notice and cure rights for mortgagees, new lease provisions allowing lenders to obtain replacement leases after tenant default, recognition agreements, and subordination structures. The system analyzes any lender requirement documents you upload and ensures all specified protections are incorporated. You can specify whether the ground lease should be subordinate or unsubordinate to tenant financing, and the AI will adjust all related provisions accordingly.
Yes, CaseMark adapts ground lease provisions to your specific property type, whether retail, office, industrial, mixed-use, or special purpose properties. The system tailors permitted use restrictions, construction obligations, operating covenants, and insurance requirements based on the intended use you specify. For example, retail ground leases will include percentage rent provisions and exclusive use protections, while industrial leases will emphasize environmental compliance and hazardous materials restrictions.
CaseMark offers multiple rent escalation methodologies including fixed percentage increases, CPI adjustments with caps and floors, periodic fair market value resets with detailed appraisal procedures, percentage rent based on gross revenues, and hybrid approaches. You specify your preferred escalation method and key parameters, and the AI drafts complete provisions including calculation formulas, adjustment timing, dispute resolution for appraisals, and audit rights for percentage rent. The system ensures escalation provisions are clear enough to be administered decades into the future.
CaseMark generates a fully editable document that you can customize for any negotiated terms or unique transaction requirements. The AI creates a comprehensive foundation with all standard ground lease provisions, which you can then modify, delete, or supplement. Common customizations include specific construction timelines, unique permitted uses, special landlord approval rights, or particular default and cure procedures. The system maintains proper cross-references and defined terms even as you edit the document.
Yes, the system includes detailed provisions governing improvement ownership during the lease term and upon expiration. CaseMark drafts the standard ground lease structure where improvements become tenant property upon construction but revert to the landlord at lease end without compensation, while allowing customization for alternative structures like landlord purchase options or tenant removal rights. The AI also addresses the tax and financing implications of improvement ownership, trade fixture exceptions, and the tenant's surrender obligations including environmental remediation requirements.