Billionaire Dan Gilbert Touts Flexible Rent for Retailers in Detroit

(Bloomberg) -- First, it waived the rent for three months. Now, the Detroit real estate firm founded by Dan Gilbert, is offering a flexible payment plan for its tenants as businesses start to reopen.

Bedrock, which has poured billions into developing downtown Detroit, is telling retail and restaurant tenants they can pay rent amounting to 7% of sales for the rest of the year, a bid to make the payments more manageable as the economy recovers.

Retail landlords have struggled to collect rent since public health restrictions forced stores to close across the country in March. Some property owners have offered rent abatement to tenants, while other are demanding payment.

Basing rent on a percentage of sales could gain traction as landlords look to buoy retailers that are expected to struggle as consumers return slowly to reopened brick-and-mortar stores.

“Obviously things aren’t back to normal and they won’t be for a while,” Matt Cullen, Bedrock’s chief executive officer, said in an interview. “If a link in the chain fails, it’s not a good outcome for anybody and in Detroit we’re even more acutely aware of that because we’ve worked so hard to revitalize the city.”

Bedrock’s tenants include Lululemon, Warby Parker and H&M.

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