A covenant preventing the landlord from leasing to direct competitors in the center.
Also known as: Non-compete Clause
By Angel Campa, Founder · Updated March 2026
Exclusive use clauses protect the tenant's market share within the building or shopping center. A restaurant with an exclusive on "sit-down dining" prevents the landlord from leasing to another restaurant in the same complex. Without exclusivity, a direct competitor could open next door, cannibalizing sales and potentially triggering percentage rent disputes. Exclusive use rights are particularly critical for retail tenants whose business model depends on limited competition.
Found in the "Exclusivity" or "Exclusive Use" section, sometimes in a separate rider or addendum. The scope of the exclusivity (what is protected), the area (building, shopping center, or radius), and the remedies for breach are all key terms.
Lextract uses a combination of AWS Textract OCR and Claude AI to identify and extract the exclusive use from your lease PDF. The AI searches for the field name and common aliases like "Non-compete Clause" across all pages of the document, then assigns a confidence score based on OCR quality and extraction certainty. Fields with lower confidence are flagged for human review.
Radius Restriction
The geographic distance within which a tenant cannot open a competing location.
Opening Co-tenancy
Conditions requiring specific occupancy levels before the tenant is obligated to open.
Ongoing Co-tenancy
Conditions requiring the continuous operation of specific anchor tenants.
Co-tenancy Remedy
The tenant's recourse if co-tenancy fails.
Alternative Rent
The modified rent structure implemented during a co-tenancy failure period.
A strong exclusive use clause defines exactly what products or services are protected, the geographic area covered (the entire shopping center, not just the building), the remedy if breached (rent reduction, termination right, or both), and whether the exclusivity survives lease renewals.
If an existing tenant already has the right to sell competing products, the new tenant's exclusive clause cannot retroactively restrict them. The new tenant should request disclosure of all existing exclusive use provisions before signing. This is a common due diligence failure.
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