Long Street Associates, LLP v. YMCA of Central Ohio: Ohio Appeals Court Upholds Tenant's Lease Termination Over $1.04M Build-Out Budget

Date

October 6, 2026

Added to tracker

October 13, 2026

Court or forum

Ohio Court of Appeals, Tenth Appellate District

State

Ohio

Amount / scale

$1.04 million tenant-improvement budget vs. ~$523,100 termination threshold

Parties

Plaintiff-Appellant (Landlord): Long Street Associates, LLPDefendant-Appellee (Tenant): The Young Men's Christian Association of Central Ohio

On October 6, 2026, Ohio's Tenth District Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment for the Young Men's Christian Association of Central Ohio in a suit by landlord Long Street Associates, LLP over the YMCA's 2020 termination of its lease at 31-55 West Long Street in Columbus. The lease let the tenant walk away once if the construction budget for its improvements exceeded a fixed threshold of roughly $523,100, and the budget delivered came to $1,036,697.38. The court held the landlord's own complaint admitted the final plans were agreed and the budget was the one the lease contemplated, and that an oral offer to absorb the overage could not defeat the termination right.

Why it matters

Budget-based termination options are common in leases of unfinished or historic space, and this decision shows how literally courts will read them: once the triggering budget is delivered, the option is live, whatever the landlord calls the document. Landlords also learn that statements in their own pleadings can be treated as binding admissions, and that a no-oral-modification clause will block a phone-call fix to a cost overrun. Tenants gain confidence that a clearly drafted cost-overrun exit will be enforced.

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Long Street Associates, LLP owns the building at 31-55 West Long Street in Columbus, which the lease acknowledged is listed on the national register of historic buildings. On December 9, 2019, it leased the unfinished space to the Young Men's Christian Association of Central Ohio. The lease set out a process for building out the premises: the landlord would furnish preliminary plans, the parties would work in good faith toward final plans, and the landlord would then prepare a construction budget. The landlord was to contribute a tenant-improvement allowance of $30 per square foot, about $323,100, and the YMCA agreed to fund up to $200,000 more, amortized over the initial term at five percent interest, and to pay any excess beyond that.

Case timeline · 7 entries Latest: October 6, 2026 — Tenth District Court of Appeals affirms

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