Historically, most leases for our properties have been on a full-service gross or net lease basis, and we expect to continue to use such leases in the future. A full-service gross lease generally has a base year expense “stop”, whereby we pay a stated amount of expenses as part of the rent payment while future increases (above the base year stop) in property operating expenses are billed to the tenant based on such tenant’s proportionate square footage in the property. The property operating expenses are reflected in operating expenses; however, only the increased property operating expenses above the base year stop recovered from tenants are reflected as tenant recoveries in our statements of operations. In a triple net lease, the tenant is typically responsible for all property taxes and operating expenses. As such, the base rent payment does not include any operating expenses, but rather all such expenses are billed to or paid by the tenant. The full amount of the expenses for this lease type is reflected in operating expenses, and the reimbursement is reflected in tenant recoveries. All tenants in the Lake Vista Pointe, 2525 McKinnon, Sorrento Mesa and Canyon Park properties have triple net leases. Certain tenants at AmberGlen, Superior Pointe, Florida Research Park, Circle Point, The Quad, Cascade Station and Denver Tech have leases on a triple net basis. We are also a lessor for a fee simple ground lease at the AmberGlen property. All of our remaining leases are predominately full-service gross leases.
Factors That May Influence Our Operating Results and Financial Condition
During the first quarter of 2020, the World Health Organization declared the
COVID-19
outbreak a pandemic. There have been mandates from international, federal, state and local authorities requiring forced closures of businesses and other facilities, and most of the markets in which our buildings are located have been or are subject to some form of pandemic-related restrictions. These forced closures and restrictions have had a material adverse effect on the global economy and the regional U.S. economies in which we operate, including negatively impacting some of our tenants’ ability to pay their rent.
All of our buildings are open and continue to operate. We have adopted new policies and procedures to incorporate best practices for the safety of our tenants, our vendors and our employees. However, the usage of our assets in the first quarter 2021 was significantly lower than normal. Usage of our assets in the near future depends on the duration of the pandemic, the implementation of
COVID-19
vaccines and corporate and individual decisions regarding return to usage of office space, which is impossible to estimate.
We continue to closely monitor the impact of the
COVID-19
pandemic on all aspects of our business and geographies. While we did not experience any significant disruptions during the three months ended March 31, 2021, as a result of
COVID-19
or governmental or tenant actions in response thereto, the Company granted rent relief to four tenants comprising approximately 0.1% of the Company’s occupied NRA, most often in the form of a rent deferral or rent abatement. Although the rent deferrals and rent abatements granted to date did not have a material impact on our net rental revenue, the long-term impact of the pandemic on our tenants and the world-wide economy is uncertain and impossible to estimate, and will depend on the scope, severity and duration of the pandemic.
We believe that some of the industries most impacted by
COVID-19
are coworking, retail, restaurant and café, travel and accommodation, live event related and energy. We generally have limited exposure to these industries, with these sectors comprising approximately 3% of our portfolio by square footage. However, the impact of
COVID-19
extends to all sectors of the U.S. economy and as such, we expect that tenants outside of these select industries will also face significant challenges. Rating agencies downgraded the credit rating and outlook of many businesses as a result of
COVID-19.
We have collected over 99% of contractually required base rents from our tenants for the three months ended March 31, 2021 and granted rent relief for another approximately 0.1% of contractually required base rents from our tenants for the three months ended March 31, 2021. The rate of collections in future months may be lower, as the length of the economic downturn continues to impact tenants. We have developed dedicated teams and processes to evaluate
non-payments
and rent relief requests. We evaluate each tenant rent relief request on an individual basis, considering a number of factors. Not all tenant requests ultimately result in modification