While some cities have residential Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Acts (TOPA) or Community Opportunity to Purchase Acts (COPA), none have similar laws explicitly for commercial tenants and commercial space.

TOPA laws, such as those in Washington, D.C., allow residential tenants the opportunity to purchase their building when the landlord plans to sell. If tenants purchase the building, they can turn it into condominiums or a cooperative. COPA laws allow community organizations to buy buildings with the intent of creating affordable housing, which can also preserve small businesses housed in the same space. For example, San Francisco’s COPA law applies to all properties that are zoned for three or more residential units, including mixed-use properties. When the building is sold to a community organization and repurposed for affordable housing, small businesses already occupying the ground-floor commercial space can be preserved. If the organization who purchases the building chooses, they may offer stabilized or below-market rent to small businesses, similar to residential affordable housing. Alternatively, the commercial space can be developed for future community or small business use.

To benefit more small businesses, COPA and TOPA laws could be expanded to apply to commercial tenants, or existing residential-focused COPA and TOPA laws could be amended to ensure that commercial space in buildings sold or purchased through COPA or TOPA remains affordable and small business tenants are not displaced during the sale or co-op or condo conversion.