Commercial Partnership VS Lease Option VS Tenants in Common TIC

[Tracy Ellison - Bey]

Hey guys,

I could use some help structuring a partnership that was just offered to me by a mentor who has become a good friend lately. He is an older fellow looking for an active partner to go in on his commercial property and asked me if I would like to.

He recently bought and is still finishing up on renovating a 20k sq/ft commercial property that is about 15% occupied currently. The property is zoned to be leased to business offices, medical offices, churches, and organizations. 

We will be discussing more of the details on Saturday, but from what we discussed so far, he is willing to give me half interest in the property, I'll be responsible for leasing and managing out half the property for a potential $5k NOI. And I'll be on the hook for $3k/month going to him for expenses, but my side comes with some current tenants paying $1500/month total. Then we would refinance the property in 2017 and split the cashed out equity in some way.

If I decide to move forward, after discussing more detail about current mortgage (if any), property expenses and past details, I'm trying to figure out whether it is best to do a TIC or some other type of partnership to structure this deal to protect interest but lessen the liability as much as possible.

P.S I'm copying this question over to an attorney as well but just wanted to know if anyone here has had any experience structuring something similar Thanks.