This is so useful and comes into play all the time.

I am a bit lost on the best way, obviously it is a longer term strategy and has an element of "appreciation play" to it...

Play the roll of a tenant, and call them up.  

There are two factors at play here. 

I'm not particularly enamored with the idea of not having a lease agreement in place, even if its a month-to-month lease, so am wondering how this would play out.Thanks in advance!

Still looks like it could make for a great deal but with historic buildings there are many things that come into play that you normally wouldn't encounter.  

French banks dont finance US properties, it's a french company that plays an intermediate part between us banks and the borrower.

That could play into whether or not the lien will be wiped out in the event of a Debtor's bankruptcy. 

Marie Poe I've got dead ends, I'd love to partner on.

As Wayne said, you need to make sure the stay was lifted in the bankruptcy and then you are free of any restrictions imposed by the bankruptcy (or bankruptcies- they may be trying to play games with multiple filings).