Read a campground lease where the tenant owned the bathhouse

Somebody sent me a ground lease on a small campground to look at as practice, and I want to flag one clause for anyone new, because it took me three reads to see why it mattered.

The landowner leased about 14 acres to an operator for 20 years. The operator built the bathhouse, the office, the utility pedestals at each site. The lease said improvements made by tenant remain tenant's property during the term and title passes to landlord at expiration.

So for 20 years the guy collecting site rent owns the only building with running water on the property. If he stops paying rent in year 12, the landowner is evicting an operator and then owns a park with a bathhouse he doesn't have title to until year 20. There's a separate clause about removal, and it doesn't clean this up as much as you'd hope.

What I learned from it: on any recreational property where somebody other than the owner built the infrastructure, find out who holds title to the infrastructure and when it moves. In a campground the infrastructure basically is the business, because guests bring their own vehicles and what you're actually selling is water, power, sewer, and a place to park. Who owns those things is the deal.

I'm not the person to tell you how a court in any given state would sort out that removal clause, and it does vary by state. But knowing to ask the question was worth the three reads.