Finance, Real Estate and Law Associate Professor Anthony Orlando weighs in on a dispute between ax-throwing chain Dueling Axes and its former Las Vegas landlord, Area15, which the company accuses of using shared marketing funds and bundled ticketing to favor affiliated businesses over independent tenants. Orlando says mixed-use developments must balance the competing interests of property owners and individual tenants, whose neighboring businesses can function as either substitutes or complements, and that losses at one location can also spread when profitable locations subsidize struggling ones, potentially creating “a downward spiral that is difficult to reverse.”

This article was originally published by Inc. on September 10, 2026.