It also took a $2 million charge because it adopted a new method of accounting for certain lease obligations.

He said that he is taking over Federated's lease obligations for the property.

"I think bartering works best when a lease obligation is enormous and the shortfall tremendous," he said.

For instance, one pending transaction involves a tenant with a lease obligation of $26 million.

In addition, S.& P. has also placed under review about $2.48 billion of related agency and lease obligations.

But some of its lease obligations for those spaces stretch out another four years.

The space remains unoccupied, and Globalnet is negotiating to get out of $1.7 million in lease obligations, company documents show.

The risk, of course, was that the operator could not find enough temporary tenants to cover its long-term lease obligation to the landlord.

"If a company abandons space, it must recognize the entire lease obligation immediately," he said.

Texas Air's long-term debt and lease obligations total $4.9 billion.