By Art Patnaude And Olga Razumovskaya 

MOSCOW--The empty storefronts and for-rent signs that pockmark the upscale shopping strip of Tverskaya Street illustrate impact of the ruble's collapse and Russia's broader economic troubles on commercial real estate.

But vacancies aren't landlords' only problem. Owners of retail and office spaces also are being deluged with requests from tenants--ranging from mom-and-pop businesses to major international corporations--to renegotiate leases. And in many cases, tenants and landlords say, the owners are acquiescing.

"Landlords are seeing the light," said Alexey Kandidov, senior portfolio manager of real estate facilities in Russia for Microsoft Corp., which he said is "in the renegotiation process" on four leases. Facing the prospect of tenants walking away, landlords are "very receptive," he said.

Falling rents and economic uncertainty already have curtailed real-estate investment. Over time, analysts warn of pressure on the banking system because falling incomes for landlords could make it harder for them to service their debt. Already in 2015, Moscow landlords have cut rent by more than $2 billion, according to Alexei Filimonov, chief executive at Astera, a real estate consulting company in alliance with BNP Paribas Real Estate.

The crux of the problem: the real-estate industry's practice of denominating rents in dollars, which stems in part from owners borrowing money in dollars. The ruble's fall from about 35 per dollar in June to almost 70 at the end of last year amounted to a near doubling of rent for tenants paying in the local currency.

In recent weeks, the ruble has rallied to about 57 per dollar. But that has eased only some of the pressure on tenants, who also are facing a weak economy due to a sharp decline in oil prices and Western sanctions tied to the war in Ukraine.

The government expects gross domestic product to shrink by about 3% in 2015, the first decline since 2009. Some private economists see a deeper contraction.

Hard-pressed tenants are asking landlords for rent reductions as well as for new leases with rent denominated in rubles. These negotiations are "not carried out easily" but "the majority of the landlords are treating this issue understandingly," said Oleg Karzhavykh, development director at O'KEY Group SA, a major Russian retailer.

Earlier this year, O'KEY succeeded in renegotiating its lease from dollars to rubles at Praktika Development's Riviera Mall in Moscow, where it is the anchor tenant. "Everybody is switching to rubles," said Bulat Shakirov, Praktika's chief executive.

For high-quality shopping centers, vacancy rates are expected to surge to 6% this year from 1.5% in 2014, according to Cushman & Wakefield. Average rents are expected to fall to $2,500 a square meter this year, from $2,625 in 2014 and $3,900 in 2013, the firm said. A square meter is about 10.77 square feet.

Rents for lower-quality properties are down in some cases by more than 30% so far in 2015, said Vladimir Pinaev, chief executive officer of CBRE Russia, adding that the pipeline for new office and retail developments has slowed. Developers have announced plans for 850,000 square meters of retail space in Moscow, but a Tuesday report by real estate services firm JLL projected only 450,000 square meters of these projects will be completed.

The pall over the market has put a damper on real-estate investment. Only $3.3 billion of commercial property sold last year in Russia, down 68% from 2013, according to data from Real Capital Analytics Inc.

Numerous deals have been upended. Late last year, for example, RB Invest, a Russian firm, was close to selling Karnaval, a shopping center near Moscow, for $67 million, according to a person who worked on the deal. But as the ruble plummeted, many of Karnaval's tenants threatened to leave if their rents weren't reduced. The owner obliged, but the cash flow of the property fell and the sale collapsed.

In addition to contract changes, "it was the buyer's understanding that the economic environment wasn't going to be the same as before," said Stanislav Bibik, head of capital markets at Colliers International Russia, which represented RB Invest. RB Invest didn't respond to requests for comment.

Declining rents could have repercussions beyond the real-estate industry. Part of the reason landlords preferred dollar leases was because they "had taken out a loan in dollars," said Andrei Protasov, managing director at Russian advisory firm ILM.

"If a lease is renegotiated in rubles, then the financials of the landlord could deteriorate," he said. The longer Russia's economic problems persist, the more the "pressure on property owners and their ability to service their debt," he said.

There hasn't been a surge of foreclosures, but banks clearly are getting more cautious about new real-estate loans. VTB24, the retail unit of Russia's second-largest bank, VTB Group, "has become more conservative in signing on property owners," said Ilya Vasilyev, deputy head of VTB24's small and medium-size enterprises department.

Mr. Vasilyev said the bank now will "conduct stress tests to see how the landlord will be paying off the loan if his income decreases" by a certain percentage.

Not all landlords are renegotiating with tenants. Dmitry Mints, chairman of 01 Properties, a large office landlord, said his company isn't agreeing to switch leases from dollars to rubles, although in "extraordinary cases" 01 Properties will agree to fix the exchange rate for a year or two for tenants who agree to renew.

"Giving up on dollar leases fully in the end wrecks the investment value of particular projects," he said.

Write to Art Patnaude at art.patnaude@wsj.com and Olga Razumovskaya at olga.razumovskaya@wsj.com

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