Office Enterprise, Inc.

For a large tenant the optimal amount of time you want to have before your lease expires is two years.

Here's how it works.

For about a year you and I, your tenant rep, need to get to know each other. Leases average about five years and over that time things in your business invariably change. For example large law libraries have disappeared. It's becoming  all digital so attorneys don't need that space anymore. Offices need fewer secretaries, if any at all. Maybe your customer base moved. Your key employees may have changed their responsibilities and live in different areas.

These and other factors can be important input into the decision to negotiate a renewal where you are of identify an ideal location for your business. It's information that I need to know and you need to share if you want to be happiest for the next five years.

Don't Want to Move? We can look at "blend and extend" to lower your occupancy cost^?.

Competition is the most important input into the analysis of where your best lease terms reside. As early as practical in our relationship we will help you figure in the sometimes misleading cost incentives that other landlords will make to get you to move to their building, and make sure you have a strong bargaining position from which to negotiate with your present landlord if you want keep your current location. We might initiate a "blend and extend" negotiation to find a better bottom line.

To create some real competition, in the second year we will take some shopping excursions, seeing what is out there in the location that you like and with the amenities that you require. Roughly 6 to 9 months before your lease expiration, we will have nailed down one or two locations that you'd like to move to. Tampa Bay vacant commercial space has been rising and continues to rise so there will certainly be tempting offers to consider.

The last six months are devoted to negotiating with your new (or present) landlord. Believe me there are a lot of issues to work through. Of course there is the rent you will be paying. However, this number will be modified by incentives like the landlord's building out to your specifications and a certain number of months of free rent^?. An average commercial lease is 30 pages of small print. You'll be professionally represented on every page. We need to keep in mind that having plenty of time to negotiate will be our most powerful weapon.

If a move is in order, the final months will be taken up by your new landlord preparing for you to move in. This usually means building out the space to your specifications.

Two years seems like a long time, but some things are best done slowly. And when you and your associates get settled in the new space, or enjoying the rent savings this negotiation has produced, you'll know that it was time well spent.

Photo by Amy