What Is Most Important When Negotiating a Commercial Lease?

Video Transcript

I’m a little bit different. I like commercial leases, and I love jumping in and getting into the details, and most of my experience is on the tenant side. And so when I get involved helping out a tenant at the letter of intent stage or term sheet stage, we’re thinking about general deal points. Sometimes I’m asked to weigh in on those, but oftentimes a broker is going to be driving that process, but I’m happy to weigh in on the principle business terms.

But I really get involved when a lease is presented by the landlord, and our job is to make sure that that lease matches the business deal that was agreed to in the letter of intent or term sheet. And then my approach is to focus on the biggest issues as it relates to tenants. And so for tenants, that’s operating expenses, the tenant improvement allowance, and construction process, and then the existence of a guarantee. So, we don’t have all the leverage in the world as a tenant, but we do have leverage over a couple of things. And I advise my tenant clients to fight hard about a couple of things, and otherwise be just aware of what’s in the lease, but focus on what’s important. At Avisen Legal, we regularly counsel buyers, sellers, tenants, landlords, and developers in all aspects of commercial real estate.