Help! My Landlord Wants to Double My Rent!

If you’re an office tenant in San Francisco (or any other market where vacancy is plummeting), there’s no doubt you’ll probably face a substantial rent hike upon your upcoming lease expiration. Since 2010, rents in the City have risen 39% and in 2012 alone, 24%; representing the biggest gain of any market in the world.

Relocating your office can be expensive and disruptive to your business, so if your first choice is to stay and renew, here are a few strategies that can help mitigate the rental increase.  The days of passive negotiation are gone; you need to be proactive.

1. Renew your lease as early as you can.  The sooner you renew, the lower your rate will be.  Unfortunately, your landlord is also aware of this and typically will not renew your lease if too much term is remaining.  They’d much rather have you come back to negotiate at a later date, when rents are higher.  Every ownership is motivated by different things, however, so it doesn’t hurt to begin the dialogue early. 
2. Explore options outside of your building.  Even if you fully intend to stay, you need to get out in the market and see what else is available.  You cannot expect to have any negotiating leverage with your landlord if their property is your ONLY option.
3. Explore options within your current landlord’s portfolio.  If you’re getting priced out of your current office space, perhaps there’s a less expensive option elsewhere in the building on a lower floor, or even within another building your landlord owns.
4. Reduce your square footage.  One of the most effective ways to reduce your monthly operating expenses is to simply lease less space.  Identify inefficiencies within your current space and consider consolidation or reconfiguration.  Are there employees in private offices that could be just as effective in a workstation?  Could employees who are out of the office regularly share a common workspace? There also might be an opportunity to “give back” some space upon your renewal whereby the landlord carves out a section of your office and builds a demising wall, thus reducing your rentable square footage.
5. Hire a commercial real estate advisor.  Your broker is the best source of market information, and when you’re well-represented, your landlord knows you have access to valuable market information and may potentially relocate if they don’t offer you a fair deal.  But your broker also knows something your landlord does: renewing existing tenants is cheaper for the landlord than signing leases with new ones. Should you leave the building, the landlord will temporarily lose rent while the space is unoccupied. Also, brokerage commissions and tenant improvement allowances are typically higher on new leases.  Your broker will quantify these costs, translate them into real numbers your landlord can understand and then make a business case as to why your renewal rate should be lower than their current asking rate.

Rental increases are a natural part of the cycle and being prepared and proactive is the best way to mitigate an inevitable rental hike.  Ultimately, you’ll need to weigh out the two options of either staying in your space and softening the blow, or relocating to a less expensive building or submarket.

See also: When is the Best Time to Renew an Office Lease?

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5 Things Every Office Tenant Should Consider in the New Year

©2012 Darvin Atkeson / LiquidMoon.com

Over the years I’ve observed that for many tenants, once the lease has been executed it’s filed away and forgotten until it’s time to renew or relocate.  This is partially because they’re focused on their core business but also because they assume that once the lease is signed, the terms cannot be modified again until after the expiration date; this is simply not true.  Depending on factors such as a change in the building’s occupancy level, the general overall health of the local market, and even a change in the building’s ownership, improving the terms and rental rate could be achievable by the tenant as leverage may have shifted.  At the very least, a quick refresher will remind a tenant of key dates, their rights and options, or even a potential liability they’re currently exposed to.

As we head into the New Year it’s a good time to dust off your lease and ask your commercial real estate advisor to conduct a review and provide you with an updated lease abstract. Here are five things they should consider:

1.  Could your rental rate be immediately lowered?
If the rental rate you’re currently paying is substantially higher than where current market rates are, then a “Blend and Extend” strategy may be possible.  Simply put, you amend your lease to extend the length of your term, and blend the new lower rate into the present high rate, thereby immediately lowering your rent.  If your lease expiration date is too far in the future or you do not wish to extend the lease beyond that date, there could be other options as well.  Perhaps the landlord has a large security deposit on file, and you’ve made timely rental payments whose sum now eclipses the cost of the landlord’s up front occupancy costs (tenant improvements, broker commissions, etc.).  Albeit risk-adverse, savvy landlords understand that their tenants’ success is tied to their own.  Therefore, they may allow you to apply a portion of your existing security deposit towards rent, and in some cases just simply give some back.

2.  Are you aware of important notification and lease dates?
If you have the right to extend your term, the landlord typically will build notification dates into the lease.  For example, you may need to notify the landlord of your intent to renew no sooner than nine but no later than six months prior to your lease expiration.  This also goes for Early Termination, should you have that right.  Make sure to be well aware of when your lease expires, as well.  It can sneak up on you and if you don’t plan and time your renewal or relocation wisely, your leverage could potentially be substantially reduced.  Mark your calendar and stay ahead of these dates.

3.  Have you received and reviewed your Operating Expense Rent Statement?
If the landlord is passing through operating expense increases to you as additional rent, they should be providing you with an annual expense statement.  Don’t hesitate to ask your real estate advisor to review your statement for you.  If something is irregular they’ll catch it and perhaps recommend you exercise your right to audit, which tenants are usually allowed to do no more than once a year.  It’s also worth the effort to make sure expenses are not being passed through to you that were not agreed to in the lease.

4.  Does the size of your office still accommodate your needs?
Do not think that you have to “ride out your lease” if you’ve outgrown your space or perhaps have had to reduce the size of your staff.  Your real estate advisor can help you work with the landlord to relocate within the building into a more appropriately sized suite, and if one is not available, then subleasing may be an appropriate solution.

5.  What sublease rights do you have?
For many reasons, tenants often need to get out of their space in advance of their lease expiration date, and subleasing can be a wise exit strategy.  However, not all sublease clauses are created equal.  First, do you even have the right to sublease, and if so, what restrictions will be placed on you?  Are you allowed to sublease to existing tenants in the building, or tenants who have recently toured the building on a direct basis?  Can you market the space at any rate you set, or does it have to be equal to or higher than direct space in the building?  How are sublease profits shared and how much time does the landlord have to respond to a consent request?  Know your rights, and how the subleasing terms will likely affect the ability to achieve your desired results.

When several years have passed since you’ve signed your lease, it’s easy to forget what you signed up for in the first place.  Your real estate advisor can effectively and efficiently digest your lease, extrapolate key points, and then present them to you in a lease abstract within the context of today’s current market conditions.  This quick refresher is time well spent, and having a better handle on your lease’s key points and terms could prove invaluable for whatever may come your way in the New Year.

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Smart Office Leasing Strategies are Inherently Green

A skillful commercial real estate advisor approaches each transaction with the goal of obtaining the best deal and terms possible for their client, while also identifying a space that will maximize employee comfort and productivity. The advisor also plays a key role in influencing how the new office is built out and constructed, as well as where the office is located.

Sustainable business practices just happen to exist within the intersection of all of these goals; and if they do not, they should.

There are many opportunities throughout a commercial lease transaction to save the client money, and many of them also have the added benefit of being more responsible decisions, environmentally. Here are few examples of leasing strategies that easily align to accomplish both smart business and environmental goals:

THE LOCATION OF THE OFFICE

Having an office located within a high-density area makes a lot of business sense; it makes a company more accessible to a wider and deeper labor and customer pool, and associated car parking costs can be reduced by simply being connected to multiple mass transit options. The positive environmental impact of removing single-passenger cars from the road are many, and employees who bike or walk to the office are not only happier and healthier, but more productive while at work.

Giving preference to LEED Certified buildings is a great start to any office search, as the ownership has already taken the necessary steps to reduce energy, waste and water consumption, and improve indoor air quality.

THE OFFICE BUILD-OUT

By identifying an office that most closely matches the client’s desired configuration, a better rental rate can be negotiated since the landlord’s cost of construction will be lower. However, scaling back the scope of the tenant improvements also helps to reduce added pressure on new resources as well as minimizing construction waste that would have otherwise been sent to a landfill.

Boosting employee health and comfort also increases productivity, and one of the most effective ways to do that is to increase access to natural daylight. This is most easily accomplished in an open office plan along a window line, however if private offices are necessary, then utilizing glass will allow sunlight to permeate the office. If the tenant is located on the top floor of the building, skylights are often inexpensive and effective. Increasing the availability of natural sunlight simultaneously reduces the need for overhead lighting – and reducing energy consumption leads to cost savings.

FURNISHING THE OFFICE

With the sheer surplus of used and refurbished office furniture available today, purchasing new is most often a waste of money. The leasing broker has relationships with many furniture vendors who can provide an office tenant with quality used furniture, usually 30-50% below the cost of purchasing new. But in addition to saving the client money, the broker has again helped reduce pressure on raw materials and helped divert used furniture from a landfill. Additionally, new furniture can also be extremely toxic and can leach harmful VOC’s (volatile organic compounds), formaldehyde and other toxic chemicals into the air. Used office furniture will have already off-gassed these fumes and will therefore not negatively affect the indoor air quality of the office.

There are of course many, many opportunities to align sound commercial leasing strategies with sustainable business practices, especially when the real estate process begins with mindful focus and awareness. Identifying the intersection of these goals is not only SMART, but GREEN.

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How much office space should I REALLY lease?

Leasing too much (or too little) office space can be a costly mistake, however determining exactly how much space you require is one component of the leasing process that is often rushed or inaccurate.

Unfortunately, our industry is partially to blame for this.  Tenants often think they need more space than they actually do, and since a broker earns more when you lease more, they may be the last person to tell you that you could scale back.

Taking the time to identify the size, configuration and quantity of each element of your new office will not only save you time and money down the road, but chances are you’ll find that you require less space than you originally thought you did.

Old rules of thumb such as, “tech tenants require 150 square feet per employee, and law firms require 350” is an unreliable measure and nothing more than an insightful metric for spotting a gross irregularity; there are far too many variables involved in determining your space requirement to simplify it in this way.

A better and more accurate solution is to take an analytical approach by using a tried and true Excel spreadsheet.

First, calculate the quantity and size of all your desired offices, cubes, conference rooms and supporting spaces such as kitchens, server rooms, storage closets, reception area so as to arrive at your Net Square Footage.

Then factor the following into your spreadsheet as they’ll substantially affect your true space requirement.

• Circulation Factor – this is simply “the space between” and takes into account all the interior space that hasn’t yet been accounted for such as hallways and walkways between cubes.
• Load Factor – Buildings add a percentage on top of the actual square footage of your office to account for common areas such as lobbies, restrooms and hallways.  This is the difference between the Useable Square Footage (USF) and Rentable Square Footage (RSF). Properties can vary greatly in how efficient they are, and a good broker will not overlook this important factor.

Finally, this exercise will yield an accurate square footage of what you require today, but what about in the future?  Take time to consider factors that will affect your space requirement throughout the term of your lease such as hiring or consolidation, planned mergers and acquisitions and changing in funding schedules.

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