News

Negotiate your leases wisely!

In any given year, we (my company, Meridian Realty Consultants) will read and abstract 8-10,000 leases. We get to see what landlords and tenants spend their time negotiating. It is not uncommon for someone in the office to say, 「Can you believe someone took the time to negotiate this?」 It might be something as simple as a tenant negotiating that common area maintenance expenses shall not include the cost of improvements to the leasable area of another tenant.

Why would we make that statement? Because excluding tenant improvements from CAM is a 「given.」 I am not saying it has never happened, but landlords do not include tenant improvement costs in CAM. Therefore, spending time negotiating that 「exclusion」 is a waste of time. It was going to have been excluded regardless of whether than negotiated language was included in the lease. It is amazing how many of these worthless (seriously) exclusions are negotiated. Is it really necessary to negotiate that the landlord shall not include in CAM a charge that has been recovered elsewhere in the lease? No. Again, it is a given.

At the same time, lease language that has a really material impact on expenses often is not as highly negotiated.

What has the single greatest impact on a tenant’s expenses? Is it the inclusion of roof repairs? Is it the inclusion of capital repairs or replacements? Is it the inclusion of seasonal décor? While they all impact a tenant’s rate, it is the METHOD used to bill CAM or taxes that has the most significant impact. If we have a 1,000,000 shopping center with four 200,000 sf anchor tenants each paying $2.00/sf for CAM and $5,000,000 in expenses, a tenant required to pay operating expenses based upon the leasable area of the shopping center would pay $5.00/sf ($5,000,000/1,000,000), while a tenant required to pay based upon the leasable area excluding anchors would pay $17.00/sf ($5,000,000 – $1,600,000 (4 anchors x 200,000 sf x $2.00/sf))/200,000 sf (1,000,000 sf – 4 anchors x 200,000 sf).

As we continue to show in out weekly review of lease language, it is imperative to understand how lease language and changes in lease language impact the cash flow from a property. So, if you are going to negotiate the lease language, spend the time negotiating language that will materially impact the cash flow.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *