8 types of expertise needed
to protect your company’s vital interests in a real estate lease
It isn’t enough to have your lawyer review a landlord’s draft lease, because business issues are the source of many lease problems. Lawyers naturally focus on legal issues. They don’t spend their time learning about the economics of heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems, or market rates for electricity or other business issues. Nor do lawyers audit landlord billings, which means they’re not in a position to see whether landlords are honoring or evading lease terms. But Commercial Tenant Real Estate Representation Ltd. has all the expertise needed to protect your company’s vital interests in a lease.
1. Expertise in real estate markets
We subscribe to the biggest computerized databases and track 98% of available space in the tri-state commercial markets. We track other markets as needed. We know the terms tenants are actually getting when they sign leases. We use our market knowledge to develop alternatives that create leverage – even if you are interested only in expanding or renewing at a current location. We analyze the total lease term costs for transactions you are interested in, including operating expenses, porter’s wage increases, real estate taxes, utility charges, and so on. We let you know if a landlord is in financial trouble or for any other reason might resist fulfilling his obligations. The information we provide about true costs and conditions at a building under construction compared to options available elsewhere will help you get the best terms.
2. Expertise in building operating systems
Since you cannot tell by looking at a lease or copies of expense statements how a building is actually run, we assess a building’s operation to help protect your interests. We warn you about buildings whose operating systems, staffing, management practices or other attributes are likely to result in higher costs, unsatisfactory services or other problems.
3. Expertise in real estate law
We alert you whenever a landlord’s proposed lease tries to shift excessive risks to your company. Legal issues often blend imperceptibly into business issues. An informed real estate advisor who understands business issues can spot lease traps and make sure that the terms negotiated are translated into appropriate lease language.
4. Expertise in real estate taxes
Often landlords propose leases whose real estate tax clauses would have tenants pay much more than the taxes actually due. CTRR verifies building tax assessments, confirms billing cycles, determines if refunds are due and negotiates terms which would have a tenant pay no more than is properly due.
5. Expertise in landlord accounting practices
On behalf of tenants, CTRR audits billings from almost every major commercial landlord in New York and many of the largest landlords nation-wide. We actually inspect their general ledgers, invoice files, vendor contracts – and see how landlords can manipulate costs to evade negotiated lease terms. CTRR has negotiated the recovery of more than $10 million of landlord overcharges nationwide for highly sophisticated tenants. Resulting insights help us negotiate leases which provide unique protection or tenants.
6. Expertise in real estate negotiations
We have handled leases ranging from 6,000,000 square feet office complexes to industrial ground leases, retail businesses and professional facilities. We have structured terms that saved our clients tens of millions of dollars. Handling dispositions that have included subleases, buyouts, environmental liabilities, partnership dissolutions and more, we have cut costs, limited liability and created essential flexibility for our clients.
7. Expertise in tenant build-out
We negotiate the workletter as a separate relationship. No matter who actually does the work – your landlord or an independent general contractor – the build-out phase is fraught with potential for excess risk and cost. We limit this. First, by negotiating a workletter to protect you, then by providing non-technical assistance during the construction phase to help assure that plans are properly implemented, that all workletter quantities or dollars are properly delivered, and by analyzing final construction budgets to help assure that you are not billed for base building work or other landlord costs.
8. Expertise in real estate arbitration & litigation
Sometimes it isn't possible for a tenant to secure rights under a lease through negotiation. Then it becomes necessary to pursue arbitration and/or litigation. CTRR can develop legal strategy, help select and prepare expert witnesses, work with outside counsel or actually represent a tenant in a proceeding. Because we already know all the ins and outs of a case, we can move quickly, and we have won many decisions for tenants.