Commercial Lease Abstraction Analysis
Understanding What You Are About To Sign
A Review of the Business Points of your Lease
Protect Your Investment
30+ Years Experience
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Going into business for the first time takes courage and expanding your business takes conviction and in most cases you are leaving it all on the line. Precautions are taken to make sure you have the right amount of sq. ft., base rent quoted fits your budget and the rental term is agreed upon and when the lease agreement is handed to you, what happens next? More often than imagined, the lease is signed without an understanding as to how a commercial lease is put together and this goes for even savvy and experienced business operators.
A commercial lease can be confusing as there are terms that most people have never heard of before sounding like a foreign language and when it comes to describing the business terms and conditions in the lease agreement, it becomes imperative to match up the verbal understanding of the deal with the proper terminology and methodology in relationship to the implied vs. actual obligations of a tenant that can be tricky and critical to the enforcement or defense of the lease agreement.
The lease binds together the landlord and tenant into a legal document where the majority of the lease terms and conditions are all about the remedies available to both the landlord and tenant in the event there is a breach of the lease which are not typically part of the initial discussions to secure the space. Think of the lease as an illustration of Connecting the Dots where you need to look at the lease terms and conditions not as isolated terms and conditions unto themselves, but as terms and conditions that are part of the bigger connected picture where for example paragraph #1 could be connected to paragraphs #4, #6 and #14 and if you only paid attention to paragraph #1, you are only understanding part of the obligation or liability and if a legal issue arises with the landlord or tenant, ignorance of the lease agreement is not a defense.
Experienced lease abstraction analysis involves more than just the mechanical identification of certain facts found within a lease agreement document, as it involves an understanding of the bigger picture and how the moving parts are connected together in order to be able to represent the intent and purpose by either the landlord or tenant.
Studies show that 99% of all of the businesses in the United States falls into the category of small businesses with employees between 1- 499. Making up this 99% are about 27 million small businesses where 21.1 million or 78% have NO employees and of the remaining 5.9 million or 22%, the majority of those have 25 employees or less making America a nation of small business entrepreneurs.
Experience Matters: My background includes 30+ years owning and operating a commercial property management company working in small to large markets across the country gaining a perspective of the deal and lease agreement through the eyes of both the landlord and tenant. Paying attention to the details of the bigger picture has led to the following for our clients:
Successfully negotiated over 32 million square feet of commercial space with cumulative lease values in excess of $3 billion dollars with businesses ranging from Mom-Pop Operations, Regional and National to International Companies to Fortune 500 companies.
One of the properties that we turned around caught the attention of the Wall Street Journal that ran a two page story on the property and the operations as a National Model of Urban Development and Success.
Turned around a two (2) million square feet twelve building office and mixed use complex with an occupancy rate of 30% with a negative annual cash flow of $2 million dollars into a market leader increasing the occupancy rate to 98.5% and the net annual operating income by $7.5 million dollars. Reduced and streamlined the operating and utility cost by over 40% saving over $800,000.00 per year to correlate with the investment philosophy and new marketing strategy.
Brought back to life a 13 story office building situated in troublesome no-man’s land between two different markets. Orchestrated a community wide effort that created a new market image resulting in the partnership area increasing leasing by 51% average and maintaining client’s property in the high 90% occupancy range allowing for the owner to take out $19.8 million dollars by refinancing.
Working with a portfolio of over ten (10) million square feet of a variety of commercial property types and uses and over 900 different tenants, averaged a 94% lease renewal rate with a 97.5% lease retention rate with the average rental rates at or above market, tenant improvements, concessions offered and operating costs below market comparable.
Created, designed and implemented a new marketing plan that reposition a property to compete within the market that led to the leasing of an additional 1.4 million square feet resulting in an occupancy rate of over 98%.
Working with a community association helped to overcome opposition which led to the leasing of a 980,000 sq. ft. building in 3 years, subsequent sale netting an $8 million dollar profit.
Reposition within the market a 450,000 sq. ft. mixed use property resulting in a $9 million dollar net profit from a property considered as a loss by the developer from previous third party mismanagement.
Deployed and executed an analytical and intuitive approach recapturing an appreciable amount of money from lease related obligations of over $6.75 million of lost, disputed or written off billings by way of lease analysis and negotiations.
Achieved a conflict resolution over an operating expense dispute where I set up a brief introductory meeting with the tenant, inspected and reviewed the premises and lease agreement. The following meeting the tenant cut a check for $250 thousand dollars as full settlement.
Created and formed a Due Diligence analysis service that provided for a thorough review of a property in terms of its physical condition, marketability, operational and lease review as seen through the eyes of a landlord and ownership. Achieved at just one location the dissolution of over $90 thousand dollars of accrued and highly contested operational charges to a facility by creating an operational scenario where the backup information was lost and not available.
Successfully negotiated over 32 million square feet of commercial space with cumulative lease values in excess of $3 billion dollars with businesses ranging from Mom-Pop Operations, Regional and National to International Companies to Fortune 500 companies.
One of the properties that we turned around caught the attention of the Wall Street Journal that ran a two page story on the property and the operations as a National Model of Urban Development and Success.
Turned around a two (2) million square feet twelve building office and mixed use complex with an occupancy rate of 30% with a negative annual cash flow of $2 million dollars into a market leader increasing the occupancy rate to 98.5% and the net annual operating income by $7.5 million dollars. Reduced and streamlined the operating and utility cost by over 40% saving over $800,000.00 per year to correlate with the investment philosophy and new marketing strategy.
Brought back to life a 13 story office building situated in troublesome no-man’s land between two different markets. Orchestrated a community wide effort that created a new market image resulting in the partnership area increasing leasing by 51% average and maintaining client’s property in the high 90% occupancy range allowing for the owner to take out $19.8 million dollars by refinancing.
Working with a portfolio of over ten (10) million square feet of a variety of commercial property types and uses and over 900 different tenants, averaged a 94% lease renewal rate with a 97.5% lease retention rate with the average rental rates at or above market, tenant improvements, concessions offered and operating costs below market comparable.
Created, designed and implemented a new marketing plan that reposition a property to compete within the market that led to the leasing of an additional 1.4 million square feet resulting in an occupancy rate of over 98%.
Working with a community association helped to overcome opposition which led to the leasing of a 980,000 sq. ft. building in 3 years, subsequent sale netting an $8 million dollar profit.
Reposition within the market a 450,000 sq. ft. mixed use property resulting in a $9 million dollar net profit from a property considered as a loss by the developer from previous third party mismanagement.
Deployed and executed an analytical and intuitive approach recapturing an appreciable amount of money from lease related obligations of over $6.75 million of lost, disputed or written off billings by way of lease analysis and negotiations.
Achieved a conflict resolution over an operating expense dispute where I set up a brief introductory meeting with the tenant, inspected and reviewed the premises and lease agreement. The following meeting the tenant cut a check for $250 thousand dollars as full settlement.
Created and formed a Due Diligence analysis service that provided for a thorough review of a property in terms of its physical condition, marketability, operational and lease review as seen through the eyes of a landlord and ownership. Achieved at just one location the dissolution of over $90 thousand dollars of accrued and highly contested operational charges to a facility by creating an operational scenario where the backup information was lost and not available.
The Lease Abstraction Analysis does not provide a legal opinion, but an opinion on the business points of the lease only.
The following are the services that are available:
As the owner operator of a professional commercial property management company for over 30+ years my experience was in adaptive re-use development that involved the bringing back to life of properties or projects that had been shut down for periods of time or through previous mismanagement, high vacancy, and other reasons. These properties or projects typically had a lot of issues to be addressed that required a more global approach in terms of positioning the properties or projects within the market, lease administration, marketing and promotions, due diligence analysis, coalition building to thinking outside the box when it came to being creative and innovative in looking at the challenges from different angles.
I am retired now where I bring to the table my hands on experience over the years of fighting in the trenches to the boardroom where today I can provide assistance directly to the principals or providing assistance to other members of a company team including their real estate brokers/agents, their attorneys or property management in a variety of ways benefiting clients where they need the assistance the most. A confidentiality agreement will be signed prior to the commencement of any work. In the event a client wants to hire my services on an hourly consulting fee basis, the fee is $75.00 per hr with a four (4) hour minimum.
Lease Abstraction Analysis: Flat fee of $300.00 for each lease containing 1-50 pages.
Utility Cost Reimbursements: If you are a larger retail, industrial or warehousing tenant there may be opportunities for savings and reimbursements. After reviewing your lease language relating to utilities, if your account is accepted, in lieu of any consulting fees, compensation for this effort will be based upon receiving a lump sum payment equal to 25% of the total reimbursement or over payment amounts that have been identified and a claim made to. Under this arrangement, it will cost you nothing if no reimbursements are found and if found, after paying the 25%, you will be the recipient of 75% of the reimbursements that were lost before in addition to future savings based upon the adjustment. These savings and reimbursements could potentially range from modest to substantial.
I am retired now where I bring to the table my hands on experience over the years of fighting in the trenches to the boardroom where today I can provide assistance directly to the principals or providing assistance to other members of a company team including their real estate brokers/agents, their attorneys or property management in a variety of ways benefiting clients where they need the assistance the most. A confidentiality agreement will be signed prior to the commencement of any work. In the event a client wants to hire my services on an hourly consulting fee basis, the fee is $75.00 per hr with a four (4) hour minimum.
Lease Abstraction Analysis: Flat fee of $300.00 for each lease containing 1-50 pages.
Utility Cost Reimbursements: If you are a larger retail, industrial or warehousing tenant there may be opportunities for savings and reimbursements. After reviewing your lease language relating to utilities, if your account is accepted, in lieu of any consulting fees, compensation for this effort will be based upon receiving a lump sum payment equal to 25% of the total reimbursement or over payment amounts that have been identified and a claim made to. Under this arrangement, it will cost you nothing if no reimbursements are found and if found, after paying the 25%, you will be the recipient of 75% of the reimbursements that were lost before in addition to future savings based upon the adjustment. These savings and reimbursements could potentially range from modest to substantial.
Payments for any agreed upon services shall be prepaid in advance through PayPal and all lease agreements can be emailed to me for the lease review at Kmqmroberts@hotmail.com to be completed at my office.
Warehouse on the Canal
239 N. Canal St. (Downtown)
Canal Fulton, Ohio 44614
(330) 879-8326
kmqmroberts@hotmail.com
239 N. Canal St. (Downtown)
Canal Fulton, Ohio 44614
(330) 879-8326
kmqmroberts@hotmail.com
