AGMB offers a free lease analysis and consultation of your commercial lease and recent rent escalation statements, as well as other office, retail and industrial leasing concerns.
AGMB’s team of professionals provides strategic representation and consultation to tenants (and landlords as well), including but not limited to:
- Lease preparation, review and negotiation
- Lease Proposals and Letter of Intent Negotiations
- Commercial Brokerage: Representation for securing new office or retail space or negotiating lease renewal business terms
- Negotiations of Lease Restructurings, Modifications, Workouts and Terminations
- Short and Long Term Rental Relief Negotiations
- Underwriting and analysis of current lease rights and obligations
- Review of escalation and pass through calculations for taxes, operating expenses, CPI and utilities
- Advisory Services to businesses concerning their real estate alternatives
- Lease abstracting
- Acquisition and Disposition Sales and Advisory Services
- Sale-Leaseback Transactions
We are confident that as a consequence of wearing many different professional hats over the past 25 years-whether that of an owner, developer, asset manager, general counsel, accountant, broker, CEO or CAO-our team brings to the negotiating table a competitive edge that the challenging times necessitate and demand.
Please contact us for a free consultation to see if our personal and sensible approach is the right fit for your individual and business needs.
Lease Negotiations & Advisory Services
AGMB prides itself on providing its clients with the power to make knowledgeable decisions concerning their business and individual needs. As Larry Haber has sat on all sides of the commercial leasing negotiating table, we firmly believe that AGMB has an increased business understanding of the mindset of all parties to a transaction, and consequently, a competitive edge that will only enhance our client’s bargaining position in securing favorable legal and business terms. Combining decades of commercial real estate ownership with professional backgrounds in law, accounting, finance, commercial brokerage, property management, planning and development firms, Larry and his AGMB team can be the difference in helping you navigate the challenging times that lie ahead in your life or business.
Please contact us for a free consultation to see if our personal and sensible approach is the right fit for your individual and business needs.
Lease Restructuring
AGMB’s team of professionals provides strategic representation to landlords and tenants, including but not limited to:
- Lease preparation, review and negotiation
- Negotiations of Lease Restructurings, Modifications, Workouts and Terminations
- Short and Long Term Rental Relief Negotiations
- Underwriting and analysis of current lease rights and obligations
- Review of escalation and pass through calculations for taxes, operating expenses, CPI and utilities
- Advisory Services to businesses concerning their real estate alternatives
- Lease abstracting
Please click here for a Mini-Summary of Lease Restructuring Strategies.
Please click here for a power point presentation of Lease Restructuring Strategies.
Due Diligence & Lease Audits/Reviews
When acquiring commercial real estate, the purchaser is essentially acquiring not only the physical property itself, but also the office, retail and/or industrial leases for such property. AGMB prides itself on performing comprehensive underwriting of a property’s underlying leases during the due diligence period. In short, our primary objective is to put our clients in a position to make an informed and educated decision as to the viability of a potential acquisition.
Abstracts of Office, Retail and Industrial Leases
A Lease defines the relationship between a landlord and tenant. It provides a detailed roadmap of the rights, obligations, and interactions between the parties. Leases are generally voluminous in terms of both length and content and are accompanied by many documents, all of which make up a “lease file.” At a minimum, the lease file should contain:
- the lease itself
- copies or originals of all amendments
- legal and management correspondence between landlord and tenant estoppels
- brokerage agreements
- commencement date and work letters
- exhibits
- letter of credit (if applicable)
The challenges involved in organizing and understanding each essential provision of a lease and element of its file is imperative: a business’s success or failure could depend on the subtle contents imbedded therein. Consequently, a detailed analysis, or lease audit of the lease file is of utmost importance. A lease audit is comprised of a thorough review of the lease file, including, without limitation:
- financial terms
- legal terms
- business terms
- ancillary documents
Simultaneously with our formal review of the lease file, we prepare a lease abstract to fully summarize the financial, business, legal and technical terms of the lease, along with any unusual provisions. The lease abstract translates the comprehensive and convoluted terms from the lease into a concise and easy-to-read final product. The end result is a time-saving, customized tool that is designed to provide a convenient reference for a wide array of essential business activities. Whether used by your legal, accounting, property management, brokerage or administrative staff, AGMB strives to deliver an exceptional summary of the critical provisions of the lease to better enable your team to effectively and efficiently perform their duties.
Although the level of analysis varies depending on a client’s needs, lease provisions generally abstracted include:
- lease term
- base rent
- additional rent (e.g., real estate, operating and CPI escalations)
- free rent concessions
- improvement allowances
- outside construction dates
- termination rights
- security deposits
- subletting and assignment
- electricity and utility costs
- hours of operation and providing of HVAC
- use restrictions
- renewal options
- cleaning
- insurance
- late charges
- guarantees
- expansion options
- parking
- roof and signage rights
- incentive programs available to tenant
- freight elevator usage
- the granting of a SNDA
- existing issues of concern impact the lease (e.g., rental or repair defaults)
Estoppel Agreements
An estoppel agreement summarizes the basic financial and business terms of a lease at a date certain, and potential problems between the parties (e.g., defaults) are often contained therein. Generally prepared in conjunction with a refinancing or a purchase, the agreement can be for the benefit of the lending institution, the owner, a prospective purchaser and/or a tenant.
Please know that our experienced team of professionals are available to prepare, negotiate and review estoppel certificates if the need arises.
Review of Operating Expenses and Tax Escalation
With experience gathered from over 25 years of intimate exposure to leases, analyzed from many different professional perspectives, AGMB is well equipped to accurately and efficiently provide its clients the knowledge they need regarding how operating expenses and real estate taxes are impacting their lease. Our team is genuinely confident in our ability to convey to our clients a wealth of information, global perspective, and anecdotal tips about how operating expense escalations and real estate taxes influence how a lease functions and ultimately impacts a client’s bottom line!
AGMB strongly believes that an Operating Expense Escalation and/or Common Area Maintenance (“CAM”) Lease Audit and Review are indispensable aspects of our team’s services. Our preparation of a comprehensive and detail-oriented lease audit incorporates such analysis, and has the potential to greatly benefit our clients in the following ways:
- Provide clients with information to efficiently manage their real estate portfolios;
- Discovering unnecessary costs and overpayments/underpayments;
- Recover unnecessary costs and overpayments/underpayments;
- Save money over the long term of the lease;
- Find disadvantageous contract language and eliminate it from future
leases; and - Reduce payments the client is making.
All business and firms could benefit from acquiring an improved understanding of what should be in a lease, what should not be in a lease, what is currently contained in or absent from their current lease and how that impacts their bottom line. However, only those organizations that entrust AGMB’s elite team to produce a comprehensive lease abstract are putting their best interests forward on the path to enhanced financial success.