Success Stories

Landlords require security deposits to protect themselves from losing upfront costs and renovation expenses in the event of default by a tenant.

Does your landlord view you as a gnat or 800-pound gorilla? Knowing the answer to that question can greatly affect your ability to negotiate terms in your new or renewed commercial lease. Of course, a gnat to one landlord may be a gorilla to another!

Does your landlord view you as a gnat or 800-pound gorilla? Knowing the answer to that question can greatly affect your ability to negotiate terms in your new or renewed commercial lease. Of course, a gnat to one landlord may be a gorilla to another

A tenant’s prerogative to sublease surplus space creates an ongoing opportunity to “right size” its operations and reduce costs. As such, it is surprising how many commercial tenants blithely accept lease clauses restricting their rights in this critical area.

Experienced tenant brokers deliver the most advantageous transactions to their clients including many benefits based on exclusive representation and unavailable to businesses “going it alone.”

Square footage represents the crux of any real estate transaction. It determines the total rent and thus the amount of your payments for the entire term of the lease. As such, a broad familiarity with square footage measurements in general, and specifically your company’s needs, represents a foundational step in the relocation and renewal process. Surprisingly, square footage can become a very fungible number, both due to the way the measurement is calculated, and the variability of your office space needs.

With a nod to Bob Dylan, your office space needs to be changin’ too, along with the times. As your industry adapts to unexpected developments, your business must meet those developments to remain competitive, and the ability to alter or modify your space to respond to the latest changes may become paramount.

The commercial real estate market is currently offering excellent opportunities for companies with leases expiring in 2023, 2024, and some in 2025. Negotiated net rental rates are 15-to-30 percent below the asking rent, and landlords are becoming more flexible in signing long-term or short-term leases while providing significant free rent, tenant improvement allowances, and options to expand, renew, cancel or downsize. Subleasing also provides an attractive alternative, thanks to its low rental rate and free furniture, making it the perfect time for companies to lower their costs, upgrade their space and/or location, and make their office lease flexible to meet a changing future.

If one were looking only at the key commercial real estate metrics in Fairfield, one would not see anything unusual, like the effects of a global pandemic, taking place. Vacancy (5.1%) is at a 5 year high, but still well below the average rate of 6.6% which prevailed for the four years ending in the middle of 2014. Meanwhile, Westport’s vacancy rate is the highest it’s been in almost 15 years.

While a default clause in a lease can address simple topics such as failure to pay rent or maintain the space in a clean manner, more often, it addresses issues such as illegal use, declaring bankruptcy, vacating the premises and more.

Events of the last two years are allowing Westport to make decisions about its housing stock independent of existing state and municipal regulations. In March 2019, the state awarded Westport a four-year moratorium on 8-30g applications.

Tenants evaluating only the rental rate when comparing a Class A building ($31/sf) to a Class B building ($28/sf) may be making an error much more costly than the 10% discount.