Consider Parking Options When Leasing Commercial Office Space

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Office SpaceMany business owners are often focused on the office space itself when leasing a commercial office for their company. Although the interior of the office is quite important, it is vital to not overlook parking options when leasing office space. This is especially relevant in cities and largely populated areas where having parking on-site is an absolute necessity.

Inquire About Parking Right Away

When you are interested in a particular office space and are at the point of seriously considering leasing the chosen location, make sure you inquire about parking options right away, especially if parking is a must for you. This is a lease term which can often make or break a leasing commitment and force you to look elsewhere, especially if parking is what you want but not what you will receive if you lease that particular office space.

Find Out Whether Parking is Open or Reserved

Leasing will either be open or reserved in nature. With an open parking arrangement, you will have access to parking at a garage or lot but not receive designated spots, which means if the lot fills up, you are out of luck. With a reserved parking situation, you will have set office space parking and know that when you pull into your office parking lot, your parking spot will be available. This is often an important component for office space tenants to consider.

Ask About Client Parking Options

Even if you know that you will have office space parking for both you and your employees, you may not have parking spots available for your clients. It’s important to ask about this issue, and then determine if client parking is a necessity or not. Client parking is often an attractive feature as many customers and clients like to deal with businesses which offer ease of access to their facilities.

Make Sure Parking Terms are Included Within the Leasedeerfield

Even though you may have discussed parking terms and agreed that these features will be included with your tenancy, you must put it into writing and ensure that the lease contains the term related to parking. Rather than have a statement to the effect of “parking is included,” you should insert information related to how many parking spaces are included, whether parking is reserved or open, if clients may have access to parking spots while doing business with your company and other specific parking terms. Once the parking terms are included within the lease, you can rest assured that parking spaces will be available to you during your commercial office space tenancy.

Parking may not be a must-have inclusion for certain office space tenants. However, for others, having the access to parking for both employees and clients is a necessity which simply cannot be omitted from an office space tenancy. So long as you determine your parking needs, inquire about parking options and ensure that you will have parking spaces available to you, your company and clients, plus include such terms within the lease, your office space lease will consist of the pertinent items you need to do business efficiently.

What Are Your Signage Options When Signing Your Office Lease

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When you lease or buy commercial office space, you’ll want to advertise your presence at the location in one way or another. When you buy the office space, you will usually have countless options as to signs on and around the premises. However, if you lease commercial office space, there may be restrictions in place concerning placement of signs or even restrictions stating that no signs are allowed and you are basically a hidden entity from those passing by. This is why it’s important to ask about signage options, requirements and restrictions before you sign the lease.

Why Is Signage Important?

First and foremost, you want the proper signage outside of the leased commercial office space advertising your business so customers can find you, whether they are current customers or prospective ones. When you have the proper signage, your customer base will improve as will your business’ income. This type of advertisement is the easiest way to draw people in and a cost-efficient method as well.

Why Might Landlords Restrict the Use of Signs?

There are a few different reasons why landlords may restrict the use of signs by their commercial tenants. First, they may not have the room to allow all tenants to put up signs, especially if there are many office space tenants within the building. Also, there may be city restrictions and zoning laws regarding signage, which wouldn’t be the landlord’s fault but simply something which prevents the tenant from advertising at the building. In addition, the landlord may not want a bunch of signs all over the building and simply restrict signage for that purpose alone. These are some of the more common reasons why landlords don’t want signs on their property.

How Does the Tenant Go About Getting Their Sign Up and Presence Known?

The best way to get your sign posted, whether it is a stand-alone sign only promoting your business or your name on a large sign alongside all of the other office tenants within the building, is to negotiate properly with the landlord during the lease negotiations. Some landlords will be flexible with regard to signage and, in this case, getting your sign posted is not a big deal. However, for other landlords who may be more hesitant to allow signs, you’re going to want to negotiate this factor prior to signing the lease.

If the landlord refuses to allow you to put up a stand-alone sign, see if they would agree to an addition to a sign already posted which has other office space tenants listed on it. This shouldn’t make or break the lease deal, however, if it is that important to you as a tenant, which it should be, try to work with the landlord to get some sort of signage posted. After all, if people don’t know where you are located or new customers can’t come across your business with ease, this will hurt you as a business owner. Negotiation is key so try to work with the landlord to secure some type of signage along with your commercial office space lease.

Assignment & Subletting Clauses Are Necessary in Office Space Leasing

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Office SpaceThe steps one must take to lease commercial office space are plentiful in number. Once you find the perfect office space to lease, you then have to delve into the lease terms and negotiations to ensure that the arrangement is beneficial to you, the tenant. The commercial lease has many terms to read through and there are certain clauses which must be included in order to properly protect you as a tenant. Two clauses in particular which are a must when it comes to lease inclusion include the assignment clause and subletting clause.

When you enter into a lease, you never know what the future may bring. Most business owners would like to believe that they will be in the leased premises to the end of the lease term but this is not always the case. Instances may arise where exiting the commercial office space ahead of the lease term expiration is a necessity. This is where assignment and sublease clauses will come in handy.

Understanding Assignment and Sublease Clauses

With both of these clauses, the current tenant may have another tenant move into their position under the current lease. With an assignment, the tenant will assign the remainder of their lease term to another tenant. From that point forward, the initial tenant is no longer involved with the lease agreement. As for a sublease situation, the initial tenant will have a new tenant take their place in the lease but the initial tenant will still be responsible for any payments which the landlord does not receive from the subletting party. In general terms, an assignment clause is more favorable to a tenant than a subletting clause as it allows the tenant to be done with the lease once and for all as soon as the new tenant enters the picture.

How the Inclusion of These Clauses Will Safeguard the Tenant

Both of these clauses will safeguard the tenant by providing them with a way out of the lease agreement, in some form, should they need to move out for any reason. No business owner expects that they will have to leave prior to the lease term but there are certain instances which may occur that make it necessary to assign or sublet the remainder of the lease to another party. When the clauses are included within the lease, this provides an option for the tenant, if it is needed.

Landlord May Insert Various Requirements in the Assignment and Sublease Clauses

There may be certain specifications included within these clauses to help protect the landlord’s financial security should an assignment or sublease take place. The landlord may require that the new tenant is financially secure and will be able to pay rent when due. There may also be some added fees that the current tenant must pay to the landlord in order to ascertain the financial stability of the new tenant, such as fees for credit checks, etc. All of these factors can be discussed during lease negotiations to ensure that both parties are safeguarded in the arrangement.

Always review your lease prior to signing it and make sure that an assignment and/or sublease clause is present and will benefit you as the tenant.

Office Space: Make The Tenant Improvement Allowance Work For You

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Many office space leases will be a good fit for companies yet there may be some improvements which have to be done in order to make the premises a perfect fit for the tenant. For this reason, tenant improvement allowances are often included within the commercial office space lease. These allowances come in different forms. Two of the most common forms include a turn-key build-out and a fixed rate allowance.

Difference Between a Turn-Key Build-Out and Fixed Rate Allowance

With a turn-key build-out tenant improvement allowance, the landlord will pay all costs to get your leased premises situated the way that you want them to be. On the other hand, a fixed rate allowance is when the landlord will give you a set amount of funds and anything over that amount will need to be paid by you, out-of-pocket. Both provide tenant improvements for the company owner leasing the space, however, both are quite different in nature.

With the turn-key build-out, you will be ensured that the money is paid for your improvements, however, you may not have the last word regarding what is done, how it is completed and when it is completed by. The landlord will have more control over the work. With the fixed rate allowance, you will have more control over what improvements are made and when but you may find yourself facing some out-of-pocket costs in the end if the project costs more than what was allotted to you under the lease.

How to Benefit from the Tenant Allowance

In order to benefit most from the tenant allowance, consider what improvements you plan on making to the leased premises. If you only plan on completing simple repairs and construction, a turn-key build-out might work fine for you because you won’t need too much control over simple tenant improvements and you will be ensured that the landlord pays for everything which has to be done. If your tenant improvements are more voluminous in nature and you can figure out exactly how much money you need to get the job done and want to ensure that it’s done according to your specifications and schedule, a fixed rate allowance might be best.

Keep in mind that you may always negotiate when it comes to tenant improvement allowances. You can choose a hybrid form of the two options listed above to have the type of tenant improvement allowance which will work in your favor. You may ask the landlord to provide for a turn-key build-out allowance but request that you be able to choose a project manager to oversee the entire project and have this individual report to you. Should you prefer the fixed rate allowance, ask if the landlord would be willing to pay for any extra money needed during the process, which couldn’t be accounted for until the project was underway. Just be sure to have these terms listed in the lease, otherwise, they won’t be valid terms.

Your tenant representative will guide you in the tenant improvement allowance process and go through all of the details with you to ensure that you are making the right choice with regard to this lease term.

Image Is Everything – Does your office send the right one?

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Clients, customers, and even employees make snap decisions based on appearance. Your office needs to send the right message the instant people see it. People need to know that they made the right decisions in choosing you—your company. Give it to them, but cautiously and with deep consideration.  Image is everything – does your office send the right one?

We are wired to make instantaneous judgments. It has gotten us this far, and Mother Nature is not likely to abandon the system. After all, it is a jungle out there.

Office Value

Your office space should make the right first impression. It also needs to follow through with that impression. This means looking great, but it does not mean making it look like you are putting more money into decoration than your product. You don’t want to undersell your space either. Find a balance. If you are charging a million bucks, your commercial office space should look like it. Likewise, your office space should look like the model for cost-efficient process if your product is.

In addition to portraying the right value, your space should convey the right values. This is considerably easier than identifying a financial image. Trust your company’s core values and ask people if your space agrees with those values. Does this look trustworthy; does this look personable; timely; creative…? These are all great questions to ask on behalf of your office space. Find the answers and you identify success.