How A Tenant Can Get Leverage In A Landlord's Market

Jim Travers

It’s tough to be a commercial tenant in Los Angeles. In the 40 years I’ve been a commercial broker here, I’ve seen my clients face ever-increasing rents, and most leases are designed by landlords, for landlords. As just one example — recently most leases have changed the way space is measured, so that they charge tenants for your elevator shafts and stairwells, even lobbies.

But I have a few tips to reverse the leverage.

Negotiate with two or three potential sites at the same time.

What I mean by negotiate is really going past the proposal stage of back and forth and into the details. This will strengthen your hand when dealing with each one, and not leave you waiting for the one landlord to agree to the terms you need.