Streamline Lease Negotiations With a Letter of Intent

AGG Real Estate partner Abe Schear authored an article for BUILDINGS Magazine discussing how a letter of intent streamlines lease negotiations by providing an outline of site plans and procedures on how key business issues are handled.

From the tenant’s perspective, it is often best to gather their team, which often consists of a broker, an attorney, and sometimes the designer or contractor, before the deal is too far down the road. This group can collaborate to review the deal being proposed and explore the potential for things to go wrong, as well as necessary protections to put in place.

The landlord letter of intent will typically comprise of the space and rent, timing and buildout, and parking and use. However, the tenant may have additional concerns about assignment and maintenance, security and a tenant allowance, and electrical and plumbing capacities. It is important for the lease to be beneficial to all parties involved and a good lease starts with good preparations.

“Hopefully, spending time on the front end of the process allows both parties to sign the lease document and file it away, rarely needing to resolve any issues,” Abe said. “Sadly, too many times, lease disputes result from misunderstandings that could have been avoided by better planning and by a comprehensive understanding of the rights and obligations of the parties when signing the lease.”

To read the full article, please click here.