Overview
A marketing agency had outgrown its lease in an older building and needed to move to a larger floor plate in a class-A building downtown, without carrying two rents and without a gap that would disrupt client work.
Challenge
The existing lease had 26 months remaining with no early-termination right, and the landlord signaled it would hold the agency to the full term. The new landlord’s standard form lease concentrated nearly all operating-cost escalation and restoration obligations on the tenant, and the agency’s growth plan made fixed space a risk in both directions.
Approach
We ran the two negotiations in sequence, deliberately. First, we negotiated a surrender of the existing lease tied to a modest settlement payable only on the new lease’s commencement — converting a 26-month liability into a defined, dated cost. Then, on the new lease, we secured a cap on controllable operating-cost increases, a five-year expansion option over the adjacent floor at pre-agreed rates, tenant improvement allowances tied to the actual build-out schedule, and a restoration clause limited to removal of alterations rather than full return-to-shell.
Outcome
The agency moved once, with no overlap of full rents and no operational gap. The surrender settlement was less than 20% of the remaining term’s liability, and the expansion option gave the company a path to double its floor plate without renegotiating — or relocating again — within the decade.
Related practice area: Real Estate
Portfolio demo notice: this matter is a fictional demonstration created for a portfolio site. It does not describe a real client or real legal outcome.