Negotiating occupancy protections for office subtenant
Our client: A large oil and gas company
What happened: Our client was negotiating a sublease of over 100,000 square feet of office space from an existing tenant in a downtown Houston office building who was no longer occupying the space. The client needed assurances that it could continue to occupy that space even if the existing tenant defaulted under its lease.
Our approach: In addition to a standard sublease with the tenant, I also negotiated a recognition agreement among the landlord, the tenant and our client.
The result: The recognition agreement permitted our client to enter into a direct lease with the landlord following any termination of the tenant’s lease and also provided for payment of the rent differential (between the lease rent and the sublease rent) by the tenant to our client.
Structuring a build-to-suit commercial lease with expansion options
Our client: A biotechnology company
What happened: Our client was building a laboratory facility in the Greater Houston area but wished to minimize its initial capital investment in connection with the construction of the facility. The client also wanted the right to expand the preliminary design of the facility to include additional buildings.
Our approach: After advising the client about the potential risks and benefits of a build-to-suit lease (including those associated with the financial ability of the landlord to complete construction of the facility), I negotiated a build-to-suit lease with a developer/landlord. The lease included several protections in favor of the client relating to the landlord’s obligation to complete construction, limitations on the landlord’s ability to assign the lease prior to completion of construction, and additional assurances from the landlord’s lender. The lease also included multiple expansion options, as well as a right of first offer to purchase the property, in favor of our client.
The result: The original build-to-suit lease was finalized, and then the client was able to later double the size of its facility by exercising its multiple expansion options several months later (which involved the negotiation of a comprehensive lease amendment).
Finding a sizeable rent credit for a client
Our client: An office tenant in the Greater Houston area, with about 125,000 square feet of space.
What happened: Our client had subleased multiple floors of its office space for higher rental rates than it was paying under its lease. The lease provided a formula for splitting excess sublease rents with the landlord, but our client had been splitting such excess rents under a different formula. The client wanted to amend its lease in order to change the rent split formula going forward.
Our approach: I examined the lease provisions and excess rent payment spreadsheets and concluded that our client had been overpaying the landlord for several years.
The result: Our client received a rent credit of nearly a quarter million dollars.
