Challenge

The lease of Poulos & Di Benedetto was about 20 months away from expiring when its principals began to focus on options for alternative office space. The law firm had been located in Greektown for many years, and preferred to remain west of the highway but close to the central business district.

While the remaining time on its lease was short enough to open negotiations with its own landlord, because P&D did not want to increase the size of its space, it was too early to enter into more than preliminary discussion with other landlords. Rents had steadily increased in that submarket, which magnified the importance of removing from the negotiating equation the most common driver of higher lease expense – the cost to build the desired layout.

Action

MAP Real Estate was chosen for the fourth time to represent P&D and solicited a proposal from the current landlord, which had recently bought the building, for a renewal that would require relatively little construction cost to redecorate the space. Because of the time still left on the lease, MAP identified spaces in other buildings whose layouts were a match for what P&D wanted and were occupied by tenants that had expressed interest in leaving when their leases expired.

As the time until P&D’s lease expired and the firm could relocate without having to buy out of the current lease or negotiate to sublet it, MAP broadened the search to include alternative spaces that had the right layout and were also vacant and solicited proposals from those landlords. This continued to maximize P&D’s negotiating leverage with the current landlord, which finally agreed to very favorable terms to keep the law firm in its space.