As in any negotiation, it is important to have a dedicated advocate that represents your interests in a real estate transaction.   In most commercial transactions, the owner of the property has a real estate broker representing them in a transaction – it is important to have a qualified professional to represent your interests. 

Our fiduciary responsibility is to represent the interest of you – the Occupier in any real estate transaction whether it is in a lease or sale transaction, not the building owner.

While you may have a great personal relationship with your Landlord, remember they are also running a business and their objective is to make that business as profitable as possible.  Most landlords will have a broker that represents their interests even in a lease renewal.  It is important that you also have representation in order to negotiate a fair and balanced outcome.  Our role is not to create an adversarial situation…it is to act as your advocate to structure something that works for both parties.

We have an extensive network of strategic partners in every primary and secondary markets across the country and the Globe.  Through various organizations and our past experience, we have over 30 years of experience working with companies with multi-market locations.

Real estate costs typically represent one of the largest expenses for any company, and affects operational efficiency, employees and the ability to deliver goods and services.  Regardless of whether or not you are involved in a real estate transaction, there are always opportunities to reduce real estate expenses and improve efficiencies.  Therefore, most companies will engage a real estate advisor well in advance of any perceived transaction.

Actually, no.  While you can find some property on-line, finding truly viable options and actually negotiating a competitive real estate transaction is much more complicated and time consuming.  In addition to identifying rea estate options, you’ll need to understand how each building is financed, the specific ownership structure, how it is operated and managed, its tax base, and the owner’s exit strategy.  Not only does your real estate advisor have access to all this information, they know how to set up an efficient, competitive process to negotiate effectively on your behalf.

We do not simply focus on rent – our goal is to insure we structure a transaction that provides you with the lowest Total Cost of Occupancy possible but also focusing on items like tax and operating expenses.  We also focus on critical, but oftentimes overlooked aspects of a lease including sublease and assignment, restoration, force-majeure issues, security deposits, and default.

Our tenant advisory services cost nothing to you as the tenant. We share the brokerage commission that the Landlord pays to his agent.   This fee is already built into the Landlord’s rental income from each lease, so you are not going to be saving any money on rent by not having representation during the process. Whether you use Thompson Hennessey or not, you should engage an advisor to represent your interests?

Typically during this entire process there are two separate umbrellas of costs: Hard costs (architecture, engineering, and construction costs) and soft costs (IT, tel-data, AV, furniture, security, and moving). The hard costs typically are at no cost to the tenant in a turn-key build out or are what your tenant improvement allowance will be allocated for. For the soft costs, these are the critical expenses that will ALWAYS be out of pocket costs for you the tenant. Many tenants will engage a project management firm to oversee this entire relocation process from a budgeting and vendor procurement process which THP will work hand-in-hand with.

This will typically be determined by the size and scope of your space’s buildout. In many instances, the Landlord will have their own architect that will provide design services at no cost to the tenant.

Typically an advisor is engaged no later than a year out and for much larger space requirements the process can begin 2 to 3 years prior to the lease expiration.

You need to be aware of what language is contained in your current lease as it pertains to your renewal rights (if you have them) and when you have to give written notice if you are planning to extend the lease. Otherwise you are in no obligation to let your landlord know that you are actively looking at alternative space options and locations. Your landlord will almost certainly be aware of this anyways from his own brokers whose job it is to monitor and report to their client who are the active tenants in the market.

Advantages: discounted rent number, typically shorter term, furniture / IT infrastructure may be included at no cost.