Challenge: Our client had an above-market regional headquarters lease expiring in suburban Boston. The company sought to extend its lease in a building occupied for more than a decade, retain existing workforce and reduce occupancy costs while avoiding business disruption. Having occupied the building for many years, the company had spent significant own capital on building improvements and upgrades. A very recent capital plan had been put into place to renovate executive offices and customer support center in order to retain key customer support functions. It was vital to convince the existing landlord that the company could re-locate and obtain competitive economics from other landlords without impacting its talent pool.
Strategy: We developed a comprehensive real estate strategy which included touring the market, obtaining current market data and competitive lease proposals and using market leverage to convince the current landlord that the Client would re-locate. Several free-standing properties were identified in proximity to the existing site, including one directly across the street.
Results: After several months of negotiations, the Client received seven months of free rent, a reduced contract rent while re-casting the lease seven months prior to lease expiration, yielding a total savings of just over $1,100,000.