Is it realistic to ask for a short term industrial space lease (1-2 years)?
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[{"id": "f7yx33z", "text": "Where is your business located?  You can find shorter leases, just may have to pay slightly more.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "f7yx676", "text": "Never any harm in asking and I've done them before. Generally more likely from a \"By Owner\" than a larger LL especially in the current climate. It's a posturing game - rather than tell them you're scared you're going to fail, tell them you're scaling up for growth and the space fits for the next 12-18 months, but fear it will not in the longer term assuming things go as planned. If they require a longer term, you can try to negotiate a termination right. Typical structure is a notice period and X months of rent as a penalty. Try to avoid that personal guarantee if possible or at least have it burn off.", "replies": [{"id": "f806n5k", "text": "Could you give an example of how a personal guarantee would burn off?", "replies": [{"id": "f80ok72", "text": "Usually you just try to tie it to time/consecutive rent payments. For example, after month 36 of a 60 month term assuming there has been no default. Once the defined threshold has been hit, the PG extinguishes. In a lease with options, you can usually have the PG extinguished upon expiration of the the original term/renewal/extension. Like everything else in a lease, it's negotiable and LL dependent.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "f7yxcs0", "text": "Look up Chunker. They might be your answer depending on where you live. \n\nHowever to answer your question: probably not.\n\nI wouldn\u2019t advise any of my clients to sign a 1-2 year lease.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "f7yxv0y", "text": "Absolutely. Depending on where you are. You can get short term leases cheaper than long term of there is a lot of develoent ornyou take a sacrifice of space type.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "f7yzsqw", "text": "How small is the space, how long has the space been on the market? Owner's don't typically want a short team lease like that, but knowing how long its been on the market could be helpful. Maybe offer a 5 year renewal option (your option) at 100% of FMV. Hopefully, at the end of the 2 years you'll have a clearer picture towards your future, and can be able to renew for that long", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "f7z2e21", "text": "every lease is a negotiation, especially when you're in a cold market.\n\nIf you're very close to a major metro, you're probably not gonna get it. Really depends on where you are because industrial is a hot asset class right now (especially if it's suited for one of the industrial sector's growth drivers: last mile delivery, cold storage, data center, etc)", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "f7zas34", "text": "I'd consider looking for a sublease instead of a direct space.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "f7zh96n", "text": "I own small buildings here in the twin cities which is a healthy market.  Key to this obviously is Tenant Improvements.  I would take a 2 year term on my buildings all day if As Is no TI's.", "replies": [{"id": "f859glv", "text": "What kind of buildings do you buy?", "replies": [{"id": "f85jekz", "text": "multi tenant office buildings primarily.  small office townhomes with suites 1250 s.f. range.  1 non office product is showroom/retail mix building.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "f7zt217", "text": "it's tough.  not too many owners of these kind of properties will want a short term tenant who's in the \"I'll see what happens\" mind frame.  \nyou can always ask, you can guarantee upfront rent to make the offer more promising to an owner. most short term leases I've done have involved office space for smaller units, around 1000-2500 sft.  anything above that usually involved 3-5 yr terms of not more.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "f802tla", "text": "Depends on the market, TI (dont expect any from LL), and what you're willing to pay as a premium for the flexibility.\n\nAs a former owner turned broker, I always look as to what a deal does to the value of the building if I was going to sell it.  Short term deals will get discounted by a potential buyer, but some LLs will offset that devaluation by asking for a higher rent, which seems reasonable.\n\nAgain, a lot of variable here, but you can always try for a 4 year deal with termination options that would include a termination fee to basically buy that flexibility.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "f808nzh", "text": "It can be done, but probably only if the space isn't in such high demand that there are other tenants willing to do a longer term than you. Also, you are going to want to find a place that's close to move-in ready or accept that you'll need to pay for most of the improvement costs out of pocket.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "f80jlt1", "text": "I focus on retail, but we are having a lot of luck in doing \"rolling\" guarantee's so theres an option that you could do a 3 year lease with a one year guarantee, and offer to pay back any tenant improvement allowance you ask for.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "f8c2xma", "text": "Check out [Chunker](https://chunker.com), which rents out flex industrial space.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]