I recently completed a commercial retail lease that was featured in the NYTimes, with the franchise Kidville on 380 Court St. in Brooklyn. Along with specializing in selling and leasing of warehouses, commercial lofts, I also am very active in the retail market in Brooklyn.
In case you missed my previous post, I discussed in detail the traits of a great commercial real estate agent. See Part One.
6. A good real estate agent has no problem saying “I don’t know.” Most people have trouble saying “I don’t know”. In fact the writers of the famous book “Freakanomics” discuss it in depth. It is impossible to know everything there is to know about real estate. Dealing in real estate covers many disciplines. A good real estate agent will never dispense false information in order to try to look appear knowledgable. Further more even if a real estate agent does say “I don’t know”, a good real estate agent will be quick to find the answers.
“As long as I pay the rent, I can leave whenever I want, that’s a Good Guy Clause, right?” That statement is wrong, and it’s a common misperception.
A Good Guy Clause is a personal guarantee that protects you when you break the lease. However, typically there are certain conditions that a landlord will want you abide to.
Firstly the landlord will probably make you guarantee that you’ll stay in the space for a set amount of time, for example he’ll want you to guarantee at least two years of a five year lease.
The landlord will request that you also give him a notice that you’ll be leaving the space, so for example he might require that you give him a 3 month notice so it gives him time to market the space.
The landlord will want you to restore the space back to the original condition.
It’s been reported that Sunset Park’s Industry City, which has 6 million square feet of warehouse space geared toward creative tenants, has had a hard time finding tenants. (Not surprising, perhaps, give how huge the complex is.) Butbroker Jon Brooks thinks the warehouse space may have potential as a future music district, and he has started marketing it as such. The manager of Industry City gave Brooks around 60,000 square feet to play with and agreed to fund at least half of the build-out once space was leased to a music business. So far Brooks is in the leasing stage for 10,000 square feet of space and is in talks with another tenant interested in rehearsal space. In his words: “Musicians will have access to cheap rehearsal, recording, production space. Also the idea is to have music equipments shops, music event businesses, in the building as well.” The idea is that the increased foot traffic will also bring in ground-floor commercial space.
I specialize in the SALE/LEASING of Industrial, Creative Lofts, Retail, Development, and Investment
Properties in New York.
As an agent, I have the amazing opportunity to mold, shape, create neighborhoods. Brooklyn is a great canvas to work with.
For my listings visit www.5CRE.com
Follow me on Twitter @jondavidbrooks
Call: 212-366-0408
Follow @jondavidbrooks
