In many commercial office leases, parking clauses are not well detailed because parking lots are a part of the common areas. However, parking terms must not be overlooked when signing your next office lease. Parking has a big impact not only on your team but also on your customers. In this article, we are going to explore critical parking terms that you should not forget in your next office lease:
1. Reserved Parking
When negotiating your parking terms, you want to ensure that you have a fixed and specific parking lot set aside for your company. When your parking space is reserved, it saves you and your employees the stress of looking for a place to park every day. It also aids mobility in case your business requires a lot of mobility during the day.
When considering the reserved parking space for your business, you may want to ask these few questions:
-
Where exactly will your employees be parking?
-
Are the spaces adequately sized?
-
How easy is it to enter and exit the parking space?
-
What kind of security is in place?
-
Would employees feel safe going to their cars in the dark in the lot?
2. Guaranteed Space Allocation
This is very important in a building where you are not allowed a specific parking space in the garage. Having a guaranteed parking space allocation means that you will always have a space to park regardless of when you enter the building.
When considering guaranteed space allocation for your business, you may want to ask these few questions:
-
How much parking you need for visitors and clients
-
If your monthly cost is set or if the landlord can raise it
-
Whether the parking is covered or uncovered
3. Parking Cost
As earlier mentioned, parking clauses are negotiable. As a corporate tenant, you want to ensure that you have a predictable cost throughout your lease. Depending on the location of the building, parking costs can be a sizeable part of your lease costs. In addition to the location factor, the luxury of having a parking structure to protect your employees’ cars may come with a cost. You do not have to remove the essentials of the parking benefits offered by your landlord to cut down costs. Instead, you can make your negotiation more effective to mitigate this cost.
When negotiating your parking clause, ensure that the increase is well spelled out in the lease agreement. This can be done by inserting terms with a rate per space per month and getting some control over how it can escalate over time.
The easiest way to avoid the mistakes many commercial real estate tenants have when it comes to parking space is to work with a tenant rep professional. Having a professional tenant rep in your corner can help you get the most favorable terms.
Here are a few other articles to check out:
Five Lease Terms That Always Matter
Commercial Leasing Mistakes to Avoid
8 Building Features that Attract Corporate Tenants
Subscribe to our blog for more CRE tips!!
