Negotiating a Restaurant Lease
Top-Rated Franchise Law Attorneys
Experience
It is important to hire an attorney to review all legal documents before you sign them. This is especially true of a restaurant lease. Our team of real estate attorneys is experienced at negotiating restaurant leases. At Antonoplos & Associates, our legal team takes pride in their success in meeting our client’s needs. The restaurant lease agreement can often dictate the success and profit of your business, so it is important to take this process seriously and invest the appropriate amount of time in money to obtain a restaurant lease that fits your needs. At Antonoplos & Associates, we are dedicated to making this process as smooth and affordable as possible.
Issues
Similar to most businesses, a restaurant lease can be one of the most important assets of your business. Having an unfavorable restaurant lease can be very risky because it can eat into your business’ profit margin and force you to relocate your business and abandon the rapport that you built with your customers. It is common for restaurant owners to be so anxious to open their business that they overlook the details of their restaurant lease, which ultimately leads to the failure of the restaurant. It is also important to consider the attractiveness of your restaurant lease to outside investors if you ever plan on selling your restaurant or partnering with someone. It is important to have a friendly restaurant lease that will maximize your exit and not bootstrap you to your landlord.
Why Choose Antonoplos & Associates?
What makes Antonoplos & Associates group of Washington, D.C. franchise law attorneys so successful is that we expertly evaluate your case by listening to the specific issues you are facing, perform our own outside research on the issue, and then directly work with you to determine how to best proceed.
We encourage you to call us at 202-803-5676 or directly schedule your free, no-risk consultation with one of our skilled attorneys today.
Balancing Interests
Some landlords will insert fees outside of your base rent, so it is important that you understand these fees and are not caught off guard if they ever arise. The restaurant business is difficult and requires long hours, do not let the fine print of the restaurant lease agreement curtail you from success. Hiring an attorney may sometimes be expensive on the front end, but it can save you money in the long term and could even be the tipping point towards your success. We understand the legitimate requests of the landlord and can balance them against the legal needs of the tenant. Our team will fight hard for your needs without creating ill will with your landlord and establishing a rapport that will carry on in the future.
Negotiating Terms
Similar to other lease agreements, the first step in the process of negotiating a restaurant lease is to conduct an extensive review of the lease agreement and highlight any issues that may be of concern. It is important to bring up any issues of concern immediately because it is more likely they can be adjusted at the beginning of the process while the tenant has leverage in the negotiation process. The closer the lease agreement gets to the final product, the more difficult it is to make changes. Second, our version of the lease will be presented to the landlord and any differences will be negotiated between the two parties. After negotiation, our legal team of real estate attorneys will meet with the landlord’s attorney to prepare a final version of the agreement. As the tenant, we know our client wants to expedite the process in order to open the restaurant as soon as possible, so our legal team will do everything in their power to motivate the landlord to get the restaurant lease agreement across the line.