As Director of Marketing for Hunt Commercial Real Estate and Construction, I had the pleasure of organizing our most recent conference on “Negotiating the Commercial Real Estate Lease – The Tactics and Knowledge You Need To Maximize Results.” It was held at the Carlyle at the Palace in Plainview on October 22nd.

Those in attendance heard from four distinct disciplines; brokerage, legal, tax and accounting on the topic of negotiating the commercial real estate lease. The speakers; David G. Hunt, President of Hunt Corporate Services, Inc., Steven Elliot Cohen, Partner at Franklin, Gringer & Cohen, P.C., Kevin Leifer, CPA and Tax Director at Gettry Marcus CPA, P.C and Andrew Ross, CPA and Partner at Getty Marcus CPA, P.C joined together for this two hour conference. Topics included;

• Win-win negotiations – Why discovery is a critical first start
• Your BATNA – don’t leave home without it
• Loss factor and the rubber ruler
• Typical objective and subjective considerations and how to analyze both
• Discounted cash flow analysis – the ultimate tool for lease analysis
• Why a lease needs to be reviewed twice
• “Gotcha” clauses in a typical landlord lease
• The eight most important lease clauses
• Lease enhancement – How to avoid or limit personal guarantees
• Why you must bargain for options
• The power of lease abstracts and why they are essential
• Tax and accounting considerations in lease negotiations

Guests had the opportunity to meet the speakers at the conclusion of the conference. “What impressed me most was being able to hear from a variety of areas of expertise on their contribution to the overall topic,” said Steven Schramm, Vice President, Citibank. “That opportunity doesn’t present itself often.” By all reports, everyone found the conference informative and worthwhile.

ADP sponsored and moderated the event. Thank you to ADP for all their help and many thanks to everyone for helping to make this a wonderful success. We have already begun planning our next conference for April, 2014.