Service · Office Space

Office tenant representation in South Florida.

Exclusive representation for office tenants across Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach. Justin negotiates rate, tenant improvement allowance, free rent, expansion rights, and exit flexibility — built entirely around your business, not the landlord.

Office leases don't read like retail or industrial leases

Every commercial asset class has its own negotiation levers. For office tenants in South Florida, the terms that matter most are rarely the ones a landlord broker leads with. Base rent is visible. What gets buried is tenant improvement allowance structure, operating expense escalation caps, after-hours HVAC charges, parking ratios, sublet and assignment rights, expansion and contraction options, and the personal guaranty.

Most office tenants focus on the rent number and sign a landlord form lease. That's where the deal is lost. Over a five-to-ten year term, the hidden terms frequently outweigh the rent negotiation itself — sometimes by six figures for a 5,000 SF tenant.

What Justin negotiates on office deals

Base rent and escalation

Comp analysis from CoStar and active deal data — not just asking rent. Escalations are typically 3% annually in South Florida office, but landlords in softening submarkets will accept CPI-capped or flat-for-year-one structures with the right leverage.

Tenant improvement allowance (TI)

For Class A office in South Florida, TI currently ranges from $40 to $75 per rentable square foot depending on condition, term length, and landlord motivation. Justin benchmarks against comparable active deals in your submarket and negotiates TI as a capital commitment, not a rent concession. For more on how TI is structured and what to watch for, see our TI allowance guide.

Free rent and delivery condition

Rent abatement periods on office space range from 3 to 9 months depending on term and landlord position. Justin stacks rent abatement on top of TI, rather than letting the landlord force a trade-off. Delivery condition — exactly what the landlord delivers versus what you build — is a separate negotiation that often gets overlooked.

Operating expenses and pass-throughs

Base year structures, gross-ups, caps on controllable operating expenses, and exclusions for capital improvements. In a full-service gross lease, this is where 3-5% annual hidden escalation happens without a clean OpEx negotiation.

Expansion, contraction, and termination rights

Right of first refusal on adjacent space. Early termination options (typical: after year 3, with a fee). Contraction rights if your space need shrinks. These cost nothing to the landlord at signing but add real optionality to your business.

Personal guaranty structure

Most landlords demand a full personal guaranty. For tenants with stable financials, a good guy guaranty, a rolling year burn-off, or a capped-dollar guaranty is almost always negotiable. See our full breakdown on negotiating personal guaranties down.

South Florida office submarkets Justin covers

Downtown Miami & Brickell
Class A · Financial · Legal
Premium Class A trophy towers. Professional services, financial, and legal tenants. High rates ($65–$95/SF full-service gross on trophy product).
Downtown Fort Lauderdale & Las Olas
Class A & B · Mixed Tenants
Las Olas corridor, Flagler Village, downtown core. Good mix of Class A and B/C product. Rates $38–$68/SF full-service gross.
Boca Raton Corporate
Suburban · Professional
Yamato Corridor, Boca Corporate Center, Glades Road. Financial services, tech, and professional firms. Rates $32–$55/SF full-service gross.
Coral Gables & Aventura
Class A · Latin American Business
Alhambra, Miracle Mile, Aventura Corporate Center. Strong Latin American business presence, international tenants, bilingual demand.
Downtown West Palm Beach
Class A · Financial · Family Office
Clematis, CityPlace, downtown core. Heavy family office and alternative investment migration post-2020. Rates pushing $50–$75/SF FSG on new product.
Doral & Airport West
Flex Office · Corporate HQ
Near MIA airport. Corporate regional HQs, logistics and trade businesses, professional services. Rates $32–$48/SF full-service gross.

Common mistakes office tenants make

  • Touring before engaging a broker. Once you've walked in the door with a listing agent, that agent claims procuring cause. Your negotiating position drops immediately.
  • Signing the landlord form lease without material redlines. Landlord forms are written for landlord protection. Every paragraph is negotiable, and every unchallenged paragraph is free money to the landlord.
  • Not engaging early on renewals. If you're inside 12 months of lease expiration with no options, the landlord knows. Engage 12–18 months ahead.
  • Accepting the first TI number. Landlord starting TI offers are always low. Comparable-deal evidence is the only way to get to market.
  • Focusing only on rent. A $2/SF rent reduction is a rounding error compared to 6 months of free rent, a $40/SF TI increase, or a termination option.

Free lease review for current office tenants

Already in a lease? Send Justin your current terms — he'll tell you if there's mid-term renegotiation leverage or what to prep for at renewal.

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Related reading

Frequently asked questions

An office tenant rep represents you exclusively — never the landlord. That includes market analysis, touring pre-qualified spaces, drafting the letter of intent, negotiating every lease term (rent, TI, free rent, guaranty, renewal options, exit rights), and managing the lease through execution. Justin stays in the deal from first meeting to signed lease — no handoff.

Nothing to the tenant. Tenant rep commissions are paid by the landlord and are built into the economics of every commercial office lease. You receive professional representation at zero out-of-pocket cost. This is identical to how buyer's agents work in residential real estate.

For a new lease, engage a tenant rep before you've toured a single property or spoken to any listing broker. For a renewal, 12 to 18 months before your lease expiration is optimal. Earlier engagement always produces better terms because the landlord has not yet locked in their position.

For Class A office with a 5-to-7 year term, TI allowance ranges from $40 to $75 per rentable square foot depending on submarket, landlord financial condition, and the tenant's credit profile. Second-generation space with existing improvements runs lower. New construction and shell space runs higher.

Almost always yes. Full personal guaranties are the landlord starting position, but structures like a good guy guaranty, a rolling 12-month burn-off, or a capped dollar amount are standard negotiated outcomes. Tenants with audited financials and three years of tax returns have more leverage.

Full-service gross means the landlord pays operating expenses (taxes, insurance, CAM, utilities) and those costs are built into the rent. Triple net (NNN) means the tenant pays base rent plus a pro-rata share of those operating costs. South Florida office is mostly full-service gross. Read our deep dive on NNN leases.

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