Office tenant representation in South Florida.

Part of commercial tenant representation in Florida — what the law presumes about your broker, and who pays the fee.

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

What office space actually sells for here

Rent is the number you negotiate, but the sale market tells you what a landlord thinks the building is worth and therefore how hard they will fight for a rate. Across recorded arms-length sales from 2021 through August 2026, office traded at a $437 per square foot median in Miami-Dade, $337 in Palm Beach and $275 in Broward — a 59% spread between the top and bottom counties for what is nominally the same product an hour apart. A landlord holding a $437/SF asset in Coral Gables has a different tolerance for concessions than one holding a $275/SF building in Sunrise, and knowing which side of that you are sitting on changes what you ask for.

The full breakdown by county and building size is on what is my commercial property worth, with county detail for Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach. If owning rather than leasing is on the table, buying a building covers the SBA route.

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.

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