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DJM Commercial Real Estate Sold an Office / Medical Building for 20% Over Comps

David Massie, President of DJM Commercial Real Estate, recently sold an office / medical building in Newbury Park, CA for about 20% over the latest comps representing the seller.
David was able to convince the City of Thousand Oaks to change the zoning to allow medical use in addition to the existing office use because the demand for medical space in this area is strong and supply is limited.
David then targeted a medical buyer to achieve a higher price and was able to get the property to appraise for the buyer’s loan.
The sales market in southern CA, David’s primary market, is very hot with many more buyers than sellers and it is a good time to sell because of this.
If you want creative ideas on how to sell your office, medical, retail, industrial or other commercial building for more, please contact David at david@djmcre.com or call him at 805-217-0791.
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Westlake Village Medical, Dental or Office Space for Lease in Prime Location

We have a fantastic property for lease currently. This existing dental office is in a prime Westlake Village location and the price was just reduced from $1.95/SF/month to $1.50/SF/month. This space is not limited to dental office use though. The office can be used for dental, medical or even office uses.

This amazing location has the best of both worlds. It sits appealingly at end of a quiet cul de sac while also being walking distance to retail, the post office and many other amenities nearby.

There are several opportunities with this location as the landlord will allow new prospective tenants to sublease all or part of the space. The landlord is also giving the option to have the lease assigned or do a direct lease, your choice.

This really is the perfect opportunity to dive in on a prime Westlake Village location with a sublease or a direct lease with low rent for dental, medical or office space. Interested in learning more? Full property details can be found by clicking here.

Contact us today for more information! Call 805-217-0791 or email david@djmcre.com

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Commercial Leasing: Hidden Tenant Costs That Tenants Shouldn’t Pay

When leasing commercial real estate space of any type, there are many ways for landlords to hide extra costs from tenants that tenants are usually not aware of.

Two of the most common ways to hide such costs are related to the tenant’s share of operating expenses (or NNN or CAM) and measuring the building.  Retail tenants in particular have to be extra careful here as they have high exposure related to NNN expenses because they pay a direct share of NNN expenses and not just increases over a base year such as is common in office and many industrial leases.

If tenants aren’t careful to use a broker that understands the operating expense share, this cost to the tenant can be quite large during the lease term.  Many times this costs starts out low and then later on in the lease gets quite high.  It is best, in my opinion, to negotiate an overall annual cap and also have a list of expense exclusions that aren’t reasonable for a landlord to include as part of the tenant’s share.

An example of unreasonable tenant expenses would be for earthquake insurance.  Earthquake insurance usually has a deductible of 20% of the entire property value and is an expensive type of insurance to begin with.  It would be a shock for a tenant to receive a bill for their share of a deductible that reaches into the millions, but this is exactly what happens in the real world after an earthquake hits.  There are many more expenses like this that should not reasonably be part of the tenant’s share.  Some more common examples include: Common area ADA upgrades, capital expense replacements and renovations, insurance deductibles in excess of $20,000 for any particular policy, including new  expenses in future years that weren’t part of the original base year (for office leases) , and adding costs that aren’t really necessary like artwork, etc.

Measuring the building is another area where landlords can pad the numbers that will result in a higher rent to the tenant without a tenant even knowing it’s happening and  this happens most commonly in office buildings.

Landlords can and usually do include the tenant’s share of the common areas as part of the tenant’s rent.  This is called a common area load factor and increases the actual or usable square footage of the premises (and therefore the rent) leased by anywhere from 5-20% and sometimes more.  Some of the common areas are legit and some aren’t.

I recently found one industrial landlord adding 5% to their usable square footage numbers just because they had an exterior overhang on the building even though it was not enclosed space.  Another office landlord blended two methods of measuring a building and used the average overall load of the building for the first and second floors but the actual load of the building for the third floor because the load numbers were higher this way.  When I discovered each landlord doing these things they both reduced their numbers so my client was able to save rent in the percentage that the load was reduced.  This makes sense because a tenant pays rent on the usable square footage plus the common area load (called “rentable square feet).  So, if the load gets reduced –so does a tenant’s rent.

Do any of you have stories like this to tell of landlords padding their numbers?  Unsure of whether or not something you’ve experienced falls into this territory? Comment and share your stories below!

Are you concerned that you might be unaware of some of the same things happening to you?

Feel free to contact me for help on these matters at 805-217-0791 or david@djmcre.com

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Restaurant News for Agoura Hills and Westlake

Westlake Village: The Old Plug Nickel location (now a wine tasting bar called Cuvee Terrace) in WLV is being sold and leased to one of my clients that has a couple of very high end successful Italian restaurants in other cities.

The vacant space in the same center as Lure Seafood just past The Counter location has signed a lease for a New Zealand Pacific Rim type restaurant called Aroha that is one of my clients.  In the old 90210 Pho location in this center to the left of The Counter, a new restaurant called Kaze which somehow fuzes Japanese and Italian foods together signed a lease.

In Agoura Hills, Vincitori Italian (owns Spumoni in NP also and replaced China Star here)  just opened up recently in the Agoura Hills City Mall where the Agoura’s Famous Deli is and there will also be a new Kosher Israeli restaurant opening in the next couple of months just to the left of this Deli.  I am involved in both of these deals.

Padri’s will be opening up a high end Mexican restaurant in the Whizzins Center where Latigo Kid used to be in the next couple of months.  Latigo relocated to the old Alamo location in the Vons anchored center at Kanan and Thousand Oaks Blvd. in Agoura Hills.

Calabasas: The old Red Robins in Calabasas is being leased by the Agoura Famous Deli owner and it’s yet to been seen what it will become.

Westlake Village: The Gelsons/Sprouts/Vons center in WLV (all owned by one owner) is performing a 25-million dollar renovation and is going to not only remodel but also build new buildings in some of the parking areas as well as try to connect all 3 different plazas into one.  New restaurants/food uses coming here are:  Leilas (rumor only, not confirmed), Mendocino Farms, Pitfire Artisan Pizza, Le pain Quotidien, Pressed Juicery and Firefly.   And here is what the new plaza will look like with a list of current and new tenants:   http://s.lnimg.com/attachments/52094D72-3578-4790-A932-A1142E78AB9C.pdf.

Besides me representing Tifa Chocolate and Gelato for a potential second location at the new Target center in WLV called The Shoppes at Westlake, here is what else is going on at this center:

Target is under construction with a July 25, 2014, grand opening date and they own their land.  The goal is to get all other Tenants open on or around this date, with the exception of buildings B and E, which will be later phases delivered in September.

Here is a website link that will show you a site plan for each building so you can see where each tenant is going in this new center.

Building J – In N Out

Building G

  • Suite A:  Hook Burger
  • Suite B:  Negotiating with several food users
  • Suite C:  In Leases with a sit-down seafood restaurant
  • Suite D:  In Leases with a dessert tenant

Building F

  • Suite A:  In Leases with a sub sandwich tenant
  • Suite B:  Greens Up!
  • Suite C:  Olio E Limone Ristorante
  • Suite D:  Olio E Limone Pizzeria & Enoteca

Building C

  • Suite G:  Los Agaves
  • Suite F:  All Tressed Up (blow dry bar, also offers make-up application)
  • Suite E:  In Leases with a wireless tenant
  • Suite D:  Endless Beauty (high end beauty supply)
  • Suite B & C:  Salon suites tenant (haircut and color services)
  • Suite A:  BCBC Nail Salon

Building D

  • Suite A:  Negotiating with sushi concept
  • Suite B:  Negotiating with women’s apparel
  • Suite C:  Negotiating with a jewelry store
  • Suite D:  Negotiating with a home goods boutique
  • Suite E & F: In leases with a men’s clothing store and children’s concept, but may relocate both users to accommodate a microbrewery we are negotiating with
  • Suite G:  Jeannine’s Marketplace

Building B (this is a second phase of the project, which will be delivered in September)

  • Suite H: Tilly’s
  • Suites A, B and a portion of C: Medical Use

Building E (this is a second phase of the project, which will be delivered in September)

  • We have a lease out for signature with a 1,000 SF user, however.  Will have several food and retail tenants.