Your Tulsa Office Building: Should I Stay Or Should I Go?
How To Determine Whether Your current Location Is The Best Location To Meet Your Business Needs.
by U.S. SBA Entrepreneur of the Year & Marketing Director of Fears & Clark Tulsa Commercial Real Estate group.
Talk to any business owner 6 months before his lease expires, and you will discover someone asking themselves, “should I stay or should I go?” And that is a great question. Over the course of this article we will delve into the 6 questions you need to ask yourself before you sign (or renew) a commercial lease in Tulsa.
Question 1 – “Does this current location (landlord) provide me with enough real estate to grow my business?”
It might seem a little strange, but over the years I have met numerous business owners who have actually changed and adjusted their business growth models to accomodate outdated leases that have trapped them in a commercial office location that is too small for their business needs. Don’t be that guy. Don’t be that company. Don’t limit your growth to accomodate a location that is too small for your needs.
Question 2 – “Does the lease penalize me for honoring the terms of the lease?”
It’s amazing, but numerous lease agreements signed in Tulsa every year, allow for incremental increases that far exceed any 2 ot 3% adjustments needed to keep pace with the every pressing government caused inflation. Many building owners will actually move as many tenants as possible into their building “at a low rate” to fill up their building and to “stage it” for the prospective buyers they have in mind. And there is nothing wrong with filling up a commercial building. In fact that is the point of owning a commercial building. But
the issue comes when you find yourself paying 5% and 10% annual increases. The problem comes when you find yourself being hit with $2,000 – $5,000 of pro-rated building improvement costs. When the office building owner decides to install a new air conditioning unit in your 11 story tower and a new security system to provide the ammenities that they promised to begin with, it is not very exciting to discover that you will now be accessed
a $3,000 charge to cover your percentage of the improvement costs. Many landlords play the game of penalizing their faithful tenants. Because the building owner has failed to get personal guarantees out of this tenants, and because he has failed to research the business plans, credit scores and backgrounds of his tenants, these kinds of landlords will then look to their good tenants to make up for the short fall. This is not good, but this can and will happen if you sign a bad lease agreement. Trust me. I have signed a bad lease agreement
before.
Question 3 – “Should I consider moving downtown?”
To put it bluntly, Tulsa’s downtown has been dead for almost 20 years. And now numerous signs of an uptick in downtown Tulsa are starting to show themselves almost daily. The Mayo Hotel / Lofts have been almost completely rennovated, the 112 Lofts are nearing completion, the historic City Hall is being rennovated, the BOK Center has
been booming for 2 years, the OneOK Field / Baseball Park has opened to become a thriving success, Bartlett Square has been rennovated, the new downtown YMCA & Fitness Facility is nearing completion and Maurice Kanbar’s recent
investment in nearly 30% of Tulsa’s downtown commercial office buildings (and nearly all of Tulsa’s historic & iconic buildings) has nearly guaranteed the success of downtown.
If you were to have tried to lease office space in downtown Tulsa nearly 20 years ago, you probably would have had to part with an arm & a leg to afford office space for your growing business, but now downtown office space is affordable. The historic buildings that once were the home of Phillips Oil & Gas, Southwestern Bell and other single-tenant juggernauts are now being made available to small and medium sized businesses at unbelievably affordable
rates. Try finding another building with granite, marble, stone carvings, original stain-glass decor, beautiful spacious vaulted ceilings and gold ceiling, good luck it probably will not happen.
My friends, Tulsa offers and abundance of quality commercial real estate options that the average business owner is not aware of. If your lease is nearing its expiration date, you owe it to yourself and your team to check out downtown Tulsa and the space they have available down there. In most cases, buildings that were once vacant are now bustling
with traffic and energy. The boom is not in full swing, but this is a good thing, or the rates for commercial office builings in downtown Tulsa would be skyrocketing.
Question 4 – “Is my lease assumable?”
Believe it or not, if you have a lease that has 12 months or less on it, there is a very good chance that Kanbar Properties will assume the remaining 11 months of your lease to get you downtown. It is unheard of in the Tulsa commercial real estate market, but so is the incredible management of Kanbar Properties. This allstar team was assembled by Maurice Kanbar himself and now boasts one of the most entrepreneurial and innovative real estate teams to ever grace the Tulsa commercial real estate
market place.
Maurice Kanbar, the President of Kanbar Properties is mentally still that young, industrious entrepreneur who understands the needs of small to medium-sized businesses. His team has been built to reflect that entrepreneurial spirit. The man who started SKYY VODKA out of his apartment understands the importance of being flexible to accomodate the needs of
small business owner and growing business. If your lease is about to expire, you don’t have to wait until it expires to take action and to schedule a tour, just call up the Fears & Clark Tulsa Commercial Real Estate Leasing team and we will glady schedule a complimentary tour of these incredible buildings.
Question 5 – “What are my business goals?”
I know it seems common sense, but as I meet with more and more business owners everyday, I continue to discover people that have not honestly evaluated their goals and dreams in the past year. I continue to discover people working 80 hours per week to keep their business moving forward without stopping to ask themselves, “if i move forward, where will I end up?”
Take the time out of your schedule to ask yourself, “what are my business goals?” and “what is the purpose of my business?” If you do that you can’t help but to end up in a great place. Make sure that as you renew your lease or sign a lease for new location for your business that you firmly have your business goals cemented in your mind. If your goal is to sell
your business in the next 2 years, you do not want to run the risk of losing your current location. If you plan on staying in business and growing exponentially year after year, you don’t want to be stuck in a space that cannot grow
to accomodate your needs.
If your business plans do call for tremendous growth over the next 5 years, I highly recommend that you check out the Fears & Clark Tulsa Commercial Real Estate Group website and the Kanbar Properties that you will find their. With over 2 million square feet of commercial office space in downtown Tulsa, Kanbar properties has the assortment of
properties that you and your business will need to grow over the coming years.
For more information about commercial leasing and Tulsa office buildings call Fears & Clark Tulsa Commercial Real Estate
Group today at 918-481-2080.
Or visit us online at www.FearsClark.com
by U.S. SBA Entrepreneur of the Year & Marketing Director of Fears & Clark Tulsa Commercial Real Estate group.
For more information about Fears & Clark cofounder, serial entrepreneur, award-winning U.S. SBA “Entrepreneur of the Year” Clay Clark call us today at 918-481-2080. Listed below are various links to his multiple business ventures. Click below visit these websites:
- www.makeyourlifeepic.com
- www.youtube.com/user/makeyourlifeepic.com
- Dallas Business Coach
- Tulsa Motivational Speaker Videos
- Tulsa Real Estate Expert Videos
- Tulsa Real Estate Expert Website
- Find Homes in Tulsa Website
Founder of DJ Connection, U.S. Chamber National Blue Ribbon Quality Award Winner, U.S. SBA Entrepreneur of the Year, Dallas Business Coach, Serial Entrepreneur, Tulsa Metro Chamber “Entrepreneur of the Year” Clay Clark is also the founder of Tulsa Real Estate company Fears & Clark Realty Group. This company is the home of the best Tulsa realtors in Oklahoma. Find your house today at www.fearsclark.com.
