All Forum Posts by: Courtney Nguyen

@Matthew Drouin yep, booting the nail salon is the best option for us.  I didn't think of offering early termination so thanks for that tip.

Yes, it is exciting.  We are also in a lease renewal negotiation with a good current tenant.  Commercial is way more interesting than residential and I like it.

Thanks for chiming in!

 I hear you John.  Jewelry store is definitely making more money than the wireless store.  Even during the shut down of Covid they were still doing good and paid without any problems, and their rent is at market (second highest out of 9 tenants for us).  I will do everything I can to keep them like you said.  

Wireless store is lowest in rent and below market, but pays like clockwork.  Nail salon is second lowest in rent and below marrket too and always pays late and always complains.  If we don't renew with wireless and give that space to jewelry then jewelry will be a little too big, at 2300 SF (they are next to each other).  So I am thinking best case scenario is not renew with nail salon and give that to jewelry, that unit is 1450 SF which is perfect size for them, and we get rid of a bad tenant.  Then we can rent out 1000 SF (current jewelry store) easier.  But if jewelry store is good with paying for 2300 SF at market price then maybe we will not renew with wireless.  They already spent so much money on making the walls secured etc, so expanding into the wireless store seems to be easier for them in terms of moving.  I still need to talk to him more about all of this.

Good idea.  Will look into that.  How are you with the STNL world?  Still busy?  Yesterday I got an email with a listing on loopnet about a STNL that got me kind of interested and wanted to check with you but I got so busy I totally forgot about it.  Can't find it now.

@Joel Owens  it's a MTNL strip with 9 units so we don't have any rooms to go left, right, or to the back.

I agree wireless store is ok.  However, I like this Cricket operator because he owns 37 other locations (that was back when we signed the lease with him) so I am not worry about his ability to pay rent at all.  That's why I want to keep him, less stress on my part even though rent is lower than other tenants we have.

This jewelry store did very good during Covid shut down.  And since their unit is only 1000 SF they have been wanting to expand but because of other reasons in the past it didn't happen.  I will need to talk to him more to see if he wants to expand to other locations or just expanding at our place.  Thanks for chiming in.

@Ronald Rohde I don't think Cricket the franchisor needs notice from us (if I am not wrong, you did the lease with Cricket and Fyzical for us).  But guess what?  I just talked to the jewelry guy and he said taking 300 SF from Cricket is not enough for him, swapping places with Cricket is also not enough (because he will still be at 1300 SF only).  He was thinking of taking over the whole space from Cricket, so that will make him 2300 SF.  Seems to me Cricket will renew so I don't want to lose Cricket.  The guy pays like clockwork (but at lowest rent out of all tenants).  So we might just extend the lease with the jewelry guy for 1-2 years, wait for the Nail salon's lease expire and not renew with them, then put jewelry store there (that store has 1450 SF which is perfect size that the jewelry guy is looking for).

@Tim Delaney and @John McKee I agree the best case scenario will be to take 300 SF out of Cricket and add that to the jewelry store.  That is, if Cricket the franchisor will allow.  I didn't think of that when talking to Cricket guy.  Will bring that up to him this week.  Thanks guys.

Hi BP,

Last week, one of our best tenants (a jewelry store) called and asked if we have a bigger space they could move to.  They kind of mentioned about this in the past but nothing materialized (because we offered them a space that was bigger than they needed and they didn't really need to move yet).  Now that their lease will be up for renewal soon (3/31/2024) and their business really needs to expand this gets very serious.  They were the last tenant that previous landlord brought in and because of that their unit is the smallest (at 1000 SF only.  However, rent is second highest).  Our strip is 100% occupied now.  However, the unit right next to this jewelry store is Cricket will have lease expire 1/31/2024 so about the same time.  And Cricket was in opposite situation.  When we leased to Cricket they actually wanted only 1000 SF but we only had a unit with 1300 SF available so they had to take that.  

I looked and all our lease have relocation clause.  So here is what I am thinking:  

I can swap the jewelry store and Cricket.

Or if Cricket franchisee/operator cannot relocate (the owner said Cricket the franchisor is the pain in the neck when it comes to relocate even in the same retail strip because they make the operators purchase all new furnitures again and that's a $30K cost because it has to be purchased via 1 single company so it's expensive.  They did it to him 1 time before so most likely it will happen again) then maybe I can take back some space from Cricket, like take 300 SF and add that to the jewelry store since they are next to each other.  So that will leave Cricket with 1000 SF and pay rent only on 1000 SF therefore lower rent which is what they wanted from the beginning.  Jewelry store doesn't have any issue with rent or rent increase so I am not worry about them paying.  I just need to accommodate their need to expand and keep them as our tenant as long as possible.  

Another option is not renew the lease with the Nail salon, then move the jewelry store there. The Nail salon tenant will also have lease expire on 3/31/2024. This is my least favorite tenant, always pays rent late (but does pay), rent is lower than other tenants (but higher than Cricket), doesn't want to pay the NNN portion that they underpay whenever we do CAM recon.

Any of you commercial landlords/property managers/attorneys dealt with this situation before?  And what did you do?  Did you pay for the relocation of the tenants and how much?  What are some of the creative solutions you came up with?

Any input is greatly appreciated.

@Matthew Rolf just sent you a DM.  Thanks!

@Wale Lawal Wale, could you please share with me too?  Just sent you a DM.  Thanks!

@Joel Owens do you mind sharing the good retail leasing brokers in Houston?  I might need one next year.  Having a tenant I am not so fond of so probably will not renew the lease.  Thanks.