Tips for Leasing Space for Studio

[HudHudson]

My business partner, who owns the building our studio is in, called me up last night to announce he'd sold the place. I have to go find a space for my rig by the end of March. I've never done a commercial/industrial lease before so would appreciate advice on what terms and conditions to ask for or beware of. This will be a totally private facility for my own projects.

[marfbeatz]

hudhudson,

sorry to hear that!

i also would hear some advices, cause i also have leave my current place quickly, and get a new place for a studio!

[Surfkat]

I have have negotiated a couple of commercial lease deals that were great for me. In both cases I found an space that had been empty for a while and the landlord was anxious to fill it.

The first one was a new building where the interior spaces were shopped up into large open area store fronts. He would then up fit the space as the client needed it; rectaurant, doctor's office, whatever. He had a budget for upfit figured by square footage. I got him to let me act as the general contractor for the studio upfit. We leased 2500 sq ft and he gave us a buget of $66,000. That was in 1989. The Reagan recession had just hit and commercial real estate was at a low point. We had to sign a 5 year lease. I hired a studio design consultant and a framing crew. Did the upfit in less than 90 days. That was an expensive space but I had a couple of partners. Rent was $2500 per month.

Later I moved downscale to the low rent side of town without the partners. I could see where "gentrification" was moving towards a beat up neighborhood. Leased a 1200 sq ft space for $500 a month and had to pay all the upfit myself. Landlord was happy to get someone in there, the space had been empty for 3 years. 8 years later I had to move out because the rent went to $1500. They built a new office bldg across the street and a trendy brew pub around the corner. Time to move on. Too bad i didn't buy that bldg when it was low rent. I could have retired by now.

The main point here is to make the landlord aware of the special upfit needs of a studio and it can work in your favor if they are hungry for a tenant. Find a landlord who needs you as much as you need them. Otherwise its an uphill battle.

There are lots of details that can be negotiated into a lease that can help you. I would recommend having an attorney familar with rael estate contracts look over anything. Be sure to nail down the rent to actual dollars. Don't leave it open to some cost of inflation type of increase based on a currently unknown percentage.

Good luck and have fun hanging sheet rock!

[robocop]

look for a place with hvac {tenant controlled} and electric included in the rent if possible.

term should be year to year. you don't want the space to become a boat anchor in your life. if you are going to do a build out, and have them build it for you, they are going to want a 3 to 5 year commitment. if you have the cash flow, you could build it out cheaper most likley, but it is a pain in the ass to oversee it. if you do a build out, you want to sign a 2 year lease with 3 one year options. it's very inportant to have escape cluases in a long term lease, like pay 2 months rent to get out at any point. or pay off what's left of the ammoritized costs of the build out at any given point.

also, try to find a building that has concrete constuction. you'll want a place in a corner of the building to isolate your noise from the other tenants better. hopefully the top or bottom floor to eleminate the concern of sound transmissions going up or down.

if you do build out it's very important that you find a place with electric and hvac duct work in place so you don't have to pay for that part of the work. it can be adjusted, but starting over is a huge expense added on to the build out.

if you have any other questions just ask. i am in the process of doing this again for the 4th time in ten years.

good luck.

[Infernal Device]

A friend of mine built two very small apartments with a shared living area and kitchen on the back side of the studio. He called it the "lodging for bands". Truth is there is a different entrance and no access to the studio, and he rents them out to his musician friends. That pays most of his rent!


Good luck to you! I have my place at my house, no way I could afford an entire building and bills!

Keep us updated.

[jhg]

If studio is to be in a building with other businesses, make sure that the "acceptable noise" guidelines of adjacent tenants is quantitated.