PHOENIX, Ariz. — Phoenix-based ReduceYourRent is proving a lifeline to struggling business owners by jumping in, renegotiating leases and convincing landlords to lower rents – saving thousands of dollars for business owners and helping to ensure log-term occupancy for landlords. ReduceYourRent is a team of seasoned Arizona real estate professionals who are helping floundering businesses survive and helping solvent business secure a healthy long-term future!
Founder of ReduceYourRent, Tom Lackman has been working in commercial real estate since the 80’s, working with buyers, sellers, landlords and tenants in a variety of commercial real estate transactions.
In the early months of 2008, after a string of commercial clients sought help in renegotiating their leases they could no longer afford, Lackman and his team created ReduceYourRent to help these desperate tenants. Realizing that most of these new clients were on the brink of closing, Lackman agreed to help without taking an up-front fee, agreeing to be paid only if he was successful in getting rents reduced. And even then, he would receive, over many months, a percentage from the savings of the renegotiated rents.
While some commercial tenants have tried to reach out to their landlords and renegotiate their leases, few are successful according to Lackman. Lacking in a clear understanding of their leases, the market and its direction, tenants run into stonewalls. Landlords and their representatives just say “no” and refuse to budge. They feel they are in a position to do so, and, feeling uneasy that their other tenants might follow, feel justified in closing down all communication of renegotiation. But this is a false dangerous sense of security.
Says Lackman, “Many landlords continue to cling to business strategies of the past, squeezing tenants for rents they simply can no longer afford and refusing to entertain compromise. But in truth this stalemate, results closed businesses and dark storefronts, creating a ‘cancer’ that undermines and weakens surrounding businesses, shopping centers and retail buildings. As is being proven, landlords are having a much harder time filling the spaces of these failed businesses. The tenants will just fail, followed by the landlords who won’t be able to get that from the next guy probably resulting in their loans being called. At the same time, the banks don’t want these properties back. What are they going to do with half filled shopping centers and office buildings?”
“If tenants and landlords are to survive the current recession, they must work together to keep retail businesses up and running and as healthy as possible. That’s where we step in,” asserts Lackman.
In addition to offices in Phoenix, New York and Los Angeles, ReduceYourRent will soon expand to Portland, OR, San Francisco and Chicago.
