Negotiating Commercial Real Estate Leases

Written by an expert with more than 20 years of experience in commercial site evaluation, The Site Book is a practical book that takes a logical and process-oriented approach to site evaluation.

Built around dozens of real-life examples of sites that work, sites that don't — and all of the reasons why — this book explores the dynamic and sometimes complex relationship between site features and other factors that will ultimately determine the success of any restaurant or retail location.

The Site Book includes:

• In-depth discussion of the major areas affecting a site evaluation including customer sources, usage patterns, demographic reports, day parts, linkages, drop-in features, physical surroundings, image, trade area, growth strategies, competition, and cannibalization.

• A step-by-step guide through the site evaluation process using a unique site evaluation worksheet.

• Strategies for measuring and weighting the relative importance of each site feature and calculating a final site score.

• Practical tips for specific concepts and varying market conditions -- such as opening a first destination in a new market, adding a second store, or backfilling in a saturated market.

• Strategies for site selection in competitive markets where the best locations are in short supply.

• Considers the perspective of both convenience and destination concepts as well as new and established businesses.

Negotiating Commercial Real Estate Leases is a wel crafted, superbly presented instructional guide for the business owner and a "must read" before signing a lease. Readers will learn the obvious and not-so-obvious differences between so-called "standard" landlord and tenant leases; the critical economic and legal issues implicated in lease clauses; which points are most easily negotiated under what situations and which points aren't worth the time spent negotiating; what alternative clauses and solutions can be offered to create a leasing deal that works for both the business tenant and the building landlord. Negotiating Commercial Real Estate Leases will save the prospect business tenant a great deal of time, money, aggravation, and future real estate leasing-related disappointments.

(This review was published in the February 2001 issue of The Bookwatch.)

Part I Site Evaluation: Problems and Perspectives
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Defining Site Evaluation
Chapter 3: Principles and Perspectives
Chapter 4: Knowing Your Customers
Chapter 5: Demand
Part II Customer Sources
Chapter 6: Residential Sources
Chapter 7: Daytime Population
Chapter 8: Transients
Part III Image
Chapter 9: Drop-in Features
Chapter 10: The Physical Environment
Part IV Market Conditions
Chapter 11: The Market
Chapter 12: Competition
Part V The Site Evaluation
Chapter 13: The Site Evaluation: A Step-By-Step Guide
Chapter 14: Using the Site Evaluation Model: A Step-By-Step Guide
Chapter 15: Practical Advice from the Field
Chapter 16: A Final Word

Richard Fenker has spent nearly 30 years studying the factors that drive the success or failure of restaurant and retail locations. In a review of existing real estate models in the 1970s, Dr. Fenker became alarned at how quickly the simple regression model, which many companies still depend on, deteriorated as a tool for evaluating new sites. Dr. Fenker addressed this problem by initiating the development of a logical approach to predictive site modeling and founded Tangram Corporation in 1981 for the purpose of developing a scientific basis for commercial real estate. Dr. Fenker is now president and founder of PAI.

Dr. Fenker received his Ph.D. in mathematical psychology from Purdue University in 1968. He is a professor of psychology at Texas Christian University, has authored more than 50 research publications in statistics, artificial intelligence, and other related areas, and has written six books.

Business Geographics
A recently published book by Dr. Richard M. Fenker, The Site Book: A Field Guide to Commercial Real Estate Evaluation, is an easy-to-read, practical primer on site selection for restaurant and retail operations. This 165-page book quickly, and often humorously, drills down to site selection basics. "The Site Evaluation" provides several step-by-step examples for performing a site evaluation. In addition, it provides a workbook form that allows you to run the numbers in Fenker's model to yield a site evaluation score for a given site. It also includes practical pointers for specific site selection problems, such as backfilling in a saturated market, adding a second store in a market and entering a market with heavy competition.

Soundview Executive Book Summary
Here's an extremely valuable book for anyone who has to scout out locations for restaurants, service stations, or retail stores of any kind. Author Richard Fenker, a preeminent site consultant, details his methods for picking that perfect location. The site evaluation model he includes (also available on disk), quantifies and weights the positive and negative attributes of a site. This helps you come to a reasoned go or no-go decision. The book is as valuable for its common sense — much of it counterintuitive — as for the model. Fenker peppers the book with wisdom and stories of mistakes. That makes your modest investment in this book cheap insurance against buying and developing a "dog" site.

Urban Land
In The Site Book, author Richard Fenker examines the dynamic relationship among demographics, site features, and other factors and describes a simple mathematical model he developed to assess the quality and suitability of a specific retail business or restaurant. Fenker advises and guides readers through the site evaluation process, identifying opportunities, traps, pitfalls, and red flags along the way.

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