Commercial Leasing

Wiggin and Dana’s Commercial Leasing Practice is diverse and sophisticated, representing landlords and tenants nationwide in structuring, drafting, and negotiating lease transactions. Our leasing experience includes office leases, industrial/manufacturing leases, build-to-suit leases, retail leases, shopping center leases, hotel and restaurant leases, ground leases, sale-leaseback transactions, and synthetic leases. We represent clients in all aspects of the leasing process, including the negotiation of letters of intent, leases, work letters, extension agreements and other lease amendments, termination and work out agreements, estoppel certificates, lease assignment and assumption agreements, signage rights, lease guarantees, subleases, subordination and non-disturbance agreements, and landlord consents. Our practice focuses on large diverse real estate portfolios, domestic and international. These portfolios run the gamut, from complex highly visible office leasing projects in major markets, to small office tenancies in lesser known markets, to retail stores, data centers, restaurants, distribution facilities, and manufacturing sites. Together with leasing, we assist clients with the sale or purchase of commercial property, including sale-leaseback projects. In addition to our boutique leasing services, we also have design, construction, energy and environmental specialists who regularly support our corporate leasing clients.

Why Wiggin?

• We work closely with clients at the outset of the relationship to learn their business and identify their specific real estate objectives, business needs, and legal risk tolerance.

• We develop a real estate playbook that enables us to complete transactions with minimal involvement from the internal real estate team when necessary, ensuring the client’s risk tolerance and objectives are being met consistently across its portfolio. This program allows for the quick resolution of difficult but redundant issues, and streamlining the process so that the business units expected timing for completion is not delayed by the lease negotiation process. It also acknowledges that a client may take a different risk approach on smaller leases versus larger leases, and we need to be aligned with that thought process so that we focus only on the provisions necessary and applicable to the type of deal at hand.
• We take the responsibility of coordinating the necessary team players (broker, project manager, transaction manager, architect, business unit contact, etc.) once the deal hits the transaction phase to narrow focus and streamline communication with the landlord.
• We navigate strategically through bumps in the road, from a landlord changing its position mid-deal from the letter of intent, to a business unit changing its mind about the configuration of the space or landlord build-out obligations, thinking outside of the box to keep deals on target and maintaining alliance with the client’s timing requirements and risk tolerance.
• We understand the unique issues that come up in transactions for large corporations, such as aligning the landlord’s insurance requirements with the client’s insurance department expectations, or working with narrow procurement restrictions, or following strict approval and execution processes and procedures.
• We have tools and procedures to make the drafting of lease agreements more efficient, for instance a deep catalogue of lease forms, including forms prepared for and tailored to specific clients. Aside from the use of certain form documents prepared for a particular client, we don’t typically favor automated drafting given that each transaction is different, and for some clients the goals differ from transaction to transaction.
• There are no geographical gaps in our firm’s ability to provide real estate counsel in the U.S. We handle real estate transactions in every state and can readily identify regional customs and limitations which enable us to provide the client with the honest reality of receiving certain rights and remedies, and offering location specific solutions that will be better received by the applicable landlord. In certain specific situations we consult with local counsel, and we have an extensive network throughout the U.S. developed over decades of practice. When conflicts or other issues arise that require us to go outside of such network, we rely on the TerraLex network.
• We continue to consider the impact of lease provisions on the ever-changing real estate environment. Real estate transactions today are not like they were five, ten, or fifteen years ago. New technology and business requirements have forced all aspects of real estate to change and we recognize that the lawyers have to change as well, developing new provisions to deal with technology and creative build-outs, flexible work environments, employee capacity shifts, mixed use facilities, and internal corporate risk prevention requirements.
• We appropriately staff the right level attorney to each task; however, our clients always enjoy a one-on-one partner relationship experience that signifies our commitment to the client.
• We regularly prepare and conduct live (in-person or webcast) educational programs for clients on varying subjects, often on a complimentary basis. Subject matter can be specific and targeted based on the client’s goals, such as working with certain documents in AIA’s suite of design and construction templates, or broad and wide-ranging, such as best practices to minimize risk in commercial office leases, or reviewing legal trends and developments. We tailor the format of such seminars based on client needs, ranging from, for example, a small group in a round-table setting promoting discussion and exchange of ideas, to a structured presentation to a larger group with a question/answer session following. Depending on the scope, content, and other aspects of the particular program, we would be happy to discuss performing the same on an alternative fee arrangement.

Our team of practical and experienced leasing attorneys is expert at striking the right balance between promoting a client’s business strategy, and proactively managing its risks. Our clients also benefit from the synergies between our leasing group and our general real estate, construction, energy, environmental, alternative technologies, tax, workout, and litigation practices.