FAQ

A retail leasing broker works on behalf of landlords or retail brands to find and negotiate retail space to rent. For tenants, a broker helps identify potential locations, evaluate the financial terms of a lease, and negotiate with landlords. For landlords, a broker markets available space, finds qualified tenants, and fills vacant spaces in their buildings. 

Retail real estate refers to any property used for selling goods or services. This can include individual storefronts in a downtown area, large indoor malls, outdoor shopping centers, and more. Retail businesses can range from clothing stores and fitness studios to restaurants, cafes, grocery stores, department stores, and even banks. Simply put, any location where if customers can walk in and buy something, it is considered retail real estate.

Many brokers focus primarily on completing transactions. Capricorn Retail takes a more strategic approach. Our retail advisors have actually run international retail brands and managed large property portfolios. This experience gives us strategic insight into how lease terms, construction timelines, and location decisions affect the long-term success of a retail business beyond the day the deal is signed.

Capricorn Retail Advisors is a nationally focused retail leasing and advisory company headquartered in New York City. We have deep experience in every major metro market across the country. This means we can help our clients grow beyond their first location(s) into the markets that serve their growth best. Every step of our process is carefully considered and driven by the unique needs of our clients.

A good retail advisor should feel like a trusted member of your team who helps you navigate this complex negotiation. Our retail advisors are constantly working behind the scenes to locate new opportunities, push existing deals forward, and answer any and all questions throughout the process.

Short answer: It might not cost you anything at all. 

In the USA, the broker commission or consulting fee for both parties is typically paid by the property owner. In these cases, the tenant pays nothing. In certain situations, property owners or retail brands may set up a retainer payment or consulting fee with their advisors, depending on the services provided, their specific needs, and the timing of the projects.

The timeline for a retail lease can vary widely. In most cases, the process includes three major stages:

I. Site search: Finding the right location or tenant can take anywhere from a few days to several months, depending on availability and requirements.

II. Letter of Intent (LOI): Once a potential deal is identified, the parties negotiate the basic economic terms of the deal. This stage can take several weeks or months.

III. Lease negotiation: The formal lease document can be very detailed (often 50–100 pages), and negotiating the legal language can take additional months.

In total, many deals take six to nine months from initial search to a signed lease. After that, additional time is needed for permitting, construction, and buildout before a store can open.

No. Legal review, permitting, construction management, and similar disciplines require years of specialized expertise. Your retail advisor’s role is not to replace those professionals. A good retail advisor should help you assemble the right team and make sure everyone is working toward the same goal. A great retail advisor understands enough about each of those disciplines to ask the right questions, flag potential issues, and keep the process moving efficiently.

Not at all. We work with businesses at every stage of growth. This includes first-time retailers signing their very first lease, all the way to established brands managing large portfolios of locations. In fact, getting good advice early is often more valuable for a small or emerging retailer, because the pitfalls of making a mistake on your first or second lease can sink your business before it ever gets the chance to grow. Get in touch with one of our advisors to find out how we can help strategize your growth.

Simply put, retail rents are driven by supply and demand. The most desirable areas often have very high foot traffic, wealthy demographics, or very few available sites. Landlords may set their retail rent based on other comparable deals in the neighborhood, or they may have taken out loans to buy the building and need to keep up with their investors. The good news is that understanding why retail rents are high in a given area also helps you evaluate whether the location justifies the cost for your specific business. That analysis—figuring out what a location is truly worth to your brand—is one of the key issues we help our clients work through.

Don’t try to chase the market. Focus on your business model and expansion goals. A common tool is your projected “occupancy cost” – the percentage of your total rental costs compared to your location’s gross revenue. Occupancy cost can range from 5%-20%+, depending on the sector. Capricorn Retail Advisors can guide you through the process of evaluating the best deal for your goals. Our experience working in-house for both retail brands and property developers gives us a distinct advantage and deep expertise in these types of analyses.

A tenant improvement allowance (TIA or TI) is money the landlord contributes toward the cost of building out your space. Whether they decide to give you one depends on the strength of your company, common practices in that market, and the preferences of the developer. There will likely be certain trade-offs, however. A good negotiator can help you determine the right buttons to push to get the best deal for your business.

Shorter lease terms give a brand flexibility, but longer lease terms give a brand certainty. Landlords typically want longer lease terms; however, some may opt for shorter terms if they have development plans in the near future. Ultimately, this is a negotiation like any other deal point in the retail leasing process. A skilled retail real estate advisor will help you figure out both the ideal term length for your company and the best way to go about achieving it.

A Good Guy Guarantee is a type of limited personal guarantee commonly used in retail leases in New York City. The structure allows a start-up brand or a new entity to sign a lease as long as the tenant’s principal signs the Good Guy Guarantee, which holds the signer personally liable unless certain pre-negotiated conditions are met. Described simply, if you need to close down the store before the lease expires, you can cap your personal liability by vacating cleanly and on time. Once you are out, the Good Guy Guarantee is terminated, and the personal liability along with it. However, the original lease still remains in full effect, and your business remains liable.