I am going to lease a commercial lot for a hand car wash. This is for my own use, improvents have to be made & I want the owner to help us w/the cost. How does that work. It's an empty lot, electrical has to be added, water, & a bathroom. Plz help.

Thanks

Liability insurance, cleaning, signage who pays? Lot parking and any improvements must be ADA compliant. Some of our commercial only forum members may be adding more for you to incorporate in the lease.

Commercial Leases are much more complex then a residential lease.

Locally, in relation to the leasing of commercial property, has been to have a potential lessee sign an “Agreement to Lease” whereby the lessee agrees to accept the terms of the lessor’s standard lease, and which has been or will be drafted by the lessor’s lawyer.

A review of the lessor’s lease would be advisable prior to entering into any agreement. This would be necessary before negotiation of the lease terms and/or conditions can begin and any amendments you required would generally be submitted to their lawyer for approval.

The lessor would most likely want you to provide a detailed description and the cost of any improvements and a time frame for the improvements to be completed and could request a clause that at the termination of the lease the improvements become the property of the lessor and remain on the property or that they shall be removed from the property by the lessee.

Then there is the matter of zoning by-laws, building permits, electrical connections, and water & sewer connections, separate metres etc. and all the other things mentioned in the other posts herein and which could become expensive.

You would be well advise to work with an attorney who is familiar with commercial leases and the relevant laws in Florida.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This information is provided as basic educational information by the author and is not a substitute for the advice of an expert and/or the advice of a Lawyer. There is NO representation as to legality, accuracy, correctness of the herein information and the reader is strongly urged to consult a lawyer in the relevant jurisdiction to ensure accuracy before acting on this information.

First and foremost, have you spoken to a lender? The reason I ask is, in today's world it's very difficult to get a loan to construct a building on land that you don't own.

Are you planning on a long-term lease? And I don't mean a 3 year base lease term, and then a series of short-term options extending out 15-20 years. I mean a 5 or 10 year base lease term and then options after that. Lenders and the owner (if he's willing and able to chip in some of the expense), are going to want a long-term lease.

I assume you will be using a lot of water. Does the city where you live charge a tapping fee for the the water? If so, have you factored this cost in as it can be significant. I'm working on a 4000 sf laundromat deal in a city in PA, and based on his water usage they wanted to charge an $89,000 tap fee - we negotiated down to $20k.

Are you certain this is a good location? Hand car washes I imagine cater to a more affluent customer base in general. Does the zoning permit the use? Will you need a variance? Have you run your demographic reports? Is a radius ring report your best option, or do you need to run a polygon or drive-time report? Do you know the traffic counts? What income levels do you need? What population density do you need? What's the property's visibility to the road like? Is the property at a signalized intersection or mid-block? Will you be able to put up a pylon sign? How large can it be? Can it be lighted? Can you have signage on more than one side of the building? Is the lot in a retail corridor? What's the ingress/egress like? Will you be able to make left turns out of the lot, or can it only be right in/right out only? How close is the competition? And how many?

Good luck...

Thanks for your suggestions. We want to lock a 7 yr lease and I will discuss the options thereafter (thanks for that input). Also, we have checked with the city and DERM (dept of environmental), this is a waterless carwash so they are fine with it, and yes, they had a zoning change last year which now a car wash is permitted in the area. We have been at this for a couple of years & now came across this lot. I checked the going rate on similar lots and our numbers are accurate. I will let you guys know how it goes, we will try to get him to contribute to a fence, which is expensive.

Thanks again.

You'd also need to consider how much a permit would be and all the hoops you'll have to jump through to get there.