Commercial Real Estate Leasing
A commercial lease is a long contract that one side usually drafts to its own advantage, and Washington gives the parties almost no statutory backstop. We negotiate office, retail, industrial, and ground leases for landlords and tenants, so the rent, the build-out, and the exit read the way our client thinks they agreed to.
Talk to an attorneyFounded
1965
Attorneys
11
AV-rated
Martindale-Hubbell
Office
Bellevue, WA
Founded
1965
Attorneys
4
AV-rated
Martindale-Hubbell
Office
Bellevue, WA
Commercial real estate leasing attorneys for Bellevue and Seattle landlords and tenants
Oseran Hahn negotiates and drafts commercial leases for both landlords and tenants across office, retail, industrial, ground, and mixed-use space. We handle the full lease lifecycle: the letter of intent, the lease itself, the build-out and delivery, and the renewals, amendments, assignments, and disputes that follow over a tenancy's life. Commercial leases get almost none of the tenant protections Washington law gives apartments, so the document is the only rulebook. We draft and negotiate it as the rulebook it is, for the years the relationship has to last.
A commercial lease decides far more than the rent, and Washington leaves almost all of it to the contract. We negotiate and draft the lease itself for landlords and tenants across every property type. We structure the rent, the escalations, and the operating-cost pass-throughs that quietly move the real number. We paper the tenant improvements and the delivery condition. We handle the assignments, subleases, renewals, and estoppels that come up mid-term. And we enforce the lease, or defend it, when a party defaults.
Lease drafting and negotiation
The lease is a long document that one side usually drafts to favor itself, and in Washington it is almost the only thing that governs the relationship: the Residential Landlord-Tenant Act (RCW 59.18) does not reach commercial space, so there is no statutory floor under a commercial tenant. We negotiate and draft office, retail, industrial, ground, and mixed-use leases for both landlords and tenants, working the terms that decide the deal: the premises and use clause, the term and renewal options, the rent and escalation structure, the maintenance and repair obligations, and the insurance, indemnity, and casualty provisions. A lease for more than one year has to be in writing and signed to be enforceable under Washington's statute of frauds (RCW 64.04.010), and for longer terms we record a memorandum of lease under the recording act (RCW 65.08.070) so the tenancy survives a sale of the building.
Rent structure, operating costs, and CAM
The base rent is rarely the real cost of a commercial space. We work through the rent structure that actually governs what a tenant pays and a landlord collects: gross, modified gross, or triple-net, the annual escalations, and the pass-through of property taxes, insurance, and common-area maintenance. On retail leases we negotiate percentage rent and the breakpoint that triggers it. The pass-throughs are where disputes live, so we draft the operating-cost definitions, the exclusions, the caps on controllable expenses, and the tenant's audit rights, so the year-end CAM reconciliation isn't a surprise. We've seen enough vague expense clauses become litigation to draft them tightly on either side.
Tenant improvements, delivery, and build-out
Most commercial space needs work before a tenant can occupy it, and the lease has to say who builds it, who pays, and what happens if it runs late. We negotiate the tenant-improvement allowance and the work letter, define the delivery condition and the commencement date so rent doesn't start before the space is usable, and allocate the cost of code and permit work, including the Title III obligations the Americans with Disabilities Act (42 U.S.C. § 12181) imposes on places of public accommodation. We tie the construction obligations to the lease's remedies, so a delayed or defective build-out has a consequence the contract actually spells out.
Assignment, subletting, renewals, and amendments
A lease signed today has to flex as a business changes, and the mid-term provisions decide how much room a tenant has. We negotiate the assignment and subletting terms, including the standard the landlord applies to consent and any right to recapture the space or share in a sublease profit, and we draft the renewal, expansion, and right-of-first-refusal options that give a tenant a future. When a building is sold or financed, we prepare and review the estoppel certificates and subordination, non-disturbance, and attornment (SNDA) agreements a lender or buyer requires, so a tenant's lease, and a landlord's rent stream, survives the transaction. The amendments that pile up over a tenancy get the same discipline as the original lease.
Default, remedies, and lease enforcement
When a party breaches, the lease and Washington's unlawful detainer statute set what happens next. We enforce and defend commercial leases: a landlord facing an unpaid tenant proceeds under the forcible entry and unlawful detainer act (RCW 59.12), usually starting with the statutory notice to pay rent or vacate (RCW 59.12.030), and we counsel against the self-help lockout that turns a clean default into the landlord's liability. We negotiate and enforce personal guaranties, advise on the duty to mitigate and the recovery of unpaid rent, and handle the lease side of a tenant bankruptcy, where the Bankruptcy Code (11 U.S.C. § 365) lets a debtor assume or reject the lease and reorders the landlord's remedies. When enforcement turns into litigation, the firm's litigators are on the same file.
Sixty years of Pacific Northwest leasing, for landlords and for tenants, means we know where the other side's form lease is quietly one-sided and which clauses actually get litigated. That perspective shapes every lease we touch.
We represent landlords and tenants.
Because we sit on both sides of the table, we know how a landlord's standard form is built and where a tenant can push back. The same knowledge makes the leases we draft for landlords harder to pick apart.
The cost is in the operating clauses.
The base rent is the number everyone reads. The CAM, escalation, and pass-through clauses are where the money actually moves, and where the disputes start. We draft those tightly, whichever side we're on.
Leasing and litigation under one roof.
Lease defaults, CAM disputes, and unlawful detainer actions are some of the most common real estate fights. The litigators who handle them are down the hall, so we draft the lease knowing how its terms hold up in court.
The attorneys behindthe work.
Our business and corporate attorneys handle this work alongside our litigation team, so you have coverage whether your matter stays transactional or becomes something more.
What clientsask us first.
Do Washington's residential tenant protections apply to my commercial lease?
No. The Residential Landlord-Tenant Act (RCW 59.18) governs apartments and houses, not commercial space. A commercial lease is governed almost entirely by its own terms, which is why the document matters so much: there's no statutory floor protecting a commercial tenant, and a landlord can't assume residential rules apply either. We draft and negotiate the lease as the controlling rulebook it is.
What's the difference between a gross lease and a triple-net (NNN) lease?
In a gross lease, the landlord covers property taxes, insurance, and maintenance out of the rent. In a triple-net lease, the tenant pays those costs on top of base rent, usually as a pro-rata share of the building's operating expenses. Most commercial leases sit somewhere on that spectrum. The label matters less than the operating-cost definitions and caps, which is where we spend the negotiation.
Should I sign a personal guaranty on a commercial lease?
Landlords usually ask for one, especially from a newer or smaller business, and it puts your personal assets behind the company's rent. It's negotiable. We work to cap the guaranty in amount or time, add a burn-off once the tenant has paid reliably, or limit it to a good-guy guaranty that ends when the tenant surrenders the space properly. If you're the landlord, we draft the guaranty to actually be collectible.
Can I assign my lease or sublet the space if my business changes?
Usually yes, but the lease controls how. Most leases require the landlord's consent to assign or sublease, and the negotiated question is whether that consent can be withheld unreasonably, whether the landlord can recapture the space instead, and who keeps any profit on a sublease. We negotiate those terms when the lease is signed, when you have leverage, rather than when you need to move and don't.
A commercial tenant stopped paying. How fast can a landlord act?
Faster than with a residential tenant, but only through the statute. Washington's unlawful detainer act (RCW 59.12) lets a commercial landlord serve a notice to pay rent or vacate and then file to regain possession, but a landlord who changes the locks or removes a tenant's property without going through the court risks liability for an unlawful self-help eviction. We move quickly through the process that actually works rather than the shortcut that backfires.
When should I bring in an attorney on a commercial lease?
Before you sign the letter of intent, on either side. The LOI sets the economic terms everyone treats as settled by the time the lease is drafted, so the leverage to fix the rent structure, the guaranty, the assignment terms, and the build-out is highest at the start. Bringing counsel in to review a lease you've already agreed to in principle means negotiating uphill.
Landlord or tenant, we'll get the rent, the build-out, and the exit right before you sign.
Oseran Hahn P.S. · 11225 SE 6th St, Suite 100 · Bellevue, WA 98004
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