Two Tenants in the Hand...

Each year for the last five, new office development in Miami-Dade has averaged 1.5M SF, putting enough new space on the market to give even the best older space a bit of the jitters. Attracting new tenants is still critical for the health of older buildings, but landlords are wise to put just as much effort into tenant retention, Brickell Bay Office Tower VP Christian Driussi tells us. When it comes time for tenants to choose renewal or find new space elsewhere, "they'll explore the market but the value of receiving attention to their daily needs will make their decision to stay much easier," he says. Landlords need to dot the i's and cross the t's early in a lease term--and keep doing it. (I's without dots and t's without crosses are just l's... for loss.)

Christian also says creative marketing is important. "In our advertising campaign, we purposely let our tenants to be our spokespersons," he tells us. (They are more interesting than a celebrity endorsement.) "We featured their comments on why they chose us. We believe this approach works--it's common for new tenants to say the building has been recommended by existing tenants." Recently Christian repped Brickell Bay Office Tower, which is now over 25 years old, in more than 37k SF in leasing, including a 13k SF lease renewal with Mallah Furman & Co, one of South Florida's largest accounting firms. The completed leases bring the tower to 92% occupied.