How to Find Office Space to Rent in Gulfport/Biloxi, Mississippi

Office Building for Rent in Gulfport, Mississippi

How do you find office space to rent in the Gulfport/Biloxi area in Mississippi?

As landlords for commercial real estate, it is our business to know how to find office space.

After all, we need to make sure that our office space is everywhere people would potentially look for office space.

So, where can you find space?

First, there are the listing websites: LoopNet, CoStar and the MLS (multiple listing service).

LoopNet, CoStar and the MLS are the “go-to” commercial real estate websites that most commercial real estate professionals will first do a search on.

However, LoopNet and CoStar typically only contain broker listings and/or commercial real estate landlords who have more than 1 property.  The downfall to some of these sites is the brokers/landlords have to pay to have a “premium” listing on the site.

What this means is if you do not have a search subscription on a website like LoopNet, you will only be able to see the premium listings and will miss out on all the free listings.  Most office building owners who only own one building cannot afford to put a premium listing on LoopNet because the pricing model does not make sense.  (Please note that this is only the case for the Gulfport/Biloxi market - in a city like New Orleans where someone owns a high rise office building, this building will likely have a premium subscription on a website like LoopNet.)

Besides the major listing websites, there are several other websites that have commercial office space listings.

There’s OfficeSpace.com, Cityfeet.com and Rofo.com.  Cityfeet requires a paid subscription to list as does Rofo.  One unique aspect of Rofo is it allows you to post a space need and allow the landlord/listing broker to contact you direct.  Our personal favorite is OfficeSpace, as it allows the owner to publish a listing with no strings attached.  In our experience, these websites have much of the same listings because if a commercial real estate professional knows to put their listing on one of these websites, they will put them on all of these websites.

You can also find office space on Craigslist.  Craigslist has a wide range of properties and will often let you contact the listing owner directly.  (As opposed to a website like LoopNet where you will most likely be contacting a listing broker.)

We are often surprised by how many of our leads for office space come from people finding space the old fashioned way – driving around!

The Gulfport/Biloxi market is a fairly small market for commercial real estate.  Because of this, if you have an idea of where you think you want your office space to be, you can probably just drive around and write down phone numbers from signs for a couple hours.

First figure out a convenient place for your customers (like locations just off or on major roads like Cowan/Lorraine, Highway 49, Pass Road) and drive around.  Easy enough, right?

These days, we find more and more people are just typing in “office space for rent” on Google and Bing to start their commercial office search.

Going to Google will bring up most of the websites mentioned above, in addition to websites like ours (www.seawaybusinesspark.com!) who are independent landlords offering office space.

If you are having trouble finding exactly what you are looking for, you can always contact one of the local commercial brokers, who can aid in your search for commercial office space.

Some of the more popular commercial brokers in the area, whose signs you will likely see scattered around the city, include Coldwell Banker, Southeast Commercial and NAI Global.

Of course, our preference would be to just give Seaway Business Park a call, and we will fix you up with one of our own office spaces!

That’s the comprehensive list of where to find office space in the Gulfport/Biloxi area.  We hope it helps!

Please feel free to leave questions and/or comments.  We read all of them.  Feel free to email us at leasing@seawaybusinesspark.com.  We provide office space for rent and warehouse space for rent in Gulfport, Mississippi.  If you need commercial real estate space in our area, please give us a call at (228) 575-7731 or visit our website at www.seawaybusinesspark.com.

Give Everyone 5 Minutes of Your Time

A local businessperson, we’ll call him Business Bob, once told us over lunch that he will give anyone 5 minutes.

Five minutes for what?

Five minutes for anything.

Business Bob said if someone wanted to come to him for an investment opportunity, a business plan/idea, an interview, whatever, he would make the time to either talk on the phone or sit down with that person.

Business Bob has had great success over the several decades his company has been in business and continues to thrive and expand.

A great deal of Business Bob's success is attributable to this mindset.

So, how can we apply this to commercial real estate?

As commercial real estate professionals, we are always searching the next deal.

We try to keep our pipeline full through prospecting and networking but oftentimes, our next big project is just a phone call (or these days, an email) away.

Our company has made a habit of always talking to any prospective tenant who calls for office space or warehouse space.

Sometimes, we know the call is highly unlikely, maybe even impossible, to lead anywhere like the following:

We were recently notified about a prospect who wanted to open a food processing plant within our business park.  Their needs were several thousand square feet of heated and cooled warehouse space and some very specific electrical requirements for the commercial food processing equipment.

Did we have anything even close to this requirement that would work?

Nope.

Did we take the call anyways?

Yep.

Was it a waste of time?

No way.

How can that be?

We took the time to listen to this prospect’s needs and get an idea of their business plan/model moving forward in our region.  We figured that at some point, this prospect might have a different requirement.  Maybe at that time, the prospect could utilize one of our spaces.  Plus, this business might be a potential referral source.

If we had just said no from the start, we would be closing the door on any future business and/or referrals.

Have we gotten any future business from that client or any referrals?

Again, no.

So how can it be that it was not a waste of time?

Take the following example that did pay off:

A number of years ago, we got a call from a national credit tenant (Fortune 100) who needed some space.

Their requirements were 25,000 square feet of warehouse space with a couple of private offices.  The kicker was the company only needed space for 1-2 months.  We were told that they were renovating their existing location and needed space while the construction was completed.

Our company typically shies away from leasing space temporarily because we may pass up a long term deal.  Plus, we didn’t have even half of that amount of space vacant.

Did we still take the call?

Yes.

Did it lead to future business?

At first, no.

We took the local people on a tour of what we did have available, and they felt like they could make it work if absolutely necessary.

The next day, we received a call from the company’s regional office and corporate office.

We told the regional manager that we were flattered to receive the call but just did not think we could make the deal work.

Our company had minimal space left to lease.  We had a few prospects for the remaining vacant spaces and did not want to pass up those opportunities.  Plus, we did not think it was a good fit for the company either.

The regional manager said he understood.

So where’s the part about the big payoff?

The regional manager’s next question: Can you do a build-to-suit?

Our answer: Of course!

The corporate office was calling to ask the same question.

Apparently, the local office was having some issues at its current location and was deciding to either fix it or relocate.  The building was old and was not the typical layout of their other locations around the country.

They made the decision to either find an existing building to retrofit (they couldn't find one) or do a build-to-suit.

Had we not taken the initial call, we might not have ever been presented with this opportunity.

And before you ask the question, yes, we did perform a build to suit and they are still a tenant.

Not a bad return on investment for a 5 minute phone call, right?

Please feel free to leave comments.  We promise to read them all.  You can also email us with any questions/comments at leasing@seawaybusinesspark.com.  As a reminder, we provide office space for rent and office/warehouse space for rent in Gulfport, Mississippi.  For more information, visit our website at www.seawaybusinesspark.com or call us at (228) 575-7731.

Why You Should Always Take Notes for CRE

Image courtesy of adamr at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Remember in college when you were required to scribble (or type) as many notes as possible in a lecture?

You took notes so that you could prepare for an upcoming test or final.

In commercial real estate (or any business for that matter), you must still take notes religiously.

After all, isn’t it just as important to ace your next commercial real estate deal as it was to pass the exam you were preparing for in college?

Commercial real estate transactions are inherently complex.

It is virtually impossible to remember every aspect of a negotiation, whether for lease or purchase.

That is why it is absolutely crucial to take notes.  This is true for both tenants and landlords and buyers and sellers.

How detailed should you make your notes?

As detailed as possible.

Why?

As landlords, we deal with prospective tenants all the time.  It would be nice if a prospect called and was ready to sign a lease on the first call.

It would be nice but it would also be imaginary.  This never happens.

You need to take notes because you won’t remember a conversation/negotiation that took place 2 months ago (much less several months).  Sure, you will remember the most important pieces, like pricing and lease term.

But will you remember the actual back and forth negotiations that happened to arrive at a price?  Or term?

Probably not.

Plus, not every transaction moves fluidly.  Sometimes, sales/leases are delayed by months or even years.

You never know what tidbits that you write down today will be important in the future.

Example:

Recently, our company negotiated a warehouse space with a new tenant.

A price was agreed upon and a lease was drafted.

When the owner came to our office to execute the lease agreement, he told us that the price listed in the contract was incorrect.

Of course, this was a touchy situation.

Here we have a prospect, ready to sign on the dotted line, and at the eleventh hour, he says he won’t sign our lease because he claims the pricing is different than discussed the previous week.

Now, we were not going to quibble over a few hundred dollars/month because the deal was too lucrative.

However, we knew that our pricing was correct.

How were we so sure?

We take detailed notes.

The prospect welcomed us to do what we had to do but he was not signing at the listed price.

So we opened our notes on the computer.  (Side note: We typically jot notes in short form while meeting with a client or on the phone and immediately take detailed notes after on the computer.)

We arrived at the section where pricing was discussed and explained what we had in our notes.

“I’m so sorry.”

That’s what the prospect told us.  He had looked at so many properties that he confused ours with another.

“You are right.  I’ll sign it.”

For a long term lease, this saved several thousand dollars.

All from jotting down a few notes.

Not a bad return on investment, huh?

Please feel free to leave comments.  We promise to read them all.  You can also email us with any questions/comments at leasing@seawaybusinesspark.com.  As a reminder, we provide office space for rent and office/warehouse space for rent in Gulfport, Mississippi.  For more information, visit our website at www.seawaybusinesspark.com or call us at (228) 575-7731.

You can’t get every #CRE deal

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Our company works hard to get every commercial real estate lease that comes along.

These leases are a combination of new business, renewals, expansions, downsizes, etc.

No matter the situation, we diligently work to “win” each lease with an approved tenant.

However, you can’t get every commercial real estate deal.

We are all in business to make money. (Duh!)

Because we are in business to make money, some deals just cannot be attained.

For example, we recently lost a long term national tenant who chose to sign a new lease at another property.

Was it anything we did wrong?  Nope.

Could we have put them in a similar building or built a similar building?  Yep.

Would we have made any money on the deal, short term or long term?  Nope and possibly.

Our tenant, let’s call them Widget Sales, was in a multi-tenant building.

Widget Sales had a showroom, office and warehouse space and was looking to expand.  They needed a showroom double the size, office 50% larger and warehouse space 150% larger with high ceilings.  Widget Sales also wanted a standalone building.

Our company priced a new building for Widget Sales competitively.  Our contractor went back to the drawing board a couple of times to get the price as low as possible.

However, Widget Sales was not interested in signing a long term lease.

Our company told Widget Sales that we could not sign a short term lease for a brand new build-to-suit building.  To make matters worse, there were some specific details that would have made this building hard to retrofit for another tenant without spending a substantial amount of money.

The problem was that Widget Sales was not necessarily looking for a brand new building.  They just wanted their wish list items met, whether this was in a new building or not.  And, Widget Sales had a budget that was drastically lower than what we could offer for a build-to-suit.

Our company tried to make the numbers work every which way.

But, as mentioned above, we are in this business to make money.

Sure, we would have made money had Widget Sales stayed for a few renewal terms but the return on our initial investment would have been far lower than any deal we have ever signed.  Plus, if Widget Sales left our property, we would have been in a bad situation with a building nobody could use.

Our company offered existing space in another multi-tenant building at prices comparable to what their budget was.

Widget Sales insisted on a standalone building.

Finally, a standalone building came on the market with nearly identical specifications to what Widget Sales required.

Our company could not compete with the pricing offered on this new building.

Widget Sales gave us the opportunity to match the price of this other commercial property, but there was no way we could even come close.

The owner of the building Widget Sales was interested in was from out of town and was only interested in keeping the building leased.  Thus, the owner was willing to accept a less than market value price to keep the building occupied.

We admire the owner for pricing the building below market value – he was able to sign a national tenant to a space with minimal renovations for what could be an indefinite landlord-tenant relationship.

The main problem was our company did not have what our client was seeking.

When that happens, it is awfully hard to reach an agreement where both parties can benefit.

Our company could not benefit so we had to pass on this tenant.

After all, our company can only stay in business by making money.  And sometimes, that means passing on a commercial real estate deal.

Please feel free to leave comments.  We promise to read them all.  You can also email us with any questions/comments at leasing@seawaybusinesspark.com.  As a reminder, we provide office space for rent and warehouse space for rent in Gulfport, Mississippi.  For more information, visit our website at www.seawaybusinesspark.com or call us at (228) 575-7731.

BATNA + CRE (Acronym Overload!)

In case you were wondering, this is not an anagram contest!  BAT CRANE is not an answer!

First, some definitions:

BATNA = Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement

CRE = Commercial Real Estate

+ = Plus (Sorry, we couldn’t help ourselves…)

BATNA was introduced in Getting to Yes: Negotiating Without Giving In, a book still used in business schools and negotiation classes around the world.

So, what exactly is BATNA? 

BATNA is basically where you stand if you fail to reach an agreement.  Each person's BATNA is unique and varies depending on the situation.

If you are negotiating with a new supplier and fail to reach an agreement, maybe you continue using your existing supplier or find a third one.

If you own stock in Company XYZ and wish to sell it for $30,000 in order to pay all cash for a new car, your BATNA could be any of the following if you fail to sell the stock for $30,000:

1. You sell $30,000 of Company ABC, another stock you own.
2. You do not sell any stock and lease the car instead.
3. You dip into your retirement savings to pay for the car.
4. You decide to wait another 6 months before you purchase the car.
5. You buy a less expensive car.

As landlords of commercial real estate, our most common example of this principle is what happens if we cannot come to terms on a lease agreement with a prospective tenant.

Most of the time, this means our vacant space remains vacant. 

Pretty simple, right?

So the question often becomes: Is a vacancy worthwhile?

Sometimes, the answer is easy.

If you are offering an office space for $5,000/month (and let’s assume it is actually worth $5,000/month), and an offer comes in at $2,000/month, you are better served to keep the vacant space and hold out for a tenant who will pay you the true market value.

An example not involving a vacancy is if you have a tenant in your space paying you $5,000/month with its lease term about to expire.  Your existing tenant wants to renew at $5,000/month and another prospect wants the exact same space.  You would obviously want a premium for the space to allow the new tenant to move in so if that tenant does not agree to, say $5,100/month, your best alternative is your existing tenant at $5,000/month.

In the previous example, you have a clear line for how to negotiate.  If the new tenant will not pay anything over $5,000/month, you should walk away from the deal.

However, as is usually the case, the real life scenarios are often much more complicated.

There are literally dozens and dozens of factors in every lease agreement and many are intensely negotiated.

The most important factor that is always negotiated, though, is the price.  And we have heard stories of miniscule amounts that are quibbled over that make the parties go their separate ways.

This is rarely the best case scenario. 

As a landlord, if your BATNA is a vacancy for an indefinite amount of time, how is this good for your business (which involves, you know, actually collecting rent!)?

And as a tenant, if your BATNA is to seek another space, which may or may not fit your budget and which takes even more time away from what you do best (actually running your company!), how is this good for your business?

Before you draw your final line in the sand, take the following into consideration:

Landlord Questions

• Do you have any other pending offers or interested parties?
• Have you received any offers since your space became vacant that you have already turned down (i.e., are you offering your space for the market value)?
• How much does you vacancy cost each month (utilities, janitorial, maintenance, taxes, insurance, marketing)?
• How is your local commercial real estate market performing?
• Is your prospect agreeing to everything other than the price? (If the prospect will use your lease form and will go along with all other terms/conditions, the price might not be as big of a deal.)
• Is this a credit tenant?
• Is this tenant a good fit for your building or business park?

Tenant Questions

• Can you remain at your current location or will you be forced out?
• How much will you pay in holdover rent if you have to remain in your existing location for a few months?
• When does your current lease expire?
• Are there any other vacant buildings in the market?
• How much is the space worth to you? (Note, this is different from the market value of the space – if the space is in your ideal location, it should be worth more to you than the market might dictate.)
• How long will it take you to find another alternative?
• And if you find another alternative, what is the market rate for it?

All of these questions must be asked. 

Sometimes, it is worthwhile to take less (or pay more) than what is expected to satisfy the other party. 

As landlords, we are pro-agreement.  (Obviously!)

But sometimes, that means we must take less than what we think a space is worth.

We always try to obtain the market value for our spaces.

It is important to remember though, that the market value is what someone is willing to pay.

That does not mean you should accept a ridiculous offer, but it does mean you need to think twice about saying no.

Please feel free to leave comments.  We promise to read them all.  You can also email us with any questions at leasing@seawaybusinesspark.com.  As a reminder, we provide office space for rent and office/warehouse space for rent in Gulfport, Mississippi.  Please keep us in mind if you are looking for a space in our area.  If you want more information about our available office space or warehouse space, visit our website at www.seawaybusinesspark.com or give us a call at (228) 575-7731.