March to a Different Drummer... Arise. Cast off your chains. Think creatively. That's the message from corporate real estate (CRE) professionals to owners and brokers. The comments below follow two related Dispatches -- Wanted: Lease Flexibility (Apr 8) and Flexibility Gap: Owners vs. Tenants (Apr 15).

Kevin Deeble, Senior Portfolio Manager, Workplace Resources at Cisco in San Jose, writes: "In my experience, there are bigger obstacles to lease flexibility than financing. One barrier is the unwillingness of many landlords to consider any structure that is not deemed to be 'market.' What other industry can you think of where suppliers actively try NOT to differentiate themselves? Another obstacle in some cases is the broker, who (correctly) perceives that the quickest way to a commission is to push for a plain vanilla deal.

"Many large users, Cisco included, are increasingly dissatisfied with lease structures that have not seen meaningful innovation in a century or more. We are looking for landlords who are willing to negotiate with an open and creative mind, and thoughtfully develop a menu of flexibility options with prices attached. And, we ARE willing to pay value for value received."

Fletcher Baker with CRESA Partners, also in San Jose, writes: "In my view, the growing interest in lease flexibility is simply (or should simply be) another cost of doing business. I have recently successfully negotiated several lease flexibilities into my tenant clients' new lease commitments. The discussion inevitably becomes reduced to "What is this flexibility worth to you?" There is usually a way to quantify that answer and therefore have a basis for negotiation with the landlord. Of course landlords and lenders don't LIKE flexibility, just as they don't like fatter TI's or commissions, but they must weigh the value of the resulting lease contract vs. the lost value of the concessions granted."

--Peter Pike