Permitting Horror Stories 4
Before you lease that commercial space
Doug had been a tenant in his business's retail space for well over 10 years. It was time to renovate his retail space and so after working with his business partner to draw up some renovation plans, they went down to the city to get the proper permit. Doug and his business partner considered themselves handy dudes so they decided that they’d be doing a majority of the work. They figured they had some decent renovation specks and getting the necessary permits should be pretty easy.
Boy were they wrong.
They found out that a lot had changed in the 10 years they’d been at the location. They found out that their type of business was no longer allowed in the zoning area where he was located. Doug and his partner of course were pissed. Why hadn’t anyone told them? Why hadn’t the landlord told them? How long had this been a thing? He’d been paying taxes and rent for a place in which his business didn’t belong!!!
The city of course couldn’t explain to him why his business was never notified of the change or the landlord but he had to move, which means that he had to break the lease as he had a 15 year lease. Him, his partner and his landlord tried everything to appeal the situation but to no avail, he had to go.
After a while he found a place that he liked but he wanted to make sure there were no more zoning issues. He went down to the city and asked them if they had any recommendations on help with this and they recommended our company Building Permit Expeditors - Permit Angels.
We helped Doug by starting him with the correct property research information in order to make sure that his business was appropriate for the commercial zone that he wanted to be in, and we also made sure that he could get the proper permits for any renovations that he may want to do. By hiring us, this time Doug and his partner saved thousands in redone permit fees, thousands in lease payments and so much more.
Don’t go through what Doug, his partner and his former landlord went through. If you’re a commercial developer or landlord, make sure to hire us before you have any commercial tenant sign a lease. You don’t want to lose out on thousands because you have the wrong tenant in and the law forces them to break the lease, costing you hundreds of thousands of dollars in loss revenue.
If you’re Doug and his partner, before you sign any commercial lease space, make sure your business can be there. Hire us to do that research for you because we know what to look for and its not as simple as saying, “I have a bakery business, can a bakery business be in this zone.” Every business has a lot more complications in multi-zoning areas and its best if you hire a professional like us, than try to figure it out and/or ask the wrong questions to get the wrong information, costing you hundreds and thousands of dollars in lost time and money.