Frequently Asked Questions

The space, or location, of your business is very important. It t represents  more than just a place for employees to gather.  An attractive space that has rare features increases morale and employee satisfaction. If your office has unique perks, it creates an eagerness for  potential applicants to want to work there. Similarly, if you have a well put together space, it creates a welcoming environment for your clients and gives them a good impression of your business.

A loft-style space is an open, clean space with a lot of character and is attractive to the eye. Loft spaces have open floor plans where you can see from end to end, and have increased light and visibility. Lofts tend to be industrial, which is a modern and popular look currently.  Industrial spaces are characterized by exposed brick, ducts or support beams. In today’s architecture, lofts with open floor plans are preferred to areas with many walls and rooms.

Our business handles any type of space for office, retail, restaurant and warehouse type clients. We are proud to be able to help every kind of business with almost every kind of space. While our focus is on creative office environments such as our corporate office space, our experts can provide a custom space based on your desires and to meet your business needs.

Square footage is one of the first considerations for your space. It must be chosen with thought to your business needs and operation. You must think about things like how many meeting spaces you need or how many private rooms you require. Do you need a large waiting area, or will you have a lot of guests in your space? These are the decisions you must make but as a guideline, in a typical office space, you need about 250 to 300 square feet per person.

The next big consideration is whether you should rent or buy. The long term goals for your company are a big factor in this decision. If you see a lot of growth in your future and a need to move, leasing shorter term would be right for you. If you see your business staying in a specific area or size for a long time, purchasing would be a better option. Do you need to revamp your space or customize it? Purchasing would be better for this purpose.  Alternatively, do you have the resources to maintain your own space? If not, renting may be better. Renting vs buying as a business is similar to a personal decision. Owning may be better for some people and renting may be better for others.

If you decide to go with a lease or rent, it is important to lay down strict rules and cover all your bases in the lease document. For example, the lease should clearly cover rates and require caps on % increases in the lease for each year. Even if costs for the owner are passed onto the tenant, it is important to lock rates down to get a favorable rate for yourself.

A lease must consider the needs of your business like the original decision to buy or rent. If you see your business growing, for example, you can ask to have a first option for any new space that opens in your building. Or, if the landlord decides to sell the building, you can have a first option to buy it for yourself. If the landlord is going to improve the space, the rates and details must be covered, to protect your business from any surprise costs. Finally, early termination, while never preferable, must be discussed if your business grows unexpectedly or needs to move.

It is a fact of business that every deal can be negotiated. The best process is to find out what parts of a contract a landlord will or won’t budge on. Before entering negotiations however, you must have the most up to date knowledge of market conditions and the area so that you can negotiate fairly. This way you will know for sure if that price, in that neighborhood, is a fair rate.

Here at Capitol Equities, we help businesses with leasing every day. We help prepare you for the market by keeping up to date with the conditions and prices in the area, and then help you negotiate the best possible deal. Current information, along with an idea of what the landlord will or won’t budge on, allows us to  help get your business a great deal. Remember, a great deal is about more than just the price. It can include creative and unconventional extras such as space design, parking concerns or remodeling.

Unfortunately, the right type of space isn’t always available. In cases where the best fit isn’t out there at that moment, we can help make contact with brokers or owners of this type of property for you to discuss possible lease/purchase options in the future. Alternatively, we can help design the space you want while starting with a space that isn’t what you think you need. Through creative design and top notch negotiations, we can construct design a modern, trendy space from a vanilla or bland starting point.

Much like the housing market, recent years have turned from a tenant market to a landlord market. Fewer and fewer vacancies are available and landlords hold more power than before. Vacancies in favorable neighborhoods are low, sometimes in the single digits. That means it is never too early to renegotiate your lease and lock in favorable rates.

Here at Capitol Equities we have a talented team of designers, architects and planners that work with us to make your company’s space pop. We can help get your brand out the door and increase visibility while creating the best possible representation of your business in your space.

Much like buying a home, the costs of leasing or purchasing a space for your business are passed onto the seller or lease owner. Our service and all of our expertise are free to you.

We help clients of all sizes from the 1,000 sq ft office/commercial condo to a 1M + sq ft corporate portfolio. Whatever your size or your needs we can help. The only common factor for all our clients is reviewing their short and long term needs and goals to help provide the best options.

We are experts at getting the word out about your space. We use several methods like our network of brokers and agents, online property databases such as CoStar or Loopnet, consumer marketing campaigns that leverage our 20+ year history of business, and our website to share information about your property and our listings. We work with you to decide on the best on-site marketing options such as signs or banners. We use whatever method works best to get the word out about your space and its  possibilities.

We will create a fully customized marketing campaign tailored to the characteristics of your space to effectively, and quickly lease the space. We also use unconventional methods of exposing a space to potential buyers such as hosting non-profit events, cocktail hours or shows to get people in the door. We can also help design effective marketing and branding campaigns to appeal to the right tenants. Finally, we will help design the space cheaply but effectively to bring out its  best characteristics.

Why do this on your own when you can leverage over 20 years of contracts and business with real estate brokers, agents, developers and investors from all over? Our sole business is to create great relationships leading to great deals. We know the business, and we know what it takes to sell or lease your space to the right buyer. You’re doing a great job with your own business, let us be the experts in real estate and save you the trouble.

We put all potential applicants through a strict protocol of checking credit and doing background work to make sure they are up to par. We can also leverage previous contacts, and our network of real estate professionals, to source their knowledge on  potential clients. Finally, we do our due diligence financially with business plans, financial reports and tax history to check every detail of a potential company.

Our only interest is our client. If we are hired to lease or sell your space, our single purpose is to close that transaction effectively and quickly. Capitol Equities does not blur the lines, and is focused only on our client’s best interest. Agency Disclosure statements will be signed by all parties to clearly indicate our business relationship with one party and not the other.

You only have to pay us when a lease deal is executed or a property is sold. Not before. The industry standard for leases are 6% of the term rents. Capitol Equities will work tirelessly to achieve your goals; whether it is to sell or rent out your space. We will walk  you through every step, and be with you from beginning to end.

A property management company is about convenience and peace of mind. If you enjoy managing the details of your properties we commend you, and encourage you to keep going. However, using a third party property management company allows you to stop worrying about snow in the middle of the night, or a furnace that stops working on a Friday afternoon. We take the emergencies off your hands and provide peace of mind to you and your tenants. Every headache can be managed by our highly trained team of experts 24/7/365.

We offer full-service facility management customized to each client’s needs and means. Our tailored services allow us to manage every headache, every request and every problem on your behalf. We can help with regulatory needs such as elevator inspections, life and safety control maintenance, and HVAC preventative maintenance. Our portfolio of clients allows you to leverage our buying power in case anything needs replaced or updated.

Our team of experts are here  to cover every need that a building may have 24/7/365. Our expert technicians provide best practice maintenance and inspections of every aspect of your property. Helping to give you and your tenants control and security over the space.

Finally, our suite of tools allow greater communication between you, your tenants and any third parties- such as condo associations.

One of the biggest services we provide is a financial management team that handles every aspect of your real estate portfolio including banking relationships, accounts payable and receivable, tenant financials and budgeting. We can help track tenant deposits, leases, rent schedules, operating costs and other pieces and parts of your financial flow.

Additionally, our extensive portfolio of clients creates ease in the management of your property by putting together clients who can benefit from each other’s services. Accordingly, the buying power of our group allows for beneficial insurance rates or utility prices.

Finally, our maintenance team, financial team, and you can stay in touch using our proprietary tools and software for efficient time management, communication and billing.

We currently manage many types of properties such as medical offices and centers, multi-tenant office properties (both new and old), high-end condo developments, retail shopping centers, warehouse facilities and IT Data centers. Our wide range of capabilities allow us to support any type of property with the same degree of success and control.

Our standard contract is a one-year term with annual renewal options. Allowing us enough time to fully learn and analyze the needs of your project, and provide the right options and savings. In that time, our extensive network of vendors and contracts allow us to give you the best cost-savings options.

One of the most important things to remember in business is to stay apprised of what’s going on in the market. While your property may be turning a profit for you, we can analyze the overall market and provide recommendations that can get you an even more competitive space. Rather than a total demolition and rebuild, we might suggest strategic enhancements or renovations that increase your value within a market. We handle partial redevelopments as well as full developments, retaining the best parts of a property while maximizing its potential.

After a thorough analysis of your assets and your project goals, we provide a recommendation based on our expertise, about how your investment can be increased. Our team of experts and network of designers combine to give a creative recommendation about how best to maximize the investment in a property. This goal can be reached through a combination of long and short term strategies- including lease term analysis, renegotiations, management contract changes, banking relationships, strategic physical improvements and tax evaluation strategies.

Just as we have the strength to increase the value of a property, we have the means and expertise to save a depreciating one. Our team considers all factors including your portfolio, needs, limitations and assets to figure out how best to handle this property. Whether it’s a redevelopment or a market increase using different management strategies, or whether we can make small changes to prepare for a sale. Our team can provide what you need to help a depreciating property.