Freestone noted that the current rent for new tenants in 2016 was a lot lower and that the building had a vacancy rate of no less than 46%. This put Boston Scientific in a strong negotiating position during discussions extending the lease. When Boston Scientific left the building, the vacancy rate would rise to 63%.

PROJECTFICHE

Customer: Boston Scientific
Timing: 2016 - 2017
Project: Stay-or-leave
Size: 3330 m²

Daarop startte Freestone een stay or leave business case op:

Development of extensive needs analysis
Market screening for alternative buildings
Drawing up a longlist and testing options against the proposed critical selection criteria from the needs analysis
Shortlist discussion with Boston Scientific and site visit alternative locations
Start negotiations with owner Green Square and 2 alternative buildings
Drawing up a new lease contract

After the stay-or-leave business case and the renegotiation of the existing lease contract, Freestone was able to halve the rented surface area and additionally (apart from the surface reduction) reduce the rental cost for the remaining part by no less than 19%! This way, Boston Scientific could also avoid a difficult move.

Boston Scientific is certainly not an isolated case. Freestone is convinced that many companies are in the same situation with:

- A current use of space that no longer corresponds to the actual needs
- Strongly rising rents because of successive indexations
- Stable or even slightly reduced asking prices
- Very high vacancy, forcing the owner to agree to interesting conditions in an attempt to retain existing tenants.

Want to know more about stay-or-leave?