Lease renewal surprise: my landlord showed me the real vacancy math

Renewing my shop lease on Gratiot last month, and I went in ready to argue about rent. Instead the landlord pulled up the city's commercial vacancy stats for our corridor. Turns out we're at 14% vacancy, down from 21% just 3 years ago. I had no idea the numbers had shifted that fast. It changed how I negotiated, we locked in a 5 year term with a smaller bump than I expected. Has anyone else used public data like that in their lease talks?

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hannah40023d ago

That vacancy drop is a great bargaining chip, but watch out for what the number actually counts. Empty lots and abandoned buildings sometimes get left out of those stats, so the real street level might look worse than 14%.