Commercial Lease Pro

Timothy Rea asked:


Can you afford commercial real estate on the Chicago Magnificent Mile? If you can, your business will be in good company, and you can make a lot of money!

A festival of restaurant dining, theater and jazz experiences, shopping, hotels and entertainment, Chicago’s Magnificent Mile is abuzz with activity from Spring through Fall, and those merchants and commercial vendors who are lucky and wealthy enough to rent space in Chicago’s most productive real estate market, are the fortunate recipients of some pretty hefty income.

The Magnificent Mile stretches from Randolph Street to North Avenue and from Lake Michigan to the North Branch Canal, and it is Chicago’s most expensive commercial real estate.

The landscape is flush with fancy hotels including the Inter-Continental, the Ritz-Carlton, Hilton, Omni, Le Meridian, Hyatt, Wyndham, the Westin, the famous Whitehall and many other world-renowned hotels share this prestigious real estate, and the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association manages the business district.

Within this precious Chicago real estate, street festivals, garden shows, food festivals and other events are planned, all to bring local residents and tourists to spend their entertainment dollars.

Along this stretch of expensive real estate you can also find posh, formal restaurants like Les Nomades, and NoMi intriguing international restaurants where you can find Brazilian, East Indian, French, Italian and cuisines from many countries around the world.

The Chicago Shakespeare Company is also in residence in the Magnificent Mile of Chicago Real Estate, as are a number of jazz clubs and galleries like Kenneth Probst, Peter Bartlow and R.S. Johnson, selling fine art, antiquities and much more.

Water Tower Place, the Shops at North Bridge, Chicago Place and the North Michigan Shops also offer commercial real estate opportunities in well-advertised storefronts, malls and real estate centers.

If you are looking for commercial real estate in this area of Chicago, be sure you employ a reputable broker. Rents are high and real estate is precious. Options to extend commercial leases and expansion options to take on more space will come at a premium in this real estate market.

Upscale brokers like Gordon McAdam, Property Management companies like Zeller, and Executive Suite brokers like AMATA deal in finding and leasing commercial real estate and space to businesses in this area.

If you are looking for Chicago real estate on the Magnificent Mile, be sure you find a company that will work with you to assess your square footage requirements, and do an office or building search that will take into consideration the ideal location for your type of business.

These companies can also help you analyze the commercial lease you will be asked to sign and negotiate more favorable terms. Some have partners that offer architectural and build-out services for your real estate needs, and even move-in and utility hook-up services.

If you DO rent commercial real estate along the prestigious Magnificent Mile in Chicago, make the most of your network by joining the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association. Membership in this business and real estate district association provides you the opportunity to participate in business-to-business marketing activities and to have your logo and business identify advertised and promoted in the Magnificent Mile events and activities.

The Board of Director’s for this Chicago real estate business district and association always includes prestigious hotel managers and business managers for large commercial vendors like Neiman-Marcus, as well as business district and service vendors who provide the local transportation. These are good people to know if you want to promote your business.

Get to know the individuals who share this small square of real estate with you and leverage their connections to help you make more money and pay that steep rent bill every month.

Per square mile, this patch of Chicago real estate will produce more income for your business, but it will cost you a pretty penny to house your business here.

If you want to consider Chicago real estate with a slightly less onerous price tag, you can consider real estate in the Riverfront area, which is very near the Magnificent Mile and attracts lots of tourists. There are lots of events there and the overflow of shoppers and tourists from the Magnificent Mile is a definite advantage to renting commercial real estate in the area.

Ask your Chicago real estate broker to make some recommendations and see what you can afford. Good luck and enjoy the ride!

Razvan Jr asked:


Equipment Leasing Overview

Equipment is a fundamental part of any business, whether small or large. It is with equipment that businesses render the services that they do. The quality and quantity of equipment a company uses, together with how the company deploys such equipment makes the difference between success and failure in a highly competitive economy.

When it comes to the hardware of a business, companies often prefer to go the extra mile to purchase equipment that will give them an edge in whatever industry they operate. While this quest for better machinery is laudable the methods in which it is obtained are not.

Purchasing equipment off manufacturers’ shelves is a decision most companies choose to take and they do so quite wrongly. In a business, the value of an asset is in its use and the value of that same asset depreciates with its use as well. Equipment is an asset, which satisfies this truth only too well, you buy some expensive piece of machinery, which looks good on your balance sheet, and in the next 4 years its value depreciates to nothing.

Equipment Leasing is the correct option as opposed to buying when your company needs equipment. Equipment is a tool that must be used to its maximum capacity to provide the service your business offers. In this light company should aim to save themselves the wanton waste of money that goes with purchasing equipment and should explore the benefits that come with leasing equipment instead.

Leasing equipment is not an aim at cutting corners or reducing the needed service quality delivered by a business. Equipment leasing is a proactive means of increasing your company’s cash flow that would otherwise be tied down if you considered the purchasing option. This cash flow could impact on other areas of your company’s business and improve your company’s balance sheet in the profit columns. Cash should not be tied down in a quickly depreciating asset such as bought equipment.

Benefits of Leasing

If you’re considering leasing equipment for your company rather than buying, you’re not alone. Statistics have it that over 80 percent of U.S based businesses lease their company equipment as opposed to buying, so you can remain rest assured that it’s a wise decision. To support this fact we offer you some of the financial benefits of commercial equipment leasing.

Financial Benefits of Leasing

These financial benefits of leasing cover how leasing helps your business improve its financing either by saving money or making more money for your company. The list is hardly exhaustive but the points examined here are the strongest and reflect the areas of finance that are most important to a business.

Increased Working Capital – With equipment leasing you save yourself the cost of buying the equipment outright. The money you save from purchasing the equipment can be deployed into other areas of the business. Obtaining a business equipment lease also preserves the line of credit you have from your bank as the financing you use to obtain the leased equipment is much lesser outright purchase. By saving this money you can improve your business edge with the right equipment, turn a better profit and not only retain your existing credit line with your bank but improve it as well.

Improved Balance Sheet – In business the balance sheet is an all too important area of determining performance, not only to your shareholders but also to people who provide major financing such as banks and prospective investors. This improvement comes in various areas: first of all business equipment leases are not recorded as liabilities and thus do not have a bearing on your capital figures. The second area covers the fact that a fixed equipment lease eliminates the need for depreciation, if you had purchased the equipment the cost of the equipment is written off according to use and affects your balance sheet calculations.

Tax-Related Advantages – With a commercial equipment lease your expenses are listed as direct operating expenses, which ultimately lead to a lower taxable income for yourself and your company. Another advantage that makes sense when you compare your leasing arrangement to a purchase is that if you had purchased the equipment, sales tax would then be applied and added to the costs accordingly. In some cases when you lease equipment, sales or use tax is then deducted according to the use of the leased equipment. Whatever the case you should consult with at tax professional to examine the benefits that apply to your company specifically in a lease situation.

Bob Newman asked:


Technological Benefits of Equipment Leasing

Technology provides a needed and powerful edge in business; the following points examine those benefits and let you decide how these benefits provide you with the needed edge in business. An equipment leasing arrangement provides you the edge you need without running the expensive costs associated with purchasing state-of-the-art equipment.

Wider Options, Lesser Costs – With an equipment leasing arrangement you are free to select your choice of equipment without paying the full price. This advantage also comes with the fact that most business equipment leasing companies will often handle everything from the maintenance to the deployment of their equipment. Your company can save the costs associated with the equipment as the leasing company usually gets price cuts on equipment and related services since they buy in bulk.

State-Of-The-Art Equipment – When a commercial equipment leasing company provides your business with equipment they provide the best. They do this because unlike your business, equipment leasing is the only business they do and their competition is steeped in proving you the best equipment at the lowest prices. If they don’t provide the best equipment at the best prices their competition takes over, so the company paying for leasing services gets all the related benefits of getting the best equipment at a cheap price.

Flexible Arrangements – With an equipment leasing arrangement, financing is according to your convenience. Financing can be arranged according to the way you intend to use the equipment and the cash flow of your company. You can also renegotiate the terms of your lease if your circumstances change and this comes without any repercussions. Some commercial equipment leasing companies also handle the insurance of their equipment so insurance costs for your leased equipment is not a problem.

Equipment Leasing Options

With the various equipment leasing companies available there is hardly a fixed set of leasing options. Companies will provide leasing options and tailor them according to the needs of their customers. In this equipment lease guide we have selected some of the most common business equipment leasing options available, which can be found across a variety of equipment leasing companies in the U.S. today.

The Capital or Finance Lease offers the lessee the option to buy the equipment at a much reduced rate at the end of the lease period. This equipment lease is also referred to in some quarters as a nominal buyout lease. With the Sale-Leaseback Lease the company buys the equipment it requires and sells it to the leasing company. The equipment leasing company can then lease the equipment back to your company or business for its normal use. The Municipal Lease option is available to public agencies as well as non-profit organizations. If your company falls into these categories you can make inquiries concerning this option. With the Deferred Payment Lease, the first monthly payments of such leases are usually deferred to a period of up to 90 days before the lease starts. With the Seasonal or Skip Payment Lease, the lessee pays for the lease at peak periods of the operating year, which are defined at his convenience. With the True Lease, the lessee may choose to return the leased equipment on conclusion of the lease or may buy the equipment at a fair market value price of the equipment. With the Graduated Lease, the leases start off with small monthly payments that rise according to the level of increasing income your business generates.