That Ren Cen landlord told me to never sign a lease in August and he was dead right

Signed a 5 year lease on my shop last August and after 3 months of no foot traffic I realized he was warning me about the summer tourist crowd dying off, has anyone else gotten advice from a building owner that saved your business?

3 comments

3 Comments

rubyk261mo ago

henryp40 mentioned the tourist crowd thing and honestly thats exactly it. My buddy opened a sandwich shop in a beach town and signed in August last year, he was dead by November because everyone was gone. The landlord straight up told him 'youll learn your lesson' and he did.

hollyl251mo ago

Ask him why he specifically said August instead of just "late summer" - was it just tourist patterns or something about the month itself? That timing difference could matter if you're looking at another lease down the road, since August might have some unique legal or seasonal quirks most people don't think about. I'm curious if he had a REASON that goes deeper than just foot traffic numbers.

henryp401mo ago

Ha, good point @hollyl25. I bet he just picked August because its the month when everyones scrambling for something anything before the school year starts, so landlords get desperate too. But yeah, August has that weird legal thing where some leases have a 30 day notice clause that hits different if you sign August 1 vs September 1. I dunno, maybe hes just a dude who likes having a specific month to blame when things go wrong. Real estate agents love picking random dates to sound like they're super tuned in. Probably just tourist patterns though, August is peak "get outta here" time.