Services / Tenant Representation
Office tenant representation means a licensed broker negotiates your office lease for you, and only for you. Tenant Advisors represents office tenants in Chicago and the suburbs on renewals, relocations, expansions, and subleases. We never represent landlords and we don’t own or manage office buildings, so no building we show you and no landlord across the table is a client of ours. The landlord pays our fee, at no cost to you.
Months before your lease expires.
Every engagement follows the same five steps, whether you renew or move. A co-founder or an Executive Vice President leads the work.
Headcount, growth plans, budget, timing, and a read of your current lease for option dates and exposure.
Every viable building and sublease in your target submarkets, not a short list of buildings someone needs to fill.
We narrow to the options worth pricing and keep your current landlord in the running.
Standardized requests to each landlord, compared side by side on net effective rent and total occupancy cost.
Letter of intent through lease, alongside your attorney, plus build-out and move coordination through occupancy.
Landlords open with terms that favor the building. This is where we push back in the transactions we track and negotiate.
| Term | Landlord’s opening position | What we push for |
|---|---|---|
| Base rent | Asking rate, with annual increases at the high end of the market | Net effective rent in line with comparable recent deals |
| Free rent | Little or none, especially on renewals | 1 to 2 months per year of term; 5 to 10 months on a 5-year lease |
| Improvement allowance | Enough for paint and carpet | A build-out or refresh funded by the landlord |
| Operating expenses | Uncapped pass-throughs and a new base year | Caps on controllable expenses and clear exclusions |
| Flexibility | Fixed term, no exits | Expansion, contraction, or termination rights sized to your plans |
| Credit terms | Personal guaranty or large security deposit | Burn-down or removal tied to your payment history |
Ranges reflect the Chicago-area transactions we track and negotiate as of October 2026. Results vary by submarket, building, and credit.
A real engagement. The client’s name is withheld; the numbers are not.
of gross rent abated, in a newly built, fully furnished space ready on day one.
We don’t sit on both sides of any deal. Most full-service brokerages also represent landlords, list buildings, or manage property, and Illinois law lets one broker represent both sides with written consent. We chose not to. Since 2004 we have represented tenants only, and we don’t own or manage office buildings. When we tell you a building is the right fit, nobody else is paying us to say it.
A tenant representative is a licensed broker who works only for the tenant. The job covers defining your space needs, surveying the market, touring buildings, running competing proposals, and negotiating the lease and build-out terms, from first call to move-in or a signed renewal.
Nothing for the tenant. Landlords budget a brokerage commission into every office lease. Without your own representative, the landlord’s broker keeps that fee while representing the landlord. With Tenant Advisors, the landlord pays our fee and we represent only you.
A full-service brokerage typically also represents landlords, lists buildings, or manages property. Tenant Advisors does none of those. We have represented only tenants since 2004 and don’t own or manage office buildings, so there is no landlord relationship to protect in your negotiation.
A co-founder or an Executive Vice President leads the work. Tom Koelzer has been in Chicago office leasing since 1986 and Dave Ven Horst since 1985, and the firm has negotiated more than 2,000 office leases.
Five office markets: the Northwest Suburbs, O’Hare/Rosemont, the East-West Corridor, the North Suburbs, and the Chicago CBD. Our office is in Schaumburg, and most of our assignments are in the suburban corridors.
Tell us where you lease and when it expires. A co-founder or an Executive Vice President will call within one business day with a read on your options. What you share stays between us.
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Submissions go directly to Tom Koelzer. We respond within one business day.
Updated October 5, 2026. Written by Tom Koelzer and Dave Ven Horst, co-founders of Tenant Advisors, Inc., in Chicago office leasing since 1986 and 1985 and tenant-only since 2004. Tenant Advisors has negotiated more than 2,000 office leases from its office at 1515 E. Woodfield Road, Suite 116, Schaumburg, IL 60173.
