Services / Lease Renewal Negotiation
Chicago Office Lease Renewal Negotiation
Office lease renewal negotiation gets your current landlord to price your next term against the market instead of against the cost of you moving. Tenant Advisors negotiates renewals for office tenants in Chicago and the suburbs by benchmarking your lease, pricing real alternatives in competing buildings, and running the renewal like a new deal. We represent tenants only and don’t own or manage buildings. Start 12 to 18 months before expiration; the landlord pays our fee.
Who needs renewal help
- Tenants whose lease expires in the next 24 months, even if staying is the likely outcome.
- Anyone holding a landlord’s renewal proposal or a request to simply extend.
- Tenants with a renewal option notice date coming up, which often falls 9 to 12 months before expiration.
- Companies whose headcount or work pattern has changed since they signed.
- Tenants paying a rate set years ago in a market that has since softened.
When to start a renewal
- 18months outBenchmark and planLease review, market benchmark, and a decision on whether to test the market.
- 12months outPrice the alternativesProposals from competing buildings, so the landlord sees real options.
- 9months outOption notice windowMany renewal options must be exercised by now, or the right lapses.
- 6months outFinal termsEconomics should be settled while you could still credibly move.
- 3months outSign the amendmentLeaves time for any landlord-funded refresh before the new term.
Months before your lease expires.
How we negotiate your renewal
A co-founder or an Executive Vice President leads every renewal.
Read the lease
Option deadlines, notice requirements, holdover penalties, and restoration clauses that shape your leverage.
Benchmark the deal
Your rent, increases, and pass-throughs against current deals in your submarket, in plain numbers.
Build real alternatives
Surveys and proposals from comparable buildings. Even if you never intend to move, they set the market price.
Negotiate in parallel
Rate, free rent, refresh allowance, expense caps, and flexibility, pressed where the data says they belong.
Paper the amendment
We work with your attorney so the negotiated economics carry through the renewal document.
What a renewal should include
Renewal proposals are priced against your inertia. In the renewals we negotiate, tenants who skip a competitive process routinely leave 10 to 25% of achievable savings on the table.
| Term | Landlord’s opening position | What we push for |
|---|---|---|
| Base rent | Current rate plus an increase | Reset to today’s market, often below your current rate in soft submarkets |
| Free rent | None, because you’re already there | 1 to 2 months per year of the new term |
| Refresh allowance | As-is | Landlord-funded paint, carpet, or a full remodel |
| Operating expenses | Base year reset to a higher year | Caps on controllable expenses and a negotiated base year |
| Flexibility | Same term, no new rights | Expansion, contraction, or termination rights for the new term |
| Next renewal | No option | A new renewal option at a defined rate |
Ranges reflect the Chicago-area transactions we track and negotiate as of October 2026. Results vary by submarket, building, and credit.
Client example
A real engagement. The client’s name is withheld; the numbers are not.
A Schaumburg renewal, repriced
- Situation
- In 2025, a 12,000 SF tenant in Schaumburg wanted to stay but needed to update a dated layout and finishes.
- What we did
- We marketed the requirement to 6 competing buildings, ran a side-by-side total occupancy cost comparison, and brought 3 landlords into active negotiation. The relocation proposals became the lever on the incumbent’s improvement allowance and free rent.
net effective rent than the landlord’s initial renewal proposal, plus a landlord-funded renovation.
Why it matters that we only represent tenants
Your landlord already has a broker. In many buildings that broker’s firm also represents other tenants, lists competing buildings, or manages the property. Tenant Advisors represents only tenants and doesn’t own or manage buildings, so we can press your landlord on every term without a relationship to protect. A renewal is usually the landlord’s best outcome too, which leaves room to negotiate if you show real alternatives.
Frequently asked questions
When should I start negotiating my office lease renewal?
Start 12 to 18 months before your lease expires. That window keeps relocation a credible alternative, which is the source of your leverage, and protects renewal option deadlines that often fall 9 to 12 months before expiration.
How much can I save on an office lease renewal in Chicago?
In the renewals we negotiate, tenants running competitive processes in soft Chicago submarkets typically achieve effective rents 20 to 30% below asking, plus free rent and improvement allowances. Results depend on your submarket, building class, and how much real competition you create.
Do I have to be willing to move to get a better renewal?
You need credible, priced alternatives, not a decision to move. Most of our clients renew. Documented proposals from competing buildings are what make a landlord price your renewal against the market.
What can be negotiated in a renewal besides rent?
Free rent, an improvement or refresh allowance, operating expense caps, the base year, expansion and contraction rights, termination options, a new renewal option, parking, and signage.
What does renewal representation cost the tenant?
Nothing. The landlord pays brokerage commissions on renewals just as on new leases. Tenant Advisors is paid by the landlord while representing only you, and we never represent landlords.
Request a Lease Review
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.
- No cost and no obligation
- We never share your information with landlords
- Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm
Prefer to talk now?
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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.