Industrial Lease RFP Checklist for Tenants

An industrial lease request for proposal should make landlords respond to the same operating requirement, economic fields, work scope, schedule, and risk questions. Without one common structure, the tenant receives proposals that look complete but cannot be compared fairly.

This checklist is for industrial occupiers preparing to request terms for an existing building, renewal alternative, expansion, or relocation. It is a business-planning framework, not legal, tax, accounting, engineering, environmental, or other professional advice.

Short answer

A useful industrial lease RFP should define:

1. The tenant's operating requirement.
2. The exact building and premises being proposed.
3. Lease term, rent, escalation, and expense structure.
4. Free rent, allowances, landlord work, and tenant work.
5. Delivery condition, access dates, and required occupancy date.
6. Utilities, life-safety systems, loading, parking, yard, and expansion needs.
7. Options, flexibility, security, restoration, and surrender expectations.
8. Every assumption, exclusion, approval condition, and response deadline.

Require respondents to use the same units, periods, and response format. Preserve unanswered fields as open issues instead of treating silence as agreement.

1. State the operating requirement before asking for rent

The RFP should begin with the operation the building must support.

Include only requirements that the tenant has reviewed internally:

• Target usable building area and acceptable range.
• Manufacturing, assembly, distribution, storage, or mixed use.
• Clear height, column spacing, floor loading, and process-layout needs.
• Dock doors, drive-in doors, trailer parking, employee parking, and circulation.
• Electrical load, voltage, redundancy, gas, water, wastewater, and process utilities.
• Fire protection, ventilation, cooling, compressed air, and other critical systems.
• Office, welfare, quality, maintenance, laboratory, or secure-area needs.
• Outdoor storage, rail, crane, yard, or special-access needs when applicable.
• Expansion, contraction, and future operating flexibility.
• Required occupancy date and last responsible decision date.

Separate mandatory constraints from preferences. A lower-cost proposal is not a valid alternative when it cannot support a mandatory requirement.

2. Identify the exact premises and control position

Ask the respondent to identify:

• Street address and proposed premises.
• Stated and measured area, measurement method, and any shared areas.
• Current owner, proposed landlord, and authorized responding party.
• Whether the building is existing, under construction, proposed, or subject to another occupancy.
• Current availability and any conditions on delivery.
• Site plan, floor plan, loading plan, parking count, and yard boundaries.
• Any rights held by other tenants or parties that could affect access, parking, expansion, or use.

The RFP response should not imply that ownership, control, zoning, utility capacity, or delivery is verified merely because a marketing package says so.

3. Standardize the recurring economics

Require every proposal to state recurring costs in the same units.

Request:

• Base rent per square foot per year.
• Rent commencement date.
• Escalation percentage, timing, and calculation basis.
• Lease type and the expenses included or excluded from base rent.
• Current operating expenses, taxes, insurance, and administrative charges.
• Expense base year, gross-up rules, caps, exclusions, audit rights, and reconciliation timing.
• Utilities paid directly, submetered, allocated, or included.
• Maintenance, repair, replacement, compliance, and capital responsibilities.
• Any recurring fees outside stated rent and operating expenses.

Do not ask only for an effective rate. Require the cash-flow inputs needed to reproduce it.

Use the industrial lease proposal comparison guide and proposal comparison scorecard after responses arrive.

4. Separate concessions, work, and one-time costs

Request each concession and responsibility separately:

• Free base-rent months and when they apply.
• Charges that continue during free-rent periods.
• Tenant-improvement allowance and eligible uses.
• Landlord work, delivery condition, and completion standard.
• Tenant work and approval process.
• Moving or other allowances.
• Design, engineering, permitting, project-management, testing, and inspection responsibility.
• Cost-overrun, change-order, delay, and contingency responsibility.
• Reimbursement documentation, timing, deadlines, and unused-balance treatment.

A stated allowance should not be treated as unrestricted cash. Record the conditions and timing needed to realize it.

5. Make schedule and delivery measurable

Ask for dates and dependencies, not words such as “promptly” or “turnkey.”

Request:

• Early-access date and permitted early-access activities.
• Landlord design and pricing milestones.
• Permit and utility dependencies.
• Long-lead items.
• Construction start and substantial-completion target.
• Inspection, testing, acceptance, and punch-list process.
• Outside delivery date and consequences of delay.
• Rent commencement trigger.
• Required documents before occupancy.
• Conditions that can extend dates.

Keep the tenant's equipment, hiring, inventory, commissioning, and move sequence in a separate operating schedule. A landlord delivery date is not automatically the operating start date.

6. Require evidence for utilities and physical fit

Ask respondents to distinguish what is installed, what is available, what is reserved, and what still requires confirmation.

Potential evidence includes:

• Utility bills, tariffs, service descriptions, and dated capacity letters.
• Electrical one-lines and equipment schedules.
• Fire-protection design information and current inspection records.
• Roof, structure, slab, HVAC, lighting, and building-system information.
• Dock, apron, truck-court, yard, and parking dimensions.
• Environmental reports and disclosed records where appropriate.
• Survey, site plan, title, zoning, permit, and access information assigned to the appropriate advisers.

Public datasets are screening inputs, not site-specific proof. State electricity data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration does not establish a building tariff or available capacity. The FEMA Flood Map Service Center and EPA Facility Registry Service can identify questions but do not replace parcel-level diligence or professional review.

7. Ask for flexibility and end-of-term positions

Business terms to request or identify may include:

• Renewal options and rate-setting method.
• Expansion rights, adjacent-space rights, or future building rights.
• Assignment, sublease, affiliate-transfer, and change-of-control provisions.
• Contraction, termination, purchase, or refusal rights where relevant.
• Security deposit, letter of credit, guarantee, and other credit support.
• Casualty, condemnation, interruption, and restoration positions.
• Holdover consequences.
• Repair, removal, restoration, surrender, and decommissioning obligations.

Qualified counsel should review lease language. The RFP should make requested business positions visible before drafting begins; it does not replace legal negotiation.

8. Control the response process

Set one response protocol:

• Response deadline and validity period.
• Required response format.
• Named contact for questions.
• Site-tour and information-request process.
• Confidentiality expectations.
• Required attachments.
• Exact fields that must be answered or marked not applicable.
• Tenant right to clarify, reject, revise, or negotiate without obligation.
• Statement that no commitment exists until authorized definitive documents are executed.

Maintain a question log. If one respondent receives a material clarification, decide whether every respondent needs the same information to preserve a fair comparison.

Hypothetical example: a 180,000 SF manufacturing requirement

This example is illustrative only. It is not a client engagement, completed transaction, market quote, or claim of past OSG results.

Assume a manufacturer needs approximately 180,000 SF and must be operating within 20 months. The process requires significant electrical load, six drive-in doors, 20 docks, trailer storage, employee parking, and room for a future 50,000 SF expansion.

A weak RFP asks for rent, term, and allowance. It may produce two attractive proposals that cannot be compared because one assumes existing power is adequate and the other excludes the expansion area from its site plan.

A stronger RFP requires each respondent to provide:

• A dated utility-capacity position and responsibility for upgrades.
• A marked site plan showing docks, trailer storage, employee parking, truck circulation, and expansion area.
• A work letter with design, permit, construction, inspection, and acceptance milestones.
• Base rent, escalation, operating expenses, taxes, insurance, allowance, free rent, and one-time credits in the same units.
• Responsibility for equipment, utility, fire-protection, and site improvements.
• Delivery assumptions and an outside date.
• Expansion rights and the conditions needed to preserve the expansion area.
• Every exclusion and unresolved diligence item.

The stronger RFP does not guarantee a successful building. It makes the differences, evidence gaps, and schedule risks visible early enough to test them.

Common failure modes

Asking for price before defining feasibility

The lowest proposal is irrelevant if the building cannot support the operation or required date.

Accepting blank fields

Silence is not agreement. Mark the field unresolved and assign follow-up ownership.

Mixing units and periods

Require annual or monthly units consistently and state whether amounts are per square foot, total dollars, or another basis.

Hiding work scope inside an allowance

A large allowance may not cover the required work, timing, design, or overrun risk.

Treating public data as building proof

Market averages and screening maps do not establish utility capacity, environmental condition, legal access, zoning compliance, labor availability, or final cost.

Letting the preferred building become the only path too early

Preserve a credible fallback until material economics, work scope, schedule, and diligence are sufficiently supported.

RFP response checklist

Before advancing a proposal, confirm that the response states:

1. Exact premises and area.
2. Operating-fit assumptions.
3. Recurring economics in the required units.
4. Concessions and one-time economics.
5. Landlord and tenant work responsibilities.
6. Delivery, access, and commencement dates.
7. Utility and building-system evidence.
8. Options, flexibility, security, and end-of-term positions.
9. Conditions, exclusions, approvals, and open questions.
10. Response validity and authorized responding party.

Next step

Use this checklist to structure the request, then use the industrial lease proposal comparison guide to normalize responses. For a live 50,000+ SF renewal, relocation, expansion, or build-to-suit decision, request a Facility Strategy Analysis using non-confidential information. Do not send leases, proposals, financial models, or other confidential documents through ordinary email unless a secure process is agreed in advance.