TI/LC (Tenant Improvements and Leasing Commissions)
TI/LC in Practice
A tenant vacates 20,000 square feet of a 60,000 square foot office building. Signing a replacement tenant on a 7-year lease at $30 per square foot requires a $50 per square foot TI allowance, or $1,000,000, plus a 6% leasing commission on the $4,200,000 total lease value (20,000 x $30 x 7 years), or $252,000. All-in, the landlord spends $1,252,000 to secure $600,000 of annual rent, which is why lenders reserve for rollover in advance.
TI/LC: What the Market Actually Requires
TI/LC is why property type drives leverage as much as credit does. Multifamily has essentially no TI/LC, since turnover costs are minor and rolled into operations, which is one structural reason agency lenders push leverage higher there than anyone does on office. Office sits at the other extreme: second-generation space routinely needs major allowances on new leases, and even renewals command meaningful dollars. Industrial is the cheapest to re-tenant, and retail lands in between, complicated by co-tenancy and the cost of demising large spaces.
Institutional lenders push TI/LC below the line. CMBS and life company underwriting deducts an annualized TI/LC reserve from cash flow before sizing, so two buildings with identical NOI can support different loan amounts purely on rollover profile. Loan documents then collect it: ongoing monthly reserve deposits, often with negotiated caps and burn-off provisions once space is renewed, plus targeted structure when a large lease expires inside the loan term, such as upfront holdbacks or cash flow sweeps starting 12 to 24 months before expiration. Banks frequently handle the same risk through lease-up reserves and recourse. On value-add deals, bridge lenders and debt funds commit future funding facilities specifically to pay TI/LC as new leases sign, which is often the core purpose of the bridge loan.
Borrower mistakes concentrate in the proforma. Underestimating second-generation office TI is the classic one; another is ignoring unfunded obligations, meaning TI allowances and commissions owed on recently signed leases, which lenders will discover in estoppels and escrow at closing. The negotiation wins are reserve caps, burn-off on renewal, credit for existing reserve balances, and aligning the loan's sweep triggers with the actual rollover schedule instead of a blanket formula.
Why It Matters for Your Loan
TI/LC reserves come straight out of the cash flow lenders size against, so your rollover schedule can cost you proceeds even when NOI is strong. Structure is negotiable: caps, burn-offs, and credit for existing reserves routinely save borrowers six figures in trapped cash. Commercial Lending Solutions models rollover exposure the way underwriters do and negotiates reserve structure deal by deal, keeping capital available for the leasing plan instead of locked in escrow.
Related Terms
TI/LC: FAQ
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