Farmers Storehouse, a farmer-owned food cooperative based in Sparta, Tennessee, leased a ~24,000 SF freestanding retail building on Wilson Pike Circle in Brentwood for its second store. The client negotiated the LOI directly, then engaged The Giles Group when the landlord's lease arrived. Six redline rounds against NAI Nashville eliminated an unlimited parent-company guaranty, deleted an opening penalty, and fixed two five-year renewal options at 3% escalations.
Farmers Storehouse is a farmer-owned food cooperative based in Sparta, Tennessee — a retail store, mill and bakery built around regenerative-agriculture products. Its second location would be its first in the Nashville market: a ~24,000 SF freestanding retail building on Wilson Pike Circle in Brentwood, with a buildout the client would fund itself.
The client found the building and negotiated the letter of intent directly with the landlord's broker, NAI Nashville. The LOI set the rent, a 10-year term, three months of abated rent, and a landlord-funded roof replacement. Then the landlord's lease draft arrived. The client read it, recognized that the document did not match the deal they thought they had made, and engaged The Giles Group at the lease stage.
The landlord's first draft rewrote the economics and the risk the LOI had described:
The client had a hard opening timeline and no landlord contribution toward a buildout of this size. The landlord's side, which was also working through its own financing, cited a competing offer twice during the negotiation.
Established what the lease had to protect: the parent company, the opening timeline, and the client's control of its own operating costs. Ranked every open item into three groups — must win, trade, and accept — before the first redline went out, so concessions could be made deliberately instead of under deadline.
Modeled the full 123-month obligation including the NNN structure and the fee pass-throughs the draft allowed, then compared the draft lease clause by clause against the signed LOI to document every point where the two diverged. The client's own LOI became the negotiating record.
There was no alternative site to tour; the client had chosen the building. Leverage came from the document itself. Every reversal was presented as a departure from terms the landlord had already agreed to in writing, and the trade list was used as designed: the client gave up a liability cap and a right of first refusal to secure the guaranty removal.
Managed six redline rounds between tenant counsel, landlord counsel and NAI Nashville over eight weeks, including an in-person meeting with the landlord on building condition. When the landlord's final turn changed a delivery term without agreement, laid out the options and the risk so the client could make an informed decision to execute on its own deadline. Lease signed June 2026.
The LOI is not the deal. The lease is.
This client negotiated a reasonable LOI on their own. The rent was fair, the term was right, the roof was addressed. None of that protected them from a lease draft that added an unlimited guaranty, multiplied the security, and moved the roof. An LOI is non-binding and two pages. A lease is binding and fifty. The gap between them is where a tenant's real exposure lives — and it is where a landlord's counsel does its work.
"The LOI had the rent. The lease had everything that could reach the parent company." The job at the lease stage was not to renegotiate the economics the client had already set. It was to make sure the document matched the deal, and to know which points to trade for the one that mattered most. See our Retail representation approach.
Can a tenant bring in representation after the LOI is signed? Yes. The lease is where most of a tenant's long-term risk is written, and a signed LOI is usually non-binding. Representation at the lease stage can still remove guaranties, penalties and pass-throughs — it cannot usually reopen rent and term the LOI already fixed.
What is a lease guaranty and why does it matter? A guaranty makes a second party — often the parent company or an owner personally — liable if the tenant entity defaults. An unlimited guaranty extends that liability to the full remaining lease obligation. Removing or capping it is often the single most valuable change a tenant can make to a landlord's draft.
What should a tenant check first in a landlord's lease draft? Compare it to the LOI line by line: security, guaranty, delivery condition, commencement trigger, renewal mechanics, and operating expense definitions. Anything that changed from the LOI is a negotiating point; anything new is a risk the landlord added.
They took initiative and fought for the issues we needed… Shane was such an asset during this trying process.
Richard R., Director of Operations, Farmers Storehouse
Tell us about your requirement and we’ll walk through how the process applies — with no obligation.
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