X-Golf Nashville — a technology-driven indoor golf simulator concept combining simulator bays with food and beverage — was securing its first Nashville location. The concept requires a significant upfront investment in buildout before the business generates a single dollar of revenue. The lease economics had to reflect that reality.
The landlord was Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, one of the largest institutional real estate owners in the country. Their brokerage representation was CBRE. The Giles Group was on the other side of the table.
Negotiating against an institutional landlord with institutional representation creates a specific set of challenges:
Institutional landlords quote above-market rents and rely on their scale and credibility to hold rate.
CBRE, representing the landlord, had deep market knowledge and leverage from managing a large portfolio of comparable spaces.
The buildout for an experiential retail concept — simulator bays, food and beverage infrastructure, technology integration — requires substantial landlord capital contribution. Institutional landlords resist large TI commitments without concession on other terms.
The ramp-up period before revenue stabilization is longer for experiential concepts than for standard retail. Standard lease commencement structures do not account for this.
The Giles Group applied its Define → Underwrite → Create Leverage → Execute framework to level the playing field against an institutional opponent.
Documented the client's buildout requirements, technology infrastructure needs, and the financial model showing the revenue ramp-up timeline. Established the maximum rent the business model could support at each stage of operations.
Pulled and analyzed comparable retail leases in the Nashville market to benchmark the landlord's asking rate against actual market transactions. Built a total occupancy cost model showing the true economics of the proposed lease vs. what the market supported.
Used market comparables to challenge the landlord's initial position. Introduced competitive properties to demonstrate that the client had alternatives. Structured the negotiation around both the TI contribution and the rent economics simultaneously — refusing to close one while the other remained open.
Negotiated landlord participation in the buildout cost and structured lease economics aligned with the client's operational ramp-up timeline. Managed execution through lease documentation and signed lease.
Size: 5,239 SF
Lease Term: 10 years
Landlord: Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (institutional)
Opposing Broker: CBRE
Rent Outcome: Negotiated below CBRE's initial quoted rate
TI Contribution: Meaningful landlord-funded buildout contribution secured
Lease Structure: Economics aligned with operational ramp-up timeline
The most important thing The Giles Group did on this assignment was not negotiate the rent — it was underwrite it first. Walking into a negotiation with CBRE without market data is walking in blind. The market analysis built before the first offer was submitted is what gave the client's position credibility and the negotiation direction.
Institutional landlords and their brokers are highly sophisticated. They know what their space is worth and they know what comparable transactions look like. The only way to negotiate effectively against that is to know the same data — and present it in a way that makes concession the path of least resistance.
The result was a lease that reflected market reality rather than the landlord's aspirational asking position, with TI that meaningfully offset the client's buildout investment and lease economics structured around the ramp-up timeline typical of experiential retail concepts.
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