LEASING PLAYBOOK · JUNE 2026
By Ken Schuckman · President & CEO, Schuckman Realty Inc.
Every experienced landlord has lived it: a signed letter of intent that feels like a done deal, and then nothing. Weeks pass, the lease draft sits, and the tenant goes quiet. After decades of negotiating retail leases, I can tell you the gap between an LOI and an executed lease is where most deals are won or lost. The terms matter, but the process matters just as much.
The LOI is a test, not a finish line
A letter of intent is non-binding, and treating it as a victory is the first mistake. Its real value is as a stress test: it surfaces the deal points that actually matter to each side before the lawyers run up fees. A good LOI is specific about rent, term, options, tenant-improvement allowance, use, exclusives, and co-tenancy. The more of the hard issues you resolve at the LOI stage, the fewer surprises detonate the deal during lease negotiation. Vague LOIs do not save time; they defer the fights to a more expensive stage.
Why deals stall
In our experience the deals that die between LOI and signature usually fail for predictable reasons. Momentum is lost when the lease draft takes too long to circulate and the tenant’s enthusiasm cools. Misaligned expectations on TI dollars, delivery condition, or the construction timeline surface late and blow up trust. A tenant’s own internal approvals, financing, or franchise sign-off were never actually in place. Or unresolved exclusives and co-tenancy language collide with existing leases that nobody audited up front. Almost none of these are really about price. They are about clarity and pace.
What closers do differently
The brokers and landlords who consistently get to signature share a few habits. They move fast, getting a lease draft out while the LOI ink is still wet. They qualify the tenant’s decision process up front, knowing exactly who signs and what approvals stand between the LOI and a lease. They audit the existing rent roll for exclusives and co-tenancy conflicts before issuing the LOI, not after. And they keep both sides talking, because a deal that goes silent is a deal that is dying. Speed, transparency, and momentum close deals that price alone never will.
Owner takeaway: Treat the period between LOI and lease as the most fragile part of the deal, because it is. Resolve the hard issues early, move the documents quickly, qualify the tenant’s approvals honestly, and never let the conversation go quiet. The deals that close are rarely the ones with the best terms on paper; they are the ones that kept moving.
How we can help
Schuckman Realty has negotiated thousands of retail leases since 1978. We know where deals break down and how to keep them on track from LOI to signature. If you are negotiating a lease, structuring an LOI, or trying to revive a stalled deal, we welcome the conversation.
SOURCES
ICSC — “Retail Lease Negotiation Best Practices”
JLL — “From LOI to Execution: Reducing Deal Fallout”
Cushman & Wakefield — “Retail Leasing Process and Cycle Times 2026” CCIM Institute — “Commercial Lease Structuring Fundamentals
Keywords: Leasing, Retail Leasing, Shopping Center News, Grocery Anchored