How Amicus Helps Commercial Real Estate Agents and Tenant Reps - The Art of The Deal

After nearly ten years in commercial real estate, I used to think the hard part was done once the heads of agreement were signed. Find the space, negotiate the rent and incentives, get the tenant across the line, then move on. Office fitouts and workplace strategy felt like someone else’s problem.

That view changed quickly after joining Amicus. Nearly nine years and hundreds of deals later, I’ve watched enough of them stall or fall over because the office fitout side wasn’t thought through early enough. The physical space - how it works and what it costs to make it work - is often the difference between a signed lease and a near miss.

The most effective agents and tenant representatives bring us in during shortlisting and due diligence. That early involvement changes the conversation.

Don’t just leave it to the imagination

Instead of a tenant looking at an office floor plate and trying to imagine whether it will work, we sit down with the agent or TR and sometimes the landlord to design the space around the actual incentives on the table. Landlord contribution? We show how far it can stretch and where the smart money should go. Limited incentives? We rework the layout, materials and staging so the tenant still gets a strong outcome without blowing the budget. Our in-house estimating team can run realistic fitout cost estimates the same day keeping the deal always alive.

Time kills all deals, as we know!

The power of visualisation

We also walk agents through live options with renders and indicative plans so the tenant can actually see themselves in the space. A good set of visuals shifts the conversation from “will this work?” to “how quickly can we get in?”.

A recent project involved a tenant considering a cold-shell building with limited natural light. It was the number one sticking point for the tenant, they just couldn’t envisage the space and how it would work. Our design team met them on site and, within two business days, provided them with previous cold-to-warm shell projects, four renders, images of skylights and alternate options, and kept the deal alive.

Building services due diligence

At the same time, we run detailed building services due diligence across the shortlist - structure, services capacity, ceiling voids, floor types, core locations and access. Every building has constraints, but we surface these issues early, quantify the impact, and either design around them or recommend a different floor or building - of course, with the TRs/agent’s advice. Agents appreciate this because it stops deals progressing on false hope only to unravel later.

A win / win / win

From the agent’s side, early involvement reduces the risk of the deal dying in the details and makes them look more thorough. For the tenant, it shortens the path to a signed lease. For the landlord, it increases the chance the contribution is used well, and the tenant stays the full term because the space actually works.

We’ve seen the difference. Deals that involve us early progress with fewer false starts. The ones that leave the fitout conversation until after commercial terms are agreed often discover the real costs or constraints when it’s harder to adjust course.

If you’re working a shortlist right now, or have a tenant circling a couple of buildings and need a clear view of what it will take to make the space work, we’re happy to jump in.