An estoppel came back naming a side letter with a contraction right nobody abstracted
Under contract on a 68,000 sf suburban office, seven tenants, 81 percent leased, and I'm in the middle of estoppels. Four back, three outstanding.
One of the four is from the second largest tenant, 12,100 sf, 5.2 years of term at $21.75/sf full service. Their estoppel adds a line I didn't put there, referencing a side letter dated 14 months ago giving them a one time contraction right: they may give back up to 40 percent of the premises with nine months notice, effective any time after month 30, on payment of a fee equal to four months of base rent on the surrendered space plus unamortized TI.
That side letter is not in the lease file the seller delivered and not in the abstract set. Fee on the surrendered 4,840 sf works out to roughly $35k plus unamortized TI, against annual rent on that space of about $105k. So the penalty is a fraction of a year's rent, which means it isn't a deterrent, it's a price.
Separately, the largest tenant's SNDA is unsigned, and this same estoppel discloses two months of free rent in year three that the rent roll does not show.
My contract has a five day objection window on estoppel review. What's in front of me is whether to price the contraction into the offer as a certainty, hold back purchase price in escrow until the side letter file is complete, or object on the incomplete lease file itself and reset the diligence clock. Leaning toward the last one and I'm not sure that's the strongest position.