As a newly minted restaurateur, you should understand and appreciate the importance of gaining a tenant-friendly lease. Achieving favorable lease terms will contribute to your restaurant’s success by allowing the flexibility you need.

The restaurant lease usually starts with a standard store lease, a form with which many commercial tenants and landlords are familiar. Attached to the store lease are typically many pages of riders containing some of the most relevant and customized provisions. While these clauses are indispensable to restaurant tenants, they are also the most contentious and highly negotiated.

All restaurateurs seeking an advantageous lease should be aware of the following key provisions:

Get the “use” right

The lease should clearly and accurately spell out the proper use of the premises. As a restaurant tenant, you should have a clear idea of how you intend to use the space. Nailing that down from the start will help you realize whether other ancillary uses are vital to your business. For example, will you need access to the basement or storage room? Does the premises include outdoor space or separate party rooms? Will you need access to the rooftop to deal with HVAC or other venting issues? It’s a good idea to obtain express approval, in writing, from the landlord for all ancillary uses of the premises.

“Contingencies” can be your best friend

As a new restaurant, you don’t want to get locked into a 5, 10, or 15-year lease without obtaining the licenses, permits, and space necessary to run your business. A valid contingency clause allows the tenant to cancel the lease if some event does not happen. For example, if your restaurant cannot obtain a liquor license in its new space, then you should be able to cancel the lease and walk away. The same should be true for other vital contingencies, like obtaining a Certificate of Occupancy or assembly permit. Keep in mind that even though your landlord will want to limit the number of contingencies in the lease, you should fight for those most critical to your business.

Only the “Good Guys” get out alive

This clause ensures that good tenants (and especially their guarantors) can escape liability under the lease — specifically for those dreaded rent obligations. A “good guy” guaranty is a personal guaranty of all of the tenant’s obligations under the lease. So, if you abide by the terms of the lease (ahem, pay your rent on time), and you’re willing to give up all or a portion of your security deposit and vacate the premises (leaving it broom clean, of course), then you can likely walk away from the lease, because that’s right, you guessed it, you’re a good guy (or gal).

Landlords need to chill out and allow their tenants a “build out”

Unless you are taking over the place entirely as is, you will probably stand to benefit from some build-out time. AKA — a period (usually several months) in which you do not have to pay rent. This provision is quite common as landlords realize they cannot have it all in this market, and frankly it’s the right thing to do.

You go get that “option” girl (or boy)

If you want to renew your lease at a palatable rental amount, then an option should be built into the agreement. Keep in mind that securing a renewal option will likely require you to provide a least 6 months advance notice to the landlord. Also, consider that figuring out the fixed rent for a renewal period can be tricky since determining the future fair market value of the space will be difficult. For that reason, it might make sense to include an arbitration clause mandating a third-party appraiser/arbitrator to determine fair market value should the parties (you and your landlord) disagree.

Exiting the lease gracefully through “assignments” and “subleases”

It’s not easy to assign a commercial lease in NYC without first obtaining consent from the landlord. Luckily, most leases contain “a reasonableness standard” meaning that the landlord cannot willy-nilly turn down your proposed assignment. However, the landlord will likely require that some objective and subjective standards be met. For example, the landlord will want to evaluate the proposed assignee’s experience and net worth. And to even get the landlord to consider the assignment in the first place, you as the tenant must not be in default under the lease. The same requirements pretty much goes for subleases as well, where the over-tenant (you) would sublease your commercial lease interest to an under-tenant for a period that is less than your lease term with the landlord.

Only “fools” represent themselves

Remember to always retain an experienced attorney to help negotiate your lease. An attorney well-versed in commercial leasing will know what issues to pinpoint without hurting the deal. Getting into a lease is a significant investment in both time and money, make sure you work with an attorney who is both an issue spotter and problem solver.