This article appeared in Commercial Leasing Law & Strategy, your monthly source for practical, must-have information on the business and legal aspects of commercial leases.

Representing tenants in build-to-suit (BTS) leases is not an entirely different beast from representing tenants in standard commercial leases. Similar to standard commercial leases, BTS leases include the familiar bells and whistles like term, rent, scope of permitted uses, renewal options, and allocation of tax burden and maintenance and repair obligations. But there are several issues and terms to consider related to the development process that differentiate BTS leases from a standard commercial lease that are important for the tenant to understand to effectively manage costs and effectively protect itself from delays in the development schedule.