What we get right for operators

Sites with the foot traffic to fill tables
Occupancy cost you can sustain on hospitality margins
Fitout contributions and rent-free periods to open
Kitchen, services and consent risk checked early
Flexibility to adapt, restructure or exit

Tenant-side · Hospitality leasing · New Zealand

Hospitality Leasing: The right hospitality site, on a lease that protects your margin.

A great concept can still be sunk by a bad lease. We make sure yours isn't.

We act for hospitality operators across New Zealand, never for landlords. From finding the site to negotiating the lease, managing the fitout terms, and exiting when the time comes, we make sure your premises support the business your kitchen and your team work so hard to build.

20 years

Securing Sites And Leases For Hospitality Tenants Across NZ

Cafés to groups

Single Cafés, Restaurants, Bars, QSRs And Hospitality Groups

Tenant-side only

We Act For You, Never The Landlord Or Their Agent

THE PROBLEM

Hospitality leasing is high-risk — and almost always underestimated.

Hospitality runs on tight margins, heavy fitout costs and long hours. Yet the lease, the single biggest fixed cost and the longest commitment, is often signed in a rush, before the doors open and before anyone has tested whether the numbers actually work. The site feels right, the landlord seems reasonable, and the real risk only shows up once you’re trading.

Where hospitality leasing quietly goes wrong:

Signing rent that doesn't reflect what the site will realistically turn over
Missing a fitout contribution or rent-free period that should have funded the build
Taking a space that looks great but fails on kitchen, extraction or services
Locking into a term you can't exit if the concept needs to change
Opening late because consents and fitout weren't built into the deal

The Cost of Getting It Wrong

In hospitality, a bad lease can kill a good concept.

Take a restaurant on $80,000 rent that looked affordable on paper. Add OPEX no one questioned and the real occupancy cost lands near $112,000 a year. On hospitality margins, that gap can push occupancy cost past a share of turnover the business can carry, and turn a busy, well-reviewed venue into one that never quite makes money. Over a six-year term, it’s more than $190,000 you never planned to spend.

Then there’s the cost that never reaches an invoice. A fitout you paid for in full because no contribution was negotiated. A kitchen that needed expensive rework to get consent. A make-good bill waiting at the end of a lease you couldn’t exit. In hospitality, the wrong lease doesn’t just cost money, it can take the whole venue down with it.

“We were a small organisation negotiating with large and sophisticated corporates. Marcus helped us navigate through numerous complex issues, within a tight timeframe.”

Paul Stephenson

Director, Tart Bakery

YOUR GUIDE

A hospitality lease adviser who only ever acts for the operator.

You negotiate a hospitality lease a handful of times. The landlords and their agents do it every day, for a living, on the other side of the table. That experience gap is exactly why so many good operators end up in the wrong site, paying too much, with a fitout they funded themselves.

I’ve spent 20 years finding sites and negotiating leases for hospitality and F&B tenants across New Zealand, from single cafés and owner-run restaurants to bars, QSRs and multi-site groups. I know how to test whether the rent matches the trade, where fitout contributions and rent-free periods sit in a deal, and what to check on kitchens, services and consents before you commit. I act for tenants only. Never landlords.

Experience

20 years tenant-side

Specialism

Hospitality & F&B

Reach

Cafés, restaurants, bars, QSRs

Track record

Single venues to groups

OUR APPROACH

Brief. Negotiate. Open.

A clear process that turns a high-stakes hospitality decision into a confident one, whether you’re opening your first venue, expanding, or relocating.

Brief & site

We start with your concept, target customer, catchment and trading numbers, and assess sites on foot traffic, kitchen and services, consent risk and real occupancy cost, not just the look of the room.

Lease & fitout terms

We negotiate rent, fitout contributions, rent-free periods, reviews and exit rights, so the deal protects your margin and the build doesn’t come entirely out of your pocket.

Open & protect

We help line up design, consents and fitout against the lease so you open on time, then stay on to manage reviews, renewals and critical dates as you trade.

How We Help Hospitality Operators

One adviser across the full hospitality lease lifecycle

Most operators only think about property at the start. But money is won and lost at every stage of the lease. We’re with you across all six.

Entry · Stage 1

Find premises

Identify and secure sites with the foot traffic, kitchen potential and catchment your concept needs, on and off-market.

Find premises →

Entry · Stage 2

Negotiate the lease

Negotiate rent, fitout contributions, rent-free periods and terms that protect margin and long-term viability.

Negotiate lease →

Entry · Stage 3

Design, consents & fitout

Coordinate design, council consents and fitout, including kitchen and extraction, to open on time and avoid costly rework.

Design & fitout →

Entry · Stage 4

Lease management

Rent reviews, renewals, OPEX reconciliations, landlord disputes and critical-date tracking, handled for you.

Lease management →

Entry · Stage 5

Lease restructuring

Restructure leases when rent or terms no longer match how the venue is actually trading.

Lease restructuring →

Entry · Stage 6

Exit & relocation

Plan and manage a hospitality exit, reinstatement or relocation with minimal disruption and a clean break from the lease.

Exit & relocation →

With a tenant-side adviser on your hospitality lease

You open in a site that trades, not just one that looked the part

You hold occupancy cost to a share of turnover the business can carry

You keep the flexibility to adapt the concept, restructure or exit

Proof

Operators we've helped lease with confidence

Real venues, real sites, real numbers. Each one started where you are now: needing the right premises, on a lease that lets the business work.

Hospitality Lease Negotiation

12% off rent on a corporate landlord's food-court lease

A bigger landlord fit-out contribution, an exclusivity clause, limited personal liability and relocation risk removed, all inside two months.

Hospitality Lease Restructuring

$47,619 a year cut from an inherited Hamilton restaurant lease

Four terms reset in the tenant’s favour on an inherited restaurant lease: a lower base rent, market rent reviews in place of automatic CPI rises, a clean exit route for the guarantors, and almost 12 more years of secure tenure.

See all case studies →

Who This Is For

Built for operators who won't let a lease sink a good venue

Whether you run a single café, an owner-led restaurant, a bar, a QSR site or a growing hospitality group, the leasing problem is the same: high fitout cost, tight margins, a clock running before you open, and a landlord’s agent on the other side. Property isn’t your craft, but it’s your biggest fixed cost and your longest commitment.

We work across hospitality formats and stages, from a first site to multi-venue groups. If you’re opening, renewing, relocating, or just suspect your rent has drifted past what the site can carry, this is built for you.

The best time to bring us in is early, before you’ve signed and while there’s still room to move on rent, fitout and terms.

Cafés

Restaurants

Bars

QSR & fast casual

Hospitality groups

Owner-operators

Common questions

Hospitality leasing, answered

Aren't you just a commercial real estate agent?

No. Agents are paid by landlords to fill their buildings, so the higher the rent, the better they’ve done their job. We’re paid by you, the operator. We never act for landlords and never take a leasing fee from them, so our only job is the site and the deal that’s right for your venue.

Can you get a fitout contribution or rent-free period?

Often, yes. Hospitality fitouts are expensive, and landlords will frequently contribute to the build or grant a rent-free period to help you open, especially on a longer term. These are some of the most valuable things to negotiate, and they’re routinely left on the table when operators negotiate alone.

What about the kitchen, extraction and consents?

We check the practical realities early, whether the site can take the kitchen and extraction you need, what consents are involved, and who pays for what, before you commit. Finding out after you’ve signed is where a lot of hospitality budgets blow out.

My rent feels too high for what we're turning over. Can you help?

Yes. If occupancy cost has drifted past a share of turnover the venue can sustain, there are usually options, at a rent review, a renewal, or through a restructure. The first step is a clear read on where you sit against the market and the trade.

How do you charge?

It depends on the scope, from a single site search or lease negotiation through to ongoing support across a group. We’ll be clear about it on the first call, before you commit to anything.

Free Download

Looking at a hospitality site? Check this first.

Download the checklist I run before commencing any lease negotiation.
The same lens that catches the costs and risks, fitout, kitchen, consents and occupancy cost, that never show up in a landlord’s heads of agreement.
Written for hospitality operators.

Hospitality and F&B is our deepest specialism. We also act tenant-side for:

Planning a hospitality lease — or questioning an existing one?

Tell me what your venue needs from its next site. I’ll tell you what’s out there, on-market and off, what each option will really cost to run, and where the room to negotiate rent and fitout sits. No obligation.