Starbucks Pushing Landlords for 25% Cut in Cafe Rents

Blooomberg reports:

Starbucks Corp., the world’s largest coffee-shop operator, is pushing some U.S. landlords for as much as a 25 percent reduction in lease rates, taking advantage of a declining real estate market to save on rent.

Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of New York-based Prudential Douglas Elliman’s retail leasing, marketing and sales division, is generally advising about a dozen landlords to work with Starbucks after they received letters seeking rent reductions of 20 percent to 25 percent. She hasn’t seen the correspondence.

Separately, two other letters were confirmed by two property managers, who declined to be named because the negotiations are still under way.

“In this environment, what we’ve seen in general is the landlords and the retailers really have to work together more closely to prevail,” Consolo, 50, said in a May 27 telephone interview. “We’re talking a lot about tenant retention.”

No word from the real estate lobby on this one.