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Larry Glaze, CRE
Managing Director
Kansas City Office, Jones Lang LaSalle

CURRENT RESPONSIBILITIES
Mr. Glaze is the managing director of the Kansas City regional office (Western Missouri and the State of Kansas) and is a veteran in the commercial real estate industry. Recognized as a pioneer of tenant representation in the Kansas City region, Mr. Glaze’s responsibilities include office, industrial and corporate service assignments. His areas of specialty include acquisitions, corporate headquarters, CRE outsourcing/portfolio & operations, portfolio strategy, law firms, national accounts and user representation. Specifically, Mr. Glaze understands the need for “leverage” in successfully negotiating for his clients.

EXPERIENCE
Mr. Glaze began his real estate career in 1981. Prior to joining Jones Lang LaSalle, some of his recent transactions and top clients included:
• Kiewit Power Constructors- 150,000 sf build-to-suit headquarters
• Bartlett Grain International- 40,000 sf
• Coventry Healthcare- 120,000 sf
• Ingenix- 85,000 sf
• SPX Cooling Tower- 97,000 sf
• Butler Manufacturing- 150,000 sf
• St. Luke’s Shawnee Mission Health System (portfolio analysis)
• PrivateBank- 15,000 sf
• Service Magic - 40,000 sf
• States of Missouri and Kansas (portfolio strategy)

EDUCATION AND AFFILIATIONS
Mr. Glaze received a masters of real estate finance and tax from Southern Methodist University and a bachelor of science degree in business administration from the University of Kansas. He received the Up and Comer Award in 1999, the Commercial Realtor of the Year in 1997 and the prestigious Counselor of Real Estate (CRE) designation in 1995.
Mr. Glaze’s extensive community involvement includes leadership roles in the Boy Scouts of America, United Way, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, University of Kansas, The Carriage Club and the Kansas City Club.

Q: How can my real estate match up with my corporate strategy today?
A: Occupancy costs are typically a top-three expense, and the hardest to adjust quickly. You need a plan that clearly aligns your real estate with the overall goals of your business. Some things to think about include:
· Review and clean-up your data so that you know where you are starting
· Develop a plan for disposal of excess assets
· Review your space needs, identifying optimal work environments and efficiencies
· Outline possible business scenarios and detail real estate opportunities that would align with that scenario
· Look at location intelligence and evaluate labor demographics to plan for optimal sites, including opportunities for economic incentives
· Build flexibility into your real estate commitments


Q: How can I manage my company's real estate risks in the current economy?
A: The current economic climate is placing unprecedented pressure on businesses. Facing compressed revenue and margins, companies must reduce costs and remain competitive. But these times also create significant opportunity. A dramatically changing real estate market has become fertile ground for the well-prepared company to leverage its tenancy, reduce near-term costs and gain long-term competitive advantage through its real estate.

The market has changed—tenants have the upper hand. Only 12 months ago, landlords were in control. Today, the tables have turned. An unprecedented volume of space is coming back on the market. Rents have declined 20-30% and effective rents—after factoring in concessions for free rent and build-out allowances—have declined even more.

With the dramatic drop in tenant demand, proactive landlords will renegotiate leases early and offer incentives to motivate new tenants to relocate–covering large capital outlays for build-outs or taking over a tenant’s remaining lease obligations. With these historic roadblocks eliminated, tenants with expirations even two to five years out are finding aggressive and creative landlords who are looking to make deals today.

You can’t perfectly time the market’s bottom, but you can leverage the market now by proactively evaluating all of your options without pressure to act. By starting early, you maintain control, and take action only when the opportunity meets your strategic, operating and financial objectives.

Strategies now include early renewal, relocating with your current landlord to another property in his portfolio, trading-up to a more desirable building, use concessions to decrease the cost of re-locating; consider a built sublease.

The current economic climate also means tenants must now consider the financial stability of the landlord. A landlord that is facing financial difficulties may cut-back on building maintenance, refuse to pay tenant improvement allowances or other monies owed to tenants, be foreclosed upon, or even file for bankruptcy. To protect yourself, be sure to:
· Get as much information as possible about the landlord
· Negotiate self-help or set-off rights
· Protect your rights in the event of foreclosure
· Protect tenant improvement allowances

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