Find the right space, on the right terms. For office, retail, medical, and industrial tenants. Lease negotiation, renewal strategy, expansion planning, and full market access.
A tenant representation engagement is a structural advantage. The landlord has a broker working full-time for the landlord. Without your own broker, the deal is one-sided by definition. With Kathi, you have a broker working exclusively for you — bringing the same market intel, comp data, and negotiation experience the landlord has, but pointed in your direction.
Tenants come to Kathi for office, retail, medical, and industrial space across Pasadena and the broader San Gabriel Valley. The engagement covers the full cycle — from initial needs analysis to lease negotiation to post-signing support. Kathi's preparation and attention to detail mean the LOI terms carry through cleanly to the lease documentation she negotiates with the landlord's counsel.
There is no direct cost to most tenant clients — broker commissions flow from the listing side of the transaction. Which means the value of having Kathi on your side is, in most cases, free to capture.
Every engagement is different — the outline below is one example of how a tenant representation engagement might flow, used here for guidance, not as a fixed protocol. Some steps run in parallel; some don't apply at all; some change shape entirely depending on the deal.
A working conversation about the business, the timeline, the budget, the people who need to be in the space, the work that gets done there, and the constraints (lease expiration, expansion plans, market timing). Most engagements crystallize here.
A comprehensive look at available product matching your criteria, sourced through both commercial platforms and Kathi's broker and owner network.
In-person tours of every legitimate candidate. Kathi attends every tour. Notes, photos, follow-up questions for landlords, parking and access realities, neighbor and tenant-mix considerations.
A clean, comprehensive LOI laying out every business term that matters. The LOI is where most concessions are won — rent, free rent, TI allowance, options, contingencies. Kathi's preparation makes this step substantially tighter than most.
Once the LOI is accepted, lease negotiation begins. Kathi works alongside your attorney (or refers one if you don't have one) to make sure the lease document reflects the LOI and protects you on the back end.
Build-out timeline support, permitting coordination, contractor handoff, and post-occupancy follow-up. Many tenant rep engagements end at signing. Kathi's don't — she stays available through occupancy and beyond.
Tenant representation is more than finding a space and signing a lease. Here's the full set of capabilities Kathi brings to every tenant engagement.
The substantive work: rent terms, free-rent periods, tenant improvement (TI) allowance, lease term, renewal options, expansion rights, exclusivity clauses, and the rest of the business terms. Kathi's professional discipline and attention to detail makes this the single highest-value step.
Renewals are one of the most overlooked opportunities. Quietly surveying the market and negotiating the renewal in parallel often produces materially better terms.
Kathi has access to CoStar, LoopNet, AIR, and every other commercial platform — along with relationships with many property owners that give tenants advance notice on some properties before they go to market. The combination gives tenants the broadest possible opportunity to find the right location.
For tenants weighing whether to keep leasing or buy their own space (owner-user purchase). A structured financial comparison covering total cost of occupancy, equity build-up, tax implications, control trade-offs, and exit considerations.
For growing companies that need a larger footprint, multi-location expansion, or a strategic relocation. Includes timing analysis, cost modeling, and coordination with existing lease obligations.
When subleasing is the right answer — either as a tenant looking for below-market space someone is offloading, or as a current tenant needing to sublease space that's no longer right-sized.
Common questions Kathi gets about tenant representation engagements. For anything specific to your situation, the answer is always: just call.
Commercial brokerage commissions are negotiable and typically paid by the landlord, not the tenant — built into the lease economics on the listing side. That means a tenant representation engagement is usually at no direct cost to the tenant client.
Earlier than most tenants think. For office or retail spaces under 5,000 SF, 6–9 months before your target occupancy is reasonable. For larger spaces or built-out medical/restaurant uses, 12–18 months is closer to right. The compressed-timeline scenarios are where tenants end up paying above-market rent or signing terms they'd rather not sign — calling Kathi early avoids that.
Lease renewals are one of the most overlooked tenant-rep opportunities. A landlord facing a renewal negotiation knows you have to be told the available alternatives or you're likely to renew on whatever terms are offered. Bringing in Kathi to quietly survey the market and negotiate the renewal in parallel often produces materially better terms.
Office (Class A, B, professional, creative), retail (street retail, restaurant, specialty, mall-adjacent), medical office, industrial and flex space, and owner-user properties. Her practice has heavy weight in office and retail across the San Gabriel Valley, but the full property mix is covered.
The range is wide. Recent engagements have run from 3,000 SF spaces (small businesses, single-location restaurants) up through 40,000+ SF office leases (mid-stage companies, medical practices, professional services). The decision isn't about size — it's about whether the engagement fits.
Tenant Representation is one of four service lines Kathi works across.
Fifteen minutes with Kathi will tell you whether she's the right partner. She answers her own phone, returns calls quickly, and tells the truth — even when it costs her the deal.