But Shipley Hall, an associate in the Orlando office of Advantis Real Estate Services Co./GVA Worldwide, overcame the bureaucratic hurdles and got his client, Travel Express Investments, a five-year, 25,500-sf lease at an aggregate rent of $1.3 million in a 20-year-old, 76,500-sf building at 587 E. State Road 434 in this Orlando suburb.

The deal took three months to complete, from canvassing the market for space to closing, Hall tells GlobeSt.com. There were several challenges he and brokers negotiating for owner Capital Investments & Holdings LP of Hollywood, FL had to face before closing the deal. "The building itself had a few issues that needed to be overcome" before the tenant would sign the lease, Hall says. "The property needed to be brought up to code and the City of Longwood had stringent demands and requirements for any and structural or exterior work."

For example, the building's elevator "needed to be serviced and the parking lot needed to be re-striped, both issues that needed to be done before the tenant would sign the lease," Hall says. Additionally, the building's owner proved to a tough negotiator, the associate says. "In the end, however, it all came together and the lease was signed."