MIAMI—New accounting standards coming from the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) are expected to have a major impact on how commercial real estate tenants think about how best to structure their leases in coming years. The new standards will require companies that rent office, retail or industrial space to include the cost of any leases longer than 12 months on their balance sheets.

These new FASB rules take effect for 2019 for public companies and 2020 for private companies. But commercial real estate tenants should be thinking about the change now, because the standards will also require a “look-back” at lease costs for two previous years.

GlobeSt.com caught up with Nailah Tatum, a Tallahassee-based real estate lawyer with the Bryant Miller Olive law firm, about the upcoming changes and what they mean for commercial real estate tenants in part one of this exclusive interview. Stay tuned for part two, in which she will discuss the wide-ranging impacts on tenant decision-making.