A build-to-suit is a commercial real estate development structured around a specific tenant's needs. The developer designs and constructs the property to the tenant's specifications, often with significant tenant input on layout, fixtures, and features, and the tenant commits to a long-term lease (typically 10 to 20 years) before construction begins.
The lease is the foundation of the deal; without the tenant's commitment, the project doesn't proceed.
Build-to-suit eliminates the developer's most significant risk: lease-up risk. A speculative office building or warehouse might take 12 to 24 months to lease up after completion, exposing the developer to carrying costs, market shifts, and the possibility of leasing at lower rents than projected.
A build-to-suit has a tenant on day one, with rent payments starting at substantial completion. The developer's IRR is essentially locked in by the lease economics.
The economic structure usually has the developer earning a development fee plus a small spread between construction cost and stabilized value. The tenant pays a rent that reflects the developer's construction cost, financing cost, and target return, typically negotiated as a percentage yield on the total development cost (a 'yield-on-cost' framework).
Both parties know the math going in, which makes build-to-suit deals less adversarial than traditional landlord-tenant negotiations.
Build-to-suit is most common for users with specialized requirements: distribution centers with specific clear heights and dock configurations, manufacturing facilities, data centers, headquarters offices for major corporations. For these tenants, the alternative is buying and developing themselves, which ties up capital that the corporation would rather use in its core business.
Build-to-suit lets the tenant get exactly what it needs without owning the underlying real estate.
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