About Stone Lane Group
A commercial real estate practice on Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis, advising occupiers across the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota.
Why we act for one side only
Stone Lane Group was founded to represent occupiers and nobody else.
Our advisors had all worked in firms that held landlord instructions alongside tenant ones. Everything was disclosed and everything was legal, and the tenant was still being advised by a firm whose larger relationship sat on the other side of the table.
Disclosure does not resolve it. A tenant told that a firm also acts for building owners cannot weigh how that shaped the shortlist they were shown or the advice they were given about terms.
Commission structures compound the problem. Fees calculated on total rent mean longer terms and higher rates pay everyone better except the occupier signing them.
So we take no landlord instructions at all. It forecloses the larger half of this industry and it is the only arrangement under which occupier advice means anything.
How we quote cost
Across the full term, not year one. A ten-year lease is a ten-year commitment, and comparing buildings on first-year rent compares almost nothing.
Operating expenses and escalation modelled. Base year, expense stops and escalation caps frequently matter more over a decade than the rent itself.
Restoration priced at the outset. Make-good obligations arrive at the end of a term when they are least welcome and most occupiers have never estimated them.
Every fee we receive disclosed in writing before you engage us, including who pays it and on what basis.
What every client can expect
Occupiers only
We take no landlord or building owner instructions, ever.
No dual agency
We never represent both sides of a transaction under any circumstances.
Full term costing
Total occupancy cost modelled before any shortlist is produced.
Restoration priced
Make-good obligations estimated at the start, not the end.
Fees disclosed
Basis, amount and payer stated in writing before engagement.
Stay-put considered
Renewing in place is presented as a real option on every renewal.
Who you will work with
Tess Nelson
Real Estate Manager
Leads occupier engagements across leasing and renewals, and builds the full-term occupancy cost models that every shortlist is based on.
Managing Director
Leadership
Founded the practice and set the rule that the firm takes no landlord instructions, which forecloses the larger half of the market.
Head of Advisory
Advisory
Twenty-two years in Twin Cities commercial property, with depth in office, medical and light industrial occupier work.