Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Analyst for Michael Bilerman - Citigroup.
Analyst for Michael Bilerman – Citigroup
Can you just give a little bit of color regarding some of those discussions you have been having with your tenants about renegotiating those leases?
John W. Petersen
What we’re talking about here is we’re not having major discussions with, in fact, we make it a practice not to re-negotiate leases, I’m not sure where you got that from but we’re not going in to re-negotiate leases at all. We are flexible when renewing customers, in terms of term and those kinds of things, but we don’t make it a practice by any stretch of re-negotiating leases, at all. That’s not what we do.
Analyst for Michael Bilerman – Citigroup
Your leasing commissions are down significantly this quarter. I’m assuming that is driven by the high level of renewals. Do you think that is sustainable or is that likely to reverse any time soon?
John W. Petersen
That will fluctuate from quarter to quarter. We are focused very much on being close to our customer base, we are focused, as I mentioned, getting to renewals early. And to the extent that you can get to your customers without a broker, transaction cost will go down. But that could change from quarter to quarter depending on marketing conditions and deal volume and those kinds of things. But we are definitely focused on going direct to our customers. No doubt.
Joseph D. Russell
To add on to that, that’s another element of the broad array of tenant situations that we frequently encounter. And again, with an average tenant size of 3,500 square feet, the representation by a broker for many of our tenants just does not occur. And as J. P. mentioned, it is certainly one of our goals to stay as close to our tenants as possible, and with that we can hopefully find ways to keep our transaction costs contained as well.
Operator
Your next question comes from Michael Mueller - J.P. Morgan.
Michael Mueller - J.P. Morgan
When you think about the third quarter in terms of what was happening in terms of the environment, leasing, discussions with tenants, occupancy, how, if anything, has it changed once you have gone through the midway point of September and into October? Do you still get the feeling that the positive spreads are sticking, that occupancy is sticking?
- To read the full transcript on Seeking Alpha, click here »
