# Brian McCririe, MCR
> Denver commercial real estate from the occupier's side. Brian McCririe on leases, footprints, and using space as an advantage. 25+ years, told straight.
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## Pages
- [About Brian McCririe, MCR](https://www.brianmccririe.com/about.md) - Brian McCririe is the Executive Managing Director of SVN | Denver Commercial and National Council Chair for Occupier Services at SVN International. For more than 25 years he has advised corporate occupiers and tenants across the Denver Metro market on the commercial real estate decisions that move…
- [Meet with Brian McCririe, MCR](https://www.brianmccririe.com/meet-with-brian-mccririe.md) - Grab a time below — tell me what you're working on. If your company is facing a lease, relocation, portfolio, or site-selection decision in the next 6 to 18 months, the conversation worth having happens while every option is still open. Pick the meeting that fits — we'll start with the business out…
- [Book Brian McCririe to Speak](https://www.brianmccririe.com/speaking.md) - I speak the way I write here: first principles, no fluff, and the parts of the business most people won't say out loud. Twenty-five years representing tenants, occupiers, and owners — and leading a brokerage — gives me a view from both sides of the deal. Audiences get the honest version, not the co…
- [Work With Brian](https://www.brianmccririe.com/work-with-brian.md) - Most companies treat real estate as a cost to minimize. The ones that outperform treat it as a tool — a lever on revenue, talent, margin, and speed. My job is making sure you actually get what you're paying for. I'm Brian McCririe, Executive Managing Director of SVN | Denver Commercial and National…

## Posts
- [The commercial real estate broker business plan nobody hands you](https://www.brianmccririe.com/commercial-real-estate-broker-business-plan.md) - Blaine Strickland's Thrive is a rare real estate book on this shelf. Its hardest idea is also its simplest: the day you take a brokerage desk, you start a business. Most brokers never admit it. The ones who do build a plan, a forecast, and a book that lasts.
- [Denver Professional Firms Are Recommitting to the Office](https://www.brianmccririe.com/professional-firms-recommitting-denver-offices.md) - Taft, FBT Gibbons, and Cooper Carry all upgraded their Denver office space this year. Here's why professional firms are treating the office as a recruiting tool again.
- [Negotiate Flexibility While It's Free: Denver Office Options in 2026](https://www.brianmccririe.com/negotiate-flexibility-while-its-free.md) - Expansion, contraction, and termination options are nearly free to negotiate into a Denver office lease right now. Here's what to ask for and what each costs.
- [Consultative Selling Is the Only Edge a Commercial Real Estate Broker Has Left](https://www.brianmccririe.com/consultative-selling-commercial-real-estate-brokers.md) - A sales book makes the case better than most brokerage books do: the broker who recites square footage, price, and comps is product-selling in a world where everyone has the same data. The edge that is left is consultative selling, and it comes down to who asks the better questions.
- [What Renewal Concessions Are Realistic on a Denver Office Lease Right Now?](https://www.brianmccririe.com/denver-office-renewal-concessions.md) - On a straight renewal you keep most of the free rent and lose most of the build-out money. What Denver renewal concessions are realistic in 2026, and how to push.
- [SNDA and Estoppel Certificates: What Denver Office Tenants Sign Before a Lease Closes](https://www.brianmccririe.com/snda-and-estoppel-certificates-what-denver-office-tenants-sign-before-a-lease-closes.md) - What are an SNDA and an estoppel certificate, and why is your Denver landlord asking you to sign them? An SNDA (subordination, non-disturbance, and attornment agreement) and an estoppel certificate are the two documents a landlord's lender or a prospective buyer asks an office tenant to sign, usual…
- [The market doesn't make the broker. The broker does.](https://www.brianmccririe.com/what-makes-a-successful-commercial-real-estate-broker.md) - Anthony Iannarino spent 25 years chasing one question: why do a few salespeople consistently outperform their peers? His answer is uncomfortable for anyone shopping for a better situation. Success isn't situational. It's individual. The market explains a quarter. It doesn't explain a career.
- [New to the CFO Seat? Run This 90-Day Occupancy Review First](https://www.brianmccririe.com/new-cfo-occupancy-review.md) - New CFO? Occupancy is likely your second largest cost line. Here's the 90-day office lease review to run: abstract, utilization, market benchmark, timing.
- [Restoration Clauses: The Hidden Exit Tax in Your Office Lease](https://www.brianmccririe.com/office-lease-restoration-exit-tax.md) - A restoration clause can add six figures to your office move-out cost. Here's what your lease actually requires, and how to negotiate it away in Denver.
- [The first sale you make is to yourself](https://www.brianmccririe.com/how-to-sell-yourself-commercial-real-estate-broker.md) - Grant Cardone's Sell or Be Sold is everything my writing rules ban: hype, grind, all caps. Strip the noise and one idea survives, and it is the one most brokers get wrong. You cannot sell a client past a number you are not sold on yourself. Here is why that decides careers.
- [Landlord Default Risk: What to Check Before You Renew a Denver Office Lease](https://www.brianmccririe.com/landlord-default-risk-denver-office-renewal.md) - A wave of Denver office loans is maturing. Distressed landlords cut maintenance, sell, or convert to residential. How to screen your building before you renew.
- [Your Denver Office Building Just Sold: What Changes for You](https://www.brianmccririe.com/denver-office-building-sold-new-landlord.md) - Your Denver office building sold. Your lease terms survive, but management, OpEx recovery, and tax pass-throughs can shift. Here's what to check first.
- [How to Become a Top Producing Commercial Real Estate Broker: Run It Like a Business](https://www.brianmccririe.com/how-to-become-top-producing-commercial-real-estate-broker.md) - Rod Santomassimo profiled the top commercial real estate brokers in the country and found eight shared traits. Only one ties the rest together: they run a business that happens to sit inside someone else's firm. Here is what that means for the platform you choose.
- [When to Start Your Denver Office Renewal: The 18-36 Month Rule](https://www.brianmccririe.com/when-to-start-office-lease-renewal-denver.md) - Start your Denver office lease renewal negotiation 18 to 36 months before expiration. Past 12 months, buildout timelines kill your alternatives and your leverage.
- [Office Lease Renewal Option Deadlines Denver Tenants Miss](https://www.brianmccririe.com/office-lease-renewal-option-deadline.md) - Most office lease renewal options require notice 9 to 15 months before expiration. Miss it and the option is void. Here's how Denver tenants protect theirs.
- [The CoStar Login Is Not Your Differentiator. You Are.](https://www.brianmccririe.com/commercial-real-estate-broker-differentiation.md) - A sales book makes a claim every commercial real estate broker should sit with: when the product looks identical, the only thing left to compete on is price, unless you differentiate how you sell. For a broker, the data is the product, and everyone has the same data. So what is left?
- [Should I Choose DTC or Downtown Denver for My Office?](https://www.brianmccririe.com/dtc-vs-downtown-denver-office.md) - Quick answer Choose based on where your talent lives and how they commute, then use the market to your advantage in either location, because both are deeply tenant favorable right now. Downtown Denver's central business district sits at 38.6 percent vacancy with direct asking rents around $41.19 pe…
- [How Do I Negotiate Operating Expense Caps on a Denver Office Lease?](https://www.brianmccririe.com/operating-expense-caps-denver-office-lease.md) - Quick answer You negotiate an operating expense cap by limiting how much your controllable expenses can rise each year, defining controllable narrowly, and locking it in at the letter of intent stage while you still have leverage. In practice that means asking for an annual cap of 3 to 5 percent on…
- [Stop chasing yes. The best negotiators get to "that's right."](https://www.brianmccririe.com/negotiation-skills-commercial-real-estate-brokers.md) - Chris Voss spent his career talking people out of hostage situations, and his one rule rewires how you think about a deal: stop chasing yes. The brokers who actually move negotiations are the ones who get the other side to say "that's right." Here's why that line matters for your career.
- [What's the Denver Industrial Market Outlook for Tenants?](https://www.brianmccririe.com/denver-industrial-market-outlook-tenants.md) - Quick answer Denver industrial has swung to a tenant's market, and the outlook favors occupiers into 2026. Vacancy reached roughly 9.3 percent in Q2 2026, a two decade high, after the market posted its first annual contraction in absorption since 2011 at negative 417,000 SF over the trailing year (…
- [Why a Full Pipeline Is a Commercial Real Estate Broker's Real Leverage](https://www.brianmccririe.com/commercial-real-estate-broker-pipeline.md) - A sales book makes a claim every commercial real estate broker should sit with: the more you need a deal, the less likely you are to get it. The fix is not a better closing line. It is a full pipeline, built by prospecting you do months before you need the money.
- [Office Lease Holdover in Denver: What Happens If You Stay Too Long](https://www.brianmccririe.com/office-lease-holdover-denver.md) - What happens if you do not move out of your Denver office on time? You go into holdover, and the economics flip against you overnight. Most commercial leases set holdover rent at 150 to 200 percent of your last base rent, charged from the first day you stay past expiration. You can also owe consequ…
- [1031 Exchange in Denver: What to Do Before the 45-Day Clock Starts](https://www.brianmccririe.com/1031-exchange-denver-before-clock-starts.md) - A 1031 exchange defers tax, but the 45 and 180-day clocks start at your sale. In Denver's thin replacement market, line up the buy side first.
- [Nobody Wants a Lease: What Denver Tenants Actually Need](https://www.brianmccririe.com/nobody-wants-a-lease-denver.md) - No company wants a lease — space is a cost center. What Denver tenants actually need is growth, talent, and margin, and your broker should be solving for that.
- [Give up hope: the broker mindset that survives a slow market](https://www.brianmccririe.com/broker-mindset-slow-market.md) - I read a 1980s manifestation book from the broker's chair. Most of it is magical thinking that would bankrupt you in this business. But one chapter, "Give up hope and take action," is the cleanest description of the broker mindset that actually fills a pipeline in a slow market.
- [How Does Landlord Vacancy Affect My Denver Office Renewal Leverage?](https://www.brianmccririe.com/landlord-vacancy-denver-renewal-leverage.md) - Quick answer Your landlord's vacancy is the single biggest driver of your renewal leverage, and in Denver it is currently working in your favor. Metro office vacancy sits at roughly 27 percent on the major brokerages' Q2 2026 read (a record 18.5 percent on the broader all-stock basis), with downtow…
- [Denver Office Cap Rates in 2026: What the Distress Is Actually Pricing](https://www.brianmccririe.com/denver-office-cap-rates-2026.md) - Denver office cap rates read 9.3% in 2026, but distressed towers don't trade on a cap rate at all. Here is what investors should really underwrite first.
- [Office-to-Residential Conversion in Denver: Does It Pencil?](https://www.brianmccririe.com/denver-office-to-residential-conversion.md) - Most Denver office buildings will never convert to housing. What makes a building convertible, what conversion costs, and why the acquisition basis decides it.
- [Before you pick a brokerage, look at who is already on the bus](https://www.brianmccririe.com/how-to-choose-a-commercial-real-estate-brokerage.md) - Jim Collins found that great companies got the right people on the bus before they decided where to drive it. For a broker weighing a move, that flips the whole interview. Stop grading the comp split and the pipeline. Start grading who you'd be sitting next to.
- [What a Tenant Rep Broker Does (and Who Pays) in Denver](https://www.brianmccririe.com/what-tenant-rep-broker-does-denver.md) - A tenant rep broker represents the occupier, not the landlord. Here's what they do and why, in most Denver leases, the landlord pays the commission.
- [SNDA and Estoppel Certificates: What Denver Office Tenants Sign Before a Lease Closes](https://www.brianmccririe.com/snda-estoppel-denver-office-tenant.md) - Your Denver landlord wants you to sign an SNDA and an estoppel certificate. Here is what each one does, what it can cost you, and what to fix before you sign.
- [Why New Commercial Real Estate Brokers Should Pick One Niche and Own It](https://www.brianmccririe.com/commercial-real-estate-broker-niche.md) - A 90-page sales book argues that 80% of your results come from 20% of your targets. For a new commercial real estate broker, that math is the whole career. Pick a niche, define your swimlane, and stop chasing deals that were never going to close.
- [Lease Audit: Are You Overpaying on Your Denver Office Operating Expenses?](https://www.brianmccririe.com/denver-office-lease-audit-operating-expenses.md) - A lease audit checks your landlord's annual operating-expense reconciliation against your lease to catch overcharges. Here's what leaks and how to find it.
- [Relocate or renew? How to decide on your Denver office lease](https://www.brianmccririe.com/relocate-vs-renew-denver-office.md) - Should you renew or relocate your Denver office lease in 2026? It depends on three things: how much leverage your timing gives you, how soft your submarket is, and whether your current space still fits the business. Renewing protects you from moving cost, downtime, and a fresh build-out, and it kee…
- [The Best Brokers Aren't Smarter. They Just Stop Dropping Steps.](https://www.brianmccririe.com/what-separates-top-commercial-real-estate-brokers.md) - Atul Gawande's The Checklist Manifesto is about surgery, not brokerage. Read from the CRE side of the table, it explains the real gap between top commercial real estate brokers and everyone else: not talent or market data, but consistency. The fix isn't working harder. It's building a checklist.
- [TI Allowance vs. Free Rent: Which to Negotiate Harder for in Denver](https://www.brianmccririe.com/ti-allowance-vs-free-rent-denver-office.md) - Should you push harder for TI allowance or free rent on a Denver office lease? It depends on what the deal needs to do for you. Tenant improvement (TI) allowance funds your build-out, capital you would otherwise spend out of pocket, so push harder on TI when you're constructing space. Free rent (ab…
- [How Much Do Commercial Real Estate Brokers Make in Denver?](https://www.brianmccririe.com/commercial-real-estate-broker-income-denver.md) - Commercial real estate broker pay in Denver is commission-based, not salaried, and it varies widely. National compensation surveys put the typical full-time CRE broker somewhere between roughly $79,000 and $248,000 a year depending on the source and methodology, and Denver-specific estimates run a…
- [Sale-Leaseback vs. Refinance: Freeing Capital From Your Denver Building](https://www.brianmccririe.com/sale-leaseback-vs-refinance-denver.md) - Should you sell-leaseback or refinance to pull capital out of a building you own? A sale-leaseback converts your entire equity to cash. You sell the building, then lease it back, so you free up 100% of market value and stay in the space. A cash-out refinance keeps you on title but only pulls out a…
- [DTC's 19% Vacancy: Structural Value Play or Value Trap?](https://www.brianmccririe.com/dtc-office-vacancy-value-play-or-trap.md) - Is the Denver Tech Center a value play or a value trap for office investors in 2026? It can be either, and the difference is almost entirely about how you buy. The DTC corridor toward Lone Tree runs about 19% vacant, roughly 9 million empty square feet (SVN | Denver Commercial Q1 2026 Office Invest…
- [How Much Office Space Does My Denver Company Actually Need Per Employee?](https://www.brianmccririe.com/denver-office-space-per-employee.md) - How much office space does a Denver company need per employee in 2026? There is no single number, and the per-employee figure you may have used before 2020 (often quoted around 200 to 250 square feet) overstates what most hybrid companies need today. The right answer comes from sizing to your peak…
- [Downtown Denver Sublease Is Drying Up: Is the Tenant Window Closing?](https://www.brianmccririe.com/downtown-denver-sublease-is-drying-up-is-the-tenant-window-closing.md) - Downtown Denver sublease availability fell 30% year over year to about 1.0M SF. Here's whether the cheap-space window is closing and how a direct deal compares.
- [Cherry Creek's Record-Low Office Vacancy: What the Scarcity Means for Your Lease](https://www.brianmccririe.com/cherry-creeks-record-low-office-vacancy-what-the-scarcity-means-for-your-lease.md) - What does Cherry Creek's record-low office vacancy mean for a tenant's lease in 2026? Cherry Creek is the tightest office submarket in Denver Metro, with vacancy at a record low under 5% (4.7% per CoStar) while downtown sits near 39%. Scarcity flips the entire negotiation. In Cherry Creek you get l…
- [The Skill That Separates Top Commercial Real Estate Brokers Isn't Market Knowledge](https://www.brianmccririe.com/communication-skills-commercial-real-estate-brokers.md) - Most brokers think the job is knowing the market better than the next person. Everyone has CoStar. The real edge is connection and trust, which is a learnable communication skill, not a data advantage. What I took from John Maxwell's 16 Undeniable Laws of Communication, read from the broker's chair.
- [The First Year as a Commercial Real Estate Broker Is Won Inside Your Circle of Influence](https://www.brianmccririe.com/first-year-commercial-real-estate-broker.md) - The brokers who survive their first year as a cre broker are not the ones who started in the right market. They are the ones who stopped spending energy on the market and started spending it on the inputs they actually control.
- [Full Service Gross vs. NNN: What Denver Office Tenants Actually Pay](https://www.brianmccririe.com/full-service-gross-vs-nnn-denver-office.md) - What's the difference between full service gross and NNN, and which one actually costs more? In a full service gross lease, the landlord covers operating expenses (taxes, insurance, utilities, common area maintenance) up to a base-year stop, and you pay only the increases above it. In a NNN (triple…
- [Peak vs. Average Occupancy: The Office-Sizing Mistake Costing Denver Companies](https://www.brianmccririe.com/peak-vs-average-occupancy-the-office-sizing-mistake-costing-denver-companies.md) - Should you size your Denver office to average attendance or peak attendance? Size to your real peak, not your average. Most companies downsize to average daily attendance, then watch the office sit empty Monday and Friday and run oversold Tuesday through Thursday. The numbers explain why: building…
- [The Highest-Paid Broker in the Room Can Still Be an Employee](https://www.brianmccririe.com/how-to-build-wealth-commercial-real-estate-broker.md) - Rod Santomassimo built the Massimo Group coaching commercial real estate brokers, and he did it after years inside Sperry Van Ness, now SVN. His book makes one point most top producers never act on: a big commission check is income, not wealth, and the two are not the same career.
- [Downsize, Sublease, or Hold: The Denver Office Footprint Decision in 2026](https://www.brianmccririe.com/denver-office-footprint-downsize-sublease-hold.md) - Should you downsize, sublease, or hold your Denver office space in 2026? The right move depends on four things: how much lease term you have left, your credit, your submarket, and how much of your space is truly dead versus needed on a peak day. Downsizing at renewal (or a blend-and-extend) wins wh…
- [The Math Most Brokers Never Run Before Picking a Market](https://www.brianmccririe.com/choosing-a-commercial-real-estate-market.md) - Brad Umansky's Value Added has a chapter on market selection most brokers skip. Underneath the "get married to one market" advice is arithmetic that tells you whether your territory is a career or a hobby. Here is the math, run at the number that actually matters.
- [Face Rent vs. Net Effective Rent: What Denver Office Tenants Miss in 2026](https://www.brianmccririe.com/face-rent-net-effective-rent-denver-office.md) - What's the difference between face rent and net effective rent on a Denver office lease? Face rent is the headline number on your lease, the dollars per square foot a landlord quotes and reports. Net effective rent is what you actually pay after concessions: free rent, tenant improvement dollars, a…
- [The Hard Thing About a Commercial Real Estate Career](https://www.brianmccririe.com/starting-a-commercial-real-estate-career.md) - Ben Horowitz wrote the best book I know on the part of any business that has no script. It is not a real estate book. Read from the broker's side of the table, it explains exactly why most people who start a commercial real estate career leave before it pays.
- [The OpEx Reconciliation Deadline Denver Tenants Keep Missing](https://www.brianmccririe.com/denver-opex-reconciliation-audit-window.md) - Your right to challenge a Denver office OpEx reconciliation typically expires 60 to 180 days after the statement arrives. Here's what to check first.

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