Auditing Your Brewery’s Hidden Lease Costs
Triple-net expenses like taxes, insurance, and maintenance can easily equal 30% to 50% of your rent. Perhaps even more. Asking your landlord for an itemized breakdown (from the past couple of years or so) is a smart move. Take a few minutes to scan the details and look for anything that stands out - big year-over-year jumps or pass-through costs that don’t make sense. It’s also worth talking to your neighbors to see if they're paying similar amounts. Their terms may be different, but it can give you a helpful baseline.
What’s included in your brewery’s triple-net charges?
Triple-net (NNN) leases are common in commercial real estate. If you’re leasing brewery space, it’s important to know what’s included - and what’s not.
What’s typically included:
Property taxes – Your share of the building’s property tax, usually based on square footage
Insurance – Building insurance (not your business insurance). Again, based on your occupied footprint
Common area maintenance (CAM) – Shared upkeep like landscaping, snow removal, parking lot lighting, security, shared HVAC systems, etc.
What shouldn’t be included:
Landlord management fees – These are overhead, not shared maintenance
Capital expenditures (CapEx) – Big-ticket items like a new roof, repaved parking lot, or full HVAC replacement. These improve the long-term value of the building and shouldn't be passed off as maintenance.
To protect yourself:
Review your lease carefully and have a lawyer look it over
Look for language about “operating expenses” or “additional rent” - important details can be buried there
Ask for past NNN invoices to see what’s actually being billed
If something looks off - you might have been charged for something that isn’t yours - flag it
Request and analyze an itemized NNN breakdown
NNN charges often get glossed over during lease negotiations. Most of the focus is on the rent, but these expenses are real, recurring, and they can quietly grow year over year if you’re not paying attention.
Step 1: Ask for the details
Request a detailed, line-by-line breakdown of NNN charges for the past two years. If your landlord gives you a lump sum, ask for specifics. You want to see exactly what’s included and how each line item has changed.
Step 2: Build a simple spreadsheet
Using Google Sheets or Excel - create one column for each year and rows for each NNN category:
Property taxes
Insurance
Landscaping
Snow removal (if applicable)
Security
Parking lot maintenance
Other common area maintenance (CAM) items
Put the two years side by side so you can clearly see the changes.
Step 3: Look for red flags
Spot any big jumps or odd charges.
Did landscaping jump 40% year-over-year?
Are you being billed for snow removal in a warm climate?
Did a vendor change or was there a one-time event?
If you can’t find a clear explanation, it’s worth questioning - or renegotiating.
Step 4: Make it visual
A simple bar or line chart makes trends easier to spot and easier to explain. When you show a landlord that something jumped 35%, and ask what changed, it’s harder to brush off.
Keeping tabs on your NNN charges doesn’t mean nitpicking. It means knowing where your money’s going - and being in a position to act on it.
Lease & Occupancy Cost Analyzer
Catch lease overcharges and recover money
Once you’ve reviewed your itemized NNN charges, the next step is to flag anything that doesn’t make sense.
Start with the obvious:
Snow removal in Florida? That’s probably wrong.
Landscaping charges for a space that’s all pavement? Question it.
Duplicate admin fees like “property management” and “admin services”? Could be double-billed.
Then benchmark against other tenants.
If you’re in a shared complex, talk to neighbors. You’re all business owners - it’s okay to compare notes. If your NNN charges are 20–30% higher than theirs for similar space, something could be off. A five-minute conversation could uncover misallocations or simple billing errors.
And don’t underestimate the impact. Saving $1,000 in overcharges is the equivalent of selling 143 more pints (at $7 each). That’s money you could otherwise put toward reinvestment, debt paydown, or owner draws.
If you’re not confident reviewing it yourself - delegate it. A CPA or real estate consultant can review your NNN charges for $250 to $1,000, depending on the scope. Some may include it in existing services. If they find something off, you may be able to recover past charges or use it to renegotiate better terms.
Just because NNN charges are buried doesn’t mean they can’t be understood. Treat them like any other line item on your P&L - review, question, and protect your margins.
Don’t let NNN charges quietly bleed your brewery dry
Triple-net charges are easy to overlook, and easy to underestimate. They’re often lumped into one line, buried in invoices, and rarely get reviewed. But they compound over time and can quietly chip away at your profitability.
You need to know what you’re actually paying for.
Even doing a single audit can reveal years of overcharges or misallocated costs. That’s real money - money that could go toward ingredients, payroll, or your next taproom upgrade. Don’t ignore it. Run the numbers. Ask for the breakdown. Know your lease inside and out. Because what you don’t know about your NNN charges can absolutely cost you.
