4 Ways To Help Tech Tenants Get Creative With Office Perks

Law360 (May 18, 2016) Technology companies in California are expanding the scope of their office amenities as they compete to lure top talent to their firms, but adding things like bocce courts to office campuses comes with considerable complications and insurance ramifications, lawyers say. While outdoor sports pose one set of issues for tenants, other amenities like child care and wellness centers carry a different set of complications and sometimes require compliance with local, state and federal laws. Many workers at tech companies have now come to expect that they'll be able to bring their dog to work, and in order to facilitate that, companies have to make sure they have a series of pertinent rules and regulations in place. “Dogs are kind of where everyone's headed,” said Elizabeth J. Wilgenburg of Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP. “There's a lot of different approaches that landlords take on the dog issue.” The issue of bike storage and various other amenities is driven in part by whether a building is multi- or single-tenant. Companies that have an entire building may pay for tenant improvements to build out a secure bike storage area, while such improvements are more complex if the building is leased to multiple tenants. “One thing that's really important to tech tenants is alternative transportation,” Wilgenburg said. “The tenants like to get involved in the lease in the earlier stages so they can have input.”