Case Studies

Relocation For A Dental Practice In Ypsilanti, Washtenaw County

The Situation

Dr. Aaron Ruhlig is a fantastic dentist serving Ypsilanti, the east side of Ann Arbor, and Pittsfield Township. Less than ten years ago, he purchased his practice — and by every clinical measure, things were going well.

But the real estate told a different story.

His leased space was functional, clean, and professionally managed by a large hospital system. But it had a problem that no amount of good dentistry could fix – no one could find him.

His practice was:

• Tucked away on the second floor of a medical office building
• Had zero street presence
• No signage that mattered
• No visibility to the thousands of cars passing by every day

For a practice that depends on community awareness and patient accessibility, being hidden on a second floor is a structural disadvantage — one that compounds over time. He knew it, and he had been thinking about his practice’s future for a long time.

• When we first worked with Dr. Ruhlig, the immediate task was his lease renewal. The practice was stable, the space was workable, and a full relocation wasn’t on the table — yet.
• We negotiated with the long game in mind. Among the terms we secured in that renewal was one that didn’t make headlines at the time but would prove to be the most valuable clause in the entire lease –  termination right.
  • A termination right would give Dr. Ruhlig the contractual flexibility to exit his lease early if the right opportunity emerged.
  • This is the kind of provision that most tenants don’t think to ask for — and most landlords don’t volunteer. It costs nothing on paper. But in practice, it’s the difference between being locked in and being free to move.
• With that termination right in place, Dr. Ruhlig had something rare – time without obligation. He could continue operating in his current space, serve his patients, grow his practice — and keep his eyes open, knowing that when the right opportunity appeared, he wouldn’t be trapped.

The Solution

• A couple years later, a 16,000 SF building just down the street from Dr. Ruhlig’s practice had a small fire. The fire itself wasn’t catastrophic — but the smoke damage was significant enough that every tenant in the building needed to relocate. The building went dark.
• Over the following year, the landlord rebuilt, and here’s where the economics shifted dramatically. The landlord had insurance proceeds earmarked for tenant buildouts — money that needed to be deployed as part of the reconstruction.
• The result was a tenant improvement allowance that was roughly three times what a comparable building in the market would offer.
• For most tenants, that’s a nice perk. For a dentist planning a buildout — where construction costs for operatories, plumbing, imaging infrastructure, and sterilization systems routinely run into the hundreds of thousands — it was transformational.
• The math on this deal looked nothing like a typical lease negotiation. And it was sitting right down the street from a dentist who had the flexibility to act.
• We moved on the opportunity and entered into months of negotiations.
• The building was right, the incentive structure was exceptional, but we still needed the deal terms to reflect the full value of what Dr. Ruhlig was bringing to the table — a proven practice with an established patient base relocating into a newly reconstructed building.

After several months of back-and-forth, we secured.

• Prominent facade signage on the front of the building — plus a first-floor, front-and-center suite position. His practice is now the first thing you see as you drive up. The contrast with a tucked-away second-floor suite in a hospital-owned MOB could not be sharper.
• More operatories than his current suite with room to grow into – not just operate within.
• Lower rent than he was paying in his existing space in a larger footprint, in a better position, and with better terms.
• A tenant improvement package nearly three times the market standard, dramatically reducing the out-of-pocket cost of a full dental buildout.

Less rent. More space. Better visibility. And a buildout subsidy that most dentists can only dream of.

A move made possible by a termination right negotiated years before anyone knew this opportunity would exist.

Congratulations, Dr. Ruhlig!

Our client was patient, smart, and now the community that already knows their work is going to see their name on the building.

This case study is really two stories.

The first is about a lease renewal that most people would have treated as routine paperwork. We didn’t. We negotiated a termination right that gave Dr. Ruhlig the freedom to move — a clause that sat quietly in his lease for years, doing nothing, until the day it became the most important term in the document.

The second is about recognizing an opportunity that the market didn’t produce on purpose. A fire. A reconstruction. An insurance-funded buildout allowance that no landlord would offer under normal circumstances. The kind of deal that only works if you’re watching the market closely enough to see it — and positioned well enough to act on it.

Both stories end in the same place: a better space, better visibility, better economics, and a practice set up for the next chapter.