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This guide is for an owner about to sign a lease on office, retail or flex space in Provo, Orem or Lehi. It covers the lease structures you will be quoted, what CAM charges are, the call to make to Provo Community Development before you sign, and the clauses that cost small tenants the most money.
Before you sign a Provo lease, confirm the lease type (full-service gross, modified gross or NNN), get the CAM definition and a cap in writing, and call Provo City Community Development to confirm your business is allowed at that address. Provo's own licensing guidance says to check zoning before signing, and the city does not issue temporary business licenses. A tenant broker is normally paid by the landlord, so it usually costs you nothing to bring one.
Cushman & Wakefield's Q3 2026 Salt Lake City office MarketBeat, dated October 15, 2026, splits the metro into submarkets, and two of them are in Utah County. It reports Utah County North with the lowest Class A direct vacancy in the market at 9.5%, and Utah County South at a 23.3% vacancy rate. Those two numbers are why what you can negotiate differs by building: a good Class A suite in the north county is tight, while older space can sit.
The same report puts the overall metro office vacancy at 21.9% including sublease space. It does not publish asking rents for the two Utah County submarkets, so this guide gives no Utah County rent number. Ask two or three brokers for current asking rates on the exact building, and ask whether the rate is full-service or net, because the two are not comparable.
Retail and flex space follow the same rule. Walk the specific block you are considering, whether that is University Avenue, Center Street downtown, the Riverwoods, State Street in Orem or the commercial pads around Lehi, and ask the landlord how long the suite has been empty.
Every quote you get is built on one of three structures, and the structure matters more than the number per square foot. Holland & Knight's 2026 lease guide describes them this way. Under a gross lease, operating costs are folded into one fixed monthly figure. Under NNN, the tenant pays base rent plus its proportionate share of operating expenses, taxes and insurance. Modified gross sits between the two, and it often uses a base year, where costs from a set year become the floor and only increases above it pass through to the tenant.
The same firm's point is that the label does not control. The lease language decides who pays what, so a landlord who calls a deal full-service can still pass through increases. Read the expense definition, any cap and your audit rights before you compare two spaces.
| Structure | What you pay | Where it tends to show up | Question to ask |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full-service gross | One fixed monthly rent | Multi-tenant office buildings | Are there expense stops or pass-throughs after year one? |
| Modified gross | Base rent, plus increases above a base year | Multi-tenant projects | Which year is the base year, and which costs count? |
| NNN | Base rent plus your share of taxes, insurance and common area costs | Retail centers and flex or warehouse space | Is there a cap on yearly increases in CAM? |
CAM stands for common area maintenance. On an NNN lease it covers the parts of the property everyone shares: parking lot, snow removal, landscaping, exterior lighting and similar upkeep, and depending on the lease it can include property management fees and part of the building's insurance. The landlord usually estimates a CAM budget at the start of the lease year and reconciles it against actual costs at year end, which is when a surprise bill arrives.
Ask for the last two years of actual CAM costs for the building, since snow removal on a big retail lot is a real line item in a Utah County winter. Then negotiate three things. Ask for a cap on annual increases in controllable costs. Ask for exclusions, such as costs reimbursed by other tenants, fines the landlord got for breaking a law, and landlord employee salaries. Ask for the right to audit the reconciliation.
Taxes are a separate matter once you move in. If you own equipment or fixtures, read the Utah County business personal property tax guide before you finish your budget.
A lease is not permission to operate. Provo's business license application guidance tells applicants to contact the zoning office before signing a lease or submitting a license application, and the city's commercial business license page says to check with Development Services first so you know your business is permitted in that zone. A dentist, a salon, a restaurant and a small warehouse can each be allowed in one zone and not in another, and a landlord's broker is not the city.
The city's licensing pages list 801-852-6400 for Development Services. The application guide lists a different line, 801-852-6420, so call either and ask for the zoning reviewer for the address. Give them the street address and what you will do there, and ask for the answer by email. Provo's city code, as reproduced on a code site, makes it unlawful to occupy a building until a Certificate of Occupancy and Zoning Compliance has been issued, so also ask whether your use counts as a change of occupancy for that suite. Provo's code host did not load for us, so confirm the current rule with the city.
Put the answer in the lease. A clause that lets you walk away without penalty if the city will not approve your use costs the landlord little, and it covers you against the worst case.
Provo issues its own business licenses and does not issue temporary ones, so the license has to be in hand before you open. The city's FAQ says processing usually takes about two weeks, and longer if you need a special permit or approval from another department. A beer license is separate and falls under Provo City Code Chapter 6.14. That timeline matters for your lease, because rent should not start before the city lets you open.
For the state filings and how each city differs, use the Utah County business license guide. If you are in Lehi instead, the same zoning-first order applies, and the Lehi business license guide walks through it. Your landlord will also ask for a certificate of insurance, and the Utah County business insurance guide explains what to buy.
A tenant improvement allowance is the landlord's contribution toward building out your suite. Sources that cover commercial leases note two problems. The allowance is often smaller than the real cost of what a tenant wants to build, and it is usually priced into the rent, so you are paying for it over the term. Taft, a law firm, recommends getting contractor quotes before you sign so you can judge whether the allowance is enough.
Taft also flags the rent commencement date. Rent can start on a fixed date or when the landlord finishes the work, so the lease should say what happens if the build-out is late. Ask for the work scope, who pulls the building permit, who is responsible for cost overruns, and a rent start date tied to when you can legally open. In Provo, ask the Community Development Building Division whether your work needs a permit before you price it.
Landlords often ask a small business owner to personally guarantee the lease, which means they can go after your own assets, not just the company's, if the business stops paying. Taft's advice is to decide early whether you can accept that and whether a limited guaranty is available.
The usual asks are a cap on the dollar amount, a guarantee that shrinks or ends after a set number of on-time years, and a clause that releases you if you give notice and return the space. Some guarantees also cover the landlord's unamortized tenant improvement costs and broker commission, so read what the guaranty actually lists. Have a Utah real estate attorney read it before you sign.
Usually yes, and it usually costs you nothing out of pocket. Commercial brokerage sources say the landlord typically pays a tenant's broker out of the lease commission. Taft lists working with a broker as its first recommendation, because a broker knows current rents and allowances in the market.
Pick a broker who works the Provo, Orem and Lehi buildings you are looking at, and ask them to show you comparable deals, not just listings. A broker advises on price and terms, and a lawyer reads the lease. You need both for anything over a year or two.
When the lease is signed, update your address on Google Business Profile first. Our Google Business Profile guide covers it.
A new storefront needs customers before the first rent check comes due. Provo FOMO is one option, and we sell it. We email a local newsletter to about 3,125 subscribers, a single-issue ad test is $99, and a Local Directory listing is $99 a month. See advertising with Provo FOMO for what each includes, or compare it against other channels in where to advertise in Utah County.
