This could be big...

I had an email from the local leasing agent when I got home from all of the meetings yesterday that said he received the counter offer back and that we should meet today to discuss. Now, this makes me a bit nervous as the last time they countered, he just emailed me the differences and we went from there. I bet I know what is making them hold up a bit. There are going to be two spaces left in this building if we move in. One of them is a mirror of ours and one is an end space with a drive through. This is the space that our big Green Friends (Starbucks) was once looking at. I put in my first letter of intent that I wanted them to sign a non-compete clause stating that no other business in this building can serve coffee as their main source of revenue as I do not want to compete side by side with another coffee shop. They said no. My second offer still had that in there as I feel that I need it to feel secure in this lease. I hope that is what the problem is. I will be a step closer after tonight, however, as we will know the final word on where we stand with this lease and our chances of signing something in the near future. We meet with the light people yesterday who will have the electrical plan/lighting layout to us by the end of this week, early next week. We meet with the sign company that we hope to use and he created an amazing sign for us that I can not wait to show. Our meeting with the banker went well and we meet with another bank on Friday to see what our options are with the good old SBA. Over all I think we are in a great position to move forward and I still believe we can be serving coffee by January. ~~be bold