Square footage in commercial lease not accurate?

I'm in the fifth month of a 5 year commercial lease. I am still not open due to my former general contractor's lack of interest in even attempting to meet the deadline date we set. He's out of the picture now, and I am pursuing legal action against him.

I am now in the position where I still owe a couple of my sub-contractors some money. I am doing everything humanly possible to get the money together. However, my Landlord is being completley indifferent to the situation I am in. A situation which is due to my former general contractor's gross misconduct while on the job. I never would have picked him had my landlord's representative, while negotiating the lease, not emailed me his number and urged me to use him in 3 different emails.

I'm considering trying to get out of the lease. This situation is starting to affect my health. My lease states that the Sq. footage in my space is 1334. It is actually 1300, per my architects plans & measurements. Is this a way out for me?

34 sq feet isn't going to be the way out. You signed the lease anyway, so that shows that you wanted to rent the property. You need to see an attorney.

No. It depends on how the area is measured. It is customary for the lessor to include the thickness of the walls as a part of the rented area. If you measure the inside area only, you will come up with a smaller figure.
If you could prove a mistake, the best you could do is have the lease payments recalculated. There is no material misrepresentation.

The square footage difference is minute and not a way out of your lease. What you can do is request a meeting with the landlord to delay the start of the lease. Contact your attorney and review the lease with him.

Unless another tenant is waiting for your space, the Landlord also stands to lose money and time trying to fill a vacancy should you not fulfill the lease agreement.

Search for a compromise with the Landlord in an honest and candid way.

Good luck.

The answer is . . . maybe. It depends on whether the size of the space was "of the essence" of the lease. Sounds like it was not, given that you've seen the plans and haven't had an issue with the size of the space until now, five months later.

One thing you might consider is this . . . your lease situation is a product of the general contractor's malfeasance. Any damages you sustain with respect to the lease should be claimed against the contractor. Rather than giving up the lease, you should forge ahead with a replacement GC and try to recoup from the slacker.

Not likely. 34sqft is not really that much space. If anything you might be entitled to a refund of a portion of the rent.

From what you have said here it does not seem like there is a way out of the lease but nobody will be able to give you any competent advice without actually reading your lease.

I do not mean to be too glib but it is really not your landlord's problem that the contractor screwed you. You should really approach an attorney, possibly a few. Usually they will give a free consult and there may be laws in your state that you may be able to take advantage of.

If you really want to grab your landlord's attention, and it is possible, you might want to suggest your subs lien the property. No landlord will sit on his duff when his property is being liened. It might motivate him to try and meet you halfway or at least talk about the other issues.