When business owners find office space to rent, they may run into a difficult time understanding the common area factor and how it pertains to rentable vs. usable square feet. This can be confusing at first but once you get a handle on how these two measuring qualities relate and dictate the results, you will find that renting the right size office space to be an easily achievable goal.
What Is The Common Area Factor?
Many people have heard of the common area in a commercial building. It is the area of the commercial space which is shared with other commercial tenants in the office building. There are two common area factors, the floor common area factor and the building common area factor. The floor common area factor refers to the single floor only where the business tenant leases commercial office space while the building common area factor relates to those common areas which all tenants in the commercial office building have access to and are able to use. The total common area factor which you are given by the office space landlord for information prior to leasing the office space is the sum of both of these common areas.
Understanding Rentable Vs. Usable Square Feet
It is important to understand the difference between rentable and usable square feet prior to renting office space. Rentable square feet is the amount of square footage which you pay rent for. This includes all areas of the interior building space which you pay for such as the office area, restroom, closets, etc. Your commercial office space rent will be the rentable square footage multiplied by the square footage lease rate.
As for usable square feet, this calculation relates to the amount of space you put to use. This will also include the doors and structural walls as well. If you share restrooms with other tenants, you will have to pay a portion of the price for those facilities in addition to any other common areas.
Ensuring That Your Square Footage Calculations Are Accurate
The aspects of common area factor, rentable square feet and usable square feet can be a bit confusing, even when provided with the general overview of such concepts. The best way to ensure that you have a good grasp on these concepts and that you know exactly what you are renting and what you are ultimately paying for, having a tenant representative by your side is essential.
The tenant representative will explain these factors in great detail for you and help you to negotiate with your landlord to ensure that you are getting exactly what you are paying for. These concepts can be even trickier if you lease more than one floor of an office building and need to know what you are paying for and whether or not your commercial office space budget will allow for such rentals.
Many get the hang of the common area factor, usable square footage and rental square footage after leasing office space a few times. However, having a tenant representative along to help will definitely make the leasing process much simpler for most office space tenants.