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This help desk is a free resource intended for discussion purposes only. Neither BOMA, its chapters, affiliates, or Extreme Measures Inc.® are responsible for the information, comments or opinions expressed herein. For complete information, refer to the official publications of the standards themselves.

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Ground-floor retail areas of an office building

Robert Orban
studley
November 13, 2014

my thought is, why would these spaces not be measured/rented on a usable basis? They have separate, individual exterior access, do not access the building lobby and include all of their own restrooms and mechanical areas etc. Further they don't utilize the building elevators and are basically completely self-contained.

At a minimum, I would have to think that the applicable common area factor would be significantly lower than upper floor premises? Thanks.

David Fingret
Extreme Measures Inc.
November 17, 2014

Hi Robert. It's just not the way the BOMA 2010 office standard works. Often, the gross-up is lower on the ground floors because a lot of the of the ground floor common area might be treated as Building Service Area and there might not be as much Floor Service Area. Whereas on the upper floors, the common area is usually all Floor Service Area.

Many landlords will not charge any gross-up to the ground floor retail tenants, but practitioners like ourselves must calculate the areas according to the rules of the standard.

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