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We have a 2 story commercial building with restaurants at the 1st and 2nd floors. There are voids in the 2nd floor for the 1st floor restaurants' duct chases that extend to the roof. Should the space the duct chase takes up at the 2nd floor be included in the 1st floor tenant's rentable square footage? Or is this space just totally excluded and not assigned to anybody?
Hi Andrew,
The space for the ducts would generally be considered a Major Vertical Penetration / Non-Leasable Area. However, if the duct work was installed by or for the tenant, then you could possibly make a claim that it's an Occupant Void, in which case it would be included in GLA - but it's rare for an Occupant Void to be applied to a floor that the tenant doesn't actually occupy. Occupant Voids are usually for private stairs, escalators and elevators, not shafts. The Retail Standard defines Occupant Void as "A floor opening between two or more adjacent floors created by removal of occupiable floor area by or for the occupant that would otherwise be included in the exterior gross area or construction gross area of the floor".
I hope this helps.