David....
You received a good answer from Jim. As a further clarification, use your as-built plans for the entire square footage of the building. (Or if no such plans exist you can physically measure your building). Determine from that how much is actual tenant rental space. Deduct this amount from the gross square footage and you will then have your usable square footage. The usable square footage divided by the gross square footage will give you your load factor. If you use Jim's example of an 18% load factor, this is saying that 18% of the building is attributable to corridors, lobbies, stairwells, public restrooms, elevators and utility rooms (and any other nooks and crannies that is not tenant space). To further use Jim's example, let's assume a building has 20,000 square feet. This would mean that 3,600 square feet is common area. It is not unusual for a building to have an 18% load factor. The load factor can often range from a very efficient building with little common area of 10%- to an inefficient building of 22%+ square footage. A question, as a tenant, which building would you want to have your usable square feet in? Good luck David,,,, Rob Baird, CA RE License #544165 (One of the oldest, active licenses in CA) 951 515-5855 Email: rob@capratecommercial.com
Feb 1, 2011