Office Tips©

Real Estate is multi-disciplinary, we are often called to identify and solve issues which require outside expertise. These issues include construction, finance, tax, insurance and lease clauses to name a few. After thousands of transactions we come across certain ones more routinely than others and we thought it best to put these topics down in a format that our clients can find informative and resourceful. We want our clients to call us about any of these topics and recommend others for us to explore.

Occupancy Costs and Lease Types

When comparing different properties tenants all want to know the occupancy cost. Competent agents provide rents and expenses then do a comparative analysis of these costs. We look at occupancy costs, concessions, and tenant costs and compare these options using simple spreadsheets to complex analysis software.

Common Office Lease Questions Explained

Below is a list of the frequently asked questions by tenants about office leasing in our market. We...

AIR Commercial Real Estate Forms

AIR Commercial Real Estate Forms and Contracts Form agreements for sale and lease transactions...

NNN Leases Have Special Risks

The property was constructed by Panattoni Development as a build to suit in 2000. The building was occupied for the last 15 years by Heald College. The owners recently hired our East Bay Office Team to lease and/or sell the investment. This is a unique campus setup with over 31 classrooms & labs (most equipped with projectors, desks, chairs, and office furniture wired for internet and phone).

Do You Have a 'Cool Roof?'

Every couple of years, California increases its standards of energy efficiency requirements for residential and commercial buildings which fall under the California Building Code Title 24. The next standards will be released in July of 2016, so now is a good time to evaluate your current situation and budget for any significant changes you consider making to your building next year.

Squeezing Down to Compact Stalls

Currently we are working on a parking lot redesign with one of our clients who owns an office building with inadequate parking. The building is underparked by 20 stalls and that severely limits the amount of space we can lease. Every lease has a specific number of stalls allocated and we keep a table of tenants and their number of employees. To maximize revenue we decided to discount rents to tenants that use below the market standard parking ratio or rent space for storage at cost. In fact there are many properties in the market with either short or tight parking and we often are called on to solve this operational issue.

Pavement Lifecycle: Can it Get More Exciting Than This?

While roofs and mechanical systems get most of the attention, conscientious operators build in reserves for the replacement of all capital items including the parking lot. Usually when a capital expenditure is made, the expense is amortized over its useful life, and then collected again back over that time from the tenant(s) in the building. Be advised that replacement reserves may get transferred in sales to the buyer, similar to security deposits, for the continued replacement of capital items.

Inside Look at an Environmental Phase II

Phase II reports are recommended (usually in the Phase I) when signs of contamination are suspected (known or unknown) on or around the property, on neighboring properties, or prior use on or about the site. The classic example are gas stations and dry cleaners. In several projects we have sold properties which were adjacent to or were former gas stations and the old tanks were removed without documentation. Even if the next door gas station has a clean certification and/or tanks were just replaced, contamination risk is sill possible and all of the experts recommend getting at least a Phase I report.

Restroom Accessibility | Self Assessment

The first thing to remember is that if you can read the following diagrams and a tape measure you can reasonably understand what is in and out of compliance in your restrooms. While your real estate agent (meaning us) never wants to tell you if the property is or isn’t in compliance you can educate yourself and learn to identify accessibility issues. In this article we want to simplify the issues, point out some rules of thumb, and make recommendations about where clients can seek additional information. There are lots of resources you can find to figure out where you stand—or sit.

Getting the Moves On

Is this your first time being responsible for an office move? If not, how did the last office relocation work out? Your job or your career may not hang in the balance, but your sanity does. Mistakes could put an office out of business for days, losing money. Hapless movers damage common areas. Documents also could be lost or damaged during the move.