Leasing square footage when you haven't before

Willowbend Service Park's experience with many up-and-coming small business and contractors helps take the guesswork out of space needs. The primary rule guiding all business-purposed real estate is to get the space you plan to fill, not just replace the space you're in.

How a client uses their space or spaces today is a good starting point. Manufacturing or machining space can be pretty straightforward, as most clients know how much they need for machinery and production space. It's the footprint of the machine plus the surrounding area for the operator and safe servicing.

Look up

When it comes to storage and warehousing, it's a little more complicated because the floor space multiplies upward. Surprisingly enough, many business owners may not actually build in the stacking of shelves or pallets and instead rely only on the linear, two-dimensional measure. In other words, a square footage number may not be accurate for their needs.

For example, 10 ft. by 10 ft. equals 100 square feet… until you pallet or shelve. A rack measuring 10x10 with three shelves equals 300 feet of storage in the same 100 square feet. Meanwhile, a service van could be 25 ft. x 6.5 ft. … and those obviously are not stackable.

The wild card in helping figure out your space is how you're accessing what's in the space. Pallets require a pallet jack or even a fork lift… both of which require space in which to operate… and that space isn't going to have another use. In the rack example, you'll need 100 square feet to access the higher shelves, so you really need 200 square feet of floor space, not just the 10x10 footprint of the shelf. In the van scenario, if you have to pull it out to load/unload it today in your current space, in your new office warehouse you'll want to include space around the 25 x 6.5 (162.5 sq. ft.) footprint of the van.

Look forward

Once the baseline is established for the client's current business, we can move onto what the goal is for growth. Some Willowbend Service Park clients may be downsizing, but most are planning for expansion, taking on a new product or employee, etc. The primary rule may be to lease the space you plan to fill as you grow… but in order to know that, all of our prospective clients sketch a layout using the floor plan to figure out just how much growth is possible.

Photo by Péter Gudella , used with permission.