figure square footage

How to Calculate Square Footage for Your Office Rental Space

One of the most exciting, but potentially stressful parts of renting an office space is planning the space. It is important to know exactly what your requirements are for a space before signing a lease. If you rent too much space, you will be depleting financial resources for space you don’t need, but if you rent to little, your office will feel crowded and your business won’t have room to grow. Here are a few simple ways to determine how much office space is right for your business, as suggested in the article “How Many Square Feet Do I Need for my Office?”:

Number of Employees

If you have a more administrative staff, you might look for a space that is 60-100 square feet, but if you have a more C-level staff, you might need a space that is 250-400 square feet. In addition to considering how many employees you have, you will want to think about the supplies and equipment that each employee requires, as well as any space you might need for visitors.

Storage Space

Don’t forget to plan for any storage space you might need. You can save a lot of space by putting documents on external hard drives, but you will probably still need a few file cabinets, plus some space for a server, office supplies and employee’s belongings, such as coats in the winter.

Common Space

Consider common spaces such as reception areas, break rooms, conference rooms, and restrooms. Plan for that ahead of time, so that you do not find yourself without a place for employees to eat lunch or a place for customers to sit and wait.

Growth

If your business has been doing very well, consider the possibility that you may need to expand into more space in the near future or hire more employees. Try to either plan ahead for that office space or talk to your landlord about a lease clause that will allow you to expand into more space on the property if you need to.

Be sure to take the time to plan ahead when considering how much office space your business needs! Remember that too much space can be a financial drain, but too little could potentially hold your business back from achieving maximum growth.

If your business is interested in commercial space for rent in Overland Park, give us a call at 913-685-4100 and we can help you figure square footage, discuss potential office space layouts, and even set you up with tours of spaces!

How to Figure Square Footage for an Office Rental Space: Step 1

Determining how much square footage your business will need is an important part of the process of finding an office rental space and requires careful attention to detail. Do not let yourself be blindsided by unforeseen expenses or unusable space in your new office space. Here is the first of 5 steps for accurately measuring square footage in a commercial space:

Step 1: Know the Jargon

It is important to understand the terminology that will be thrown at you during lease negotiations. Here are a few terms you should be prepared for:

Usable Square Footage – The space that a tenant actually occupies. This is the figure that real estate agents will often quote to prospective tenants, but it does not tell the whole story of a space.
Rentable Square Footage – This number is the combination of your usable square footage and a percentage of the common space of the building that you will share with other tenants, such as hallways, elevators, lobbies, and stairwells.
Gross Square Footage – all of the rentable square footage in a building.
Load Factor – Calculation of total monthly rent based on the rentable square footage times the unit price per square foot. Often the price per square foot will be different for common-area square footage versus usable square footage.

Prepare yourself to navigate the process of calculating square footage!

If you are interested in office rental space in Kansas City, give Kathy Woodward at DDI Commercial a call at 913-685-4100 to find out about our available space!

Determining Office Size for an Office Space in Kansas City: Part II

Determining the amount of office space your business will need requires consideration of several factors. Here are a few more to think about as you search for a space that will be a comfortable, smart, and financially feasible location for your business (also, if you missed Part I – here it is):

Area Layout
How do you want to arrange your office? Do you need a reception or waiting area, a conference room, a break area, extra storage, or open office space? Estimating the necessary size of open office space can be challenging, but picturing necessary elements of this space in scale can make the task easier. For instance, if you know that 15 employees work in cubes, then think about the size of each cube. Here are some guidelines for standard cube sizes:

Supervisor’s Workstation – (100 sq. ft.)
Standard Cubicle- (48 sq. ft.)
Small Cubicle – (25 sq. ft.)

Special Arrangements
You will also want to consider things like parking arrangements. The typical preset ratio landlords use for parking spaces is 4:1000Ã¢â‚¬â€ four parking spaces for every 1,000 SF you lease. Check out the spaceÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s parking lot to see if it appears to have adequate parking. If you have doubts, talk to the leasing representative for the space. Next, think about any special requirements such as reserved parking for top management, parking garages, and handicap access.

Check back for a few final factors to consider as you determine what sized Kansas City office space for rent your business needs.

If you would like an expert to help you figure square footage for a new office rental space, give us a call at 913-685-4100!

Checklist of Questions When Looking For a New Office Space in Overland Park: Part II

If your business is considering moving to a new location, check out some of these questions you might ask yourself as you start the process of searching for a new space:

3. What is the ideal amount of space for your business? The amount of office space your business needs will mostly be determined by the amount of employees you have and how much workspace each requires. You will also want to consider the types of amenities your business needs, and whether those need to be in your space or you can share with other tenants in the building. Identify and figure into your spacing any resources, such as equipment, that you know you need. Your final step in determining the ideal amount of space for your business is factoring in growth considerations so that space around the office does not become too tight.
4. What is the most useful and efficient layout for your business’s operations? Your main priority in estimating your laying is supporting your business’s operations and other requirements with the least amount of extra space that will increase your rent costs. You will want to consider layout factors besides size, such as workstation preferences or interior design. Some businesses are better suited to open work environments, while others operate more efficiently in cubicles and private offices.

Pausing to really collect some data on your business’s space and layout needs will help you more efficiently determine what office spaces could be potential fits for your needs.

If you would like some help as you try to figure square footage, give a DDI Commercial real estate broker in Kansas City a call at 913-685-4100!

4 Mistakes to Avoid When Acquiring a Kansas City Office Space for Lease: Part I

While finding an office space can be a great move for businesses both big and small, there are a lot of mistakes that companies make on the types of leases the acquire that can hurt their company down the line. Here are 4 major mistakes to be aware of and avoid when finding an office rental space:

1. Leasing a space that is too big or small. Over or underestimating the amount of office space your business will need for all projects, departments, and employees is one of the biggest mistakes businesses make. It can be tricky to estimate, because a space always seems a bit bigger when empty, but taking the time to figure square footage needs specifically for your business is important.
2. Acquiring a space that is not within their financial means. The expense of renting an office space is difficult on any business’s budget, but choosing a space that is even more expensive than what you budgeted for can really strain the entire business’s finances. Carefully review your budget before you even begin looking for an office rental space so you have a clear number in mind of what your business can realistically pay for a space. And then do not go over that number.

Some of these mistakes may seem obvious, yet business still fall into them often. All of these are easily avoidable with a little planning and research!

Give us a call at 913-685-4100 and we can help you calculate square footage needs for your business!

How to Calculate Square Footage for Commercial Real Estate

Commercial real estate rental rates are not calculated the same way as residential leases. Residential rental rates are often determined by looking at similar rentals in the area, whereas monthly rent for commercial property is a little more complex and based on several types of square foot measurements. Most commercial leases charge rent based on “rentable square feet” versus “usable square feet.” Here are some definitions that might clarify these terms:

Usable Square Feet – Square footage of space actually occupied by the tenant
Rentable Square Feet – Usable square footage + a percentage of the square footage of the common areas. Common areas are the parts of the building that all tenants use, such as hallways, elevators, stairwells, and lobbies. The percentage of square footage of common areas is divided up among tenants on a prorated basis.
Gross Square Feet – Total square footage of the entire building.

Thus, when a tenant is paying a rent according to rentable square feet, they are paying a part of the landlord’s expenses for the common areas in addition to their usable square feet. This practice of adding common area expenses and usable square feet is called the “load factor,” and the load factor typically increases annually at a rate that is different from rent increases for your usable square footage. This can all be very complicated and confusing, so before you even take a tour of a space, be sure to ask the realtor over the phone about the monthly rates for both usable square feet and rentable square feet.

We can help you figure square footage for your business using our office space calculator. To find out more about the size and rates of our commercial space for lease in Overland Park, give us a call at 913-685-4100!

Business Office Rental in Kansas City Square Footage Options

Southcreek Office Park offers square footage options ranging from 900 to more than 24,000 square feet to accommodate whatever size office space you are looking for. There are twenty different Southcreek buildings in southern Johnson County, located together on Metcalf Avenue, West 129th Street, West 130th Street, and West 132th Street, each offering different available amounts of office space.

Our Southcreek website offers a chart on our “Available Office Space” page that lists by square footage the available spaces, as well as links to more detailed information about spaces within different ranges of square footage.

However, when trying to figure square footage, you might not know exactly how much space you need. If you need help estimating how much square footage you might want, the “Available Office Space” page offers a square footage calculator, which asks a series of questions that will help Southcreek calculate square footage according to your needs.

The calculator’s questions invite you to consider factors such as the number of private offices, the number of work cubicles, and how many people a conference room might need to seat, as well as whether you would like a reception area, a break area, or a storage or teldata room. This will help give Southcreek a general estimate of how much space you need, and from there they will often divide, combine and reconfigure available space to meet your exact needs. So whether you know how much space you need and would like to check out prices, or whether you need help figuring out how much space you actually need, Southcreek can help you in your hunt for office space.

Wanna skip the formalities and just talk to someone? You can do that too by calling 913-685-4100.