Before you sign a lease for the perfect new space for your office, make sure you assess the parking situation. Obviously most office buildings provide some type of on-site parking whether it’s a surface lot or a parking garage. You need to determine 1.) is the parking adequate for my needs, 2.) what are my rights, and 3.) if it’s an additional cost, over and above the rent, is it fairly priced.
Tour The Parking Facility
A necessary part of any building tour also includes touring the parking facility. As you go through with the landlord consider the following basics:
- Are the parking spaces large enough for your employees to easily park?
- How long will it take them to get to your office? Depending on the office location and parking facility it could take them seconds or several minutes.
- How much of the building is leased? This will affect the parking situation as well.
- What type of security is provided? Are there cameras? Is the lot or garage well lighted?
After your initial building tour go back to the property during different times of the day to see what it’s like to actually park there as a tenant. Is there adequate parking in the morning and the afternoon? Determine whether your employees will be able to reasonably and comfortably park and whether there is enough parking available. If the building isn’t 100% leased, yet the lot is more than full, you might have some problems once the building is full.
Paying careful attention to the parking area and to the language in the lease can help to ensure that the office lease you sign is the right one for your company.
Review the Lease
Before signing your lease review the terms of your parking rights. Typically, office buildings quote parking as a ratio. A building with a 4/1000 parking ratio means that it has four spaces for every 1,000 square feet of rentable space. Review how many spaces you’re given and whether you have a guaranteed right to specific spaces or the same parking as everyone else.
Read your office lease carefully to see if there are consequences if you go over the number of spaces specified in the lease. Do you have to pay for parking? If so, estimate those costs and try to negotiate limits on any future increases. Finally, consider engaging howardcommercial as your tenant representative. We have helped many other tenants in this situation. Give us a call at 314-821-0025 or send us an email at doug@howardcommercial.net
