In leases, the rented space is measured on a square foot basis, and the rent is calculated on dollar-per-square-foot basis.  This much is known and is pretty obvious to most people.

Drilling down a bit, leases become more complicated when the question is asked: ‘how is the square footage measured?’

In leases (different standards can apply to office, retail, and industrial leases), the leased area can be calculated in two ways.  The first is ‘Usable Area,’ and the second is ‘Rentable Area.’

In basic terms, Usable Area and Rentable Area can be defined like this:

Usable Area

This area is…

Continue Reading Leasing 101: Square Footage, Measurements, and Rent Calculation