Part I. What to Look for When Looking for Office Space:
The 10 Most Important Features

Brokers often attempt to "cover themselves."  When conducting a prospective tenant on a field inspection, they will squeeze as many office building visits as possible into a small amount of time. The thinking is, "The more flowers pollinated the greater chance for getting a commission." The Navigator considers this is a calculated and professional disservice.

Rushing from one building to another makes all the buildings begin to "look alike." As a result, your ability to make an objective evaluation is greatly diminished. 

Do not let this happen to you.  You do not want to overlook important building attributes or miss telltale signs of how well a building is maintained. When visiting a building, we suggest that you take the time to observe and consider the following:

1. Approach and Access

   Here on Long Island, it is not necessarily the distance from point A to point B, but the travel time it takes to get there. Accordingly, look for buildings that are within reasonable proximity to arterial highways.
   

2. Condition of the Building's Exterior Façade and Immediate Grounds

   You never get a second chance to make a first impression. People do judge a book by its cover and so will your prospective employees and clients. If the building's owner has failed to adequately maintain the building's exterior and surrounding grounds, you can fairly surmise what may have happened to the building's mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems that are not so visible.
   

3. Elevators

   The rule of thumb is 1 elevator for every 45,000 square feet and every two stories. Elevators too small in number or cab size can translate into more waiting time, especially during the "rush hours."
   

4. Public Areas

   Remember to inspect the condition of the bathrooms, elevator cabs, fire stairwells, etc. You will learn a lot about the building's maintenance practices by viewing the physical conditions of its public areas.
   

5. HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning)

   Look for telltale signs of trouble, such as portable heaters and fans in tenant spaces or if ceiling diffusers are covered or dirty.  From the outside, if the building has window "hoppers" and you find many of these hoppers to be open on a cold day, then there could be a problem.
   

6. Tenant Mix

   Tenant rosters that have medical doctors, dentists or other healthcare practitioners generally have more public activity not to mention increasing the probability of spreading communicable disease.  The more the visitors or the public visits a building, greater the wear and tear on the building and maybe on you and your employees.
   

7. Amenities

   In order of importance, we recommend buildings have (1) food service; (2) conference facilities; (3) storage and (4) fitness facilities.
   

8. Back-Up Electrical Generator

   Failure to update our nation's power grid has resulted in brownouts and in some cases, complete power outages. These occurrences can be more than just short-term inconveniences, especially if your company is Internet-based. Accordingly, buildings that have back-up generators provide greater assurance from suffering costly business interruptions. Then again, even though a building has a back-up generator, often times the generator is only sufficiently sized for powering the building's life-safety systems (e.g., lights and elevators). Even if the building has a back-up generator, remember to confirm the fact that, if the building has a back-up generator, there will be sufficient power to support your IT room.
   

9. Window Ratio and Bay Size

   To maximize the window ratio (i.e., the maximum number of window offices that can be designed into your space), the depth from the building's window wall to the public corridor should be no more than 45 feet. Otherwise, be prepared to have fewer window offices. This might be okay for sales or data processing operations, but it is generally unacceptable for financial services, legal and accounting firms.
   

10. Adequacy of Parking

    Even though it might be convenient to inspect a building during your lunch hour, keep in mind that as tenant employees leave for lunch, this is not the time to make a judgment about the parking lot's capacity. If you must visit a building during the lunch hour, remember to return in the middle of a morning so that you can make a more objective observation.

Part II: Questions You Need to Ask Before Signing a Lease

Does this sound familiar?
After several weeks of going from building to building, looking for the "right" office space, you come across what appears to be an appropriately sized suite in an attractive and affordable building. The landlord's agent seems to be a decent, amiable person and the rent looks good...possibly too good.

Before making any commitment, remember to ask the following questions:

What services are included in the rent?
For example, does the rent include the cleaning of the premises? If so, how many times per week? If HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) is included in the rent, how many hours per week do you receive this service and what is the cost for each hour of HVAC service beyond "normal" building hours?

What is the building's "loss factor" (i.e. the building's proportion of common areas such as bathrooms, lobbies, hallways, mechanical equipment rooms, etc.)?
The greater the loss factor, the less square feet you will have to stand on. For example, let’s assume you are considering 2 different buildings that just happen to have the same rental rate per square foot. If you were to lease 5,000 square feet in building “A” that has a 20% loss factor, you would pay for 5,000 square feet, but actually occupy only 4,000 square feet. On the other hand, since building “B” has a 15% loss factor, you would physically gain an additional 250 square feet (i.e., enough space for a large conference room or two associates' offices), but pay the same price.

How and when will the rent be escalated?
If the base rent is subject to escalations, which it most certainly will be, ask the landlord when you will have to pay these additional fees and how much will these increases be (e.g., property taxes, insurance, oil/gas/electricity, the Consumer Price Index, etc.).

How will you, your employees and clients access the building when the doors are locked after normal business hours?
Does the building have key, swipe card or entry code access? Is there an intercom or phone for a visitor to notify you that they are outside the building lobby? Does the building have guard service to monitor after-hours activity?

Will the building's "standard work letter" (i.e., the landlord's contribution to the build-out of your suite) be sufficient to construct and finish all the offices and rooms you will require?
Landlords budget a fixed amount, either dollar amounts or an equivalent quantity and quality of materials for finishing your suite. If they exceed their "work letter" budget, the tenant bears the excess cost. Even if your landlord does not go over budget, you may still be charged for "extras" such as wall coverings, kitchenettes, vision panels, etc. If you are told that your space will be built in accordance with "new building 'standard' installation," remember that there are no industry-wide work letter standards. Each landlord has its own interior construction standards whereby some "standards" are more generous than others.

How many parking spaces will you receive?
Generally, adequate parking usually means 4 or more parking spaces per 1,000 rentable square feet. Buildings with ratios of less than 4:1,000 may not provide sufficient parking unless there is nearby street or unrestricted municipal parking. Parking may be "free" here on Long Island, but if your employees have to repeatedly look for parking as they arrive to and from work, it will cost your business in productivity. Look for buildings that have at least a 4:1 ratio.

The building's agent is very charming, but doesn't he/she represent the landlord?
Yes, they do. In fact, the company they work for, perhaps a third party agent, has a legal obligation to maximize the landlord's profitability by extracting from you as much money as possible. Accordingly, you should engage your own real estate professional to represent your interests. That is exactly what The Navigator does. We are office space experts who work every day in the Long Island market. It costs you nothing to have us on your side because the landlord's budget includes all associated soft costs (real estate, architectural, engineering, legal, management, insurance fees, etc.).  If the landlord does not have to pay a broker, that does not mean they will cut you slack.  You will not be rewarded for not asking the right questions or not knowing when to ask for additional concessions.

Last, but not least…You love this building, will it love you back?
No! Buildings will never love you back. Getting smitten can cause you to overlook some immediate or impending problems. If you openly express your love for a building (i.e., speaking aloud at a field inspection, such as " This is perfect.") within ear shot of the landlord's representative, it will cost you.  Office buildings are not perfect and they are "right" for only just so long because your organization, the business environment and building management/ownership will change over time. Sometimes, it’s just time to move on. Remain open to all alternatives.