Don’t Forget These 5 Tips When Leasing Warehouse Space

Leasing warehouse space is a major decision, and it’s definitely not always an easy one. When touring facilities and contemplating your business’s next big need, we like to keep the following tips in mind.

Heating, Ventilation, and Air Condition – the vast majority of warehouse spaces do not come with full HVAC. Many places will allow tenants to use their own HVAC units, but they are responsible for its installation. See if you can negotiate with the landlord to either pay for HVAC maintenance or inherit an HVAC unit already on the property.

Square Footage – unfortunately, not everyone calculates square footage the same way! You only want to pay for usable square footage (why pay for square footage you can’t use?!), so remember that many landlords calculate their square footage from the outside of the wall.

Parking – tons of landlords pass the expenses of maintaining their parking lots onto their tenants. Because it is a long-term expense and will enhance the value of the property, we suggest you negotiate with your landlord before signing to make sure you’re not stuck with the bill.

Loading – Are your products delivered with a service like FedEx or with big 18-wheelers? Is it important that you can drive trucks and trailers around your space? The answers to these types of questions will rule out many warehouse options since not every space comes equipped to meet every need.

Ceiling Height – we are always surprised when people don’t think about this one! If you are stacking your products or equipment, you will obviously need to make sure your ceilings are high enough.

These are only a few of some of our favorite tips for negotiating with landlords and leasing spaces. But even remembering just these few will put you and your business in a great place for the future.