Phantom Space: You Gotta Problem?

Lies and Statistics... Guess where a "square foot" might be
a "term of art," rather than a "factual description." Yep it's
New York City!

That's according to Marisa Manley of Commercial Tenant Real Estate Representation, Ltd. (CTRR) writing in her report, The CTRR Rentable Area Report: Midtown New York 2006.

"We clearly see that over the last 15 years a significant percentage of landlords have re-measured their buildings to steadily increase the rentable area, and therefore their revenue, regardless of the size of the tenant space, common areas or any other physical factor." Uh-oh.

Manley reports that 17 of 50 randomly chosen Midtown buildings, "or about 34%, reportedly grew by more than 5%," which theoretically increases their base rents "between $451,000 and $16 million per year."

Of course, as Manley points out, landlords have every right to measure buildings any way they like. And, in any event, what's more important is the cost per usable square foot, not rentable square foot.

Back in my younger brokerage days in San Francisco, we measured rentable space using the BOMA Standard, and I assumed everybody else did also. But one day a new salesman told us about the "New York system" of measuring rentable space.

If I recall correctly, somehow New York included air space in the lobby atrium. Wow, those guys are good, I thought to myself. (Of course, I was internally conflicted because we represented both landlords and tenants!)

So what's your most creative space measurement story? Blast away.

-- Peter Pike