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This help desk is a free resource intended for discussion purposes only. Neither BOMA, its chapters, affiliates, or Extreme Measures Inc.® are responsible for the information, comments or opinions expressed herein. For complete information, refer to the official publications of the standards themselves.

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Measuring for retail Usable/Rentable Square Footage in office building?

Timothy O'Malley
California Department of General Services
August 7, 2014

A customer wants to move into a "retail" space in our office building. What is the correct method for mesuring the the USF space on a cad file?

In this case, there is a 98 s.f. difference in two seperate cad files that needs to be resolved. Over ten years that is $23,000.

One wall is full height exterior storefront to 9'-0" a.f.f with furred columns between and two other windows with sills at 36" a.f.f.

Does retail and office measure the same for BOMA? Does BOMA measure to the glazing surface for USF/rentable? Does BOMA measure USF or rentable to the center line of demising walls between two separate, distict tenants?

David Fingret
Extreme Measures Inc.
August 8, 2014

This is difficult to say for sure without analyzing the CAD file ourselves. However, retail occupants are measured the same as office occupants in an office building under the BOMA 2010 Office Standard except that retail occupants with exterior access to Public Pedestrian Thoroughfares should be measured to the building line instead of the dominant inside finished surface.

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