Office building with 3 retail floors

Dominic: Interlope; September 16, 2021

I have to make BOMA 96 calculations for a 13-storey office building with 3 retail floors. Office entrances and common spaces are mostly separated from Retail entrances and common spaces. However, somme small common areas exist for both usages.
My client only wants the data for the office floors, but I have to consider the building as a whole.

My questions are:
1. Should I treat all retail spaces as "occupants" which will get their share of building common spaces (even if office lobbies do not communicate with the retail part).
2. Some service elevators and corridors on the ground floor are used for office floors AND retail floors. I understand that these corridors should be treated as BUILDING COMMON. However, to get to these corridors, you have to go through the ground atrium which is huge and is part of the retail mall. I don't think this should count as BUILDING COMMON since it will increase the rentable for office spaces dramatically, is that right?

I hope this will be clear enough, if not do not hesitate to ask to clarify.

David Fingret: Extreme Measures Inc.; September 20, 2021

Hi Dominic,

BOMA 1996 doesn't really offer any flexibility with how Building Common Area is allocated. The whole building (assuming it is primarily an office building) should be considered and included if you are strictly applying the standard. Building Common Area should therefore be allocated to all Occupants including the office and retail tenants. BOMA 2017 would be a better solution as it allows for a more targeted and flexible approach for allocating Service Areas to Occupants, using Inter-Building Area calculations.

Thanks,
David

David Fingret: Extreme Measures Inc.; September 20, 2021

I should add that if the three retail levels are totally isolated from the rest of the building, and no building common areas or floor common areas are actually shared between the retail and office tenants, then you could apply BOMA 1996 to just the office portion, but I would recommend caution as you don't want to unfairly load the office tenants with common area that would otherwise be proportionally allocated to the retail tenants as well.