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In 2004, BOMA and SIOR (The Society of Industrial and Office Realtors) released a collaborative document called the "Standard Methods For Measuring Floor Area in Industrial Buildings", commonly referred to as BOMA/SIOR 2004. Five years later, in 2009, the Standard received ANSI approval and the Standard was re-published and renamed to reflect its new ANSI designation. BOMA/SIOR 2009 is otherwise identical to the 2004 predecessor. In 2012, BOMA published a new industrial standard, known as “Industrial Buildings: Standard Methods of Measurement (ANSI/BOMA Z65.2-2012)”. This revision aligns the industrial standard with the BOMA 2010 Office Standard. The latest 2019 Industrial Standard, known as “BOMA 2019 For Industrial Buildings Standard Method of Measurement (ANSI/BOMA Z65.2-2019) received ANSI approval on March 19, 2020.
The standard outlines two distinct methods of measuring industrial properties; the Exterior Wall Methodology (Method A) and the Drip Line Methodology (Method B). The BOMA 2012 industrial standard functions similarly to the BOMA 2010 office standard (ANSI/BOMA Z65.1-2010) with the principal difference being the Measure Line and other adaptations more relevant to industrial buildings, such as specific considerations with respect to mezzanines.
There are two distinct methods in the industrial standard, known as Method A and Method B but they are not the same as Method A (legacy method) and Method B (single load factor) in the office standard. From a calculation perspective, both Method A and Method B in the industrial standard are aligned with Method A of the office standard. The key difference between Method A and Method B in the industrial standard is the measure line.
Known as the Exterior Enclosure Method, Method A measures to the outside of exterior walls to calculate areas. Method A is arguably more popular than Method B, especially in cooler and seasonal climates. Certain features of an industrial building are excluded from the calculation of area, including canopies, unenclosed connecting links, unenclosed exterior staircases or fire escapes and unenclosed shipping/receiving platforms. The main condition for an area to be excluded is that it exists beyond the Measure Line.
Known as the Drip Line Method, Method B measures to the perimeter of the roof system covering a floor. Method B is generally intended for industrial structures lacking walls, usually found in warmer climates.
While Method A is the most conventional approach for measuring industrial buildings, Method B has gained popularity (even in colder climates), where landlords believe it will maximize the rentable area of their buildings. Certain features of an industrial building are excluded from the calculation of area; including, canopies, unenclosed connecting links, unenclosed exterior staircases or fire escapes and unenclosed shipping/receiving platforms. The main condition for an area to be excluded is that it exists beyond the measure line.
The new industrial standard is a significant upgrade from previous industrial standards published by BOMA. One of the key new highlights of the standard is that it incorporates a unified methodology, effectively combining the concepts of Method A and Method B. The unified method incorporates all the advantages of the previous methods, while generally either maintaining or increasing rentable areas when compared with the previous standards. The benefit to this hybrid approach is that an industrial building can only have one rentable area, which offers real estate professionals and prospective tenants a more streamlined, and less confusing solution to leasing industrial space.
The unified method in BOMA Industrial 2019 works by measuring to the extent of any areas supporting “Industrial Activities” that are covered by a Permanent Roof. This approach will allow the inclusion of areas such as covered loading docks which may not have been included in Method A of the previous standard. For users of Method B in the previous standard, the rentable area is usually the same, since areas such as covered loading docks would have been included anyway. Furthermore, the requirements defined for “Industrial Activities” allows the standard to be applied to other styles and types of industrial buildings that weren’t previously supported.
The standard potentially increases rentable areas in other ways as well. For example, the lowest level of stairwells and other Major Vertical Penetrations are included in the rentable area, which is a feature first introduced in the BOMA Office 2017 standard.
The previous standard contained an array of confusing “scenarios” based on single story / single occupant and multiple stories / multi occupant industrial buildings. In addition, there was the added variable of choosing either Method A or Method B, for a total of eight different scenarios. The new standard eliminates all of this confusion with the unified method calculating single occupant and multi-occupant rentable areas in a single Global Summary of Areas spreadsheet.
Inter-Building Areas are also implemented in BOMA 2019 Industrial, allowing the practitioner to allocate specific areas common to more than one and less than all tenants. This targeted allocation of areas, was permitted previously but without any instructions on how to implement the calculations. Inter-Building Areas were formalized in the BOMA 2017 Office Standard and has now been incorporated in the BOMA 2019 Industrial Standard. This level of flexibility makes the allocation of common areas much fairer to all tenants.
Some other key features and updates of the new standard include: a much less arbitrary set of conditions for determining the inclusion or exclusion of mezzanines, IPMS (International Property Measurement Standards) compatibility and Capped Load Factors on a tenant-by-tenant basis.