Commercial Leasing · the broker's view
Find Industrial Space That Fits Your Operations, Not Only Your Budget
Before the tour, know whether your loading needs, power requirements, clear height and permitted use match the building. A space with the right address and the wrong operating constraints is a costly compromise, and most of those constraints cannot be fixed after the lease is signed. Start with a written list of what the operation requires.
Build My Warehouse Requirements Brief
The Short Answer
A warehouse search starts with the operation, not the listings. Write down how goods arrive, where they wait, how high they are stored, how they leave, and what power and approvals the work needs. Buildings that fail any of those are removed before rent is compared. A licensed BreakThru Realty commercial agent turns the answers into a search brief, working under Tyson E. Sam, the brokerage's founder and broker of record.
The Constraints That Cannot Be Negotiated
Rent can be negotiated. So can the term, the allowance and the start date. The height under the roof beams cannot. Neither can the depth of the truck court, the number of dock positions the building's shape allows, or the zoning district it sits in.
A tenant who chooses on rent and location first often discovers the fixed limits later: a trailer that cannot turn in the court, racking that has to stop a level short, an electrical service too small for the equipment, or a use the city will not approve at that address. Each one is either a permanent cost or a reason to move again.
The worksheet below follows the goods through the building. Fill it in before looking at space, and most unsuitable buildings rule themselves out from a description.
A Warehouse Requirements Worksheet
Answer each step for your own operation. The answers become the search brief.
- Inbound trucks. What arrives, in what vehicles and how often? Full-length trailers, box trucks and vans need different courts, doors and turning room.
- Doors. Dock-high doors for trailers, grade-level doors for vehicles that drive in, or both? How many must work at once on your busiest day?
- Staging. How much floor do you need just inside the doors to receive, check and sort before goods are put away?
- Storage height. Racked or floor-stacked, and how high? That sets the clear height you need. Sprinkler capacity also limits storage height, which a fire protection engineer confirms.
- Trailer and vehicle parking. Do trailers stay overnight? Do you park a fleet? Ask whether the zoning and the lease allow outdoor storage.
- People and access. How many employees per shift, where they park, how they reach the site, and what hours the property may operate.
- Power. List the equipment and have an electrician state the service it requires, including whether it needs three-phase power.
- Temperature. Does any product or process need air conditioning, refrigeration or humidity control, and in how much of the building?
- Restricted materials. Will you store or use anything flammable, corrosive or otherwise regulated? The lease, the zoning and the fire code may each limit it: ask the landlord, the city or county and the fire marshal.
Then Compare the All-In Cost
Two hypothetical buildings of 12,000 square feet that both pass the worksheet, compared across a five-year lease.
| Building A | Building B | |
|---|---|---|
| Base rent per sq ft per year | $16.00 | $14.50 |
| Taxes, insurance and maintenance per sq ft | $5.00 | $4.50 |
| All-in rent per year | 12,000 × $21 = $252,000 | 12,000 × $19 = $228,000 |
| Work the tenant needs | $90,000 | $110,000 |
| Landlord's improvement allowance | $60,000 | None: leased as it stands |
| Tenant's own cost of the work | $30,000 | $110,000 |
| That cost spread across five years | $6,000 a year | $22,000 a year |
| Yearly cost with the work | $258,000 | $250,000 |
Hypothetical figures, before rent increases, utilities and any interest on money spent on the work. Building B starts $24,000 a year cheaper and ends $8,000 cheaper. One more unquoted cost could reverse the order, which is why the work is priced before the lease is signed.
What to Confirm on the Tour
At the truck court
- Watch or ask how a trailer of your length enters, backs to the door and leaves
- Check whether the court is shared with neighbors and who has priority
- Look at the condition of the paving and the dock equipment
Inside
- Measure clear height where you plan to rack, under the lowest obstruction
- Note column spacing against your aisle and rack layout
- Read the electrical panel ratings and photograph them for your electrician
- Ask for the sprinkler system's documentation
On paper
- Zoning confirmation for your use, from the city or county
- Which repairs are the tenant's under the lease: roof, air conditioning, doors, paving
- Last year's actual charges for taxes, insurance and maintenance
- Whether the landlord's insurance or the lease restricts what you store
Questions Worth Asking First
- What information should a tenant give a warehouse broker?
- The operation, in enough detail to rule buildings out. What you store or make, and whether any of it is regulated. The vehicles that deliver and collect, and how many doors you need working at once. How high you store and on what. The power your equipment needs. Office space, employees per shift and parking. Whether you need a yard or trailer storage. The area you are in now and why it no longer works. Where your customers, suppliers and staff are. The date you must be operating, the term you want and a monthly budget for rent and charges together.
- How is industrial rent usually quoted?
- Commonly as an annual base rent per square foot on a net basis, with the tenant's share of property taxes, insurance and maintenance charged in addition. Some landlords quote a monthly figure instead, and some quote a single rate that includes part or all of those costs. The label on the quote is not reliable by itself, so ask what the rate includes and request the actual charges billed last year. Then add what the lease makes you maintain directly, which in industrial space can include the air conditioning, the doors and sometimes the roof.
- Why are the truck court and loading important?
- Because they set how fast goods can move, and they are almost impossible to change. The truck court is the paved area where vehicles turn and back up to the doors. If it is too shallow for the trailers you use, drivers cannot line up with the dock, or they block the street while they try. The number of doors limits how many vehicles can be worked at once, and the type decides which vehicles can be unloaded without a ramp or a lift. A building with the right floor area and the wrong loading slows every shipment for the whole lease.
Who Does What
- A licensed BreakThru Realty commercial agent does the day-to-day work and is your main point of contact.
- Tyson is the broker of record: the licensed Florida broker accountable for the brokerage and every agent under it. He reviews the offers, contracts and closing statements that move through the company.
- Which agent works with you, and how the brokerage will represent you, is set out in writing before any work begins.
| Broker of record | Tyson E. Sam, Founder and Broker of Record, BreakThru Realty |
|---|---|
| Florida real estate license | 3565210 |
| Also listed as | Tyson Sam, the spelling in MLS records and on the listing sites they feed |
| Brokerage | BreakThru Realty LLC, a licensed Florida real estate brokerage |
Brokerage compensation is negotiable and is agreed in writing before any work is marketed. No fee or rate on this page is a standard one.
BreakThru Realty is a real estate brokerage. It does not give legal, tax, lending, engineering or appraisal advice: an attorney, a CPA, a lender, an inspector or an appraiser answers those questions, and a broker's opinion of value is not an appraisal.
This Page Explains the Thinking. The Service Page Does the Work.
What the brokerage does for you, step by step, and how to start is on its own page: Tenant representation.
Every figure on this page is an illustration: arithmetic on assumed inputs, shown so the reasoning can be followed. None is market data, a comparable sale, an appraisal, a forecast or the result of a BreakThru Realty transaction.
Build Your Space Search Brief
Describe how the business will use the space, roughly how much it needs and when. A licensed BreakThru Realty commercial agent replies within one business day to turn it into a search brief: the use, the size, the total occupancy cost to plan for and the lease terms worth asking about.
The form asks for: Type of space; What the business does in the space; Preferred city or area; Approximate square feet; Budget or rent structure, if known (optional); Move timing; then your name, an email address or a phone number, and your consent to be contacted about the request. It asks for no documents.
Your request is with BreakThru Realty. A licensed commercial agent replies within one business day to go through the use, the size and the occupancy cost, and what to look at first. You are not committing to a space or to representation.
Prefer to talk? (786) 914-1017 · sales@breakthrurealty.com
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- Office Space Leasing: You tour usable space and pay for rentable space. Work out the cost per usable foot before you compare addresses.
- Retail Space Leasing: For a shop, the location is part of the product. Check the use, the access and the full cost before the rent.
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