50 Buildings In: Trends Observed in BOMA 2017 Building Square Footage Recalculations

SDI’s Real Estate Managed Services Team has performed field-verified square footage accounting services for over 50 properties using BOMA 2017, the latest update to the office standard published in late 2017. After applying the standard to office buildings in the Midwest, South, and West regions of the United States, the SDI Team reports an increase in rentable square footage for over 95% of the serviced buildings.

BOMA 2017 was created to be more compliant with the International Property Management Standard (IPMS) and to make more clearly defined calculations of office buildings. These changes altered the previous BOMA 2010 standard to address the high demand of new amenity spaces by tenants.

One major change from BOMA 2010 is the inclusion of finished roof decks, terraces, and balconies in the total square footage. These amenity areas are currently in high demand by tenants and their addition almost always increases the amount of rentable square footage.

In addition, BOMA 2017 changed how the lowest level of major vertical penetration, such as elevators, are accounted for. BOMA 2017 classifies these spaces as building service areas. While this major change slightly increases the factor, it allows for consistent treatment of the floor level area and adds to the building’s rentable area.

The growth in these re-calculated buildings with BOMA 2017 means that building management and owners have the potential to raise their property’s value and ultimately increase total rentable square footage and revenues

For over 25 years, SDI has specialized in helping commercial real estate portfolio owners and property managers maximize the revenue generation potential of their properties. Trusted by the nation’s top real estate developers, owners, and managers, SDI has assessed over 200M square feet of properties across the United States, adding over $285M in potential annual revenue for our clients.

To discuss how the new BOMA 2017 standards can impact your building’s rentable square footage, please contact Bob Ladner, SDI Real Estate General Manager, at rladner@sdipresence.com or call 312-580-7512.

About SDI Guest Blogger

Alec Gaffin joined SDI Presence as a Real Estate Managed Services Intern in May. In his role, Alec assisted on field verification of commercial office buildings in preparation of completing BOMA calculations. Alec also helped in the creation and updating of building emergency plans in compliance with the City of Chicago’s emergency plan Ordinance

Alec is a senior at University of Iowa studying Marketing Analytics and Information Systems.