The lease rate quoted was based on rentable square footage. What does that mean?
There are two terms used to describe certain commercial spaces for lease: rentable and usable square footage. Rentable square footage is not only the space utilized in the day-to-day operation of the tenant’s business but can also include portions of common areas such as hallways, restrooms, closets, foyers, building lobbies, etc. Usable square footage is only that square footage contained within an area specifically set forth in the lease and is used only by the tenant for the conduct of the tenant’s business. Usually this does not apply to retail space as in most cases rentable is the same as usable. However, in office buildings it is common to have rentable square footage in excess of the tenant’s usable square footage.
