How to Tour a Commercial Space: Questions to Ask
To tour a commercial space, map your headcount, parking, power and signage before you go.
At Reach Commercial Real Estate, we represent tenants. We help you find locations, compare costs, investigate property questions and negotiate the lease. You bring your business plans. We help you evaluate where those plans fit.
The Florida Building Code sets occupant load by floor area in Table 1004.5, sprinkler triggers in section 903.2.1.2 and restroom counts in Plumbing Table 403.1.
1. Map the requirement before you tour a commercial space
We map headcount, parking, power and signage before you tour.
Square footage, budget and move date are enough to start.
We build the requirement on paper before anyone tours anything.
2. Look beyond the finishes
During a tour, we look beyond the finishes.
Where will customers enter, order and wait? Where will delivery drivers collect orders? Where will employees receive supplies, store inventory and take out trash?
We tour with you and write down what the flyer left out. We help you identify questions for the landlord and your contractor.
For promising spaces, bring your contractor and design professional into the review. We help gather property information. They evaluate the technical work and cost.
3. Go through the building items
Our tenant checklist covers these building items:
Parking at peak hours.
Specialty plumbing such as shampoo sinks, grease trap and extra restrooms.
Electrical capacity, HVAC and ventilation.
ADA, sprinklers and exits, and signage.
Ask your team to evaluate the systems the business depends on. Request records for existing equipment.
4. Measure the room and count the occupants
Florida Building Code, Building, Table 1004.5 counts occupants by floor area: one per 15 net square feet where there are tables and chairs, one per 7 with chairs only, one per 5 standing, and one per 200 gross square feet of commercial kitchen.
A dining area of 600 net square feet with tables and chairs holds 40.
For a fitness studio, the same table counts one occupant per 50 gross square feet in an exercise room, so an exercise room of 1,500 gross square feet holds 30. For a boutique, it counts mercantile areas at one occupant per 60 gross square feet, so a mercantile area of 1,500 gross square feet holds 25.
The code classes restaurants and cafeterias, with their kitchens, as Group A-2 (section 303.3). A tenant space used for assembly with fewer than 50 persons is Group B instead (section 303.1.1).
5. Check the sprinklers and restrooms
Section 903.2.1.2 requires sprinklers in a Group A-2 fire area that exceeds 5,000 square feet, has an occupant load of 100 or more, or is on a floor other than the level of exit discharge. The exception requires sprinklers in a restaurant, cafeteria or similar dining facility, including an associated commercial kitchen, only at a fire area occupancy load of 200 patrons or more.
Group M includes retail or wholesale stores and sales rooms (section 309.1). The code requires sprinklers throughout a building containing Group M where the M fire area exceeds 12,000 square feet, the building is more than three stories above grade plane, the combined M area on all floors including mezzanines exceeds 24,000 square feet, or upholstered furniture or mattress display exceeds 5,000 square feet (section 903.2.7).
Florida Building Code, Plumbing, Table 403.1 lists restaurants at one water closet per 75 for each sex, one lavatory per 200 and one service sink.
The plumbing code excuses public toilets for a takeout space with a public access area of 300 square feet or less (section 403.3). The route to public toilets cannot pass through kitchens, storage rooms or closets (section 403.3.1).
6. Ask who pays for accessibility
The ADA rule makes you and your landlord both responsible and says the lease can allocate the work between you (28 CFR 36.201(b)).
Altering the area that holds the main activity also brings the path of travel and the restrooms serving it, until that work costs more than 20 percent of the cost of the alteration to that area (28 CFR 36.403).
Existing facilities have to remove architectural barriers when that is readily achievable, which means easily accomplishable and able to be carried out without much difficulty or expense (28 CFR 36.304).
7. Ask what has to happen before you open
For each candidate, we request sign criteria and proposed landlord work.
Melbourne requires building permits for tenant buildouts and renovations. The city recommends contacting Code Compliance during planning, according to its Starting a New Business Toolkit.
In Melbourne, the Fire Department's Fire Prevention Office handles all fire inspections other than those for new construction. It reviews fire and evacuation plans for facilities including commercial and medical or health facilities.
After signing, your contractor and design team manage plans, permits and construction within their responsibilities. We stay focused on the lease-related items.
Our role is to help bring these findings into your property decision. Your qualified professionals and reviewing agencies determine the requirements.
Extra items to check
Existing equipment and records. For each candidate, we request existing equipment and available records.
Off-site parking. Outside Melbourne's CB-OZ overlay, no more than 50 percent of required parking can be off-site, and those spaces must be within 500 feet under a recorded binding lot agreement (Sec. 9.75).
Accessible parking. All required handicapped parking has to be on the principal, on-site parking lot (Sec. 9.75).
The business tax receipt. The Brevard County Tax Collector says the receipt does not confirm that the business activity complies with the local zoning regulations or ensure that the premises contain the appropriate building occupancy or life safety requirements.
Start your search with Reach
You do not need to find the property before calling us. Helping you find and evaluate the property is part of our work.
Bring your requirements, budget, preferred area and target opening date, along with your headcount, your parking needs, your power needs, your signage plans and your equipment list. We will use those details to build your search, compare locations and negotiate the lease. In most deals the landlord pays our fee.
Already found a space? Send me the address and listing. We will start with the property questions and deal terms you need to investigate.
Call 321-514-0876.
See tenant representation and the space needs analysis.
Related: the leasing guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a sign need a permit?
Melbourne's Building Section lists signage and commercial awnings among the work that requires a permit, and applications go through the city's online permitting system. Brevard County issues signs under its Commercial Miscellaneous permit, whose application lists plans signed and sealed by a Florida registered architect or engineer and a $210.00 flat Zoning Review fee.
Can a fire inspection be requested for a potential new location?
Brevard County Fire Rescue's Office of Fire Prevention offers free courtesy inspections for businesses with fire and life safety questions about a potential new location or changes to an existing business, by email or at (321) 637-5660.
Sources
Written by Cassandra Hartford, founder and CEO of Reach Commercial Real Estate. She has worked in Brevard County commercial real estate for 17 years, representing buyers, sellers, landlords, and tenants across Florida's Space Coast.
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