Commercial Rehab

Commercial space is adaptable, sparse, and available for lease or purchase. Limitations on rehabbing commercial space usually depend more on your and the landlord's financial commitments than on the physical limitations of the space itself. The flexibility a commercial space offers can be a long-term asset for your work or live/work needs.

As a general rule, true commercial space is located primarily in areas zoned business, commercial or manufacturing. Although most work-only activities are permitted in these areas, we advise reviewing the property's zoning to ensure that your proposed uses comply with zoning laws. Also, the landlord might prohibit a live/work use of a particular space.

Often, a wide variety of business and personal activities occur in a commercial property. Therefore, examine other tenants' uses to determine whether your activities will conflict with theirs, or vice versa.

The landlord might restrict certain modifications -- for example, changes to the structural framework of the building, outside walls and windows -- in order to safeguard the bare bones of the building from permanent alterations. Usually, these limits are more flexible when it comes to altering interior walls and mechanical systems.

As a general rule, commercial spaces have open floor plans with structural support columns located throughout. Interior, non-structural walls might have been added to partition the space into private offices, meeting rooms and other individual rooms. Non-structural walls can be removed, altered or extended to customize the space.

In some cases, commercial space may consist of a small, stand-alone building where only you will use the entire building. This arrangement provides the greatest flexibility for making internal modifications to customize the space. In most cases, however, commercial space is available as part of a much larger commercial structure that contains other users and activities. Tenants and owners share common building elements such as entrances, loading docks, hallways, stairs, elevators, and -- in some cases -- restrooms.

Written guidelines, created by the building owner or manager, typically regulate the use and modification of common areas. This is true even if the users are also the collective building owners.