BOMA Rentable Area Surveys for 15 Retail Tenancies
Urgent BOMA Rentable Area Survey request across multiple tenancies, around normal shopping centre operations, from public spaces, to back of house services
The property team at The Colombo, one of Christchurch's boutique shopping centres, urgently required updated Rentable Area Surveys for a large number of tenancies. More than 15 retail spaces needed to be measured during the summer period, including proposed tenancy reconfigurations and the introduction of new anchor tenants.
Having previously worked with Exact Solutions on Rentable Area Surveys across Christchurch, the property team engaged us to complete the work within a demanding timeframe.
The Challenge
Shopping Centres create particular challenges for measured building surveys.
Public access, active retail tenancies and trading hours can restrict when survey work can be undertaken. At The Colombo, much of the work needed to be completed around the centre's normal opening hours to minimise disruption to retailers and maintain public safety.
The project also required more than simply measuring individual shop floors. Accurate BOMA Rentable Areas require finding the the tenancy boundaries, shopfronts, shared partition walls and relevant base-building features. Measuring these items on the go can be difficult for tenants, the public and the surveying team.
With more than 15 tenancies to survey in a short period, Exact Solutions needed to adapt its normal survey methodology while maintaining the accuracy required for rental and property documentation. To minimise disruption, the survey methodology was adapted around The Colombo's operating hours.
During the quieter periods before and after normal centre operations, the team measured common food-court areas and the majority of internal shopfronts using traditional survey equipment. Once normal centre hours commenced, the team moved to external shopfronts and used handheld measurement techniques to continue surveying without impeding the public or retail operations.
BOMA Rentable Area Surveys
The team was able to measure the retail shop floors, the common mall spaces, service rooms, store rooms, amenities, and stairs to upper levels, to created the boundaries for each tenancy.
The resulting plans identify the measured areas of the retail spaces as well as those relevant exclusion areas around the shopping centre.
This provides the property team with documented floor area information that can support:
Rental calculations
Property valuations and leasing
Property and tenancy records
Utility and cleaning area calculations
Fire engineering occupancy calculations
Foundations for future architectural and development work
Accurate Measurements at Scale
The Colombo project required Exact Solutions to combine speed, flexibility and survey accuracy across a large number of active retail tenancies. More than 15 Rentable Area Survey plans were completed within the expected timeframe. Additional survey requests were also incorporated while the project was underway.
For shopping centres and other commercial properties where existing floor areas need to be verified or updated, a professionally measured Rentable Area Survey provides a reliable basis for property decisions.