Real Estate Glossary

A parking structure with vertical columns on the outside edges of the structure and a clear span between columns, making it unnecessary for vehicles to maneuver between columns.

The total area within the shopping center that is not designed for rental to tenants but that is available for common use by all tenants or groups of tenants, their invitees, and adjacent stores. Parking and its appurtenances, malls, sidewalks, landscaped areas, public toilets, truck and service facilities, and the like are included in the common area.

Include income collected from tenants for operating and maintaining items pertaining to common areas. Shopping center leases usually contain a clause requiring the tenant to pay its share of operation and maintenance on common areas and defining the basis on which charges are made and the type of cost items allocable to maintenance of the common area. Of the ways to prorate the charges among tenants, the most common are (1) a prorated charge based on a tenant's leased area as a portion of the total leasable area of the center or the linear exposure in store frontage, (ii) a fixed charge for a stated period, and (iii) a variable charge based on a percentage of sales. Some centers include a cost-of-living increase in the common area charges.

Recorded sales of properties similar in size, use, construction quality, age, and often located within the same sub-market used as comparisons to determine the fair market value of another particular property.

Space in office buildings which contain or are intended to contain more than one occupant. In addition to the multiple tenant criterion, typical characteristics of Competitive Space include: tenants generally have short-term leases (10 years or less) and the interior of the building is not designed with one organization in mind but rather to accommodate the widest variety of tenants.

Cash expended by the landlord in the form of rent abatement, build-outs allowance, or other payments to induce the tenant to sign a lease.

The process by which private property is taken by a governmental agency for public use without the consent of the owner, but only upon payment of just compensation. See Also: Eminent Domain

Construction supervision by a qualified manager.

A federal government index that measures the change in the cost of a variety of goods and services. Used in loans, purchase agreements and leases as a measure by which to adjust future payments to reflect inflation. Also called "Cost of Living Index."

Adjoining office space.

The design plans and specifications for construction of a facility. Working drawings that detail for the contractor the exact manner in which a project should be built. See Also: Working Drawings

Rent paid under a lease. Thc actual rent as opposed to the market rental value of the property.

Most commonly refers to the transfer of title to land between parties. The term may also include most of the instruments by which an interest in real estate is created, mortgaged or assigned.

The percentage of common areas in a building (rest rooms, hallways) that, when added to the net usable square footage equals the net rentable square footage. May be computed for a building or floor of a building. A "Loss Factor" or "Load Factor" is calculated by dividing the rentable square footage by the usable square footage.

A method of appraising real property whereby the replacement cost of a structure is calculated using current costs of construction.