BOMA Standards- What?

Exactly what are BOMA standards and what are they even used for?

My intern and I have been reading through material on exactly what all of this means…

needless to say we were just as confused as you may be . . . 

BOMA stands for Building Owners and Managers Association International. These standards were put in place to help keep clear and accurate communication between all parties included in the commercial retail real estate. Additionally because commercial real estate leases space based on square footage, this method establishes a clear and consistent measurement of the leasable area.

Since there is a “leasable” area of a building there is also areas that are not leasable; this includes the exterior gross area and construction gross area. There are 3 different and main types of measuring which are Construction Gross Area (CGA), Exterior Gross Area (EGA) and Gross Leasable Area (GLA).

boma-logo Beginning with CGA, this area is bound by the perimeter of the building. Anything within the perimeter, covered by a roof, counts.   In addition to the enclosed building areas, unenclosed areas count as well. For example balconies and desks are included in this measurement as well as columns.

Next, EGA is bounded by the measure line of each floor of the building. This is on the inside of the building perimeter and is a horizontal line on the exterior of the enclosing walls in a building. All areas included in this measurement must be covered by roof and be enclosed. This includes structured parking.

Lastly, GLA, which is the most important measurement, is the area that can by occupied. For exterior enclosures, it is determined by the measure line on the exterior of the face of the enclosure. For wall separating adjacent occupants, it is determined by the centerline of the wall. Finally, for common areas, it is determined by the lease line.

 

WHEW- that is a mouthful. That is just a little snippet of what is going through our heads at Style By Design. Hopefully you can take away a little something from it as well!

Happy measuring!

 

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