Since you lease commercial real estate by the square foot, significant savings in rent can be achieved with a cost-effective space plan.  Why lease space that you do not need?  Here are four steps that you should take to shed yourself of non-essential space in the leasing process, and lower the cost of your rent.

1.  Employ the right professionals.  First and foremost, hire a well-experienced commercial real estate broker.  Make sure that he or she is prepared to help you develop a spatial program. Depending on the sophistication of your project, retain the services of a well-qualified architect or interior designer to assist you in arriving at a program that provides the foundation for a good, solid design.  Basically, the spatial program provides a "road map" for all of its individual and multi-faceted components to come into place (sort of like putting together a jig-saw puzzle that is still in the process of being developed).  The most important consideration will be how the final design will facilitate, not hinder, the operation of your business.

2.  The process should start with a spatial program that provides for your current needs, and a realistic projection of your future needs during the course of the lease.  Your real estate broker and architect or interior designer can assist you in this process.  A spatial program is simply a list of all the functions that will be housed in the new facility, along with their associated real estate requirements.  How many private offices, cubicles, and conference rooms, for example, will be required?  Where is equipment or filing cabinets to be located?  These are some of the questions...

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