6.5.2 Tenant-Oriented Systems

Tenant-oriented systems are designed “from the inside out.” These systems are designed from the viewpoint of in-house corporate facilities managers who must be sensitive to the needs and desires of the corporation’s internal clients, its end users, and the corporate culture in which they operate. Some salient characteristics of tenant-oriented systems are as follows:

• Rentable (billable) space in a building relates more closely to a tenant’s individual quarters; more common areas are deducted from the billable total.
• Space accounting and tracking is more complex because (a) tenants vary considerably, (b) churn rates generate change to tenant space assignment records, and (c) the measurement systems contain more categories and subdivisions.
• Landlords who want to lease space to companies using tenant-oriented standards usually convert space measurements from their customary system to the tenant’s system. There is little consistency or standardization, so such conversions may be problematic.
• Measurements may be more complex to obtain and record.

The authors of all six commercial systems discussed here have exercised care in the design and terminology used. However, there are problems of interpretation, and for each one, some subjects are not addressed. Before 1992, there was little attempt to compare the systems. Now, the trend is more toward reconciliation than standardization.

Finally, there is no legal constraint to use any of these systems. Landlords are free to use their own definitions, converting to a tenant’s system only when requested to do so during lease negotiations.

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