Flex and light industrial brochure template

What flex means, and why to describe it precisely

There is no single definition of flex space. In one market it means single-storey buildings with a high share of office and showroom finish and modest clear heights; in another it means any small-bay industrial unit with a door and an office. Buyers and tenants compare what the space actually is, so describe it rather than relying on the label: the unit sizes, the office percentage, the clear height, the doors and the zoning.

Flex buildings are often multi-tenant, with units in a row sharing a parking field at the front and loading at the rear or side. That makes the site layout part of the pitch. A leasing plan with each unit outlined and labelled answers the first questions a tenant asks: where is the unit, where do I park, where do trucks go.

For lease: what small-bay tenants compare

• Area of each unit with its measurement basis, and the split between warehouse and finished office.
• Net rent and additional rent shown separately, with the year of the operating-cost estimate.
• Clear height, door types and counts, power, and whether the unit has its own washroom, gas and HVAC.
• Permitted uses in plain words, with the zone code and the source, so tenants can check their own use.
• Availability date, and whether the landlord will consider demising, combining units or adding a door.

Small businesses often compare several units in one afternoon. A brochure that puts these facts on one page, with a plan and photos of the warehouse, the office and the loading area, gets the call.

For sale: owner-users, condo units and investments

Flex property sells to three kinds of buyer. Owner-users buy a single building or an industrial condominium unit to occupy, and care most about the specs, the zoning and the monthly cost of owning. Investors buy multi-tenant buildings for their income and care about the rent roll, lease expiries and rents compared with the market. Developers and land buyers look at site coverage and whether the property could be intensified.

For a multi-tenant investment, present the rent roll by unit with area, rent, expiry and options, the operating costs and what is recovered from tenants, and the NOI with its basis. Small-bay tenants usually sign shorter leases than large warehouse tenants, so a lease expiry schedule and the history of renewals and re-leasing help buyers judge turnover. For condominium units, include the condominium fees and what they cover, and the corporation’s documents that buyers will request.

Canada and the United States

In Canada, industrial rents are usually quoted as net rent per square foot per year plus TMI, and buildings are often measured in square feet while site plans and municipal documents are metric. Zoning is set by municipal by-law; flex tenants should check that their use falls within the zone’s permitted uses before they sign.

In the United States, flex and light industrial leases are often NNN with CAM charges, and zoning is set by local ordinance, sometimes with separate rules for showroom or retail-like uses in industrial zones. In both countries, state the measurement basis and the source of each figure, and leave interpretation of the zoning to the buyer’s or tenant’s own advisers.

Photos and plans that sell flex space

Show the front elevation with the parking, the rear or side loading with the doors, the inside of the warehouse from the door looking in, the office and showroom finish, and the washroom and mechanical items tenants ask about. Pair them with a site plan and a leasing plan with each unit outlined. Correct colour and exposure if needed, but never change what the building looks like.

Building it in OfferingStack

Enter the units and the specs or upload a fact sheet and accept the extracted facts. OfferingStack turns the typed industrial specs into icon rows on the Building Specifications page: clear height, truck-level doors, drive-in doors, office percentage, power, sprinklers, shipping court, car and trailer parking, column grid and, when entered, crane, racking, HVAC and lighting. The Availability page shows a tile for each unit with its area, Leasing Plans show units by building or floor, and Demising Options appear when you add them.

From the address it adds drive times, connectivity by mode, neighbouring occupiers on a map and labour and demographics with their sources. For an investment sale it adds the rent roll, financial overview and, for a for-sale listing with price and income, an investment summary. Pages without data are left out, and calculated values are labelled.