Office buildings for fitness gym tenants work well because most office landlords are accustomed to giving out a Tenant Improvement Allowance, and at times are open to doing a full build out for tenants. This gives the Landlord an amenity to offer their other tenants in the building and helps reduce their overall vacancy. In such circumstances, it’s also possible to get some free rent after you occupy the premises.
Although office buildings work well for gym use, something to keep in mind are the office hours. Most office buildings have general operating hours and services shut down while your fitness club is active. If you are searching for personal training rental space refer to https://www.groundworkathletics.ca/independent-trainers/.
To overcome this, you’ll need separate air conditioning controls within your space, along with a separate meter so you get your utility bill direct from the utility company. Finally, office buildings generally run under a Modified Gross lease (MG) structure so you, as the Tenant, are not responsible for Triple Net (NNN) expenses.
Retail Property
Retail projects on the other hand, such as shopping centres, may be able to offer free surface parking, as well as ease of access and signage. However, most retail projects don’t offer much in terms of build-out allowance – landlords prefer to give more free rent for you to do the work. They also run under Triple Net lease structures, which require tenants to pay a portion of the property taxes, insurance, and maintenance costs.
Industrial Warehouse Space
Lastly, some fitness operators like to be in industrial buildings, however, these types of properties generally do not have adequate parking ratios, and have limited visibility to the street or main throughways. These buildings work much better for gymnastic schools or cheerleading academies that need high ceilings and larger open areas to run around.
Whichever style of fitness you’re planning on operating, make sure you select the right location for your gym business. Take into consideration local income levels, population densities, age/gender counts of the general population, traffic counts and saturation from other competitors. Most brokers should be able to pull demographic reports for you showing all of the above.