About Industrial Properties

Giving office workers birds eye views of the warehouses.

There are two types of industrial properties:
#1 Single tenant, which are small to large buildings that are usually owner occupied.
#2 Multi-tenant (industrial condos), which are owned by large and small investors (20,000-80,000sq’)

The zoning is determined by the municipality which is usually away from residential.
N1 – light industrial, multi-tenant
N2 – medium industrial (packaging), single & multi-tenant
N3 – heavy industrial (chemical & noise), single, usually 5-15 miles out of town

To buy industrial there are certain elements to look at:

• Type – manufacturing or warehousing
• Amount of people employed
• Outside storage – look at municipal by-laws, some allow it and some don’t
• Parking areas – Office space, rule of thumb, 5 parking spaces per 1000 sq’. Industrial space, rule of thumb, 1 parking space per 1000 sq’.
• Railway areas – not much of a big player these days.
• One of the most overlooked components of building an industrial building is having enough room for a 53’ trailer to back up. Many properties stay on the market abandoned for this reason.

Access to municipal services

• Water pressure, minimum 2” water line
• Waste disposal allocation
• Power/electrical

Building permit

• Restricted areas
• Zoning by-laws
• Size & height
• Loading docks D/I & T/L
• Column span (30×30) (30×45) – maneuverability for a forklift
• Sprinkler system
• Water supply & pressure
• Adequate space: Office, warehousing, parking, loading & unloading

Land & Building Ratio

• 50,000sq’ of building = 100,000sq’ of land (2:1 ratio)
• 70,000sq’ of building with office space = 100,000sq’ of land (3:1 ratio)