Your real occupancy cost.
Landlords quote base rent — but you pay base plus NNN/CAM plus utilities. This turns a quote into your true all-in $/SF, the monthly nut, your first-year cost after free rent, and the 5-year total with escalations.
What are you actually paying, all in?
A gross quote and a triple-net quote at the same headline rate are not the same deal. Send me the space and the numbers and I'll put both on the same basis and flag anything non-market in the operating expense line.
Start from the quote, not the total. Occupancy cost is where you end up; the rate per foot is where the negotiation happens. The rent per square foot calculator takes a $/SF quote apart — base versus NNN, rentable versus usable — and checks the base rate against 7,644 South Florida sale comps before you get to this page.
Estimates are for planning only and use simplified assumptions — not tax, legal, or investment advice. Verify with your lender, CPA, and a full broker analysis before acting.
Half of South Florida's "office buildings" are condos
Something worth knowing before you compare two operating-expense quotes: in the tri-county records there are 9,101 parcels classified as multi-story office buildings, and their median size is 1,144 square feet. That is not a building. That is a unit.
South Florida's multi-story office stock is heavily condominium-ised, and it changes who you are actually dealing with. Your landlord may be an individual who owns one suite, while the building's operating costs are set by a condominium association neither of you controls. The association votes the budget, the association funds — or fails to fund — the reserves, and your landlord passes their share to you.
Tri-county parcels with a structure classified "Office Building, multi-story", August 2026. n = 9,101, median building area 1,144 SF, median assessed value $420,580.
The practical consequence is that in a condo building "CAM" is largely the association assessment, and a special assessment for a roof or a garage repair can arrive mid-term with no negotiation available to either of you. Ask, before you sign, whether the building is condominium-ised, what the association's reserve position looks like, and whether any special assessment has been discussed. A landlord who does not know is telling you something too.
Why two quotes at the same rate are not the same deal
The rate is the number people compare and the least useful one in isolation. What you actually pay is the rate plus your share of operating expenses, and the structure decides how much of that second part is yours.
In a full-service gross lease the landlord absorbs operating costs and you pay increases over a base year. In triple net you pay taxes, insurance and common area maintenance on top of the rate. Modified gross is whatever the document says it is, which is why the document matters more than the label.
Two consequences follow. First, a $28 gross quote and a $28 triple-net quote are not comparable and the gap between them is frequently $8 to $14 a foot. Second, in Florida the insurance line has moved enough in recent years that a stale estimate is worse than no estimate — ask for the current-year figure per foot, not last year's budget.
Then check the load factor. Rentable square feet include your share of corridors and lobbies; usable is what sits inside your walls. A 15% load and a 32% load on the same rentable number differ by hundreds of usable feet, so the same rate buys materially different space.
The clauses that decide your real cost
A cap on controllable expenses
Taxes and insurance are outside a landlord's control. Management fees, landscaping, janitorial and repairs are not. A cap on controllable operating expense increases — commonly a fixed percentage per year, cumulative or non-cumulative — is one of the more winnable asks in a negotiation and it compounds over a term.
The base year, and whether it is honest
In a base-year lease you pay increases over a benchmark. If the base year was set while the building was half empty, or before a major cost category started running, every year after overstates your increase. Ask what the base year figure is per foot and how it compares to the prior two.
Gross-up
A gross-up provision restates variable expenses as though the building were fully occupied, which sounds unhelpful and protects you. Without it, a landlord who loses tenants sees your pro-rata share rise even though nothing about your space changed.
The right to audit, and the clock on it
Most leases allow you to inspect the reconciliation, and most set a deadline of 30 to 180 days after receipt. Miss it and the statement is deemed accepted. Watch for clauses barring contingency-fee auditors or requiring you to pay first and claim later — both are negotiable at signing and not afterwards. A lease audit before you renew is the natural moment to raise it.
Occupancy cost questions
What is included in occupancy cost?
Base rent plus your share of operating expenses — property taxes, building insurance, common area maintenance and management fees — plus anything the lease treats separately such as utilities, parking or after-hours HVAC. Comparing buildings on base rent alone routinely misleads by $8 to $14 a foot.
What is the difference between gross and triple net?
In a full-service gross lease the landlord absorbs operating costs and you pay increases over a base year. In triple net you pay taxes, insurance and common area maintenance on top of the rate. Modified gross sits between them and means whatever the specific lease says, which is why the document matters more than the label.
Can I negotiate CAM charges?
Not the underlying costs, but very much the terms. A cap on controllable expense increases, exclusion of capital items, a gross-up provision, a defined management fee and a workable audit right are all standard asks and all cheaper to win at signing than later.
Why did my operating expenses jump this year?
In South Florida the two usual causes are an insurance renewal and a capital item coded as maintenance. The first is real and largely outside anyone's control; the second may not be chargeable under your lease at all. Ask for the supporting documentation on any line that moved sharply, and check your audit deadline before it passes.
Is my landlord the building owner or a condo unit owner?
Worth establishing early. There are 9,101 multi-story office parcels in the tri-county records with a median size of 1,144 square feet, so a great many "office buildings" here are condominium-ised. In those, operating costs are largely set by an association neither you nor your landlord controls, and a special assessment can arrive mid-term.
Tools: space calculator · lease cost · occupancy cost · TI work letter · all calculators · Justin Crow, South Florida tenant rep
Frequently asked questions
What is included in commercial occupancy cost?
All-in occupancy cost is base rent plus NNN/CAM charges (property taxes, insurance, common-area maintenance) plus utilities. A base-rent quote alone understates your real cost — often by 30–45%. This calculator combines them into the gross $/SF and dollar figures you actually budget.
What is the difference between base rent and NNN?
Base rent is the landlord's core charge for the space. NNN (triple net) or CAM charges are the building's operating costs — taxes, insurance, and maintenance — passed through to tenants on top of base rent, usually quoted separately as $/SF. Your gross rent is base plus NNN.
How does free rent affect my first-year cost?
Free rent (rent abatement) reduces base rent for a set number of months, lowering your first-year outlay. NNN and utilities usually still apply during free-rent months. This tool abates base rent for the months you enter and shows the resulting Year-1 cost.
What is the difference between a gross and a triple net lease?
In full-service gross the landlord absorbs operating costs and the tenant pays increases over a base year. In triple net the tenant pays taxes, insurance and common area maintenance on top of the rate. Modified gross sits between and means whatever the specific lease says.