Commercial Real Estate Manager Eric Andrews discusses price per square foot of commercial real estate in Pittsboro & Siler City, North Carolina.
Speaker 1: What’s happening with Pittsboro Commercial Rents.
Eric: They’re going up. They’re going up for sure. So probably the average… the average space and the average price per foot in Pittsboro right now is right around the $17, $17.50 range.
We have quite a few properties that are in the $8, $10, $11 range. I just rented one this week at $18 a foot, but, and there’s… there are a few around here where people are paying, if it’s smaller, they’re paying $20 a foot. The thing that you have to know is, that’s for like historic older buildings in downtown Pittsboro. My understanding of the rents in Penguin Place and Mosaic, which is Chatham Parks, commercial area. They’re starting at like $28.50 a foot in the… or $31 a foot, which is going to be a little bit of a shocker for most local businesses because, I have people calling me all the time that think, $10 a foot is crazy or $15 a foot is crazy, but we’re definitely seeing an upward trend.
The other thing that we’re seeing that not everybody’s getting along, having an easy time grasping, is that normally commercial rents are triple net and they have some kind of C.A.M, Common Area Maintenance fee. So, people will tell you it’s $17 a foot, but then you’re also paying an extra blah, blah, blah, to have the place mowed, weeded, the parking lot cleared. There might be some roof fee. I mean, there’s a lot… a lot of fees for whatever. Commercial is… Commercial Leasing is pretty much all of the heartaches of owning, but not having to come up with that big nut of financing of a huge loan, but you’re paying for the taxes you’re paying for the insurance.
You’re paying for the maintenance. I mean, when it’s a commercial building, they say, “Eric, the door’s not closing”. I’m like “hint, that’s your door, fix the door. It was working when you got in there. Now it’s not working. You got to fix it”. Sometimes we have some provisions on H.V.A.C and the roof, because those are the two expensive things. So, they’ll cap out at like $2,000, $3,000 or $5,000, but commercial, triple net and the rents in Pittsboro are going up. I highly recommend that if you’re interested in opening a business, you get in and secure a lease now, before prices go much, much higher.
