Nothing drives tenants crazier than air-conditioning issues.
What do tenants want? They want a comfortable workplace. Cool in summer, warm in winter with plenty of fresh air. This seemingly simple goal can be difficult and expensive to achieve.
The type of HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning) system installed to service the tenant’s space depends on factors including the age and design of the building.
Institutional-style 1960s office buildings came on line during the time of the 9-5 workday. Many were built to accommodate large corporate tenants and have central air conditioning systems (i.e. chilled water systems) which are designed to cool multiple floors and operate on a fixed schedule (9-5 Monday thru Friday with sometimes limited Saturday hours). After “standard office hours” the cost to a tenant to have air-conditioning can be $400-$600 per hour even if a tenant only occupies a small portion of a floor.
New buildings all have systems (i.e. condenser water systems) designed to be more accommodating to more flexible office hours and cooling a single floor at a time or less. These systems vary dramatically in their cost to operate and the degree of control the tenant has for operating the system.
Which system is best for today’s businesses? Air-cooled, chilled water, condenser water, or perhaps some combination of systems? There is no simple “one size fits all” answer.
Before we take tenants out to inspect space we determine what kind of HVAC would be most appropriate based on our understanding of how the company operates. This is just a part of the critical due diligence we perform to ensure that the space search is productive and ultimately leads to the tenant occupying space that they love.
If you are overheated about your air-conditioning or your landlord: