Short term Commercial leasing (peerspace & similar)

[Charles Ma]

Hello all,

I've been considering outfitting an empty commercial space I've got for permanent use as a short term event / offsite / networking / all of the above type of space, and use platforms such as Peerspace and Storefront to market it. 

Just reaching out here to see if there are any landloards / investors here in San Francisco doing this? Very curious to understand the demand and potential viability of this plan. Also would be greatly helpful to understand where the demand stems from - corporate offsites? private networking events? private catered dinners? 

My building is ground floor storefront space in the 'La Lengua' part of Bernal, on Mission St.

thanks in advance!

[Michael Kovac]

@Charles Ma truthfully I have no experience with the the arena of dedicated space for the peerspace and storefront rental business model but that doesn't mean that it couldn't work. The area that you are in is very desirable and high-traffic so it could be viable with a pipeline. To me what comes to mind are sole proprietors that need temp space for their startup ie new yoga instructors -OR- seasonal businesses that need a short term commercial lease. Obviously it would be hard to play both sides of that coin as the startup sole proprietors won't be happy about leaving once the Halloween costume store wants to exercise their seasonal lease.

A client of mine was very successful in getting above market footage rates by converting space that was conducive to tech startups needing space. A similar, and large-scale operation that you may or may not heard of called WeWork is a great example of this. Sort of an airbnb solution to office space. That is something that in this market I believe can work. The downside is that you would have to develop the space and manage it.

All in all the beauty of commercial space and commercial tenants lies in the triple net lease. A good tenant that establishes business will develop/improve the space for you, be reluctant to leave, will pay all of your expenses and the lease will have scheduled increases which means a hands-off preforming asset.

Best of luck! Hope this helps.

Michael