Value Add techniques for older flex/industrial spaces?

[Jason Turgeon]

Here in Boston, we have a fair number of older warehouse/light industrial spaces in the 5000 - 25,000 sf range. They tend to be in sort of gritty neighborhoods, not necessarily unsafe but not super appealing to retail business or banks or high end offices. And they tend to have fairly limited parking, since we're in a dense urban area. I see these regularly on loopnet (I know, I know, but there aren't great places to look for commercial deals late at night with a beer).

Here are couple of examples, chosen more or less at random: 

https://www.loopnet.com/Listin...

https://www.loopnet.com/Listin...

These are intriguing to me. I don't want to get into the development game, tearing down old buildings and building new ones. Way too hard in Boston. But I have been thinking that maybe there's a way to get some of these and do some value add to them to make them more attractive to tenants and get a higher rent, thus boosting my equity. BRRRR, but not for residential.

I have a pretty good handle on what improvements add value to a residential property and how much those will cost. But I am less sure of what prospective tenants in this type of space want and how much to budget for those improvements. 

So what are your favorite ways to increase the value/rents of this kind of small class C space? I can't fix the locations or add parking. But I can paint exteriors, dress up the landscaping, restripe the parking area, upgrade electrical and lighting and HVAC, add or subtract windows and doors, put down epoxy flooring, freshen up tired office spaces and restrooms, etc. However, I only want to do this if it will pay off in higher rents. 

In your experience, does any of this stuff make a difference? Is there some thing or set of things that tenants really want in this kind of space?