Implications of Shrinking Office Size for Parking

T.J.Twit, Vice President of the Lund Company, a commercial real estate brokerage in Omaha, NE, affiliated with Cushman-Wakefield, wrote a brief commentary in January on "How the Shrinking Office Space per Worker is Having an Impact on Parking Ratios."

An excerpt from the commentary remarks:

Most conventional office buildings assume approximate use of space at a ratio of one person for every 250 square feet of leasable space. That ratio is changing as many office settings are down to a ratio of one person for every 175 square feet of leasable space, and getting smaller.

Impact on Parking Ratios

Savvy landlords are paying very close attention to this trend of more densely populated work space. Imagine a vacant building of 100,000 square feet with 400 parking stalls. Prior to the trend of shrinking office space, a parking ratio of four stalls per 1,000 square feet would satisfy most tenant parking/space requirements.

If the number of workers at a company does not change, but the company is now able to fit more people into less space, the parking lot is full before the building is fully leased. . .

In metro areas that are well-served by public transportation, this trend is much less significant, but in cities like Omaha where the vast majority of the workers drive to work, this should be a real concern. . . .

While the fixed square footage to parking space ratio places a burden on unfilled buildings with an established parking facility, it actually provides an opportunity for the County to reduce parking per worker in Reston's new TOD areas for future development, an effective transportation demand management (TDM) strategy.  By keeping the ratio constant as the space per office worker declines in new construction county-wide, more corporations seeking space will be induced to encouraging the use of transit--rail or bus.  Right now, parking requirements are defined as a minimum # of spaces per 1,000 GSF.  We need to change that to a maximum number.   It could be a win for the community, although it would not please developers who fear their potential clients will seek space in other jurisdictions. 

Now we just need to make sure that Reston is "well-served by public transportation."