Weekly Commercial Real Estate Terms

Building Class – Office The office building class designation is a way of differentiating buildings of the same building type into different categories of quality. These classes represent a combination of a subjective and objective quality rating of buildings that indicates the competitive ability of each building to attract similar types of tenants. Assigning class codes allows us to compare individual buildings within a market as well as across markets, and also to compare office market conditions between areas in peer groups. For the purposes of comparison, CoStar groups office buildings into four classes. The options are Class A, B, C, or F, with assignment depending on a variety of building characteristics, such as total rentable area, age, building finishes and materials, mechanical systems standards and efficiencies, developer, architect, building features, location/accessibility, property manager, design/tenant layout, and much more. Once assigned, a building’s class reflects not only characteristics and attributes evaluated objectively, but also the subjective evaluations of finishes and amenities.]]>