Investigating Commercial Properties for Sale or Lease

One of the major components that appears to get frequently under-rated by commercial property developers or commercial property leasees when investigating potential commercial properties is parking space availability.

If the shopping centre/mall develops and grows as you are planning for it to do, then you will be needing a well designed space for people to park their vehicles safely. Not only having enough parking bays available but having well designed parking spaces is nearly as important as having a well laid out floor plan for your retail outlets.

In fact, you could probably save some money on your insurance premium if you had fewer claims on your insurance policy to compensate drivers involved in a car accident in your car park if you have been proven to have been at fault due to the layout of the car park. A good lawyer can 'beef up' this potential flaw so well that even you begin to wonder why anyone would ever shop at that shopping centre/mall.

This is a factor that often influences shoppers driving around and around in a crowded car park looking for an available parking bay to have been overlooked. Frustrated driver-shoppers will go elsewhere if they can't find a safe parking space for their vehicle.

How many times have you personally witnessed or been involved in a near collision as you are backing out of a parking space? I have seen drivers both reverse their vehicles out at the same time and as they have been looking one to the left and the other to the right, they missed looking in the rear-view mirror to see the car directly behind them reversing out at the same time.

Luckily, so far both drivers have been able to stop and communicate politely and once not-so-politely, as to who should go first. In this case, should an accident have occurred, who would have been at fault? Has there ever been a law regulated as to who has right of way in a shopping centre? Personally, I'm not aware of one so perhaps I had best go back to get a learner drivers handbook and start reading up on some road rules. But do road rules have jurisdiction in a privately owned retail car park? There are so many questions related to this subject that it could probably keep a good law firm in rental payments for six months.

But had the commercial property developer or lessee thought of these potential problems to begin with, many of these potential hazards would have been removed before they become a problem. If potential customers to a shopping centre/mall have any difficulty to shop somewhere they usually have any number of other choices where they can shop because many of the 'big' name retailers have shops in neighbouring suburb shopping centres. And if they have better vehicle parking facilities that will always be their first choice.

Commercial Properties for Sale or Lease