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Economic development 💰 Square feet per employee?

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I have a very basic question, but I am hoping someone can help me out. I need to estimate the number of jobs that will be created by a new development in a downtown area. The uses will include high-end office, hi-tech industrial and "boutique-style commercial/retail". I know I have seen avg. sf per employee numbers, but I can't seem to find them now. Could someone point me in the right direction? You will have my eternal gratitude!

Oh - I also would like to estimate the number of construction jobs that would be created for the duration of the construction of the project. Any idea where I can find those numbers as well?
 
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I seem to recall some numbers like these in some of those Urban Land Institute development handbooks. However, its been about 10 years since I looked at them and they seemed dated at the time. They may have some newer material by now.
 
SF Per Employee

Retail is generally 300 to 700 SF per employee. Office is more in the range of 150 to 300 SF per employee.

Construction - Determine the portion of the budget that is labor (vs. Materials), and use the average weekly construction wage from the Dept of Labor in your area to determine the number of person-years of construction employment.
 
Bunch o' Numbers

I pulled these numbers out of a file used to analyze development impacts for a subarea plan in our downtown. Some of the initial numbers were drawn from the old DeChiara Planning & Design Criteria book, but I recall 'adjusting' those numbers with someone who does quite a bit of regional analysis on buildable lands. Use at your peril! ;-)

Office Employees 300 sqft/employee
Retail/Service Employees 450 sqft/employee
Grocery Employees 700 sqft/employee
Cinema Employees 1500 sqft/employee
Restaurant Employees 300 sqft/employee
College Employees 300 sqft/employee
Hotel Employees 1800 sqft/employee
 
Question for Wildono: Would you happen to have the bibliographic citation for the DeChiara Planning & Design Criteria book that you cite for the square feet per employee statistics? I would like to purchase this book. Thank you.
 
Sam Parker said:
Question for Wildono: Would you happen to have the bibliographic citation for the DeChiara Planning & Design Criteria book that you cite for the square feet per employee statistics? I would like to purchase this book. Thank you.
Click to expand...

There are many places to purchase the book: here's a link to Amazon.com.
 
Per 2006 International Building Code:

Business-100 gross square foot

Retail-30 gross square feet, basement and grade, 60 gross square feet other floors, 300 gross square feet shipping, storage, and stock areas

Industrial-100 gross square feet

That's how the buildings are designed, so it is probably a pretty close guess.
 
My 2 cents:

These numbers were estimated by Fishkind & Associates of Orlando, FL for the Fiscal Impact Analysis Model (FIAM) that was created for the Florida Department of Community Affairs (DCA) under Jeb Bush. A version of the model with these assumptions is available at http://www.sfrpc.com/fiam.htm. I have used these assumptions in a few analyses:

Employment Assumptions - New Development

Office 1-Story: 300 sq. ft. per employee (range: 275-450 sq. ft. per employee)
Office Class A: 350 sq. ft. per employee (range: 275-450 sq. ft. per employee)
Office Medical: 250 sq. ft. per employee (range: 225-275 sq. ft. per employee)
Retail - Neighborhood: 600 sq. ft. per employee (range: 450-650 sq. ft. per employee)
Retail - Community: 600 sq. ft. per employee (range: 450-650 sq. ft. per employee)
Retail - Regional: 600 sq. ft. per employee (range: 450-650 sq. ft. per employee)
Restaurant-Sit Down: 450 sq. ft. per employee
Restaurant-Fast Food: 100 sq. ft. per employee
Hotel: 0.5 employees per room (range: 0.5-1.0 employees per room)
Industrial: 2,500 sq. ft. per employee (range: 10,000 sq. ft. per employee)
Warehouse: 5,000 sq. ft. per employee (range: 1,000-7,500 sq. ft. per employee)
Golf Course: 40 per 18-hole course (range: 35-45 per 18-hole course)
Clubhouse: 800 sq. ft. per employee (range: 800-1,000 sq. ft. per employee)
ACLF/Nursing Home beds: 1 per bed
Institutional: 300 sq. ft. per employee (range: 225-1,000 sq. ft. per employee)
Government: 500 sq. ft. per employee
Agriculture/Forestry: 25 per 1,000 acres
Parks & Recreation: 1 per acre
 
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