For property managers · Metro Vancouver
As-builts for property managers
A building with no reliable drawing set costs a manager continuously and invisibly — in every leasing conversation, every tenant request and every contractor who has to come measure before quoting.
- BOMA 2017 areas
- Suite-by-suite plans
- 3D tour per space
The cost of not having a drawing set
Most commercial buildings under management have documentation somewhere. It is usually a PDF of a set drawn before the last two fit-outs, held in an email thread, and quietly known to be approximate.
That is workable right up until it is not. A prospect asks for a floor plan and gets something that does not match the tour. A tenant requests a change and three trades each measure the same suite. A CAM reconciliation depends on an area figure whose derivation nobody can reconstruct. None of these are crises. They are a recurring tax, and it is paid one small inconvenience at a time.
A measured set is a fixed cost that removes a recurring one. It is captured once and used by leasing, by tenants, by trades and by the next design team for the life of the building.
What a current set changes day to day
Vacancies go to market faster
A plan and a 3D tour are ready the day a suite comes available, rather than commissioned after the first prospect asks for them.
Trades quote without a site visit
Contractors pricing a tenant request work from a plan and a navigable capture, which shortens the quoting cycle and narrows the spread between quotes.
Area figures have a basis
Rentable and usable areas calculated to BOMA 2017 from measured data, with a stated standard behind the number rather than an inherited figure.
Tenant requests get answered
Questions about what is behind a wall or above a ceiling get answered from the capture instead of from a maintenance visit.
Handover survives turnover
The building's documentation stops living in one person's memory and inbox, which matters most when management changes hands.
Emergency and insurance records
A dated, measured record of the building as it stood, which is a materially better starting point than a decade-old PDF after an incident.
How a portfolio usually gets documented
Rarely all at once. The sequencing below is what tends to work.
Start with vacancies
Empty suites are the easiest to capture and the ones where a plan and tour pay back immediately, because they are actively being marketed.
Add suites as they turn
Capture at turnover, when the space is empty between tenancies. Over a couple of years the building documents itself without a single disruptive exercise.
Capture common areas and the shell once
Lobbies, corridors, service areas and the base building change rarely, so a single capture stays current for a long time.
Scan occupied space where it is needed
Where a specific suite has to be documented while tenanted, that works too — occupied capture is routine and does not require the tenant to move anything.
What the tour is actually used for
The iGUIDE 3D tour tends to get filed mentally as a marketing asset, and it is a good one. But in a managed building the heavier use is operational: it is how a manager answers a question about a space without going to it, and how a contractor understands a job before quoting it.
It is also the part tenants notice. A prospect who can walk a suite from their desk at nine at night is further along than one who has to book a viewing, and that is true whether the building is being marketed by a leasing agent or directly.
See a measured deliverable
Floor plans, the 3D tour and measured areas from a real delivered project.
Opens the sample page.
Common questions
Do you calculate rentable and usable area?
Yes, to the BOMA 2017 standard, from measured data rather than from an inherited figure. The BOMA page covers what the standard includes and how the calculation is shown.
Can suites be scanned while tenants are in them?
Yes. Occupied commercial capture is routine — nothing needs to be moved and the tenant does not need to vacate for the day.
Can we do a whole building at once?
Yes, and it is often the cheaper way per square foot. But phasing across turnovers is the more common approach and works fine, since the base building and common areas only need capturing once.
Who owns the drawings and the tour?
You do. The deliverables are yours to reuse across leasing, tenant coordination and future projects without a per-use arrangement.
What does it cost per building?
It depends on area, the number of suites in scope, and which deliverables are included. The booking calculator gives an instant estimate for a defined scope; for multi-building portfolios it is worth a conversation first.
Do you handle strata and mixed-use commercial?
Commercial and industrial space, yes, including commercial strata. We do not take residential work.
Keep reading
- BOMA area measurement — How rentable and usable area is measured and calculated.
- Leasing tours & floor plans — The marketing side: 3D tours and plans for available space.
- As-built drawings — The core service, accuracy and turnaround in full.
- Tenant improvement as-builts — Documentation for fit-out work in a managed building.
Document the building once, use it for years
Book online with an instant estimate, or start with a single vacant suite.