If You Need Space for Your Business, Start With the Use

Do not begin with:

“I need 5,000 square feet.”

Start with:

“What has to happen inside and outside this space every day?”

That may include:

• employees
• customers
• deliveries
• trucks
• inventory
• equipment
• manufacturing
• food preparation
• medical use
• outdoor storage
• vehicle parking
• loading
• signage
• public access

Two 5,000-square-foot spaces can be completely different business locations.

The useful commercial question is:

Can my operation actually work here?

Retail: Start With How the Customer Gets There

For retail and service businesses, “good location” is not specific enough.

Ask:

Visibility

Can the intended customer reasonably see the business?

Ingress and Egress

Can customers actually get into and out of the property from the routes they use?

Parking

Is there enough useful parking for your operation?

Not just spaces on a site plan.

Look at how the lot works when neighboring businesses are busy.

Signage

What signage is available and permitted?

Co-Tenancy and Neighboring Uses

Do nearby tenants help, compete, or create a different customer pattern?

Deliveries

Where do vendors load and unload?

Use

Does the space already support the business, or are you underwriting a major change?

A RiNo storefront, Cherry Creek service location, suburban neighborhood center, and Parker or Castle Rock retail suite can solve very different customer-access problems.

Choose the property from the actual customer pattern.

Restaurants Need a Much Deeper Space Check

Do not evaluate a restaurant space like ordinary retail.

Depending on the property and concept, investigate:

• permitted use
• hood
• grease interceptor
• gas
• electrical capacity
• plumbing
• floor drains
• fire suppression
• restrooms
• occupancy
• patio
• trash
• deliveries
• parking
• health review

Denver specifically requires zoning and multiple plan-review considerations for restaurant and commercial-kitchen projects, and a change from another building use can trigger additional review.

Denver · Restaurant and Commercial Kitchen Permits →

A second-generation restaurant space can reduce some work.

It does not mean the current concept can automatically open there.

Office: Decide How Much Office You Actually Need

The office question has changed.

Instead of beginning with employee count, ask:

How many people are actually in the office at the same time?

Then consider:

• private offices
• open workstations
• meeting rooms
• client visits
• storage
• parking
• transit
• employee commute
• expansion
• hybrid work
• building amenities

Denver Metro office conditions can vary significantly between downtown, DTC/southeast suburban space, and other submarkets, so a broad “Denver office” search can hide substantial differences in vacancy, building quality, concessions, parking, and commute patterns. Current 2026 market research still shows elevated office vacancy across Denver even as leasing activity has improved. (CBRE)

That can create opportunity for tenants.

It does not mean every vacant office is a good value.

Ask:

Why is this space vacant?

and

What will make us want to stay here when the lease is renewed?

Industrial and Flex: Square Footage Is Only the Beginning

Industrial users often know this immediately:

5,000 square feet is not just 5,000 square feet.

A useful industrial or flex search may need to specify:

Loading

• dock-high
• drive-in
• grade-level
• number of doors

Clear Height

Can the business use the vertical space?

Power

Does the building have the service your equipment requires?

Truck Access

Can the vehicles you use enter, turn, load, and leave?

Yard or Outdoor Storage

Is it available?

Is the use allowed?

Parking

Employee vehicles, fleet vehicles, customer vehicles, trailers?

Office Percentage

How much of the building is office versus warehouse?

Fire Suppression

Does the building's system fit the intended use and storage?

Highway and Customer Access

A distribution user looking around the I-70/DIA/Aurora side of the metro is solving a different routing problem from a service business that needs smaller flex space close to south-metro customers.

Denver's industrial market is also not uniform: current market reporting continues to show strong interest in smaller and midsize industrial/flex requirements even while overall availability varies by submarket. (Cushman & Wakefield)

The useful question is:

Does this building fit the operation without forcing the business to work around the real estate every day?

Owner-User Purchase: Compare Ownership With the Lease You Would Otherwise Sign

A business buying its own property should not compare:

mortgage payment

against

base rent

and stop there.

Ownership can also involve:

• down payment
• financing costs
• property taxes
• insurance
• maintenance
• capital repairs
• building systems
• tenant-improvement work
• reserves
• opportunity cost of the cash invested

Leasing can involve:

• base rent
• NNN/CAM
• rent increases
• tenant improvements
• deposits
• guarantees
• renewal risk
• limited control over the building

The decision depends partly on how long the business expects to use the space and how specialized the property is.

SBA Financing May Be Worth Discussing for an Owner-User

The U.S. Small Business Administration's 504 program provides long-term fixed-rate financing for qualifying major fixed assets, including qualifying owner-user real estate.

It is not intended for speculative or passive rental real-estate investment. (sba.gov)

U.S. SBA · 504 Loan Program →

If the business is considering ownership, have a commercial lender determine which financing paths actually fit.

Kenna Real Estate Group can help connect the property search to those physical and transaction requirements.

Multifamily: Separate Small Residential Multifamily From Commercial Apartments

The word multifamily covers very different transactions.

Duplex Through Four Units

A duplex, triplex, or fourplex can often be evaluated through the small-residential-investment framework, including possible owner occupancy and residential financing when the borrower and loan qualify.

Read the Colorado Duplex and Multifamily Buying Guide →

View Colorado Duplex and Multifamily Homes for Sale →

Larger Apartment Properties

A larger apartment building generally requires a more commercial underwriting approach.

The analysis may include:

• rent roll
• trailing financials
• unit mix
• concessions
• lease rollover
• utility structure
• vacancy
• operating expenses
• payroll
• management
• repairs
• capital improvements
• debt service
• market rents

Do not underwrite a 20-unit building as though it were a bigger duplex.

Property Taxes Should Be Checked by Parcel

Commercial properties can sit within different combinations of taxing jurisdictions.

Do not apply one Front Range property-tax assumption to every acquisition.

For an owner or investor, check the actual parcel, current tax bill, assessment information, and applicable jurisdictions.

Colorado maintains statewide parcel and property-tax mapping tools, but the relevant county's current property record should be part of the final verification for the specific acquisition.

If You Are Selling Commercial Property, Prepare the Information Buyers Will Ask For

A commercial buyer may need much more than:

price + square footage.

Depending on the property, prepare what is applicable:

• rent roll
• leases and amendments
• operating statements
• utility history
• tax information
• insurance information
• capital-project history
• service contracts
• surveys
• plans
• permits
• tenant information
• environmental reports
• title information
• property-condition information

For an owner-user property, also think about:

• vacancy date
• equipment or fixtures included
• transition timing
• business relocation
• permitted use

The cleaner the property file, the easier it is for a serious buyer to understand what is being offered.

Commercial Real Estate Across the Front Range Is Not One Market

The phrase “Denver commercial real estate” can hide very different property decisions.

A downtown office user is not solving the same problem as a DTC professional office tenant.

A neighborhood retailer is not choosing a location the same way as an Aurora/I-70 industrial user.

A south-metro service company may care more about customer and employee access than proximity to a freight corridor.

A multifamily investor may care about rent roll and capital work more than the owner-user business next door.

That is why Kenna Real Estate Group starts with:

use + transaction + geography + physical requirements

rather than sending every commercial inquiry into one generic property search.