For nearly two years now, Barrington Hills has provided virtually no-cost office space to the Barrington Area Council of Governments (BACOG). The current two-year lease will expire on June 30, and last month, our Village Board began discussing terms of a potential two-year renewal of the lease of 220 square feet of office space in Village Hall.
During their April meeting, the four Village Board members who were present were informed via a memo from Trustee Harrington, who was not present at the meeting, that the going rate for local office space ranged from $12-25 per square foot of office space per year. Trustee Harrington’s recommendation for approval was at the minimum of the scale at $12 per square foot.
The discussion that followed revealed BACOG does not pay for utilities, internet access, security system fees, interior common area video surveillance, cleaning services or conference room usage. They do, however, pay $35 per month for use of the copier and other “consumables” that are afforded in the break room or other cost items, however BACOG is not tasked with the day-to-day inventory or replenishment of those items as our Village staff is.
When it came time to determine what to charge BACOG, Pro Tem Gohl suggested $18 per square foot, but the motion for that rate wasn’t seconded. Matter of fact, if you listen to the recording, as we have, you can hear Trustee Selman mutter “Humph” and Trustee Meroni laugh a bit at the suggestion of $18. Gohl then retreated to the original recommendation from Trustee Harrington of $12 per foot, but that didn’t pass with only three Save 5 Acres trustees voting for that rate.
Their entire discussion can be listened to here.
The Observer researched available office spaces comparable to BACOG’s current 220 square foot (SF) of space and discovered the following in the Barrington area via Loopnet.com:
- 200 square feet for $20.25 per SF, per year
- 224 square feet for $33.20 per SF, per year
- 284 square feet for $28.52 per SF, per year
An expanded search of available offices ranging from 194 to as much as 320 SF resulted in an average of roughly $24 per SF, per year. We did find office space obtainable for as low as $12 per SF, however rates at this level were offered for much larger office spaces.
Given the current competitive lease market in the Barrington area, The Observer suggests the Village Board offer BACOG a very fair lease rate of $20 per square foot, per year, when they convene next Wednesday night. This is seems to be the least amount any potential lessee would have to pay for office space, and considering BACOG has paid nothing for two years, this would represent an effective lease rate of $10 per SF over four years, or in our minds, a bargain.
– The Observer
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The Village recently released recordings from the July 8 special Village Board meeting. To access the menu of the meeting’s topical audio recording segments, click here.
