Air Conditioning Cost For Industrial Building

[STLTrainee]

I was reading through a Cost Approach that my boss did for a light manufacturing building and I noticed that she made a line item adjustment for air conditioning in the office area. This surprised me because I always thought that Marshall included central air for the office portion of light industrial buildings in the base cost, particularly since it says at the beginning of the industrial section that the base costs for light industrial buildings include 15% to 25% of office area. My boss said her rationale was that the HVAC column for light manufacturing buildings (section 14, page 14) lists only space heaters. I called Marshall's technical support desk and they agreed with my boss because the HVAC column only lists space heaters. If my boss and the MVS technical support desk is right, then the 15% to 25% of office space included in a "base" light industrial building would just have space heaters. If this is really the case you would expect that Marshall would have a footnote warning you that central HVAC costs have not been included for the office and you need to add them from the end of the section. Does anyone have a definitive answer to this? Thanks.

 

[Michael S]

I've always assumed central air for the office portion. The HVAC column seems to be referring to the industrial portion only. In our market it's not uncommon to see warehouses with not heating or cooling, or only minimal (a suspended gas heater or to near the loading docks). Evaporative coolers work well in the dry climate here and most warehouses are expected to have that. It's rare to find an office that doesn't have AC. Some older class C buildings will only have evaporative cooling for the office, but it's definitely considered inferior.