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Industrial Leasing Guides

Practical guides to leasing industrial, warehouse and flex space in Metro Detroit — written by the people who own and manage the buildings.

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A small-bay industrial park on a clear morning, a long multi-tenant building with a row of closed overhead doors along a freshly striped asphalt drive.

Leasing Basics

How to Lease Industrial Space in Michigan

Leasing industrial space in Michigan runs in seven steps: define your physical requirement, confirm zoning and use, search and tour, submit a letter of intent, negotiate the lease, complete…

The shared drive of a multi-tenant industrial park, freshly resurfaced and striped, with kerbed landscape islands, light poles and a row of tenant doors.

Leasing Basics

What Is CAM in an Industrial Lease and How Is It Calculated?

CAM is common area maintenance, the shared cost of operating and maintaining the parts of a property no single tenant occupies: parking lots, drive aisles, landscaping, snow removal…

The entrance to a newly finished industrial tenant suite: a plain glass door in a painted storefront frame, fresh paint and a clean concrete walkway.

Compliance

Certificate of Occupancy for Industrial Tenants in Michigan

A certificate of occupancy is municipal confirmation that a space is legally usable for a specific purpose by a specific occupant.

An aerial view of a suburban light-industrial district: low flat-roofed warehouse and flex buildings, service roads and parking, houses at the edge.

Compliance

Michigan Industrial Zoning: Will My Business Be Allowed Here?

Zoning is set by the individual municipality, not the state, so a use permitted in one Michigan city may be prohibited in a nearly identical building one city over.

A fenced yard behind a small industrial building with two unmarked box trailers parked in line, stacked pallets and a covered equipment trailer.

Building Specs

Outdoor Storage, Trailer Parking and Yard Space in Industrial Leases

Outdoor storage and trailer parking are almost never included automatically with an industrial suite.

An empty small-bay warehouse suite with a sealed concrete floor, painted block walls, exposed bar joists overhead and one closed overhead door.

Market

What Does Warehouse Space Cost Per Square Foot in Metro Detroit?

There is no single rate, and a quoted number is meaningless without the lease structure attached.

A view upward inside a warehouse to the roof structure, showing steel bar joists, metal deck, high-bay light fixtures and a sprinkler line.

Building Specs

Clear Height Explained: Why 15 Feet vs 18 Feet Changes Everything

Clear height is the usable vertical space from the finished floor to the lowest obstruction overhead, which typically means the bottom of a joist, beam, sprinkler head, light fixture or…

A warehouse interior with two rows of pallet racking part filled with wrapped pallets, and a clear taped staging area on the floor in front.

Building Specs

How Much Warehouse Space Do I Need?

Add five components: storage footprint, staging and loading area, office and restrooms, circulation and aisles, and growth allowance.

A desk in a small industrial office with an open document folder, a pen and reading glasses, a warehouse yard through the window behind.

Leasing Basics

Triple Net vs Modified Gross vs Gross: Which Industrial Lease Is Cheaper?

In a gross lease the landlord pays operating costs out of your rent, so your monthly number is fixed.

A flex building showing both halves of the product: glass storefront entrances on one side, a plain warehouse wall with a grade-level door on the other.

Leasing Basics

Flex Space vs Warehouse vs Industrial: What's the Difference?

Warehouse space is built for storage and distribution, with taller clear height, minimal office and loading access.

Building Specs

Loading Docks, Drive-In Doors, and Truck Courts

Dock-high versus drive-in doors, cross-dock layouts, ramp doors, and why truck court depth matters more in a Michigan winter.

Market

Metro Detroit Industrial Market Conditions

What is driving demand for small- and mid-bay industrial space across Oakland and Wayne counties.

Market

Why Small-Bay Industrial Warehouse Space Is in Such High Demand

Demand for small-bay suites keeps growing while construction economics stop new supply being built.

Looking for space rather than reading about it? Current availability across Troy, Novi and Northville is on one page.

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