What is a Commercial Fit Plan?

Fit planning involves assessing if a company's space needs like offices, workspaces, conference rooms etc. can fit into a potential new property. It is a preliminary step before full space planning. Robin's company Pasley Commercial Interiors provides fit planning services within 7 days for 10 cents per square foot. Fit planning helps companies evaluate properties faster when considering a move.

Transcript

Randi Lynn Johnson  00:00

Welcome to design to help your business grow. I'm your host, Randi Lynn Johnson. Each episode will bring tips and insight into how to make sure your interiors are working for you and growing your business.

00:19

Okay, so Robin, today we are talking about fit planning. And this is something I'm actually excited for this conversation, because I feel like I don't know very much about it. And so my very first question to you is, what is fit planning?

Robin Pasley  00:36

Okay, yes, so, some people call this fit testing, okay. But the idea is, for someone who's investigating a new space, maybe they're working with a commercial commercial real estate agent, and they're looking at moving into a larger space, or they're looking at a space for the first time. Either way, they know, you know, they've got 30 employees, and they need this many private offices in this kind of co working space, you know, group working space, break rooms, conference rooms, you know, they've got a list of spaces they need to accomplish. And they just don't know if it's gonna fit in this 5000 square feet that they're looking at or what, okay. And so what we do is we take models and work with them, to see how they'll best fit into that, especially if they're grown on a growth curve, you know, your new location, like their startup, and it's there, it's all new to them. This is especially helpful and normally, or historically, I should say, commercial real estate agents have reached out to architects to help with this. And in our city, those guys are busy all the time, there's sometimes a two week lag to get into their pipeline. And, you know, you know anything about real estate, you know, it's time. Absolutely, yeah, say Yeah, and if you if you wait too long, you might lose that spot or something changes. So for those guys, they know that time is of the essence. And if they're having to wait that long, just to get into the pipeline, and then it takes another two weeks, you know, it all depends. But yeah,

Randi Lynn Johnson  02:12

so then you can help save time by connecting with commercial real estate, people. And you can go into a building and say, Hey, we need to be able to fit 25 people and desks and walls and all like you're able to do all of that. Yes.

Robin Pasley  02:29

So that's what we do with fit planning is it's not space planning. That's a totally different thing space, we're actually laying out the specifics of how they need that whole space to work. And we're applying all the code to that. And you know, life safety, and all those elements come in and space planning. Fit planning is just a general, with all of that stuff. Generally, in our mind, can you get everything you need in this and make it work?

Randi Lynn Johnson  02:58

That's awesome. So it's a very much preliminary first step play? Is this even a possibility? And this is super helpful when they're looking at five spaces or, and they've narrowed it down to three. But they're like, Oh, which one is, you know, will we be able to work in all three of the the most. So instead of spending all the money to get a full space plan done? And working with an architect to make sure it can get into permitting? We do the preliminary step of Will it fit period?

Randi Lynn Johnson  03:26

So I want to ask you a little bit more detail. You said about how it can save time you mentioned you know, the architects are busy, and it can be hard to get them there weeks out. And so how, how quickly? Are you able to provide a fit plan for someone?

Robin Pasley  03:41

We can usually provide us a fit plan within seven days.

Robin Pasley  03:50

And this all is, you know, we're hoping that they have some kind of floor plans as a PDF. Sure, we can start with that. But if we have nothing, then there's a little more time involved, because we have to do a site visit.

Randi Lynn Johnson  04:02

Great. Alright, so you can save them time. And you also said that you can save money? Yeah. Can you tell me a little bit more about that, and what maybe your rates are compared to bringing in an architect? Sure.

Robin Pasley  04:17

I am not aware for sure. But I don't believe many architects even do fit planning. They mostly do space planning, which is different. So it's usually only like on the short side to be $1 square foot. So if we're talking about a 10,000 square foot building, could be anywhere between seven and $10,000. For that space plan, which is very normal, but you know, just to see if it's gonna fit, that's a lot of money to invest. So we're talking 10 cents a square foot or a project like that. Wow.

Randi Lynn Johnson  04:46

That's a significant difference in cost. me like you're saving 90% I get excited when I'm at Hobby Lobby and I hit the 90% off deal. You know what I'm saying? So, this is that's a big deal. How are you able to come in? So Allah? Yes?

Robin Pasley  05:03

Well, to begin with, it is not space planning, it's fit planning. So we're not doing a fool to the square inch, all the life safety, all the ADA compliance, you know, all this code studies and all that we're not putting all that technology and yet, we are first just making sure that basic sizing of probable spaces will work. So there's the standards for bathrooms and the sizes that you need for a private office and even benching like group workspaces, conference rooms, things like that. We start with those, and then we just kind of throw them in there to make sure they're going to fit with a probable layout. This is not to any specifications that would come through our normal methods of a discovery meeting with that client and learning more about their company or how they function and all that stuff.

06:00

Randi Lynn Johnson  So there's like a 10,000 view, oh, we're up high looking down just being like how 10,000 Square Yeah. Okay, that makes a lot more sense. 

In an increasingly competitive market, the merits of using interior design as a strategic growth tool can make all the difference in not just surviving but thriving.

Robin Pasley  06:25

Pasley Commercial Interiors designed to help your business grow.