Utility expenses for commercial buildings fell 4.3% last year, indicating that controlling these costs is an important goal for property managers and owners, according to the fall 2011 BOMA/Kingsley Report.
Buildings surveyed saved about 11 cents per square foot over 2009. The study also identified several noteworthy spending trends across the 6,500 buildings in BOMA’s 2011 Experience Exchange Report, the study on which the report is based:
- Downtown buildings paid an average of 6.2% more for utilities compared to private sector buildings in general, while suburban buildings’ costs were 8.4% below average.
- Government buildings cut utility costs by an average of 7.7%, compared to 4.6% for private buildings.
- Utility costs in Washington, DC, increased 9.8% over 2009, when they were already 54.8% above the national average. However, utilities in the nearby Virginia suburbs were 7.6% below the national average and decreased another 10.3%.
- Philadelphia and Miami achieved steep drops in expenses, cutting costs by 16.8% and 14.4% respectively.
