Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

Property developers have been converting warehouses into homes for many years now. As more and more businesses move their operations out of the city and into other locations, inner-city warehouses are becoming available for purchase for reasonable prices and they can become promising developments for anyone willing to invest.

But should you convert an old warehouse into an office? In this article, we’ll be going through some of the positives of taking this route, but we’ll also explain a few concerns that you should keep in mind as well.

Great value for money

For business owners that are looking to grow, warehouses present an enticing deal. They’re relatively large meaning that you have plenty of space to work with. This means it’s possible to keep a part of the warehouse for product manufacturing or storage and use the rest as office space. This is a great way to get a 2-in-1 deal so that you don’t need to hire external warehouse space or look for alternatives for storage.

However, this does mean that you’ll need to renovate it completely, but having such a large blank slate means that you can do virtually anything with it. For large open areas, you’ll need suitable commercial grade pendant lights which can be relatively expensive if you need to cover a lot of ground. If the warehouse is large enough, you might even be able to build a second story that is used for office purposes or meetings with clients and investors.

Overall, the value proposition is a great one. You’ll get a lot of space for your money and you have the ability to customize it to your liking. Just keep in mind that failing to budget is a common pitfall that could turn your warehouse renovation project into an absolute nightmare, so make sure you’re aware of the costs and speak to several contractors before investing your money.

Safety considerations

It’s a good idea to keep safety in mind when you’re renovating a warehouse. They’re not exactly known to be the most sturdy buildings in existence and there’s a good chance there could be some structural damage or compromised areas that need to be fixed before it’s suitable to be renovated.

This means that you will need to hire a safety inspector to determine if the structure is safe enough to work in and use. You may also need to hire another safety inspector once you start bringing in industrial machines or build tall shelves to store all of your stock. If your warehouse is large enough to have forklifts operating, then you’ll need to obtain licenses and also teach your staff how to use them.

In short, a warehouse represents an affordable and unique method of getting the office space needed to grow your business, but it’s not as simple as hiring a contractor to freshen up the place and then moving in with your employees. There are many considerations to keep in mind, but it’s well worth the end result.