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Show OFFICE RENTS j MOVING HIGHER Building Maintenance Costs Also Increase In Past Year j I CHICAGO. Dec. Cost of opera- I Hon as well as tho income derived i 1 from office and mercantile building was on the up-grade during 1921.' compared with if 20 according to a i survey just completed by the Na- Clonal Association of Building Owners Own-ers rind Managers. Taxes, depreciation deprecia-tion and Insurance accounted for the increased operating costs Comparison of 75 buildings which contributed to the survey of 1920 and 1921 shows an increase In operating cpensSfl Of 2.2 per cent and increa.e-ed increa.e-ed income of 10.4 per cent. The re-port re-port for 1922 is from 162 buildings located in 47 different cities. Including Includ-ing Now York. Chicago, Cleveland. Ban Francisco and Seattle. AVERAGE RETURN LOW. The report shows that rents range from 80 cents per square foot for loft buildings to $4 per square foot for the highest type of office build mj,-. with u mean aerage of $1.90 per square foot. It. is explained that while this average is less than the prevail- lnp market price for office buildings, I this fact Is due to long time prewar pre-war leases made at low rates. The tax valuation of land and building averages $9.95 per square foot, according to the report. Tho j averago relationship between tno toln tax valuation and rent shows the latter lat-ter to be approximately 19.30 per Cent of the total tax valuation. The average net return is 7.39 per cent of the tax valuation, and in really, 5.9 per cent earning for office buildings build-ings The highest net income reported report-ed was from Oklahoma, due to apparent ap-parent low land valuation, says tlvj report. HEATING COST V Mill Among the factors Increasing opi r-atlng r-atlng costs were increases In repalu and alterations, insurance, taxes, di -preciation and fixed charges. Little, Rock, Ark., has the lowest tax rate. 1.57 per cent, with Cleveland tho highest. 1.55 per tent, and Chicago a close second with 3.2 7 per cent, the ! report show s I Heating Is un important factor in I building costs, the report showing an 'average of 88 pounds of steam per j square foot must bo furnished during dur-ing tho year, costing on an average of 7.6 cents and consuming 17 i I pounds of coal, I The highest operating expense was I recorded in luluth. with the 10 west reported "In San Francisco. While Du-luth Du-luth had the highest Insurance ra;c. New York .ind Seattle registered the lowest rates Duluth also showed the highest depreciation charges, wltn Omaha reporting the lowest. Rl I WG r l it CHKA ri ST. Labor conditions treated in the report re-port show that while tho per diem in Chicago was tho highest, the cost I per square foot in maintenance n j much less than in many other cltlee. The matter of keeping a building clean varies according to the city. J showing that in Pittsburg it requires 210 days of labor for each thouaan 1 feet, while In Indianapolis only 57 days are needed, with Chicago using 118. The report aiso disc-loses that-power that-power can be purchased from con-tral con-tral plants al less expense than manufacturer manu-facturer on the premises, ecluslvo of depreciation to the power plant. The survey in Chicago shows that it has 11.4 square feet of rental space for each foot of ground Detroit, with S .2 feet, Is second. Average rent per square foot for both store and office of-fice rent Is $2 60 in New York, $2. IS in Detroit and $2 .21 in Chicago The building values for each square foot of rental space was highest in San Francisco. In discussing the question as to whether office buildings are profitable profit-able beyond a certain height, the r- -port states "that It has been discovered discov-ered that both rroxs and net income increase with the height of building up to 2 4 stories, with the gross Income In-come Increasing faster than tho net, j Indicating that expenses also Increase j with height" It would therefore seem that a limit mlht be reached at a point where the Increase In expenses have offset the Increase In income. Such a limit, however, would prob-fably prob-fably depend more upon the size o;' I the lot than the height ot the building build-ing that is. for very tall buildings on ' small lots the economical helglit I would be reached at a much lowir j point than for tall buildings on large I lots." |