Gross Square Feet
Gross Square Feet (GSF) is a measurement commonly used in real estate to indicate the total square footage of a building or area, including all rentable spaces and non-rentable areas. Essentially, it represents the total "footprint" of a building.
In the context of a commercial building, the Gross Square Feet would include not just the areas that can be leased to tenants (like office spaces or retail spaces), but also all other areas such as common areas (lobbies, hallways, restrooms), mechanical rooms, stairwells, elevator shafts, and even the thickness of exterior walls. This is in contrast to the Net Rentable Square Feet (NRSF) or Usable Square Feet (USF), which exclude certain areas and represent the space that a tenant can actually occupy and use.
The Gross Square Feet is an important metric for understanding the total size of a building, but it doesn't tell you everything about how much space is available for rent or use. Therefore, real estate professionals often look at other metrics, like the Net Rentable Square Feet, in addition to the Gross Square Feet when evaluating a property.