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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jacob Marley" data-source="post: 5601305" data-attributes="member: 89537">I am not so sure that many people understand exactly how much retail/commercial space really costs. I own a retail/commercial building (3 floors; approximately 20,000 square feet total) about 25 miles outside of the Twin Cities. Yearly operating expenses (cleaning, garbage, lawncare, taxes, utilities, etc.) for fiscal year 2010 cost $7.86 per square foot. Mortgage payments on the property (I am less than 50% LTV) were $2.22 per square foot. Improvements and major item repairs (repairs to a heat pump, repairs to the drain tile system) were $0.79 per square foot. In addition, I charge each tenant between $3.00 and $5.00 per square foot (depending on which floor they rent). This means that on our main level (the retail level) the average tenent is paying between $15.75 and $16.00 per square foot to rent. Competing properties in my area are even higher than this! Now, $16.00 a square foot may not seem like much, but consider that many game shops devote 10-25% (or more!) of thier floor space to playing games. That translates into multiple thousands of dollars in rent. (Not to mention what it takes to pay salaries and wages!) Offering $50 yearly memberships to access that space seems awfully resonable to me.</blockquote>