What Is Flex Space? A Salt Lake Broker Explains

Flex space is a commercial building, or a unit in one, that combines warehouse and office under one roof and one lease. A typical flex unit pairs a grade level door and open shop or storage space in back with finished office up front, usually 1,000 to 5,000 SF with most at the smaller end.

Most of the small industrial product we lease in the Salt Lake Valley is flex, even when the sign out front says warehouse. Here is what the term covers, what it costs here, and how to tell whether it fits your operation.

What is a flex building?

There is no single official flex space definition. Listing platforms treat flex as its own property type, appraisers fold it into industrial, and plenty of units get tagged flex on one site and warehouse on another. You will also see it listed as flexible warehouse space, warehouse flex space, or flex industrial. It is all the same product, and the meaning that holds up in the field is the split.

A flex unit gives you working warehouse in back: a grade level door, open floor, usable clear height, three phase power. Up front it gives you real office: finished rooms, a restroom, glass at the entry, and parking right outside the door.

The ratio moves. Around 15 percent office is the common setup: 625 SF of office in the 4,056 SF unit at 748 S 5300 W off California Avenue, or about 250 SF of finished office in a 1,600 SF Redwood Business Park unit in West Valley. Office heavy flex runs to nearly half the floor. Clear heights across our current listings run from 12 and a half feet in the older parks to 18 feet at Sandy Industrial Park.

The clearest way to see the ratio is inside one park. Unit 3623 at Broadbent Business Park is 2,426 SF with an open reception area when you walk in, a restroom, and warehouse behind it. Unit 3675 across the park is 2,463 SF with a heavier front end: private offices, a restroom, and a full wall between the office and the warehouse. Same footprint within 40 SF, very different buildout:

Most tenants know the term now, and the rest describe it instead: a small shop, one or two private offices, and a garage door. Either way it is the same unit.

How much office you need by unit size

The office share is not a style choice. It tracks the size of the operation paying the rent.

Under 2,000 SF, nearly everyone is in the field. The company is a few crews plus one or two people running the back end, so a single private office or a small reception area covers it. Our smallest listings match: one office or a bonus mezzanine, nothing more.

Past 2,000 to 2,500 SF the math changes. Carrying the rent on 3,000 to 5,000 SF takes more crews out working, and more crews means front end staff: a receptionist, a dispatcher, an office manager. What we have found is that tenants in that band typically want about 25 percent office, call it 1,000 to 2,000 SF of finished buildout.

Past 4,000 or 5,000 SF the label itself starts to flip. At that size the market reads the unit as a standard warehouse with an office in it, not flex, even when the layout looks the same.

If you own a flex building, that is the sizing conversation to have before a buildout rather than when the unit goes vacant.

Flex space vs warehouse vs office

The three product types answer different questions. A warehouse is built to store and move goods, and any office inside is incidental. An office building is desk space with no loading at all. Flex covers the businesses that need both on one lease.

People searching for flex office space usually mean the office heavy end of this same product: mostly finished suite, a small back room, still a grade door. Same buildings, different ratio.

Do not confuse flex with co-warehousing either. National operators market shared warehouse space and flexible warehousing solutions, meaning a bay or rack positions inside their building on short terms. That is a service inside someone else's building. Flex is your own unit on your own lease.

Who leases flex space in Salt Lake

Industrial flex space in this valley leases to a handful of repeat profiles.

Contractors and the trades are the steady demand: HVAC, electrical, plumbing, and finish carpentry outfits that need material storage and a big door in back with a desk and a plan table up front. A rain gutter company runs its crews out of Unit 3692 at Broadbent right now. E-commerce operations run inventory and a packing bench behind a small office, and service businesses use the front to meet customers and the back to do the work.

Showroom plus shop is its own lane. We currently list a 3,536 SF unit on Billinis Road in South Salt Lake built exactly this way, finished reception and showroom up front, work space behind.

The mix runs wider than the stereotype. Earlier this summer a marketing agency took a roughly 2,000 SF unit at Broadbent Business Park with a private office and a 10x10 grade door.

One check before an LOI goes out: zoning. Most of the valley's flex product sits on light industrial ground, M-1 in Salt Lake City proper, with each suburb running its own equivalent, and office or accessory showroom use is normally fine there. Customer heavy retail, auto work, and anything bringing regular public traffic can need a conditional use permit. We run the use past the city early so it never surprises anyone at signing.

What flex space costs in the Salt Lake Valley

As of August 2026, our live flex and small bay listings ask between $0.90 and $1.50 per SF per month NNN. Airport Business Center suites sit at $0.90, Broadbent and Redwood Business Park units at $1.00, and the Sandy Industrial Park end caps at $1.50. A pair of 1,500 SF office and warehouse units in West Valley runs $2,250 per month on modified gross terms.

Those are asking rates on our own listings, not a market survey, and they move as units lease.

On NNN terms, taxes, insurance, and common area costs land on top of the base rent. We broke down what NNN charges cover separately. The warehouse cost guide covers rates by building type and vintage, and the lease calculator turns a quoted rate into a real monthly number.

Where flex space clusters in the valley

We track inventory across 16 submarkets, and flex concentrates in a few of them.

Sandy carries newer small bay product with 18 foot clears, 12x12 grade doors, bonus mezzanines, and Google Fiber at the park. West Valley runs deep on flex warehouse space along the Redwood Road corridor, 1,500 to 3,200 SF office and warehouse combos. The airport corridor holds renovated parks like Broadbent Business Park and Airport Business Center with quick access to I-80 and I-215. Older small bay with lower clear heights fills in through South Salt Lake, Murray, and Midvale, which is also where small warehouse space under 5,000 SF concentrates.

Here is what the two generations look like from the street, Sandy's newer 18 foot product and Broadbent's renovated 12 and a half foot stock near the airport:

Our current flex space for lease across these submarkets is on the available space page.

Common questions

If you are sizing up a move and not sure whether flex fits, send us the basics: what you do, the square footage you have in mind, and when your current lease ends. We will shortlist live units where the split fits the work and run the zoning check before you tour.

Properties in this article

Availability and rates as of August 2026, computed from our live listings.