What Makes an Office Building Tech-Ready?

Listings describe buildings as tech-ready, smart or wired for technology. None of these phrases has an agreed definition, and a landlord can use them freely. Third-party programs that rate a building's digital connectivity do exist, and a rating from one of them is a useful signal that someone has examined the infrastructure. It is still a signal about the building in general, not about the suite you are considering or the equipment you plan to run.

For a technology company, readiness is practical. It means the building will not get in the way of the work: the connection stays up, the equipment has power, the server closet stays cool at midnight, cabling can get from the street to your floor, and when something breaks, someone picks up the phone. The six areas below are where buildings differ most.

Almost every office building has internet service. What varies is choice and resilience.

• Carrier choice. A building served by several providers gives you competitive pricing and a fallback. A building with a single provider gives you neither.
• Type of service. Fiber already present in the building is very different from fiber that could be brought in if someone pays for construction.
• Diverse entry. If every carrier enters through the same conduit, a single excavation accident can cut them all. Separate entry points and separate paths through the building reduce that risk.
• Time to install. If a carrier is not already in the building, extending service can take a long time and may depend on permits and the landlord's cooperation. That lead time can end up setting your move date.
• Wireless coverage. Mobile signal inside the building, especially on lower floors and in the core, matters for a team that lives on its phones.

Ask for the list of carriers currently serving the building and confirm it with the carriers themselves. Lists in marketing materials can be out of date.

Office electrical systems are sized for general office use. A team with powerful workstations at every desk, a lab bench or a network room can exceed that without doing anything exotic. A building that suits technical tenants has spare capacity available at the floor, or a realistic route to adding it.

Three questions get to the point. What capacity is available to this suite today? If we need more, what work is involved and who pays for it? And how is our electricity billed: included in rent, measured on a submeter, or allocated by formula? The last question matters because a lease that includes electricity often assumes ordinary office consumption and allows the landlord to charge for anything above it.

Backup power is a related topic. Most office buildings have emergency systems for life safety only, covering items such as exit lighting and elevators. Whether a tenant can connect to a building generator, or install its own backup equipment, is a negotiated right and depends on the building.

We are not offering capacity figures as a benchmark. They differ widely between buildings, and the right approach is to obtain the real information and have your own engineer review it.

Building air conditioning is designed around people and a working day. Most multi-tenant office buildings run it during stated hours and charge tenants who want it at night or on weekends. For a team that works late, those charges become a recurring cost. For equipment that runs continuously, scheduled cooling is not enough at any price.

Buildings that work well for technical tenants generally offer a way to cool specific rooms independently of the main system. That might be a supply of condenser water that a tenant's own unit can connect to, space on the roof or in a mechanical area for tenant equipment, or floor-by-floor systems that the tenant controls. Ask which of these the building has, what it charges for them and whether capacity is still available.

Risers are the vertical shafts that carry cabling and pipes between floors. They are easy to ignore and can stop a project cold. Fiber has to travel from the point where it enters the building to your suite. Electrical feeders and cooling pipes for supplemental equipment have to do the same. If the risers are full, poorly organized or controlled by a third party that charges for access, every installation becomes slower and more expensive.

Useful things to find out include whether there is spare riser capacity, who manages it, whether tenants pay to use it, and whether your contractors or only the building's approved contractors may work in it. Also ask where a network room could sit within the suite and whether there is a sensible path from it to the risers. The floor itself matters too. Ask about load limits for heavy equipment and have a structural engineer confirm anything unusual.

Physical security is layered. The building controls the perimeter, the lobby and the elevators. The tenant controls its own doors. A building suited to companies handling sensitive data or valuable equipment typically has controlled entry, visitor procedures, cameras in common areas and a clear protocol for after-hours access. It should also let a tenant install its own access control and cameras within the suite, with reasonable approval.

Pay attention to the landlord's right to enter your space. Leases give landlords access for cleaning, repairs and showings. Companies with secure areas often negotiate notice requirements, escorted access or restricted rooms.

The last factor is the hardest to see on a tour and may matter most: the people. A building with a knowledgeable chief engineer and a property manager who responds quickly will solve problems that excellent infrastructure cannot. One practical test is to send technical questions before you make a proposal and see how fast and how specifically they are answered. Speaking to an existing tenant with similar needs is even better.

1. Write down your technical requirements with your IT lead: connectivity, equipment, hours of operation and security needs.
2. Send each building on your shortlist the same written questions about carriers, power, cooling, risers and security.
3. Tour with your IT lead, and ask to see the electrical room, the telecom entry point and the risers, not only the suite.
4. Confirm carrier availability and installation timing directly with the carriers.
5. For anything beyond ordinary office equipment, have your own engineer review the building's information.
6. Put the rights you are relying on into the letter of intent and the lease, so they do not depend on a verbal assurance.

This kind of diligence is part of how we run a search for technology clients. We ask landlords the technical questions early, so that buildings that cannot support the requirement are ruled out before anyone spends time negotiating.