Know the Biggest Small-Bay Building Your Parcel Can Take
Start from one front-load small-bay building that sizes itself to your parcel, with a truck court on the front and a perimeter truck loop. You see the building area and dock count before you make an offer.
Will a Small-Bay Industrial Building Fit My Site?
TestFit is real estate feasibility software that generates site plans on your parcel and calculates what they yield. For a single front-load small-bay building, the answer comes down to three things that are hard to judge from a parcel map.
Small parcels, tight margins
On a smaller site, setbacks and an irregular property line decide whether the building lands near 37k sf or stretches toward 57k sf.
One face does double duty
Front-load means dock doors, the truck court and tenant parking all share one side. If that side runs short on depth, the building gives up area to make room.
The loop costs building area
A truck loop around a single building gives trucks a clean way in and out, but the drive takes land on every side that the building could have used.
From Your Parcel to a Deal You Can Underwrite
Start from the front-load small-bay building your team would build, tune it to your standards, and finish with one model for the site, plan, tabulation and pro forma.
Your parcel and its constraints
- Site boundary: pick the parcel from built-in parcel data with current owner info, draw it, enter metes and bounds, or import a KML/KMZ file
- Setbacks and frontage: front, side and rear setbacks set to the parcel edges
- Zoning: FAR, building and impervious coverage, height limits and parking ratios, pulled in for your parcel so you don't have to dig through the zoning code
- Easements: areas the layout keeps buildings out of
- Site conditions: flood zones, wetlands and topography from Site Intelligence
Every layout starts inside your site's real constraints.
Your product, fine-tuned on the site
- Product: 1 front-load small-bay building, 28 ft clear, flexible size from 37k to 57k sf
- Site layout: docks and truck court on the front, car parking, perimeter truck loop
- Your edits: building size, units, docks, court, parking and circulation
You see the building your team would propose, on your parcel.
A source of truth for the deal
- Site plan geometry: buildings, courts, parking and drives drawn to the parcel
- Tabulation for this product: building sf, dock doors, trailer and car stalls against what's required, site coverage and FAR
- Earthwork: cut and fill for the layout
- Financials: the geometry turned into development costs, revenue and returns
- Shareable results: a link or PDF report for your team, partners and other stakeholders
You know whether the deal works, with numbers to back it.
TestFit is transformational. We've shaved days off of our analysis by using the AI capabilities of this software, which allows us to make smarter decisions faster.
Front-Load Small-Bay Site Planning FAQ
What is a front-load small-bay industrial building?
A shallow multi-tenant industrial building split into smaller units, with dock doors and the truck court on the front. Each tenant gets its own loading and office on the same face.
Should I test one flexible building or a mix of sizes?
One flexible building suits a smaller parcel that holds a single building, sized to the site within 37k to 57k sf. The Mixed Sizes layout suits a larger site that can hold several buildings.
How much land does a small-bay building need?
Enough for the building, a truck court and car parking on the front, and a drive around it. Frontage and parcel shape matter as much as acreage. Load your parcel in TestFit with this layout to see the building size it supports.
How does a flexible building size work?
The layout holds one front-load small-bay building type that sizes itself to the parcel, from 37k to 57k sf, with its truck court, parking and truck loop. You can push the building larger after it generates.
Can I change the layout after it generates?
Yes. Start from this layout, then edit the building, units, docks, parking and circulation in TestFit. The site plan and yield recalculate as you go.
Find it in TestFit
Test This Layout on Your Next Industrial Site
Load your parcel and get the site plan, yield, and costs in one place.