The Warehouse Floor | Architecture & Permitting: What Warehouse Tenants Need to Know
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Most tenants assume a warehouse is a warehouse—four walls, a roof, and enough clear height to stack product. The reality is that architecture, building code, and permitting quietly determine what you can actually do in a space, and those constraints often surface after a lease is signed, when changing course is expensive.
In this episode of The Warehouse Floor, Matt Osowski sits down with Mark Ours of Mode Architects, to walk through the architectural and permitting barriers warehouse tenants run into most often. Mark founded Mode Architects in 2008 after more than two decades of practice with a large international design firm and brings over 25 years of experience navigating building code, occupancy permits, and design decisions that directly affect how and where a tenant can operate. He explains what triggers a new certificate of occupancy, who carries that responsibility, and why high-piled storage classifications, construction type, and sprinkler requirements can make two seemingly identical buildings function very differently.
The conversation also covers the practical side of tenant improvements: how design professionals help establish realistic cost estimates before numbers get locked into a lease, how to manage a TI allowance so it covers what it needs to, and why bringing an architect into the process early can save time and significant unplanned costs. Mark's central point reframes how tenants, brokers, and landlords should evaluate industrial space from the first tour forward.
For business owners, tenant reps, and anyone evaluating industrial space, this episode fills a gap that rarely gets addressed until it becomes a problem. Whether you're leasing industrial space in Columbus, planning a build-out, or trying to understand why a space that looks right on paper may not support your operation, this conversation delivers the intelligence that matters.
Watch the full episode to learn what to verify before you sign and how to avoid the code and permitting surprises that derail otherwise good deals.
