Glossary

Common area maintenance (CAM) is one of the operating costs a tenant may pay a share of: according to NAIOP's Commercial Real Estate Terms and Definitions (2024), a tenant's occupancy cost includes rent and 'their pro rata share of any operating costs (e.g., taxes, insurance, common area maintenance).' NAIOP defines common area as the generally accessible areas available for use by all tenants (e.g., washrooms, elevator lobbies and public corridors in an office building), with 'similar structures in an industrial building,' and notes it 'may include parking lot and landscaped areas.' According to NAIOP, a tenant's pro rata expense share is 'usually, but not always, calculated by dividing the net rentable area of a tenant's leased premises by the net rentable area of the building,' and expense stops and other lease terms impact this calculation. NAIOP describes a net lease as one in which the tenant pays a share of operating expenses in addition to the stipulated rent, with disclosure of the specific expenses to be paid directly by the tenant required.

A financial guarantee posted with US Customs and Border Protection ensuring that duties, taxes, and fees will be paid and that imported merchandise complies with all laws and regulations. A single transaction bond secures one customs transaction or activity. A continuous bond secures multiple transactions. Under 19 CFR 113.62, either type may be used for basic importation and entry.

Distance from the floor to the lowest hanging ceiling member or hanging objects, beams, joists or truss work descending into a substantial portion of the industrial work area. NAIOP describes it as the most important measure of the interior height of an industrial building because it defines the minimum height of usable space within the structure. If there are hanging objects, beams or joists below the truss, the clear height will be lower than the truss height.

According to NAIOP's Commercial Real Estate Terms and Definitions (2024), column spacing is 'the distance between posts or vertical supporting beams in a building.' NAIOP's 2012 edition, describing the warehouse section of an industrial building, adds that column spacing 'defines the size of the bay and is usually expressed as width x depth.'

According to NAIOP's Commercial Real Estate Terms and Definitions (2024), a cross dock is 'loading docks on opposite sides of a relatively shallow distribution facility that allow for quick loading, sorting or unloading from one vehicle to another (i.e., materials from one truck at a loading dock are unloaded, sorted and reloaded onto one or more trucks).'

A voluntary U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) trade partnership program in which CBP and members of the trade community work together to secure and facilitate the movement of legitimate international trade. Partners agree to implement certain security procedures throughout their supply chains to protect them from terrorist infiltration and other illegal activities, and partners who undertake these protections receive facilitated processing by CBP. CBP lists program benefits including a reduced number of CBP examinations, front of the line inspections, shorter wait times at the border, and access to the Free and Secure Trade (FAST) Lanes at the land borders. CBP dates the program's inception to November 2001, and states that participation is voluntary with no costs associated with joining.

According to NAIOP's Commercial Real Estate Terms and Definitions (2024), a dock-high door is 'a loading dock door that is not at ground level but is elevated to 4 feet in order to be even with the standard tractor-trailer height for loading or unloading goods without a change in elevation'; NAIOP's 2012 edition says it usually opens at a height of four feet from the truck court level. NAIOP adds that some doors, called 'semi-dock' or 'half dock,' are constructed at a 2-foot height to accommodate smaller or lower delivery trucks.

A customs entry filed on CBP Form 7501 to place imported dutiable merchandise into a bonded warehouse for storage without immediately paying duty. Under 19 CFR 144.12, the 7501 serves as both the entry and entry summary when filed at the time of entry. The importer designates the bonded warehouse on the form and must file the required bond. No estimated duty is deposited at the time of warehouse entry, though Harbor Maintenance Fee is due on type 21 entries. Duty is paid when goods are withdrawn for consumption (entry type 31). Goods may instead be withdrawn for exportation, or destroyed under CBP supervision, without payment of duty; they may also be withdrawn for transportation to another port or warehouse. Under 19 USC 1557 and 19 CFR 144.5, merchandise may remain in a bonded warehouse for up to five years from the date of importation.

A customs entry (CBP Form 7501 entry type code 31, Warehouse Withdrawal – For Consumption) used to withdraw merchandise from a bonded warehouse for consumption. Under 19 CFR 144.38 it is filed on CBP Form 7501 or its electronic equivalent and must show all information for which the form provides spaces, plus the separate value of each package and the total dutiable value of the merchandise withdrawn. Estimated duties are deposited under subpart G of 19 CFR Part 141, and a release permit is issued once duties and other charges are paid and all other requirements are met. Merchandise entered for warehouse is dutiable at the rates in effect when it is withdrawn for consumption (19 CFR 141.69(a)).

Fire sprinklers designed to suppress a high-challenge fire early by delivering high-volume, large-droplet water directly through the fire plume onto the burning fuel surface, rather than merely controlling the fire's spread. The fast-response thermal element activates more quickly to temperature changes, allowing early suppression before the fire grows large. ESFR sprinklers are commonly used in storage occupancies and warehouses with high-piled stock. In many applications they can provide ceiling-only protection, eliminating the need for in-rack sprinklers. NFPA 13 governs ESFR installation requirements.

A code from CBP's Facilities Information and Resources Management System (FIRMS) that identifies the facility or location where imported goods are located; CBP's ACE Cargo Release Implementation Guide formats it as four alphanumeric characters (4AN). Under 19 CFR 18.1(j), within two business days after any portion of an in-bond shipment arrives at the port of destination or the port of exportation, CBP must be notified via a CBP-approved EDI system, and the notification must include the FIRMS code of the location of the merchandise within the port. According to CBP CSMS # 62093369, since August 10, 2024 ACE rejects in-bond arrival transactions submitted without a FIRMS code, for all modes of transportation except air. For warehouse entries (entry type 21 or 22), the ACE Cargo Release Implementation Guide requires the FIRMS code of the CBP bonded warehouse, which must be facility type 04 (Bonded Warehouse), located in the port of entry (or the recognized local port cluster for cross-port processing), and in Active status.

A designated site, licensed by the Foreign-Trade Zones Board (chaired by the Secretary of Commerce), at which special customs procedures may be used; merchandise in a zone is considered outside US customs territory for formal entry procedures only. Merchandise may be brought into a zone and stored, handled, and in some cases manufactured without formal customs entry; a formal entry with duty payment is not made unless and until it is shipped from the zone to the US market. Zones are governed by the Foreign-Trade Zones Act (19 USC 81a–81u), the Board's regulations (15 CFR Part 400) and CBP's regulations (19 CFR Part 146); CBP supervises zone activity. No duty is owed on goods re-exported or on foreign-status components that become scrap or waste, and users may access streamlined procedures such as weekly entry. Where the FTZ Board has authorized production activity in advance, duty on foreign components in a product shipped to the US market generally is payable at the product's rate, unless the components were admitted in privileged foreign status (required, for example, for goods subject to antidumping/countervailing duties). Under 19 USC 81o(e), imported tangible personal property held in a zone for storage, sale, exhibition, repackaging, assembly, distribution, processing, manufacturing or similar purposes, and US-produced property held in a zone for exportation, is exempt from state and local ad valorem taxation.

A property tax exemption some states grant for certain business inventory; eligibility, holding periods and adoption differ by state. In Texas, goods, wares, merchandise, other tangible personal property and ores (other than oil, natural gas and other petroleum products) are exempt from ad valorem taxation by a political subdivision if acquired in or imported into Texas to be forwarded outside the state, detained in Texas for assembling, storing, manufacturing, processing or fabricating by the person who acquired or imported them, and transported out of Texas within 175 days (Tex. Const. art. VIII §1-j; Tax Code §11.251). A taxing unit that acted to tax such property under previous constitutional authority may continue to tax it (§1-j(b); §11.251(i)). Texas's goods-in-transit exemption (Tax Code §11.253) is separate. In Georgia, a county or municipality may, with voter approval, adopt a Level 1 freeport exemption (O.C.G.A. §48-5-48.2) at 20, 40, 60, 80 or 100 percent of inventory value. It covers raw materials and goods in process; Georgia-manufactured finished goods held by the manufacturer for up to 12 months; finished goods stored on January 1 in a warehouse, dock or wharf and destined for shipment outside Georgia, for up to 12 months; and fulfillment-center stock in trade. A Level 2 exemption (O.C.G.A. §48-5-48.6) can reach other business inventory. Georgia applicants file with the county board of tax assessors in each year the exemption is sought (O.C.G.A. §48-5-48.1).

For cargo arriving by vessel, the ISF Importer or authorized agent must submit required data elements to CBP via an approved electronic system, giving rise to the common name '10+2'. The '10' refers to ten importer data elements: eight — seller, buyer, importer of record number, consignee, manufacturer, ship-to party, country of origin, and six-digit HTSUS number — are due 24 hours before vessel loading at the foreign port, and two additional elements — container stuffing location and consolidator — are due as early as possible, no later than 24 hours prior to arrival in a US port. The '+2' refers to two carrier-filed elements: vessel stow plan and container status messages (19 CFR 4.7c and 4.7d).

A commercial lease in which the tenant pays base rent plus property taxes, insurance, and maintenance, as well as all operating costs associated with the tenant's occupancy including utilities and janitorial services. Under NAIOP's 2024 definition, the landlord is typically responsible for the roof, HVAC, structure, and sometimes the parking lot.

Under 19 CFR 146.41, foreign merchandise in a foreign-trade zone that has not been manipulated or manufactured so as to effect a change in tariff classification will be given privileged foreign status on proper application to the port director, made on Customs Form 214 when applying for admission to the zone or at any time thereafter before such a change in tariff classification. Under 19 CFR 146.65(a)(1), privileged foreign merchandise is classified according to its character, condition and quantity at the rate of duty and tax in force on the date the application for privileged status is filed in complete and proper form (merchandise subject to a tariff-rate import quota is classified only at the higher non-quota rate in effect on the date status was granted, and CBP may still correct a misclassification at liquidation). CBP states that when such merchandise is transferred from the zone for U.S. consumption, either in its original state or after manipulation or manufacture, duties and taxes are paid based on the rate established when privileged foreign status was granted. The status cannot be abandoned and remains applicable even if the merchandise is changed in form by manipulation or manufacture (except recoverable waste) as long as it remains within the purview of the Foreign-Trade Zones Act, and the merchandise may be exported or withdrawn for supplies, equipment, or repair material of vessels or aircraft without payment of duties and taxes (19 CFR 146.41(e)).

An industry standard published by TAPA (Transported Asset Protection Association), a not-for-profit industry association (TAPA EMEA says it was founded in 1997), that defines security requirements for facilities such as warehouse operations and distribution centers. TAPA EMEA states that the FSR Standard "offers three levels of certification by the Association's approved Independent Audit Bodies (IABs) as well as a Self-Certification option" and is reviewed every 3 years. TAPA Americas publishes the "TAPA FSR 2026 Global Standard" and describes it as "a common global Standard that can be used in business/security agreements between Buyers and Logistics Service Providers (LSPs) and/or other Applicants seeking Certification."

In GSA's federal leasing program, tenant improvements (TIs) are 'the finishes and fixtures that typically take space from the shell condition to a finished, usable condition,' leaving space that is complete, meets applicable building codes, and meets the customer agency's functional needs. GSA's TI allowance is 'the funding source that enables the space to be built out for occupancy to meet a customer agency's specific requirements,' with a general and a customization component. GSA notes that a TI allowance 'is commonplace in the commercial real estate market'; the GSA definitions above describe federal space assignments, not private leases.

According to NAIOP's Commercial Real Estate Terms and Definitions (2024), the truck court is the exterior area adjacent to an industrial building's loading docks where trucks maneuver, and its most important measure is the depth from the building to the end of the truck court; greater depth allows for greater maneuverability and better accommodates multiple trucks. NAIOP adds that a building's truck court must be deep enough to accommodate a typical truck's turning radius under expected operating conditions. NAIOP's Industrial Building Types Matrix lists a 130-foot truck court depth for every industrial building type except data centers (n/a), noting that 'the truck court depth may depend on size; however, industry standard is 130 feet of space in a truck court for all types.'