Retail Rent Affordability Calculator
See whether rent leaves enough room to operate: total rent burden, rent as a percent of sales, and sales needed to make the deal work.
PARKER & ASSOCIATES, INC.
May 21, 2026
Retail real estate brokerage · DRE #00836385 · Lake Forest, CA · (949) 796-7275 · leasing@digitalre.com
Retail Rent Affordability Calculator
Deal underwriting summary
Assumptions
| Concept | Fast casual |
| Suite | 2,400 SF |
| Base rent | $48.00 / SF / yr |
| NNN | $12.00 / SF / yr |
| Free rent | 3 months |
| TI | $25 / SF |
| Term | 7 yrs at 3% escalation |
| Sales projection | $1,500,000 / yr ($625 / SF) |
Broker read
Does this rent leave enough room to operate?
9.6% of sales would go to rent and NNN. That sits inside the usual 7% – 11% range for fast casual. Workable if the sales projection holds.
Plain-English rent check
About $12,000 per month before utilities, payroll, inventory, debt service, and owner profit.
This is a percentage: annual base rent plus NNN divided by annual sales.
At that sales level, rent lands at the top of the normal 7% – 11% range for fast casual.
First number is landlord base rent. Second is NNN/CAM: taxes, insurance, common area, and similar charges.
Why the percent matters
Average ticket, lunch + dinner mix, and patio quality matter as much as base rent.
Rent share means base rent plus NNN divided by annual sales. Lower is safer because more revenue is left for labor, inventory, debt service, marketing, and owner profit.
What to do next
Confirm the sales projection with operator references
Even an in-range deal collapses if the AUV assumption is too aggressive for the trade area.
Validate NNN against center type
Push for an audit right and a 5% controllable expense cap before signing.
How to read the output
A starting point. Not a substitute for a tour, a comp set, or a lease review.
The verdict and the score are calibrated against the ranges Parker & Associates, Inc. uses to underwrite Orange County retail deals. Inside the band is workable; outside is a conversation worth having before LOI.
The recommendations are ranked by likely impact, not by what is easiest to fix. The biggest unlock is usually a single change, not five.
When the deal is real, send the output to Parker & Associates. Every tool has a one-click handoff that sends the inputs and the read along with it.
Talk to Parker & AssociatesUse this with local market pages
Pair the output with the corridor that matters.
Related retail uses