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Pad Site Ground Rent Calculator

Pad sites typically ground lease — tenant builds and maintains the building, pays land rent to the landlord. Rent escalates periodically (often 10% every 5 years). This calculator sizes year-1 rent, future-year rent after escalation, and implied pad site value at a ground lease cap rate.

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Year 1 ground rent

$70,000

After first escalation

$77,000

After second escalation

$84,700

Implied pad site value

$1,272,727

Rent per acre / year

$0

How the math works

Pad sites (Starbucks, Chick-fil-A, banks) are typically ground leased — tenant builds their own shell, pays ground rent. Rent escalates periodically (often 10% every 5 years). Landlord retains land ownership and reversion at lease end — usually 20+ years.

Ground-leased pad sites trade at cap rates 50-150 bps above the anchor building — lower risk (no building maintenance) but also lower yield. Cap rates 4-6% on credit-tenant pad leases are common.

How to Use

  1. Enter pad SF (land area).
  2. Enter ground rent per SF of land per year.
  3. Enter escalation percent and period in years.
  4. Enter the ground lease cap rate.
  5. Read year 1, escalated rents, and implied value.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why ground lease vs sell?

Landlord keeps the land appreciation and reversion; tenant avoids land acquisition capital. On credit-tenant deals (Chick-fil-A 20-year NNN ground lease), ground leasing is a near-bond-like income stream with land backing.

Escalation structures?

10% every 5 years is the most common. Some use CPI-indexed (more volatile). Long leases often include a mark-to-market reset at year 15 or 20 based on appraisal.

Reversion value?

At lease end, building usually reverts to landlord (or is removed at tenant's cost). Factor 20-30 year reversion at discount rate — typically adds 5-15% to the value above the ground rent capitalized value.

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