When renting a store, how are rents quoted? I see things like $21.?

Generally, commercial space is rented / leased by square footage per year. So in the example you provided of $21, this would represent a quote of $21 per square foot per year.

So if you were looking to rent / lease 1,000 square foot (pretty small retail space, but easy for this example), you would be paying $21,000 per year or monthly rental payments of $1,750.

The important thing when comparing property prices is to look at what is included with the price. i.e. utilities, cleaning service, parking, cost of build out, etc. This will vary from place to place and can have a huge impact on your final cost.

All commercial rents are by the Square Foot. $21.00 rate would be per square foot as everyone has mentioned. there are also other factors to consider and that's the price of Common Area Maintenance or CAM. The $21.00 will either be with or without CAM. Some leases are Triple Net which is CAM Taxes and Insurance that is charged by the management company, or you can do a gross lease which is the CAM built into the price per Square Foot. so even if they quote you $21.00 it might be in addition to CAM which can run anywhere from $1.80 to $4.00 per square foot depending on the size and condition of the center, Class A retail space will cost you more in CAM because of the cost of general upkeep, a Class B or C retail center might be a lot less in CAM.

In California the standard lease amount is around $1.75 to 2.50 per sq. ft. and a lot of these are triple net leases.

Not sure what you are looking at. So if you have a lease at lets say $2.50 per sq. ft. times a 1500 sq. ft. building then the monthly amount would be $3750.00 per month plus Net. Net. There is also a percentage of your gross revenue. And also for any increase of utilities and maintenance needed.

In square feet.Say you were looking at a space of 1000 sq. ft. you multiply $21.00 by 1000 and divide it by 12(months in a year) that will be your rent.

the posters above are very correct but do not forget that does not include c.a.m. fees ( common area ) which can be $4-$5 a square on top of that ( your local area may vary on the amount )

In most states,especially in a mall,it's by the square foot.

Generally, in dollars per square foot per month or per year.