A 12 story building in downtown Austin has a food hall and pharmacy on floors one and two, co-working offices on floors three through six, and 180 apartments on floors seven through twelve. Three tenant types. Three lease structures. Three billing calendars. Three regulatory frameworks. One general ledger that has to make all of it add up by the fifth business day of every month.
That is mixed-use property management one of the fastest-growing asset classes in commercial real estate, projected to outperform standalone retail and office assets through 2030, according to industry analysts tracking mixed-use investment trends. Yet most PM software was built for a single asset class. Residential platforms collapse when a retail tenant's lease includes percentage rent. Commercial platforms have no concept of a 12-month fixed residential lease.
NetSuite solves this by treating mixed-use complexity as a data architecture problem. Its multi-entity structure, flexible revenue recognition engine, and segment-level reporting let you manage every tenant type and billing rule inside one ERP without forcing one asset class into a template designed for another.
For a full overview, see our pillar guide: NetSuite for Real Estate and Property Management Companies.
Mixed-use properties are not commercial buildings that happen to include apartments. They impose layered complexity across every dimension of property management.
Retail tenants
operate under triple-net (NNN) leases - base rent plus pro-rata property taxes, insurance, and CAM. Many also pay percentage rent when gross sales exceed a breakpoint. The standard retail percentage rate hovers around 6–7%. Terms run 5–10 years.
Commercial office tenants
sign gross or modified gross leases. Under a gross lease, one all-inclusive payment covers everything. Under modified gross, the tenant's base year sets a cost baseline; increases above it are passed through annually. Terms run 3–7 years.
Residential tenants
sign 12-month fixed leases at a flat monthly rate. Operating costs are baked into the rent. The complexity is regulatory state-specific deposit limits, late fee caps, eviction procedures, and habitability standards that don't apply to commercial tenants.
Managing all three means your ERP must handle NNN pass-throughs, gross lease escalations, percentage rent calculations, and fixed residential billing without conflating any of them.
AppFolio and Buildium excel at residential but don't support NNN structures, CAM reconciliation, or percentage rent. Yardi and MRI handle commercial complexity but their residential capabilities are separate modules requiring additional licensing. None natively consolidate retail, residential, and commercial financials into one general ledger with segment-level reporting.
The result: operators run two or three separate systems with reconciliation headaches, or force one tenant type into a platform designed for another with billing errors.
Not every mixed-use operator needs NetSuite. If you manage a single property with fewer than 50 units and a simple tenant mix - two retail tenants and 30 apartments - a simpler platform covers you fine. The complexity that justifies NetSuite kicks in with multiple mixed-use properties, different legal entities per asset class, CAM reconciliation across dozens of commercial tenants, or reporting to multiple lenders. If your month-end close involves stitching three spreadsheets together, you've crossed the threshold.
The financial architecture of a mixed-use property is defined by its lease structures.
The tenant pays base rent plus three categories of operating expenses: property taxes, building insurance, and CAM. The landlord charges estimated monthly amounts, then performs an annual reconciliation comparing estimates against actuals. If estimates were low, the tenant owes the shortfall. If high, they receive a credit.
NNN leases are the standard for retail tenants in multi-tenant properties, giving landlords more predictable net income.
Many retail tenants also pay percentage rent on top of NNN, triggered when gross sales exceed a breakpoint:
Natural breakpoint
Annual base rent ÷ percentage rate. A tenant paying $120,000/year at 6% has a natural breakpoint of $2,000,000. They pay 6% of every dollar above that.
Artificial breakpoint
A negotiated figure unrelated to base rent. For example, 5% of gross sales above $800,000.
The ERP must accept sales reports, compare against the breakpoint, and calculate overage accurately.
Under a gross lease, the tenant pays one flat amount covering rent plus all operating expenses. Most common in Class A office and multi-tenant office buildings.
Modified gross includes base-year operating costs in rent but passes through increases. If Year 1 expenses are $12/sqft and Year 3 rises to $14/sqft, the tenant pays the $2/sqft increase on top of base rent.
Fixed monthly amount, defined term (usually 12 months), all operating expenses included. No pass-throughs, no reconciliation. The complexity is regulatory, not structural.
| Dimension | Retail NNN | Retail % Rent | Office Gross | Residential |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base Rent | $/sqft/year | $/sqft + % overage | All-inclusive $/sqft | Flat monthly |
| OpEx Responsibility | Tenant (tax, ins, CAM) | Tenant + sales share | Landlord (included) | Landlord (included) |
| Typical Term | 5–10 years | 5–10 years | 3–7 years | 12 months |
| Annual Reconciliation | Yes (CAM) | Yes (CAM + sales) | Base-year escalation | None |
| Revenue Recognition | Straight-line | Variable + straight-line | Straight-line | Monthly as earned |
This is where NetSuite's architecture earns its keep. Instead of forcing every lease into one template, it uses subsidiaries, classes, departments, and locations to create parallel financial structures inside a single database.
NetSuite OneWorld supports up to 125 subsidiaries per account. A common mixed-use approach:
Each subsidiary carries its own chart of accounts, tax nexus, and currency. Shared building expenses are allocated through Automated Intercompany Management, which creates elimination entries during consolidation.
Even under a single legal entity, NetSuite's Class and Location fields tag every transaction by tenant type and physical floor. Set Classes as "Retail," "Office," "Residential" and Locations as floor ranges. Every invoice, vendor bill, and journal entry gets tagged at the line level granular reporting without separate books.
Retail NNN
Recurring invoices with base rent + separate line items for estimated CAM, tax, and insurance. Each posts to its own revenue account.
Office gross
Single recurring invoice covering all-inclusive rent. Escalation clauses auto-apply at each anniversary date.
Residential
Flat monthly invoices on simple recurring schedules. Late fees automated through SuiteFlow workflows triggered on payment aging.
CAM reconciliation is one of the most painful processes in mixed-use management. BOMA International and IREM consistently identify it as a leading driver of landlord-tenant disputes.
Retail NNN tenants pay full pro-rata CAM. Office modified gross tenants may only pay increases above base year. Residential tenants pay nothing those costs are in their rent. The CAM pool denominator must exclude (or include) residential square footage depending on lease language. Getting this wrong by even a few percentage points triggers disputes and audit findings.
CAM expenses are tracked in dedicated recoverable accounts segregated by category: janitorial, landscaping, parking, snow removal, security, utilities, and management fees. At reconciliation, actual expenses are pulled from those accounts. Pro-rata shares are calculated per lease terms using saved searches or custom reports - though most operators use SuiteApps for full automation.
SuiteApps extend this further. CloudTamers' Cost Allocation Module groups units into time-restricted schedules, creates itemized budgets, and reconciles actuals against billed provisions to generate a balancing credit or invoice per tenant. Propertese offers multiple allocation methods (equal, proportional by sqft, custom formulas) with automated reconciliation.
Different lease types follow different recognition rules all must be correct simultaneously in the same financial statements.
Under GAAP, operating lease revenue is recognized straight-line over the term, even if cash payments vary. If a retail tenant signs a 5-year lease at $20/sqft for Years 1–2 and $24/sqft for Years 3–5, you recognize $22/sqft per year throughout. The difference is tracked as deferred rent receivable in early years and reduced later.
NetSuite's Advanced Revenue Management (ARM) automates this - define rules and schedules, and NetSuite posts straight-line adjustments each period.
Under ASC 606, percentage rent is treated as variable consideration. When the tenant has reliable sales history, best practice is to estimate and accrue monthly rather than booking a lump sum when reported — subject to the constraint that a significant revenue reversal is not probable.
In practice: Your anchor restaurant has a $2,000,000 natural breakpoint at 6%. Last year's sales were $2,800,000, so you estimate $800,000 overage generating $48,000 in annual percentage rent. You accrue $4,000/month. When Q1 sales reports show $780,000 (annualizing to $3,120,000), you adjust up to $5,600/month. Year-end true-up posts the final adjustment. NetSuite tracks every step estimate, quarterly adjustment, annual true-up with a full audit trail.
Recognized monthly as earned. Concessions (one month free on a 12- month lease) require straight-line treatment: 11 months of rent spread over 12. NetSuite's recognition templates handle this automatically.
All three recognition methods inside one ERP means your income statement reflects total rental revenue with drill-downs by class. Auditors get a clean trail from lease terms to revenue schedules to journal entries - all in one system.
The CFO doesn't want three financial packages stitched together in Excel. They want one set of financials with the ability to slice by tenant type, floor, entity, or any dimension that matters.
NetSuite generates P&L statements by any combination of subsidiary, class, department, and location. Produce a property-level P&L, then drill into retail-only, office-only, or residential-only views with a single filter. No pivot tables, no manual consolidation.
For deeper coverage, see our guide: NetSuite Real Estate Dashboards and KPI Reporting.
NetSuite's saved searches compute NOI in real time with variance analysis against budget. This is the number your lenders care about - it should never require a spreadsheet.
Mixed-use properties often have different lenders per component. NetSuite produces lender-specific packages filtered by subsidiary or class, ensuring each sees exactly the financials they're entitled to.
Mixed-use properties sit at the intersection of multiple regulatory regimes.
State laws dictate security deposit limits (often one to two months' rent), notice periods for termination or increases (30–60 days), late fee caps, and habitability disclosures. These don't apply to commercial tenants, but a mixed-use operator must enforce them on residential floors while operating commercial floors under a completely different framework.
Governed by the lease agreement, not landlord-tenant statutes. Key obligations: CAM reconciliation accuracy (tenants have audit rights in most NNN leases), percentage rent verification (landlords audit tenant sales records), and timely statement delivery within 90–120 days after year-end.
Some states tax commercial rents but exempt residential. The retail component may also generate sales tax on CAM pass-throughs. NetSuite's SuiteTax module manages these distinctions by associating tax codes with item types and customer records CAM charges carry correct tax treatment while residential invoices do not.
If you're the lessee on ground leases CAM
es or equipment leases within the building, ASC 842 requires right-of-use asset and liability recognition. Once configured, NetSuite tracks lease classification, discount rate, and amortization alongside tenant-facing revenue — all within the same financial close.
Entity structure: Three subsidiaries (Retail LLC, Office LLC, Residential LLC) under a holding company. Intercompany transactions handle shared costs - elevators, lobby, structural insurance.
Revenue accounts: Separate GL accounts for retail base rent, CAM recovery, percentage rent, office gross rent, escalation income, residential rent, and late fees. Each mapped to a class and location.
Billing: Retail NNN invoices on the 1st with base rent + estimated CAM/tax/insurance lines. Percentage rent accrued quarterly, trued up annually. Office invoices monthly with auto-escalation at anniversary. Residential invoices flat on the 1st.
CAM reconciliation: Year-end actuals totaled from recoverable accounts. Retail pro-rata calculated against 38,000 sqft leasable area. Office escalations calculated against each tenant's base year. Residential excluded from CAM pool.
Books closed in four days. Automated bank reconciliation handles deposits. Rev rec journals post straight-line adjustments. Intercompany eliminations run automatically. CFO reviews consolidated P&L with segment drill-downs — no spreadsheets, no formulas to audit.
Q1. Can NetSuite manage mixed-use properties with retail, office, and residential tenants simultaneously?
Yes. Its subsidiary and segmentation framework lets you run NNN, gross, modified gross, and fixed residential leases inside one database with segment-level reporting.
Q2. How does NetSuite handle CAM reconciliation for mixed-use buildings?
Actual expenses tracked in recoverable accounts, pro-rata shares calculated by sqft, and SuiteApps like CloudTamers and Propertese automate reconciliation with credit/invoice generation per tenant.
Q3. Can NetSuite calculate percentage rent for retail tenants?
Yes - configure the breakpoint (natural or artificial), percentage rate, and reporting cadence. Sales reports are compared against the breakpoint and overage is invoiced.
Q4. How does revenue recognition work differently for each tenant type?
Retail/office escalations use straight-line via ARM. Percentage rent is variable consideration with periodic true-ups. Residential recognized monthly as earned. All three run simultaneously in the same GL.
Q5. What platforms integrate with NetSuite for mixed-use?
RIOO (full PM for commercial and residential), CloudTamers (lease management + CAM), and Propertese (CAM management + NetSuite integration).