Office Buildouts & Tenant Improvements

A tenant improvement is the construction work that turns leased commercial space into a usable office for a specific tenant — framing offices and meeting rooms, electrical and mechanical work, data cabling, lighting, flooring, and finishes. It is permitted, inspected construction, not just cosmetic decorating, and it is what takes a white box or a previous tenant's layout and makes it yours.

A TI allowance is the amount per square foot your landlord contributes toward the buildout, negotiated into your lease. It rarely covers everything you want, and the gap is yours to fund. The lease also dictates how the allowance is paid out and what counts against it. We scope your space against the allowance early so you know your real out-of-pocket cost before you commit, not after the walls are up.

A white box (or vanilla shell) is a clean, mostly empty space — finished perimeter walls, a ceiling grid, a basic HVAC stub, and a panel, but no interior offices, cabling, or finishes. A second-generation space comes with the previous tenant's layout, which you may reuse, modify, or demolish. White boxes give you a blank slate but usually cost more to finish; second-generation spaces can save money if the existing layout fits your needs.

It depends on the size and complexity of the space, the condition of the shell, and how long permitting and landlord approvals take — those approvals often drive the schedule more than the construction itself. A straightforward suite moves quickly once permitted; a full floor with heavy MEP work takes longer. We build the schedule backward from your required move-in date and tell you early if it is tight, rather than quoting a generic timeline.

Yes. We assemble and submit the permit package, manage plan-review comments, and carry the project through inspections. Commercial work follows the Florida Building Code and its accessibility provisions, so ADA routes and restrooms, egress and occupancy requirements, and fire and life-safety details are designed in from the start — which is what keeps a buildout from stalling at plan review or failing an inspection.

Often, yes. For occupied or phased spaces we stage the work in zones, run the loud and dusty trades after hours where the building allows it, and keep clean, safe paths so your team keeps working while we build around them. We plan the phasing with you up front so the disruption is contained and predictable rather than a daily surprise.

We plan HVAC zoning around how the space is actually used, so a packed conference room, a row of private offices, and a server closet are not all fighting over one thermostat. We also set up after-hours setbacks and run schedules so you are not heating or cooling an empty floor overnight, which keeps both comfort complaints and energy bills down.

Yes, and it is often what keeps the project on schedule. Commercial leases specify who approves plans, which contractors and engineers are acceptable, what insurance is required, and what building hours and access rules apply. We handle that coordination directly — plan approvals, certificates of insurance, freight-elevator and after-hours scheduling — so it does not become your second job.

Yes. Office work sits alongside our retail and restaurant buildouts under our commercial group, so if your project mixes uses — an office over a storefront, or a hospitality component — we can carry the whole thing as one coordinated team rather than splitting it across contractors.