Commercial
Tenant improvements, finished before the free rent runs out
The tenant improvement allowance is the most misunderstood number in commercial real estate. It looks like money. It behaves like a deadline.
Somewhere in your lease is a date when rent begins whether or not your space is usable. That date does not care about plan review, a discontinued light fixture, or a flooring crew that took a bigger job in Chandler. It arrives, and it starts charging you.
This is where a chain of subcontractors becomes expensive in a way no bid sheet shows. The bid was competitive. The schedule was not. Six weeks of slippage on a suite at market rent is real money, and it is money you spend on nothing at all.
We build TI work with one crew and one schedule, which is the only reliable way to protect a date. It also makes the allowance draw process simple, because there is exactly one company producing the documentation your landlord wants.
Our standards
- Lease work letter reviewed before pricing
- Landlord approval package assembled and submitted by us
- Building rules honored — hours, elevator, staging, roof access
- Progress documentation formatted for allowance draws
- Certificate of occupancy support and final inspection coordination
- Closeout package with warranties and as-built notes
What it costs
Second-generation space with usable bones commonly lands between $15,000 and $55,000. A first-generation shell of any size will use most of the $100,000 ceiling, and we will tell you plainly if your scope belongs to a larger contractor instead. Estimates are line-item, tied to the approved plan set, and structured so allowance-eligible costs are separated from tenant costs.
How we do it
The parts that decide whether this goes well
- 01
We read the lease before we price the work
The work letter tells us what the landlord is obligated to deliver, what counts against your allowance, what has to be removed at the end of the term, and which building standards you are locked into. Reading it first prevents the most common TI disaster: paying out of pocket for something the landlord already owed you.
- 02
Landlord approval, handled as a workflow
Building management wants drawings, insurance certificates, a schedule of hours, and confirmation your contractor understands the rules about the freight elevator and the roof. We assemble that package and chase the approval, because a TI project that stalls in a management office looks exactly like a TI project that stalls in the field.
- 03
Allowance draws that get paid
Lien waivers, progress photos, itemized invoicing tied to the approved scope, and a final closeout package. Landlords release funds when the paperwork is unimpeachable. With a single contractor there is one set of waivers to collect instead of six, which is why our draws tend to clear on the first submission.
- 04
Built for the exit as well as the opening
Restoration obligations at the end of a term have ruined more than one otherwise sensible build-out. We flag anything in the design that will be expensive to remove in five years, and we tell you before it is installed rather than after.
The self-perform difference
The schedule is the deliverable
Ask a tenant what went wrong on their last build-out and almost nobody says the workmanship. They say it took eleven weeks instead of six. Delay is the characteristic failure of subcontracted TI work, because each trade optimizes its own calendar and nobody owns the gaps between them. When one company performs every core scope, the gaps do not exist to be mismanaged. We are not faster because we hurry. We are faster because we removed the waiting.
Scope
Tenant Improvements we handle
- First-generation shell space finish-out
- Second-generation retail and office reconfiguration
- Demising walls and suite subdivision
- Office, conference room and private office framing
- Reception, waiting area and storefront build-out
- Restroom construction and ADA restroom upgrades
- Break room and kitchenette installation
- Ceiling grid, lighting layout and electrical distribution changes
- Commercial flooring, base and wall finishes
- Data and low-voltage rough-in coordination
- Signage backing, blocking and mounting
- End-of-term restoration and demolition to shell
Questions
Tenant Improvements questions we get asked
Yes, and we prefer it. We introduce ourselves, submit our insurance and license documentation, confirm the building rules in writing, and keep management informed as the work progresses. Tenants should not have to relay construction questions between two parties.
Where we do this work
Tenant Improvements across the Valley
Related services
All services
Next step
Bring us the work letter and the floor plan.
We will read both, walk the space, and come back with a line-item estimate and a schedule that shows exactly where your occupancy date lands. Before you commit to a rent start you cannot move.
- Veteran owned and operated
- Written line-item estimate
- A schedule you can hold us to
- Licensed, bonded and insured
No pressure, no financing pitch, no three-hour presentation.
A walk-through takes about forty minutes. You get honest opinions, including which upgrades we think are not worth your money.
Mon–Fri 7–5 · Sat 8–2 · Greater Phoenix metro