We signed the lease in March and were serving customers in June. LNB walked the space with our drawings before we committed and told us exactly what the landlord's work letter did not cover.
Marisol Vega
Owner · Independent Cafe
Services
Commercial Build Out Contractor
A commercial build out contractor turns a shell, or whatever the last tenant walked away from, into a space you can open in. The framing is never the hard part. The permit, the landlord's work letter and getting trades on site in the right order are what decide your opening date.
- Licensed Texas General Contractor
- Bonded & Insured
- Workers’ Comp Carried
- BBB Accredited A+
- NARI Member
- On Site In All 50 States
- Escrow Services Available
One Thing, In All Fifty States
A commercial build out is the interior construction that turns leased space into a working business. LNB does that, and only that, in all fifty states.
If you’ve got a shell, a set of brand standards or a floor plan, and a date you need to be open by, that’s the job. We price it line by line, permit it, build it, and hand it over with the certificate of occupancy in your hand.
We don’t pour foundations and we don’t build subdivisions. Interior work in leased space is the whole business, which is why you get a line-item bid instead of a range, one project manager instead of a rotating cast, and a schedule built backwards from the date your permit is issued.
- 20+
- Years In Business
- 250,000+
- Square Feet Built
- 50
- States On Site
- 17+
- Locations Delivered
What “Build Out” Actually Covers
People use the phrase to mean three different things. Here is what a landlord, a broker and a contractor each mean, so you know which one you are buying. Most of our work is warm shell and second generation, and both of those hide surprises. The walkthrough is where we find them.
- Cold Dark Shell
- Four walls, a slab, a roof, and a power stub at the property line. No HVAC, no interior anything. Costs the most, because you are building everything.
- Warm Lit Shell
- Also called a vanilla box. Conditioned space, basic lighting, a finished restroom, sometimes a demising wall. Middle of the range: you are building your layout on top of a working base.
- Second Generation Space
- The last tenant’s build-out, still standing. Sometimes a gift, often not. Cheapest if the layout suits you, expensive if it does not, because demo costs money before construction starts.
- Full Build Out Condition
- Landlord delivers the space substantially finished to your plan. Rare, and priced into the rent. Least construction, highest rent.
Who Hires Us For A Commercial Build Out
- Franchisees on location one, or location twelve
- Independent restaurant and coffee shop owners
- Retail chains rolling out new stores
- Dental and medical practices opening or relocating
- Med spas, gyms, salons and wellness studios
- Professional services firms taking new office space
- Property owners preparing second-generation space for a new tenant
What Makes An LNB Build Out Different
The bid is a number, not a range.
Every trade broken out on a schedule of values. You can see exactly where the money goes, which means you can also see what to cut if you need to.
We price the surprises before they are surprises.
Panel capacity, existing plumbing, slab conditions, roof rights, ADA path of travel from the parking lot. Those get inspected during the walkthrough and priced into the bid, not issued as change orders in month two.
One project manager.
Not a rotating cast. The person who walked the space with you is the person who calls you every week.
We bill in the format your money needs.
AIA G702 and G703 certified payment applications. Whether the money is coming from an SBA lender, a bank construction loan, or a landlord’s TI allowance, they all know how to read those forms and they all release faster when they get them.
What A Build Out Costs
Per square foot is the wrong unit and everyone uses it anyway. Four things move the number more than the size of the space does.
Shell condition.
Cold dark shell, warm lit shell or second generation. The difference between the first and the last is most of the budget, and it is decided by the lease rather than by you.
Mechanical load.
Hoods, make-up air, medical gas, vacuum and dedicated exhaust. This is why a restaurant or a dental practice costs a multiple of a retail store of the same size.
Square footage, in reverse.
Small spaces cost more per foot, not less. General conditions, mobilisation, permits and supervision do not shrink in proportion to the floor plate.
Schedule.
Overtime, weekend work and expedited materials are all buyable. A compressed schedule can add 10 to 20 percent, and it is worth knowing that before you promise a date.
Things people forget entirely: design and engineering fees, permit and impact fees, furniture and equipment, IT and cabling, signage and its permit, and a contingency.
From Empty Shell To Open Doors
Drag any handle. On the left, a space in the condition a landlord hands it over in. On the right, a finished interior a business can trade out of.
ShellFinished
ShellFinished
ShellFinishedHow A Build Out Runs
Walkthrough And Scope
We walk it with you and read the work letter. You get a written scope with the exclusions listed plainly, which is the document most disagreements later turn on.
Budget And Bid
A line-item number by trade. Not a range, not a square-foot rule of thumb, and every allowance stated as an allowance rather than buried as a price.
Permits And Drawings
Drawing set, submittal, plan review comments and the permit. Permitting is the single most common reason a build-out slips, so it is treated as the critical path.
Construction
Demo through fixtures, with a weekly written report and photographs. One project manager and one phone number the whole way through.
Punch List And Handover
We walk the list with you and close it before we ask for the final draw. Closeout documents, warranties, as-builts and the certificate of occupancy.
What Owners Say Afterwards
The part that matters is not the bid. It is whether the space opened when they said it would.
Our lender wanted G702s and a schedule of values, not a lump sum. LNB billed the way the bank expected from the first draw, so nothing stalled in underwriting.
Dev Ramaswamy
Franchisee · Fitness Franchise
Four units in three states and every one of them looks like the prototype. That is the part I could never get from hiring a different contractor in each market.
Alicia Brenner
Director of Development · Multi-Site Retail Brand
One superintendent, one number to call, weekly progress against the schedule. We were paying rent on a dark store and they knew it.
Tomasz Kowal
Managing Partner · Retail Group
The permit run in our jurisdiction is where these projects usually die. They tracked it and told us where it sat every week instead of going quiet.
Renée Okafor
Practice Manager · Dental Practice
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Build Out FAQ
What is a build out in construction?
It’s the interior construction work that makes a leased commercial space usable for a specific tenant’s business. It starts after the landlord delivers the space and ends when you get a certificate of occupancy.
What does “full build out” mean in commercial real estate?
It means the space is delivered, or will be delivered, substantially complete and ready for the tenant’s furniture and equipment, rather than as a shell. In a lease listing, “full build out condition” is a selling point and it’s priced into the rent.
Is a build out the same as a tenant improvement?
Yes. Tenant improvement is the real estate industry term. Build-out is what tenants and contractors say. Finish-out is the Texas and Midwest version.
Do I need an architect?
For anything with plumbing, structural or life-safety changes, almost always, and most jurisdictions require sealed drawings for permit anyway. If you don’t have one, we’ll bring one in. Small cosmetic scopes sometimes don’t need it.
Can you build out multiple locations at once?
Yes. That’s a large part of what we do, and it is the reason franchisees come to us for location three after somebody else built location two.
How do I know what my landlord is responsible for?
It’s in the work letter, which is usually an exhibit to the lease. Send it to us with the bid request and we’ll tell you what it actually commits them to. Those documents are often vaguer than tenants realise.
Next step
You Signed The Lease. Let's Get It Open.
Send us the space and the brand standards. You'll get a walkthrough scheduled inside 48 hours and a real number. Not a range, not a “starting at.”
No obligation. No pressure. If we're not the right builder for your project, we'll tell you on the call.
info@lnbconstruction.net
