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
Office Build Out Contractor
An office build out contractor is solving a layout problem, an acoustics problem and a data problem at once, inside a landlord's building rules and a work letter that caps what you actually get.
- Licensed Texas General Contractor
- Bonded & Insured
- Workers’ Comp Carried
- BBB Accredited A+
- NARI Member
- On Site In All 50 States
- Escrow Services Available
Layout, Acoustics And Data
An office build-out is a layout problem, an acoustics problem and a data problem, wrapped in a landlord’s building rules and a rent commencement date.
LNB Construction builds office space. Class A suites, creative office, professional services, multi-tenant floors and single-tenant buildings. We coordinate with your architect, your landlord’s property manager and your IT vendor, and we hand over a floor that works on day one.
Office lands in the middle of the cost range, above open retail and below restaurant and medical. What moves it is private office count, glass front systems, conference AV, ceiling type, and whether the base building HVAC can serve your layout without new equipment.
- 20+
- Years In Business
- 250,000+
- Square Feet Built
- 50
- States On Site
- 17+
- Locations Delivered
Office Build Out Scope
Nine areas. The first four are what plan review looks at and the last five are what your people will notice every day.
- Demising And Partitions
- Demising walls to deck where the landlord requires it, private offices, conference rooms, huddle rooms and phone booths.
- Ceilings And Lighting
- Grid or open plenum, LED layouts, daylight zoning and occupancy sensors to satisfy energy code.
- HVAC Distribution
- Zoning to match the plan, VAV boxes, diffuser layout, thermostat placement and conference room load.
- Electrical And Data
- Floor boxes, poke-throughs, furniture feeds, IDF and MDF rooms, cable tray and structured cabling to every seat.
- Conference And AV
- Display blocking and power, floor and wall AV, camera and microphone backboxes, and cable pathways.
- Acoustics
- Sound attenuation in demising and conference walls, plenum baffles, sound masking and door seals.
- Millwork
- Reception desk, pantry casework, credenzas and built-in storage.
- Break Room And Pantry
- Plumbing, appliance circuits, refrigeration, coffee and water lines.
- Finishes And Restrooms
- Flooring, glazing systems, wall protection, paint, feature walls and signage, plus full ADA compliance where the suite has private restrooms.
Where Office Projects Go Wrong
Four of them, and all four are building or vendor problems rather than construction problems, which is exactly why they get missed at bid time.
Landlord building standards.
Multi-tenant buildings have a standard for doors, hardware, ceiling tile, blinds, HVAC boxes and sometimes light fixtures. Deviating requires written approval and often a cost the tenant carries at lease end. We read the building standards exhibit at the start.
After-hours access.
Class A buildings restrict noisy work to before 7am, after 6pm or weekends. Freight elevator time gets booked in advance and it is finite. This affects duration more than most tenants expect and it belongs in the schedule from day one.
IT and furniture arriving out of sequence.
Structured cabling has to be in before ceilings close. Furniture has to arrive after floors and before move-in. Three separate vendors, one sequence, and somebody has to own it. We do.
Energy code.
Lighting power density, controls and commissioning requirements now catch a lot of office projects at plan review. Considerably cheaper to design in than to correct.
Working With Your Landlord
Most office build-outs are funded partly or wholly by a landlord tenant improvement allowance, and that money comes attached to conditions.
The allowance comes with approval rights.
The landlord approves the plans, requires their own insurance certificates, expects their construction rules followed, and wants documentation before releasing money. None of that is unreasonable and all of it takes time you have to plan for.
We are used to all of it.
Plans through landlord review, certificates of insurance in their format, work rules acknowledged, and AIA G702 and G703 payment applications the property manager can process without a phone call. You should not be the one emailing about barricades.
What An Office Build Out Costs
Office lands in the middle of the range, above open retail and below restaurant and medical. Walls and doors are what move it.
Private office count.
Walls and doors are expensive and open plan is cheap. The single biggest lever on an office budget is how many rooms the plan has, not how many square feet.
Base building HVAC.
Whether the existing system can serve your layout without new equipment. If it cannot, that is a mechanical project sitting inside what you thought was a fit-out.
Glass fronts and conference AV.
Glazed office fronts and a fully rough-in conference room are the two upgrades that most reliably surprise people at bid time.
Landlord building standards.
Doors, hardware, ceiling tile, blinds and sometimes light fixtures are specified for you. Deviating needs written approval and often a restoration cost at lease end.
Most office build-outs are funded partly by a landlord allowance. We will price against it in the format your property manager processes without a phone call.
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 An Office Build Out Runs
Walkthrough And Scope
We read the building standards exhibit and the work letter first, then walk the floor. What the landlord requires is usually a tighter constraint than what the space is.
Budget And Bid
A line-item number with the tenant improvement allowance shown against it, in the format the property manager is going to want to see it in.
Permits And Drawings
Plans through landlord review and then through the jurisdiction. Lighting power density, controls and commissioning get designed in rather than corrected at plan review.
Construction
Cabling in before ceilings close, furniture after floors, disruptive work in the hours the building allows, and freight elevator time booked well in advance.
Punch List And Handover
Punch closed, then closeout to the landlord’s format as well as yours: certificates, as-builts and the payment applications that release the allowance.
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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Office Build Out FAQ
What does an office build out cost per square foot?
A wide range driven by finish level and private office count. A straightforward refresh of a warm shell is a fraction of a Class A build-out with glass fronts and full AV.
Can you build out an office while we are occupying it?
Yes. Phased by zone with disruptive work after hours, containment maintained throughout, and egress kept compliant during construction rather than only after it.
Do you handle data cabling and AV?
We coordinate and manage it, and we can carry it in our contract or work alongside your own vendor. Either way we own the sequence, so cabling lands before ceilings close.
Who deals with the landlord?
We do. Plan approvals, insurance certificates, work rules, elevator scheduling and building access.
Do you work with our architect and space planner?
Yes. We will also join earlier, during test-fit, to price options while they are still cheap to change.
What is a demising wall?
The wall separating your suite from the adjacent tenant or common area. Landlords usually require it built to the underside of the deck for fire separation and acoustics, which costs more than a wall stopping at the ceiling grid.
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
