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
Tenant Improvement Contractor
A tenant improvement contractor builds the space you already signed for into the business you signed for it to be. What it costs you is set by the allowance and the work letter, and most tenants only read those closely after the budget has already moved.
- Licensed Texas General Contractor
- Bonded & Insured
- Workers’ Comp Carried
- BBB Accredited A+
- NARI Member
- On Site In All 50 States
- Escrow Services Available
Tenant Improvement Is The Whole Business
LNB Construction is a tenant improvement contractor. We take the commercial space you’ve leased, whether a bare shell or whatever the last tenant left behind, and build it into the business you signed the lease to open.
Twenty years. Over 250,000 square feet. Franchise programs, restaurants, retail, offices, medical and dental, in all fifty states. Headquarters in Katy, Texas.
Tenant improvement is the whole business, which is why we’re faster at it than the general contractor who does it between bigger jobs.
- 20+
- Years In Business
- 250,000+
- Square Feet Built
- 50
- States On Site
- 17+
- Locations Delivered
What A Tenant Improvement Includes
The scope depends on what the landlord delivered and what your business needs. Here is what we self-manage on a typical TI:
- Demolition
- Stripping the previous tenant’s build-out back to what’s usable. Selective demo, not a wrecking ball. We keep what’s worth keeping.
- Framing And Drywall
- Demising walls, interior partitions, soffits, bulkheads, ceiling grid.
- Electrical
- Panel work, distribution, lighting, dedicated circuits, data and low-voltage rough-in, POS and equipment power.
- Plumbing
- Restrooms, ADA fixtures, break rooms, floor drains, grease interceptors, med gas where required.
- HVAC
- Distribution, diffusers, zoning, exhaust and make-up air. Rooftop unit work where the lease allows.
- Fire Protection
- Sprinkler head relocation, alarm, and coordination with the fire marshal’s plan review.
- Flooring
- LVT, tile, polished concrete, carpet tile, epoxy, sealed slab.
- Millwork And Fixtures
- Reception desks, casework, retail fixtures, back bars, franchisor fixture packages.
- Paint And Finishes
- Brand-standard colors, wall protection, specialty coatings.
- Signage Coordination
- Blocking, power and permits for exterior and interior signage.
- Permits And Inspections
- Drawing set, submittal, plan review, all inspections through certificate of occupancy.
- Closeout
- As-builts, warranties, O&M manuals, final lien waivers.
Who This Is For
Franchisees opening a location.
You have a brand book, an approved vendor list and a franchisor with an opening date on a spreadsheet. You need the space built to spec, not to a contractor’s interpretation of spec.
Business owners taking their first commercial lease.
You’ve never done this before, you’re funded by an SBA loan, and you don’t know what a work letter is. That’s fine. We’ll read it and tell you what it actually means for your budget.
Tenants with a landlord allowance to spend.
The landlord is contributing a tenant improvement allowance and wants documentation before they release it. We bill on AIA G702/G703, which is the format they’re expecting.
Companies relocating or expanding.
You’re moving from 4,000 square feet to 11,000 and you need the new space finished before the old lease ends.
Why A Specialist Beats A General Contractor Here
Tenant improvement work looks small on paper and behaves like anything but. The constraints are what make it hard:
You’re a guest in someone else’s building.
Working hours are restricted. Freight elevators are booked. The roof isn’t yours to penetrate without the landlord’s written consent, and if you find out about that in week six, you’ve lost two weeks.
The lease clock is already running.
Most tenants start paying rent before they start earning revenue. Every week we save is a week of rent you’re not paying on a closed business. That’s the metric we manage to.
Permitting is the real critical path.
Not framing. Not finishes. Getting a complete drawing set through plan review in a jurisdiction that has its own habits. We build the schedule backwards from permit issuance, and we submit complete the first time.
Existing conditions are always a lie.
The landlord’s as-builts are ten years old. The panel doesn’t have the capacity the drawings claim. There’s an abandoned grease line under the slab. We find those things during the walkthrough and price them, instead of finding them in month two and issuing a change order.
What Moves A Tenant Improvement Budget
No honest contractor gives you a number before walking the space. What we can tell you now is which four things will decide it.
Shell condition.
The largest single factor. A cold dark shell means building HVAC, restrooms, ceilings, lighting and distribution from nothing. A good second-generation space means reusing most of it, if the layout suits you.
Plumbing count and location.
Every fixture is a supply, a waste line and often a slab cut. Fixtures in the middle of an existing slab cost far more than fixtures on an existing wet wall.
Finish level.
The gap between builder standard and brand standard premium is enormous, and it is the easiest place to overspend without noticing you have.
Your jurisdiction.
Energy code, accessibility triggers, sprinkler requirements, and how strict plan review is. The same build costs more in a high velocity hurricane zone than it does elsewhere.
Budget a contingency of 10 to 15 percent, closer to 20 on second-generation space. That line is not padding. It is the difference between finishing your project and running out of money at 85 percent.
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 Tenant Improvement Runs
Walkthrough And Scope
We read the lease and the work letter before we look at the space, then walk it against them. Most of what a TI costs is decided by what the landlord is not delivering.
Budget And Bid
A line-item number by trade against the delivered condition, with the exclusions listed. If the shell is short of what the work letter implies, you find out here.
Permits And Drawings
Drawing set, submittal and the jurisdiction. On a straight TI this is usually the longest single item on the schedule, so we run it as the critical path.
Construction
Demo, framing, MEP rough-in, inspections, finishes and fixtures, sequenced around the landlord’s building rules and the hours your lease allows.
Punch List And Handover
Punch closed before the final draw, then closeout documents, warranties, as-builts and the certificate of occupancy your landlord needs for rent commencement.
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
1 of 5
Related Work
Real square footage, real timelines, real brands.
Wellness & Fitness
Franchise delivered. On schedule.
Degree Wellness · Houston, TX
Studio + reception + recovery
Automotive
Franchise rolled out. National.
Tint World · National
Service bays + customer lounge + retail
1 of 3
Related Services
The same crews and the same schedule, on a different kind of space.
Tenant Improvement FAQ
What’s the difference between a tenant improvement and a build-out?
Nothing, mostly. “Tenant improvement” is the commercial real estate term, “build-out” is what the tenant calls it, and in Texas and the Midwest people say “finish-out.” Same work.
Who pays for tenant improvements, the landlord or the tenant?
Usually both. The landlord contributes a tenant improvement allowance, typically expressed as dollars per rentable square foot, and the tenant pays the rest. How much the landlord contributes is negotiable and depends on the market, the lease term and how much the space needs.
What does a tenant improvement cost per square foot?
Broad range, and honest ranges are wide: open retail can land in the $50 to $90/sq ft area, office in the $80 to $150 area, and restaurant or medical well north of that because of the mechanical work. Landlord shell condition swings it more than anything else.
How long does a tenant improvement take?
Typically 10 to 20 weeks from permit issuance. Add 4 to 12 weeks before that for drawings and plan review depending on the jurisdiction.
Do you handle permits and drawings?
Yes. We manage the drawing set, the permit submittal, plan review comments and every inspection through certificate of occupancy. You don’t chase the city; we do.
Can you work with my SBA loan?
Yes. We’re set up for SBA 7(a) and 504 draw schedules and we bill on AIA forms your lender will accept.
Do you work with franchisors’ approved vendor lists?
Yes, routinely. Send us the brand standards package and the vendor list with the bid request.
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
