A smart strategy for an office buildout construction project is to start by finding a contractor you can trust – a detailed contractor who is attentive to your needs. After all, there are many opportunities for things to go wrong in a construction project – you want to ensure they’ll go right. Like so many important projects, it starts with defining your desires, your budget and the time frame necessary for the project to be complete.
A clearly defined project scope is critical to construction projects such as office buildout projects – it is perhaps the most important piece of the construction process. This applies to landlords needing a new tenant office buildout or tenants negotiating how the space will appear when finished. Either way, there needs to be synchronicity between the customers’ vision and the contractor’s. Terminology around starting from a “white box,” or a “TI” (tenant improvement) buildout allowance, can still represent vague or unsure understanding among multiple parties. Each development can have a great variety of inclusions – therefore clarity of scope is critical.
These terms can effect the lease documents, plans and specifications – it’s too common for documents to be overlooked or just glanced over by any/all parties. Therefore a pre-construction meeting, before finalizing contracts, is a great step in the right direction – for all parties to nail down what their specific contributions are throughout the process and plans. This helps remove expensive change orders from the process later on.
It’s vital to define a budget in the planning process – you don’t want to spend more than you can afford – whether as landlord or tenant. And this is a critical step in the planning process. It’s also very important to remember that when you pick a contractor you can trust, that construction company is made of professionals providing professional services – respect goes both ways. Just as you would have reasons not to want the cheapest doctor or lawyer available, the same goes for a contractor. If you choose quality contractors, they will respect your budget and be clear on what is and isn’t possible.
It’s important to see the differences between a focus on scope, time or price, – one of these is going to be the dominant factor in the construction process – and the customer has to be clear on what’s most important. Of course these are all related – as, for example, a prolonged schedule can cost customers in price. Which is why you want a reliable, experienced office buildout contractor for the job. The best contractor can develop schedules with milestones in stages such as: architectural design, local/municipal permitting, project financing and construction.
Office buildout construction is in high demand but the details are critical. Knowing the roles and specific contributions of the landlord, tenant and contractor are as important as the definitions in the plans between scope, time and price. Defining all helps avoid expensive change orders later. You want a reliable office buildout contractor who understands and is communicative about these roles. For more, read about Buildrite’s commercial construction services.