The Commercial Building Renovation Process

In planning a commercial renovation project, such as an office rebrand or franchise roll out, it’s vital to recognize the underlying commercial building renovation process behind it to ensure nothing important is missed along the way.

A good first step of this process is to identify the objectives and budget for the renovation project. To do this, you should incorporate the thoughts and opinions of those who will be affected by the final commercial renovation project completion. These could be the tenants, staff, etc.

A logical next step here would be selecting the contractor. You would want to request bids based on your building renovation project requirements and make your selection from these. Ask questions of the contractors to get a sense of the strength of their communication with you. There is much more to consider here than price. Quality should be more important than cost here, and you want a construction company with whom communication is simple and clear. There should be clarity and understanding about issues such as payment schedules, the construction company’s references and warranties for the contractor’s work. You want to be clear about the process for any change orders, and you want your construction company to be licensed for the project, and with the ability to get building permits. Finally, you want to review examples of the contractor’s work.

There can be a lot of personnel involved in the commercial building renovation process - and you as the client may or may not be interfacing with them all. The architect or designer, construction project manager, tenant, inspectors - all may be involved in the project. So you want to be clear and identify roles and responsibilities for the project. You want to be sure of who’s doing what when; e.g., approving building designs, approving changes, applying for permits, watching over potential time delays and so on.

It is also important to understand the location of the building renovation project - since there might be challenges such as zoning issues, building code violations, structural issues, upgrades to meet accessibility codes and other challenges that might affect the commercial building renovation process. So it’s important to choose a construction company that can help make you aware of these steps and how to deal with them. For these and other reasons the property should be insured during the building renovation process.

And don’t forget about understanding and sticking to the contract - the building contract needs to be clear about the terms of payment, personnel roles, warranties, structure of change orders, and start and completion dates for the project.

It’s critical to understand the commercial building renovation process when renovating a building such as an office fit out or franchise rebrand. This can include aspects such as identifying objectives and budget, choosing a contractor, understanding roles and responsibilities in the process, studying the location and understanding the contract.

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