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01 Reference sheet · commercial brokers
You are not our client and we are not going to pretend otherwise. This page exists so that when your tenant asks "how long will the build-out take," you have a real answer in your hand instead of a promise from a contractor they haven't met.
Reference · not a pitch
Five lease terms set the whole schedule.
→ The short version for your tenant
A tenant improvement schedule is set by the delivery condition and the plan review, not by the construction. Second-generation space moves fastest, cold dark shell slowest, and the largest single variable in between is how many comment cycles the permit set takes. Five lease terms determine all of it: the delivery condition, the work letter, the TI allowance and how it draws, the permitted use, and what triggers rent commencement. Get those five in front of a contractor before the lease is signed and the build-out stops being a guess.
02 Typical sequence
Relative durations, not a schedule. We will not put week counts on a page we cannot tie to a specific address, a specific jurisdiction and a specific adopted code edition — and neither should anyone else.
| No. | Stage | What happens, and who is waiting on whom | Relative |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Lease & shell review | Read the work letter, walk the space, confirm what the existing service and sprinkler layout can carry. Best done before signature | Days |
| 02 | Drawings | Partition plan, reflected ceiling, power and data, life-safety and egress, accessibility | Weeks |
| 03 | Landlord approval | The set goes to the landlord before the city. Most work letters give them a review window — this is the step tenants never budget for | Landlord |
| 04 | Plan review | Building submittal, plus a separate fire submittal if sprinkler or alarm work is triggered. Comment cycles live here and they are the biggest variable in the whole sequence | The city |
| 05 | Build | Demolition, framing, MEP rough-in, ceiling, finishes. The predictable part | Weeks |
| 06 | Inspections & CO | Rough-ins, framing, fire final, building final, Certificate of Occupancy, landlord closeout package | The city |
Three of the six stages are controlled by someone other than the contractor. That is the honest answer to "why can't you just tell me a date" — and the reason it matters who is holding the permit and answering the plans examiner.
03 Before the work letter is final
Each of these is cheap to ask now and expensive to discover later. Ask them on your tenant's behalf and you will look like the sharpest person in the deal — which is rather the point of us handing you the list.
The one that catches people: rent commencement tied to a fixed date rather than to delivery or CO. If plan review runs long, your tenant is paying rent on a space they cannot occupy — and nothing in the construction contract fixes that. It is a lease problem, and it is solvable on the front end.
04 What we need to give a real answer
| No. | What | Why it changes the answer |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Address & suite | Sets the jurisdiction, the adopted code edition and the local amendments. Nothing can be estimated without it |
| 02 | Delivery condition | Cold shell, vanilla or second generation. This single term moves the schedule more than any other |
| 03 | The work letter | Decides who pays for which scope, and how much of it has to be drawn |
| 04 | Permitted use | Drives occupant load, egress, restroom count and accessibility — and whether food service pulls in health and fire |
| 05 | Target occupancy | Tells us whether the sequence is achievable, and where it would have to compress if it isn't |
Send those five and we will come back with a real sequence and the deal-breakers, at no cost and with no obligation on your tenant. If the answer is "this space is wrong for this use," you will hear that too — early, while it is still free to walk.
05 How we work with brokers
We do not contact your tenant behind you. You stay on every thread unless your client takes you off it.
We do not pay referral fees. Not a policy flourish — commissions and referral arrangements around real estate transactions carry licensing rules we are not going to wade into. What you get instead is a contractor who makes your recommendation look good, which is worth more than a fee and lasts longer.
We will tell your tenant no. If a space cannot carry the use, or the schedule cannot hit their date, they hear it from us early. That protects your reputation more than an optimistic bid ever will.
You can send us a lease before it is signed. That is the highest-value moment for everyone, and we do not charge for it.
06 Send it over
No form to fill out and nobody will chase you afterwards. Email the documents or call and read us the address.
Direct
Brandon (254) 715-7282
Jon (682) 429-9717
S&T Management Group Inc
Weatherford, Texas
Where we work
Weatherford · DFW · Waco · Houston
— and everywhere in between
