i30 Builders · Retail Sector
Retail construction runs on a date: the day the doors open. We build to landlord criteria, host-retailer rules, and your opening schedule. One coordinated crew, one written scope, one point of contact.
Storefront · In-Line · In-Store Concessions · Brand Conversions · Vanilla Shell · Second-Gen
Retail Scope Coverage
How Retail Work Is Different
Retail construction answers to more parties than almost any other commercial build. The landlord has a criteria package that governs materials, storefront systems, signage, and barricades. A mall or host retailer adds its own rules: work windows, badging, dust and noise limits, and nightly reset requirements. The permit office has its own clock. And behind all of it sits a lease commencement date and a planned opening that does not move.
Our job is to hold those constraints in one written scope. Before pricing, we read the lease exhibits and the criteria package, walk the space, and confirm what the landlord is actually delivering, because a vanilla shell and a second-generation space are two different projects with two different budgets. During the build, submittals, landlord inspections, and municipal inspections are scheduled line items, not surprises.
When the space sits inside an operating store or an open shopping center, the work moves to nights. Crews badge in after close, protect adjacent merchandise, build, clean, and reset the floor before the store opens. That rhythm is planned, priced, and written into the scope up front, not improvised after the first complaint.
Recent Retail Scope Work
In-Store Concession · Mesquite
Design-build luxury retail concession inside an operating host store, coordinated with the landlord and host retailer from design through turnover, on a night-shift schedule with nightly cleanup and reset.
Brand-Conversion Analysis · Tyler
Scope analysis for a 4,148 SF restaurant brand conversion, worked from a 33-sheet permit set: confirmed scope, excluded scope, and the gaps between the brand standard and the existing space.
Tenant Finish-Out Takeoff · McKinney
Quantity takeoff for a 1,901 SF fast-casual restaurant tenant improvement from a 66-page permit set: trade-by-trade quantities behind a defensible budget before contract.
Common Questions
Yes. Most retail leases come with a landlord criteria package: approved materials, storefront requirements, signage rules, barricade standards, and submittal procedures. We read the criteria package before we price the work, build the required submittals into the schedule, and coordinate landlord inspections so approvals never stall the build.
Yes. In-store concession work means host-retailer rules on top of landlord rules: background checks and badging, night-shift work windows, nightly cleanup and reset so the sales floor opens on time, and protection of adjacent merchandise and fixtures. We plan the phasing around the host store's hours and put the work-window terms in the written scope.
A vanilla shell is a landlord-delivered baseline: finished walls, basic lighting, a restroom, and stubbed utilities. A second-generation space carries a previous tenant's build-out, which can save money if the layout and systems fit your concept, or cost more in demolition and rework if they do not. We walk the space and tell you which situation you actually have before you commit to a design.
The schedule is built backward from the opening date: permit submittal, landlord approvals, long-lead materials, inspections, and fixture installation each get dated milestones. We flag the items most likely to slip, such as storefront glazing, signage permits, and utility releases, and start them first. If we say Friday, we mean Friday.
Yes. Brand conversions are scope-analysis work first: comparing the franchise or brand standard against the existing space sheet by sheet, then pricing the gap. We have performed this analysis on full permit sets for restaurant brand conversions, and we do the same for retail re-image programs.
Project Proof
Rowlett, TX
1,100 SF Rowlett office, full repaint of the suite plus a new room added inside: framed and finished a 12 LF partition wall, hung a new door, ran trim, and laid carpet through the new room and its connection. Three trades sequenced into one tight window so the office could keep running.
Timeline: 3 days
Read full case study
DFW, TX
Full reception and lobby build-out for a DFW professional services tenant. Slat feature wall with integrated illuminated brand signage, custom marble reception desk, wood slat privacy divider, and new flooring throughout. Delivered from demo to handoff under one contract.
Read full case studyTell us about your retail space, your landlord's requirements, and your opening date. We'll walk the site and return a written scope.