Division 03
Tenant improvements
Fitting out a shell or an existing space against a lease date that has already been signed. The work letter usually matters more than anything in the drawings.
Typical span 4–12 months
03The work
A tenant improvement is the one project type on this site where the hard constraint is not the building. It is a date in a lease that somebody already signed.
That changes the order of everything. On a new building the schedule is derived from the scope. On a fit-out the scope is derived from the schedule: you have until the rent commencement date, and everything else — what gets specified, what gets substituted, what gets deferred to a later phase — is negotiated against that.
The document that governs it is usually not the drawings. It is the work letter in the lease: what the landlord delivers, to what condition, by when, what the tenant allowance is, what it may be spent on, and what happens if the landlord’s work is late. We ask to see it before pricing anything, and it is astonishing how often a tenant has not read it closely.
The second thing that decides a fit-out is what is actually there. A second-generation space — one somebody else occupied — comes with somebody else’s decisions above the ceiling, and a surprisingly high proportion of fit-out change orders come from discovering that the previous tenant’s work was not permitted.
More fit-out projects go wrong because of the lease than because of the construction. The work letter decides what the landlord delivers and when, what your allowance may be spent on, and what happens if their work is late. We would rather read it before pricing than explain afterwards why the number moved.
Establish these first
- The lease dates
- Delivery, rent commencement, and any penalty. These set the programme before anything else does.
- The work letter
- What the landlord delivers and to what condition, what the allowance is, and what it may be spent on. Send this first.
- Shell or second generation
- A clean shell and somebody else’s old space are different projects with different risks.
- What is above the ceiling
- Existing mechanical, electrical, sprinkler and structure. Worth lifting a tile before pricing anything.
- The tenant’s own vendors
- Furniture, data, security, specialist equipment. These are frequently outside our contract and inside our schedule.
What you receive
Permit set, landlord sign-offs, certificate of occupancy, closeout package
In the format your records require, agreed at proposal stage rather than discovered at closeout. The full list is on closeout and what you receive.
03.1Values
What this division costs
Planning ranges, wide on purpose. The full schedule with every division on it, and the soft costs that sit on top of any construction number, is on the budgets page.
| Div | Item | Unit | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 03.10 | Office fit-out, open plan, basicShell to occupancy, standard finishes | SF | $95–$165 |
| 03.15 | Office fit-out, mid specificationPrivate offices, conference, break room | SF | $150–$260 |
| 03.20 | Clinical or medical fit-outExam rooms, plumbing, specialist power and gases | SF | $240–$480 |
| 03.25 | Retail fit-outTo a brand standard, excluding tenant fixtures | SF | $130–$280 |
| 03.30 | Restaurant fit-outExcluding kitchen equipment; hood and grease are the drivers | SF | $280–$620 |
| 03.40 | Demolition, second-generation spaceStrip out, including ceiling and MEP | SF | $8–$24 |
| 03.50 | Mechanical, added or reconfiguredRooftop unit, distribution, controls | EA | $18,000–$95,000 |
| 03.60 | Electrical service or panel upgradeWhere the existing service is insufficient | LS | $22,000–$140,000 |
| 03.70 | Sprinkler modificationHead relocation and branch work to suit the layout | SF | $4–$14 |
| 03.90 | Unpermitted existing work, legalisedDiscovered above the ceiling | LS | site visit |
Units are SF square foot of gross building area unless stated, LF linear foot, CY cubic yard, SY square yard, SQ roofing square (100 SF), EA each, LS lump sum, PCT a percentage of construction cost. Division references are for this document only and are not CSI MasterFormat numbers.
Figures are USD planning ranges for commercial construction in the Pikes Peak region. They exclude land, design fees where separately engaged, permit and tap fees, furnishings, equipment and any applicable tax, and they assume normal site conditions, normal soils and a buildable season. They are published so an owner can size a project before there is a drawing to price. They are planning ranges, not a bid. Reviewed October 2026. A price for your project comes from a proposal against a defined scope. See the disclaimer.
03.2Questions
Questions about this division
Specific to this kind of work. The general ones — contracts, pay applications, retainage, change orders, insurance, bonding — are on the FAQ page.
How fast can a fit-out actually be done?
Four to twelve months from engagement to occupancy, and the construction is usually only eight to twenty weeks of it. The rest is design, permit review and long-lead items. If your rent commencement is three months away and you have no drawings, the honest answer is that something has to give — and we would rather tell you that on the first call than discover it in month two.
What does the landlord actually pay for?
Whatever the work letter says, and the variation is enormous. Some deliver a warm shell with mechanical in place; some deliver four walls and a slab. The tenant allowance may be restricted to hard construction cost, which means design fees, permits, furniture and data cabling come out of your own pocket — and that is one of the most common budget surprises in this whole category.
What happens if we find unpermitted work from the last tenant?
It becomes your problem to resolve before your permit is issued, which is unfair and is how the system works. Resolution usually means legalising it: bringing it to current code and permitting it retroactively. It is the most common cause of a fit-out schedule collapsing, and it is why we lift ceiling tiles and look at panel schedules before pricing a second-generation space rather than after.
Can we occupy in phases?
Frequently yes, and on a tight lease date it is sometimes the only way. A temporary certificate of occupancy on part of the space, with the rest completed after you move in, is a normal arrangement — but it has to be designed and permitted that way from the start rather than improvised in the last fortnight. If the date is tight, say so at the first meeting and we will plan for it.
00The rest
The other four divisions
Design-Build
The architect and the superintendent work for the same company. A detail that will not build gets caught at the drawing board by the person who would have had to install it.
- You receive
- Permit set, schedule of values, closeout package, as-builts, O&M manuals
Ground-up commercial and institutional buildings in the Pikes Peak region — aviation, retail, automotive and industrial — with the site work and utilities self-performed.
- You receive
- Full drawing set, schedule of values, commissioning record, closeout package
Expanding or rebuilding a facility that has to keep operating. The phasing plan is the project; the construction is the easy half.
- You receive
- Permit set, phasing plan, schedule of values, closeout package
Earthwork, grading, utilities, paving and drainage, performed by our own crews with our own equipment and our own trucking — which is why the schedule holds.
- You receive
- Compaction and materials test records, as-built survey, utility sign-offs
Describe the building you need
What it is for, roughly how big, where it would go, and when you need to be in it. On a first call we can usually give you a realistic per-square-foot range, a realistic end date, and an honest answer about whether a firm this size is the right one for it.
T-Bone Construction, Inc. · 1310 Ford St, Colorado Springs, CO 80915