Package 03
Tenant improvements
Fitting out a shell or a second-generation space against a lease date somebody has already signed. Fewer trades than a new building, and proportionally more gaps between them.
Typical span 4–12 months
03The work
A fit-out is a small project with a hard date, and the combination is what makes it difficult.
The date is in a lease somebody already signed, which means the scope is derived from the schedule rather than the other way round. And because the project is small, every trade is a small contract — which means fewer firms want it, coverage is thinner than on a new building, and the trades that do bid are fitting you around larger work.
The gaps are proportionally worse too, for a reason that is not obvious. On a new building the scopes meet in the open. On a fit-out they meet against existing construction nobody has opened: an existing ceiling, an existing panel, an existing riser. Every bid is therefore full of exclusions about existing conditions, and the space between those exclusions is where the project goes wrong.
And the document that governs all of 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 allowance is and what it may be spent on. Send it before asking anybody for a price.
More fit-outs 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 — frequently hard construction only, which leaves design fees, permits, furniture and cabling on you — and what happens if the landlord’s 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 what the allowance covers. Frequently the single most consequential document in the project.
- 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 anybody prices anything.
- Your own vendors
- Furniture, data, security, signage and specialist equipment 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 the start rather than discovered at closeout. The full list is on closeout and what you receive.
03.1Coverage
Who will actually bid this
Typical coverage for a project of this kind in the Denver metro. The full register, with every trade and the reasoning behind each count, is on the bid coverage page.
| Trade | Typical coverage | What it means for your number |
|---|---|---|
| Demolition | 4 bidders | Healthy. A small, well-understood scope |
| Drywall & framing | 5 bidders | Crowded even on small work |
| Electrical | 3 bidders | Adequate, but small jobs get scheduled around large ones |
| Mechanical | 2 bidders | Thin on fit-out scale. The reason TI mechanical prices look high |
| Fire protection | 2 bidders | Thin, and it gates the certificate of occupancy |
| Flooring | 5 bidders | Crowded |
| Ceilings | 4 bidders | Healthy |
| Millwork | 2 bidders | Thin, and it sits at the very end of the schedule with no float |
| Glass & glazing, interior | 2 bidders | Thin on small packages |
| Specialties & signage | 1 bidder thin | Frequently sole source or owner-furnished |
Coverage is a count and a word, never a colour. A trade with one bidder is marked thin in text, so this table reads identically in black and white, in print, and to a screen reader.
03.2Gaps
Where the money goes on this kind of project
Two honest bids that do not quite meet. Each is findable on one afternoon at levelling, and each is expensive once a crew is standing in it.
- Caught at bid
- $1,200 – $6,000
- Found in the field
- $9,000 – $35,000, and it holds the certificate of occupancy
- Caught at bid
- $900 – $4,500
- Found in the field
- $7,000 – $26,000, because the wall is closed and painted
- Caught at bid
- $1,500 – $8,000
- Found in the field
- $11,000 – $40,000, discovered at the fire inspection
The pattern never changes: two trades, one scope, two exclusions pointing at each other. The only thing that catches it is somebody reading both blocks before either contract is signed. Reading an exclusions block explains what to look for.
03.3Budget
What this costs
Planning ranges, wide on purpose. The full set with every package on it, and the soft costs that sit on top of any construction number, is on the budgets page.
| Item | Fit-out type | Unit | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 03.10 | Office fit-out, open plan, basic Shell to occupancy, standard finishes | SF | $100–$175 |
| 03.15 | Office fit-out, mid specification Private offices, conference, break room | SF | $160–$275 |
| 03.20 | Clinical or medical fit-out Exam rooms, plumbing, specialist power and gases | SF | $250–$490 |
| 03.25 | Retail fit-out To a brand standard, excluding tenant fixtures | SF | $140–$290 |
| 03.30 | Restaurant fit-out Excluding kitchen equipment; hood and grease drive it | SF | $290–$640 |
| 03.40 | Demolition, second-generation space Strip out including ceiling and services | SF | $9–$26 |
| 03.50 | Mechanical, added or reconfigured Rooftop unit, distribution, controls | EA | $19,000–$98,000 |
| 03.60 | Electrical service or panel upgrade Where the existing service is insufficient | LS | $24,000–$145,000 |
| 03.90 | Unpermitted existing work, legalised Discovered above the ceiling | LS | site visit — this item cannot be priced from a page |
Units are SF square foot of the area being built, SQ roofing square (100 SF), EA each, LS lump sum, PCT a percentage of construction cost. A line reading “site visit” is one that genuinely cannot be priced from a web page.
Figures are USD planning ranges for commercial construction in the Denver metro. They exclude land, design and engineering fees, permit and tap fees, furnishings and equipment, and any applicable tax, and assume normal site conditions and a buildable season. Bid coverage counts are typical for this market and this building type, not a promise about your project. They are published so an owner can size a project, and ask better questions, before there is a drawing to price. They are planning figures, not a bid. Reviewed October 2026. A price for your project comes from a proposal against a defined scope. See the disclaimer.
03.4Questions
Questions about this package
Specific to this kind of work. The general ones — contracts, pay applications, retainage, change orders, insurance, bonding — are on the FAQ page.
Why is coverage worse on a small job?
Because a subcontractor’s cost of bidding is roughly the same whatever the size of the job, and the return is not. A mechanical contractor with a full backlog will bid a million-dollar package before a forty-thousand-dollar one, every time. That is not unfair, it is arithmetic, and the practical consequence is that fit-out pricing has less competition in it than owners expect. Knowing which trades are thin lets you plan for it instead of being surprised.
What does the landlord actually pay for?
Whatever the work letter says, and the variation is enormous. Some landlords deliver a warm shell with mechanical in place; some deliver four walls and a slab. The allowance may be restricted to hard construction cost, which means design fees, permits, furniture and data cabling come out of your 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, which is why we lift ceiling tiles and open panel schedules before pricing a second-generation space rather than after.
How fast can a fit-out actually be done?
Four to twelve months from engagement to occupancy, of which the construction is usually only eight to twenty weeks. The rest is design, permit review and long-lead items. If your rent commencement is three months away and there are no drawings, something has to give — and we would rather say that on the first call than discover it in month two.
00The rest
The other four packages
Building the budget and the bid list before there is a drawing to price. This is where a commercial project is actually won or lost, and it is the one phase most owners are never invited into.
- You receive
- Budget by division, a bid list by trade with expected coverage, a levelled scope matrix
Ground-up commercial buildings in the Denver metro — offices, retail, flex and light industrial — bought as about thirty subcontracts and levelled against each other before any of them is awarded.
- You receive
- Full drawing set, schedule of values, levelled subcontracts, closeout package
Expanding or rebuilding a building somebody is still working in. The phasing plan is the project, and the gaps are worse because half the scope is against existing construction nobody has opened yet.
- You receive
- Permit set, phasing plan, schedule of values, closeout package
Work for public and institutional owners, where the procurement is public, the bid tabulation is a published document, and the occupancy date is set by somebody else’s calendar.
- You receive
- Bid tabulation, certified payroll, schedule of values, commissioning record, closeout
Send us a bid you have already received
If you are holding subcontract bids and the numbers do not sit right, read the exclusions blocks to us on the telephone and we will tell you what is missing between them. It costs nothing, it takes about twenty minutes, and it is useful whether or not you ever hire us.
Pinkard Construction Co. · 9195 W 6th Ave, Lakewood, CO 80215