Keeping Office Tenant Improvement Costs Down

I recently attended a presentation by Ken Larson, President of  Blueline Associates, Inc., a commercial construction company based in Pleasanton in business for over thirty years. I had asked Ken to address how we real estate brokers can assist our clients, both from the tenant as well as landlord side, in keeping tenant improvement costs as low as possible. These days it is crazy how what seems like a simple build-out can come in at $50 or $100 a square foot, and when many landlords are barely getting $1-2/rsf inn monthly rent after operating expenses to spend most oftheir five-year rental income on up-front tenant improvements often does not make sense. One of my favorite professions and one where the pay is not necessarily at the top while with creativity and work product can be, please don’t be offended by what I am about to say. Im many instances bringing in the commercial contractor before having the architect work with the tenant to develop layout and finishing plans can be the best method of keeping costs down. If a tenant is thinking of moving an office (in general, they don’t move, they get demolished and then it might cost $20-30,000 to build the new office), or enlarge a room (again, demo and rebuild) and the experienced contractor can guide the tenant into keeping such changes at a minimum before the plans are started…wow, what cost savings can be found!  Simple concept, yes, but in many cases not followed.