How do Tenant Improvements Work?

28 Jan 2021 Custom Building

Whether you are a landlord or a renter of a commercial space, it is important to know how tenant improvements work to ensure that workers are kept happy and your workplace thrives. As experienced professionals in commercial construction, the team at Twin Maple Construction can help ensure that your space is optimized for your specific needs and finished on time and on budget.

What is Tenant Improvement Construction?

How Do Tenant Improvements Work?

Tenant improvements can take many different forms depending on the arrangement made between tenants and their landlords. Some of the components of a tenant improvement to consider include:

Financing a Tenant Improvement

Typically, a tenant improvement will be managed by the tenant themselves and the landlord will only be involved financially, but many landlords will require that they have a hand in the approval process for commercial renovations involving their property. In many cases, landlords will offer a tenant improvement allowance as part of the lease agreement or offset a few months of rent.

Find out more about tenant improvement allowances.

Dividing Assets and Planning

Once the financial responsibility of the tenant improvement and plans are laid out, it is important to note which parts of the tenant improvement will stay behind with the landlord as part of their rented property and which parts will carry forward with the renter. This ensures that all assets are clearly divided and both parties are protected.

Hiring Tenant Improvement Contractors

As mentioned above, the landlord will not be involved in most tenant improvement projects aside from taking on some of the financial responsibility and approval of plans; however, some landlords might offer turnkey renovations as part of the lease arrangement. In these types of tenant improvements, the landlord handles the entire renovation process on behalf of their tenants. In most cases, the build-out will be handled by the tenant. Finding a contractor who can handle a tenant improvement can be difficult, but a landlord might be able to make recommendations about who to request bids from.

Learn some tips for choosing the best commercial contractor.

If you would like to learn more information about how tenant improvements work, or to find out more about the work we do at Twin Maple Construction, please contact our knowledgeable team and we will be happy to answer your questions.