Commercial build-out contractor in Orlando who hits the date

Every day your space isn't open is a day you're paying rent on revenue you didn't earn. That's the part most contractors treat as your problem. I treat it as the whole job.

I'm Johnny Kaplan. I own Kaplan Remodeling & Construction, a licensed Florida General Contractor (CGC#1540583) based in Lake Mary. We handle commercial build outs and tenant improvements across Orlando, Seminole County and Central Florida — office suites, retail, medical and dental, salons, professional offices, warehouse office space and second-generation restaurant conversions.

When you call, you talk to the owner. You get one fixed written number. And you get a schedule I'll commit to in writing, because I know your lease has a rent commencement date on it and your landlord's leasing agent isn't going to move it.

What a tenant improvement build-out includes

• Site walk, existing-conditions assessment, and a candid read on what the space can and can't support
• Coordination with your architect or engineer on the permit set, or a referral if you don't have one yet
• Landlord plan submittal, work letter compliance and certificate of insurance packages
• Demolition and disposal, including removal of the prior tenant's improvements
• Demising walls, interior partitions, and rated assemblies where required
• Suspended ceiling grid and tile, or exposed-structure ceilings
• Electrical distribution, panels, lighting, emergency and exit lighting, data and low-voltage rough-in
• Plumbing — restrooms, break rooms, sinks, water heaters, and floor work where the scope requires it
• HVAC — new equipment or redistribution, ductwork, diffusers, thermostats and controls
• Fire sprinkler head relocation and fire alarm device work coordinated with the base building system
• Storefront, entry doors, hardware, closers and access control coordination
• Millwork, reception desks, casework, break rooms and built-ins
• Flooring, paint, wall finishes and final cleaning
• All permits and inspections through final sign-off and Certificate of Occupancy or Completion
• 1-year workmanship warranty, plus all manufacturer warranties on materials

Schedule certainty is the product

Anyone can frame a wall. What separates build-outs is whether the date holds. Three things protect it, and we build all three into the job:

Long-lead items get ordered first, not last. Rooftop HVAC units, electrical gear, storefront glass and custom millwork have the longest lead times on most build-outs — and they're the items that quietly eat a schedule. We identify them during pre-construction and order against the permit set as soon as it's approvable.

Inspections get scheduled ahead of the work, not after it. A rough inspection that slips three days slips everything behind it three days.

Fire review is treated as the long pole. On commercial permits in Central Florida, fire marshal review is frequently the slowest item in the package. We submit early and we chase comments.

Landlord versus tenant: know what you own

Before we price anything, I want to read your work letter. It's the section of the lease that defines exactly what the landlord delivers and what falls on you, and it's where most build-out budget surprises are born.

Cold dark shell means you're getting concrete, exterior walls and utilities stubbed to the space. Everything else is yours — HVAC, restrooms, ceiling, lighting, all of it.

Vanilla shell or warm shell typically means the landlord has provided some combination of finished restrooms, a ceiling grid, basic lighting, HVAC and a demised, drywalled envelope. What's actually included varies by lease, and "vanilla shell" is not a standardized term. Read it, don't assume it.

Second-generation space is a former tenant's build-out. Sometimes that's a gift — usable restrooms, ceiling and HVAC already in place. Sometimes it's a liability, if the layout fights your use or the prior improvements don't meet current accessibility requirements.

Other things to pin down early: whether there's a tenant improvement allowance and how it's disbursed (usually by draw request with lien waivers, sometimes only after Certificate of Occupancy — which means you're carrying the cost until then); whether the landlord must approve plans and how long they have to respond; after-hours access and noise rules; who owns the improvements at lease end; and whether you have a restoration obligation to remove them. I'll flag anything in your work letter that affects the construction budget before you sign a contract with me.

ADA, life safety and egress

These aren't boxes to tick at the end. They shape the floor plan, so they get resolved before drawings are finalized.

Accessibility. Florida enforces its own accessibility code within the Florida Building Code, built on the ADA standards, and it applies to alterations — not just new construction. In practice that means an accessible route from the parking area and public way into your space, compliant entry door width and hardware, maneuvering clearance at doors, accessible restrooms, reach ranges for switches and controls, an accessible portion of any transaction or service counter, and tactile and braille signage. When you alter a primary function area, federal regulation also requires that a portion of the project budget go toward making the path of travel to that area accessible, up to a regulatory limit. Second-generation spaces are where this bites hardest — an existing restroom built years ago may not comply today, and rebuilding it is real scope.

Life safety and egress. Your occupant load — calculated from the use and the square footage — determines how many exits you need, how wide they have to be, and how far anyone can travel to reach one. It also affects whether panic hardware is required. Exit signage and emergency lighting have to be located and powered correctly. If you're adding walls or dropping a new ceiling, existing sprinkler heads almost certainly need to be relocated to maintain proper coverage, and fire alarm devices have to be tied back into the base building system.

Change of occupancy is the big one. Converting a retail space to a restaurant or an assembly use, or an office to a medical use, changes the occupancy classification. That can trigger different exiting, restroom fixture counts, sprinkler requirements, ventilation and sometimes structural review. It's very doable — we do it — but it needs to be known on day one, not discovered in plan review. If your intended use differs from the space's existing classification, tell me at the first walkthrough.

Permitting: city or county

Where you submit depends on where the building sits. Inside the limits of Orlando, Lake Mary, Sanford, Longwood, Winter Park, Altamonte Springs, Casselberry, Oviedo or Winter Springs, you're going through that city's building department. In unincorporated areas, you're going through Seminole or Orange County. Each jurisdiction has its own submittal requirements, review timelines and inspection scheduling.

Commercial permit sets in Florida generally require signed and sealed drawings from a licensed design professional. Beyond the building permit, expect separate electrical, plumbing and mechanical permits, fire department review, zoning review if the use is changing, and health department review for any food service. At the end, you need a Certificate of Occupancy or Certificate of Completion before you can legally open, and your local business tax receipt typically depends on it.

We handle all of it. We pull every permit this project requires and handle all inspections from start to finish. As a licensed Florida General Contractor, that's part of our job, not an add-on or an upsell.

Working around your business hours

If you're renovating a space you're still operating in, we work when you don't. Nights, early mornings, weekends — whatever keeps your doors open. We build temporary dust and noise partitions, phase the work so a portion of the space stays usable, coordinate with building management for freight elevator and loading dock windows, and leave the space clean and safe for customers every single morning. If you're in an occupied multi-tenant building, we work within the landlord's after-hours rules so your neighbors never file a complaint about you.

Timeline and what drives it

Pre-construction: roughly 6 to 14 weeks. Drawings, landlord plan approval, and permitting. Fire review and jurisdictional comment cycles are the main variables, and landlord review can add weeks on its own if the lease doesn't cap their response time.

Construction: a straightforward second-generation office or retail build-out typically runs 6 to 10 weeks. A first-generation shell build-out, a medical or dental suite, or a restaurant with hood, grease and gas typically runs 3 to 5 months.

What moves it: change of occupancy classification, the amount of sprinkler and fire alarm work, HVAC and electrical gear lead times, restroom and accessibility scope, landlord review speed, and after-hours-only restrictions that cut your available work window.

What it costs

I won't post a dollar-per-square-foot figure, because for tenant improvements it would be meaningless. The same 3,000 square feet can differ by a multiple depending on what you're walking into.

What drives the number: shell condition versus second-generation space; occupancy type, with restaurants and medical at the top because of MEP density and specialty equipment; how many private offices, exam rooms or restrooms; ceiling height and whether the ceiling is finished or exposed; how much sprinkler relocation the new layout forces; whether the existing HVAC and electrical service can carry your load or need to be replaced or upgraded; accessibility upgrades to existing conditions; and after-hours labor premiums.

Your tenant improvement allowance offsets part of it. I'll build the estimate so you can see exactly which line items the allowance covers and what you're funding out of pocket — useful information to have before you finish negotiating the lease, not after.

You get one fixed written number for labor and construction, with clearly stated allowances for finishes still being selected. Changes happen only by written change order, priced and approved before the work is done.

Things business owners ask before hiring us

Let's walk the space

Whether you've signed the lease or you're still deciding between two spaces, I'll walk it with you, tell you what it will realistically take to open, and give you one clear written number and a schedule you can plan your opening around. No pressure, no showroom, no runaround. I'd be glad to earn your business.