drawings and blueprints. These will be the final prices and the last step. At some time during this part, you need to decide if you want to control the construction or have the landlord oversee it for you. There are positive and negatives to each choice. The landlord being in charge of the construction makes sense when you are in a time crunch. The plans should be extremely well defined by now and easy for the landlord to see through. In some situations it is better for the tenant to oversee the buildout, if they have construction experience or it is in the lease, they will do that for certain concessions. I recommend having the landlord overseeing, however. Usually, it is their budget and if something goes over, it will be on them and not you. You do need to stay close to the process and get daily or weekly updates on the progress from the landlord. Also, stay a phone call away from the landlord so if anything comes up, they will reach out to you. Fluid communication is key in any buildout. During this time in the process, your project manager will be the most important member of your team. The architect and the project manager should be there and be your advocate to make sure the work is being done right and in a timely manner. You still need to stay on top of it yourself to make sure the buildout is going according to your standards and plans. Sending someone from your company (or yourself) to weekly construction meetings is a good idea. However, there will always be surprises in construction projects. There may be hidden conditions that don’t get noticed until the space is demolished. There may be mistakes that have been made based on previous or wrong information. People make mistakes and on a project with as many moving parts as this, they will
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