General Contractor in Addison, TX: Restaurants and Offices

Addison is tiny on a map. The Census Bureau puts it at 4.35 square miles of land, with 17,195 residents as of July 2025. Yet the Town’s tourism office counts more than 200 restaurants inside those limits, and the Town’s 2013 comprehensive plan estimated that about 100,000 office workers came into Addison every day. Few towns in North Texas pack this much commercial life into so little ground.

That density sets the terms for construction here. There’s almost no vacant land, so an Addison project is rarely a fresh shell. It’s a new restaurant moving into an old one’s kitchen, a company re-planning a suite in a tower from the Reagan years, or an owner finally updating a townhome or condo.

We’re MASACO, a woman- and minority-owned general contractor at 7950 Legacy Drive in Plano, about 20 minutes up the Dallas North Tollway. We haven’t completed a project in Addison yet, and we won’t suggest otherwise. Our nearest finished work is Pizza Twist in Irving, a 2,000-square-foot franchise restaurant built out in 6 to 8 weeks while it stayed open, and Calibration Brain & Body in Frisco, a 4,250-square-foot studio conversion delivered on an expedited 5-week schedule.

Belt Line Road and 200 restaurants in 4.4 square miles

Why so many restaurants? Start with a 1976 election. A Texas Senate bill analysis records that Addison voters approved alcohol sales that year for both on-premise and off-premise consumption. A 1982 charter amendment later confined package sales to one designated part of town, but restaurants kept the right to serve. Restaurants came, and they kept coming.

Much of that dining lines Belt Line Road. In a town this full of kitchens, the restaurant space you tour has often had a kitchen before. That’s second-generation space: a hood, a grease interceptor, a walk-in, and a dining room somebody else laid out.

In Addison, the cheapest kitchen is the one already in the building. The most expensive is the one that looked reusable and wasn’t.

Here’s what we check before you sign a Belt Line lease:

• The grease interceptor. The Town’s commercial construction packet requires every food establishment to have one of at least 750 pounds, and Environmental Health can require a bigger one. If the last tenant’s trap is smaller, it’s your trap now.
• The water tap. The same packet warns that a 3/4-inch tenant tap may limit a lease space to tank-type toilets instead of flush valves. That matters if you’re adding restrooms.
• The hood. At the CO inspection the fire inspector looks for a kitchen hood tagged with a current cleaning date and the cleaning company’s name, plus current tags on the suppression system.
• The surfaces. The health checklist calls for floors, walls, and ceilings that are smooth, nonabsorbent, easily cleanable, and light in color, specified as 60 LRV.

Illustrative: a second-generation restaurant space reworked around a chef’s counter facing an open kitchen.

Buying a restaurant counts as well. Addison requires a new certificate of occupancy for a change of tenant, a change of ownership, or even a business name change. Rebranding an existing spot still runs through the Town.

Keeping the doors open matters on Belt Line too, and it’s exactly what Pizza Twist demanded. We built that franchise location’s full kitchen and utility connections in phases, scheduling each day around service hours, because the restaurant never closed. Our restaurant construction page covers food-service builds in more depth.

Nearby work in Irving: the Pizza Twist dining room, a 2,000 SF franchise build-out MASACO completed while the restaurant stayed open.

A Tollway office market built in the 1980s and 1990s

Addison’s tallest buildings line the Dallas North Tollway. The Town’s 2013 comprehensive plan counted 101 Class A and B office buildings with 10,255,758 square feet, which it noted was more office space than downtown Fort Worth. Most of it went up in the 1980s and ’90s. The Mary Kay headquarters on Dallas Parkway alone held 545,900 square feet.

The tenants are mostly small. The same plan found that most of Addison’s office tenants occupy between 5,000 and 20,000 square feet. That’s the classic second-generation suite: someone else’s demising walls, reception desk, ceiling grid, and light fixtures.

Mary Kay’s headquarters on Dallas Parkway, one of the largest office buildings in Addison’s Tollway corridor.

Re-planning a suite in a 35-year-old building brings its own checklist:

• Sprinklers. Addison’s Fire Marshal’s Office says that since 1992, with few exceptions, every new, remodeled, or moved-into structure has been fully sprinklered. Moving into an older suite can bring sprinkler work, so we ask the fire marshal before pricing.
• Asbestos. A commercial remodel, addition, or demolition permit in Addison needs an asbestos survey from a state-licensed asbestos contractor, submitted with the application.
• Rated corridors. Where your suite touches a fire-rated wall, a third-party inspector has to verify that every penetration through it is properly protected.
• Energy. You submit a COMcheck with the permit, and a certified third-party inspector signs off on energy compliance before the building final.

Our office build-outs page lays out how we price and phase this work, and tenant improvements covers the lease side: work letters, allowances, and who owns what.

Addison Circle, the Silver Line, and Addison Junction

Addison Circle is the Town’s planned urban neighborhood. According to the Town’s history of Blueprints at Addison Circle, planning began with the Vision 2020 group in 1992. The district covers 74 acres beside the Addison Conference and Theatre Centre, between the Tollway on the east and Quorum Drive on the west, and it was designed as a high-density neighborhood of 3,500 units with retail and office space. Columbus Realty Trust led the development, and Post Properties acquired Columbus in 1998.

Transit runs through all of it. Addison joined DART in 1983, and the bus transit center DART opened here in 1999 is now Addison Station on the Silver Line, which DART describes as a 26-mile regional rail line through seven cities, with Addison Station at its midway point, about 32 minutes from DFW Airport. On May 2, 2026, Addison voters chose to stay in DART.

Addison Station on the DART Silver Line, where the Addison Junction district is planned.

Beside the station, the City Council approved a development agreement in September 2025 for Addison Junction, a 14-acre district from Quadrant Investment Properties: a 155,550-square-foot mass timber office building, a 140-room boutique hotel, 30,000 square feet of entertainment space, and a 12,000-square-foot event venue called The Hangar. The Town committed $40 million to infrastructure and two public garages. For Addison, that means something rare: brand-new, first-generation tenant space.

Addison buildings by decade

The Town’s July 2022 housing FAQ is the best record of what got built when.

• Late 1960s. Addison’s first homes were apartment complexes around Brookhaven Club Drive, the area now redeveloped as Vitruvian Park.
• 1970s and 1980s. In 1980, NCTCOG estimated 4,007 apartment units and only 202 single-family homes. Condos arrived early: Brooktown Townhomes was approved in 1972, Pecan Square and Bent Tree Valley in 1981, and La Mirada’s townhomes in 1984. Most of the Tollway towers date from the 1980s and ’90s.
• 1990s. Between the 1991 and 2013 comprehensive plans, west Addison gained 566 single-family detached houses and 231 townhomes. The last single-family detached neighborhood was developed in 1994.
• 2000s. Addison Circle added condos: Aventura, approved in 2000, the Parkview and District A townhomes in 2004, and Meridian Square in 2008.
• 2010s on. New apartment phases at Vitruvian Park, Addison Grove’s townhomes on the former Sam’s Club site on Belt Line west of Midway Road, and 31 fee-simple townhomes approved for Beltway Drive.

So commercial space here is middle-aged, and homes skew toward townhomes and condos, where a remodel lives inside shared walls and association rules.

Permits, plan review, and Addison’s CO walk

Permits run through the Building Safety Division at the Addison Service Center, 16801 Westgrove Drive. Addison adopted the 2024 International codes with local amendments, and they apply to every submittal on or after June 1, 2024. The energy code is the outlier: the Town still enforces the 2018 IECC.

What Addison asks of a commercial job:

• Registered contractors. Every contractor working in town limits registers with the Town before the project starts and renews every year. Each trade files a separate validation form for every scope of work on every job site.
• Email submittals. Plans go to the Town by email, one PDF per section, including a code review sheet showing construction type, occupancy, occupant load, and exits.
• State accessibility review. Under TDLR’s rules, a project with a total estimated cost of $50,000 or more is registered with the state for accessibility review, and Addison wants a copy of that registration.
• Fast inspections. Requests made in the Town’s online portal before 7:00 a.m. are inspected the same business day. Building, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and energy finals all happen at once.
• Work hours. Construction runs from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

One morning, every department

Addison’s certificate of occupancy runs on a weekly schedule you plan around.

“No building or structure can be used or occupied until the Town of Addison has issued a Certificate of Occupancy.”

From the Town of Addison’s certificate of occupancy packet.

The CO packet, revised July 2, 2026, spells out the process. The tenant files the application, with a floor plan labeling every room and a signed Business Acknowledgement Form, and the Town allows 3 business days for review. Then every department inspects together, only on a Wednesday or Thursday between 9:00 and 11:00 a.m. You email the request by 6:00 p.m. Monday to get that week. Building Safety, Fire, Parks, and Health for food businesses all attend. Power and water have to be on.

Miss it and you lose a week. A space that isn’t ready can draw a $75 reinspection fee from each inspector, then $125 for each one after that. A temporary CO, at the building official’s discretion, costs $250 on top of the regular fee and can cover stocking shelves or training staff before opening. The Town posts every application in its monthly CO reports; June 2026’s ran from a 349-square-foot suite to an 11,230-square-foot space.

What fire and health inspectors look for

The fire walk checks for an extinguisher for every 3,000 square feet with no more than 75 feet of travel to one, exit lights on battery backup, no slide bolts on exit doors, and 18 inches of clear space below sprinkler heads.

Food adds a license. Addison’s Food Service License application asks for your menu and a Certified Food Manager certificate, and says plainly that a food business can’t open or operate until the CO is issued. The license renews every year.

Remodeling an Addison townhome, condo, or small-lot home

Owners are a minority here. The 2022 housing FAQ counted 11,432 homes, 78.8 percent of them rentals. Of the 2,420 ownership homes, 1,268 are small-lot single-family houses, with 342 townhomes, 607 condos, 119 large-lot houses, and 84 duplexes. The Town describes most of its single-family stock as moderately sized homes on smaller lots.

That changes how you plan a remodel. Many townhome kitchens are galleys, so we design for the footprint instead of fighting it: cabinets to the ceiling, panel-ready appliances so the run reads as one wall, a slim island only if the aisle allows it, and lighting that makes a narrow room feel wider. Our kitchen remodeling page shows the range of work.

Illustrative: a galley kitchen in a 1990s townhome rebuilt with tall panel-ready cabinets, a slim island, and new lighting.

Condos add a second owner to the conversation. The Town’s FAQ explains that condo owners own the interior of their unit and share ownership of the land and common areas with the association. Plan on its approval for anything that touches shared walls, the exterior, or common systems, and get it before demolition, not after.

A 1980s condo bath usually needs new waterproofing, ventilation, and fixtures more than a bigger footprint; see bathroom remodeling. When the kitchen, baths, floors, and lighting all need attention, a whole-home remodel under one permit and one schedule is easier to live through.

The Town’s permit checklist is clear about the line. Adding or removing a wall, enlarging a window or door opening, electrical and plumbing work, and a new water heater all need permits. Painting, wallpaper, carpet, cabinets, trim, and replacing existing fixtures don’t. It also reminds homeowners to check their HOA’s deed restrictions. On a home, the framing, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing top-out inspections all happen at once, so every trade has to be ready on the same day.

Three Addison landmarks locals know

Addison Airport

Addison Airport opened in 1957 on a 400-acre site, built by a group of Dallas businessmen led by John Murchison and W.T. “Bill” Overton. Its first runway was 4,500 feet long; it has since been stretched to about 7,200. In 1976 the FAA asked the Town to take it over, and Addison bought it with an FAA grant covering 90 percent of the $8 million price. Addison streets like Wiley Post Road and Lindbergh Drive carry aviators’ names, and the Town’s CO application asks whether a building will store or maintain aircraft.

Addison Airport, opened in 1957 and owned by the Town since 1976.

The Stone Cottage on Addison Road

The Work Projects Administration built the Stone Cottage at 15650 Addison Road in 1939 and 1940. It was first called the Addison Community Building, the meeting place of the Addison Home Demonstration Club, whose members helped raise its $4,600 cost through bake sales. It later housed the original Addison Centre Theatre, fell into disrepair, and was remodeled after a 1998 City Council vote.

The Stone Cottage on Addison Road, built by the WPA in 1939 and 1940.

Blueprints at Addison Circle

At the center of Addison Circle’s 133-foot traffic circle stands Blueprints, by artist Mel Chin and landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh, dedicated on April 13, 2000. It’s about 410,000 pounds of steel, more than four stories tall and 140 feet across, painted with 650 gallons of custom “Sharpie Blue.” Its five petals carry drawings taken from Addison’s own municipal buildings, parks, bridges, and water pumping facilities. A sculpture made of construction documents. Fitting, in a town that’s mostly been built and rebuilt.

Fountains at Addison Circle, with the blue steel petals of Blueprints behind them.

How an Addison project runs with MASACO

Every job follows the six steps on our process page, fitted to Addison’s calendar:

1. Understand. We tour the suite or the house with you and read the lease exhibit or condo documents before anything else.
2. Visualize. 3D renderings come before a single number, so you approve the design first.
3. Plan. Your proposal is fixed in scope and broken out trade by trade, with allowances named. For a restaurant, it maps the CO walk and health review from day one.
4. Execute. One project manager runs the job and sends written photo updates every week. We file the Town submittals and line up the third-party energy and fire penetration inspections.
5. Deliver. At handover you get as-builts, permits, inspection records, the CO, and warranties in one close-out package.
6. Support. We stay a phone call away after you open.

Signing a lease on Belt Line, re-planning a suite off the Tollway, or finally fixing a 1980s condo kitchen near Addison Circle? Book a consultation. We’ll walk it with you and come back with a plan you can hold us to.

Building in Addison: what to know.

Addison fits more than 200 restaurants and over 10 million square feet of office space, most of it built in the 1980s and 1990s, into 4.35 square miles, so commercial work here usually means reworking a second-generation restaurant or office suite rather than finishing a new shell. Owners live mostly in townhomes, condos, and small-lot houses, and the last single-family detached neighborhood was developed in 1994. The Town's Building Safety Division at 16801 Westgrove Drive issues permits, and every department walks a new tenant's certificate of occupancy inspection together on a Wednesday or Thursday morning.

Addison neighborhoods and districts.

• Addison Circle
• Vitruvian Park
• Oaks North
• Waterford Park
• Chatham Court
• Townhomes of Addison
• La Mirada
• Pecan Square
• Bent Tree Valley
• Addison Grove
• Belt Line Road restaurant corridor
• Dallas North Tollway office corridor
• Addison Airport

Addison on the map.

Open Addison, TX in Google Maps