Commercial Construction and General Contractor in Plano, TX

Plano is the one city on this site with no drive time attached. Our office is at 7950 Legacy Drive, Unit 400, in the Legacy West area, so a site visit here is a trip across town.

Building in Plano right now means working inside a city that’s mostly finished. Plano went from 17,872 residents in 1970 to 222,030 in 2000, then added only about 63,000 more by 2020, according to the City’s demographic history. The work is rework: office suites on their third tenant, 1980s shopping centers, a shuttered mall turning into a neighborhood, and houses from the 1970s through the 1990s that need more than paint.

We’re a woman- and minority-owned general contractor. We work as a commercial contractor first, and a full residential remodeling practice runs beside that. Our closest completed projects sit just north of here. Calibration Brain & Body in Frisco was a 4,250 SF wellness and media studio we converted from an existing interior in 5 weeks. In Allen, we took Fade & Style Barber Shop from shell to open in 6 weeks.

Nearby in Frisco: the lounge at Calibration Brain & Body, MASACO’s 4,250 SF studio conversion.

Legacy turned Plano into a headquarters town

In the early 1980s, EDS founder Ross Perot bought 2,700 acres in west Plano and laid out the Legacy business park. Frito-Lay chose it for its global headquarters in 1985, and JCPenney announced its move from New York in 1987, as Plano Economic Development tells it. Today Legacy covers 2,665 acres bounded by the Dallas North Tollway, SH 121, Preston Road, and Spring Creek Parkway, and its employers run from Toyota Motor North America to Pizza Hut, KFC, and Raising Cane’s.

Legacy West is the newest layer, and it’s where our office is. It opened in June 2017 as a $3.2 billion, 255-acre district at the southwest corner of the Tollway and SH 121, built around Toyota’s North American headquarters, the FedEx Office headquarters, and regional headquarters for JPMorgan Chase and Liberty Mutual. More than 1,200 apartments sit over its street-level shops. The Shops at Legacy, an open-air center inside Legacy Town Center ringed by urban-style homes and offices, rounds out the district.

Granite Park shares that Tollway and SH 121 corner with more than 2.3 million square feet of office space, according to the EDC’s business park profiles. Its sixth tower, 19 stories and 422,000 square feet, opened in 2023.

So an office build-out in Plano usually means a suite in a managed Class A building, where the landlord’s rules on work hours, elevator bookings, and the base building fire alarm shape the schedule as much as the City’s. We get those rules in writing before we price the job.

Health care is the other big tenant base. The EDC’s healthcare overview lists Medical City Plano, a Level 1 trauma hospital with 493 beds; Texas Health Plano, open since 1991; Baylor Scott & White Medical Center Plano, open since 2004; and Children’s Medical Center Plano, which opened in 2008 and nearly doubled its beds with a 2023 expansion. The City has set up a tax increment reinvestment zone in Legacy aimed at biotechnology, medical, and life sciences users.

Clinics near those campuses run into one Plano form most owners have never seen. A dental, medical, surgical, or similar practice files an Ambulatory Health Care Facility disclosure with its permit or CO application. Using nitrous oxide or other sedation on up to three patients at a time means a manual fire alarm, smoke detection, and a sprinkler head in a medical gas room enclosed in 1-hour walls. Four or more patients adds an automatic sprinkler system. We settle that before a medical or wellness build-out gets drawn, not after.

Collin Creek, Willow Bend, and the US 75 side

Plano Economic Development describes the city’s office market along four expressways: the President George Bush Turnpike (SH 190), the Dallas North Tollway, US 75, and SH 121. Two of the districts it names, Collin Creek on US 75 and Willow Bend on the Tollway, are where Plano is rebuilding itself.

At its peak, Collin Creek Mall on US 75 had nearly 1.3 million square feet of retail. In April 2019 the City Council voted unanimously to rezone the 104-acre site for a roughly $1 billion redevelopment by Centurion American: 2,300 apartments, 500 single-family homes and townhouses, 300 senior-living units, new office, restaurant, and hotel buildings, and 8.7 acres of city parkland, Community Impact reported. Under that plan, part of the old mall building stays, cut to less than a quarter of its original size, for boutiques and neighborhood services such as a grocery store.

It’s taken longer than anyone planned. An $80 million drainage fix slowed the work, and a February 2026 update on the project’s own site counted 130 homes occupied and 402 lots delivered to builders.

The arched facade of the former Collin Creek Mall on US 75, photographed in 2019 after it closed.

Then there’s Willow Bend. On June 8, 2026, the City Council approved a non-binding letter of intent with the Dallas Stars, an incentive agreement with the owners of The Shops at Willow Bend, a new tax increment zone, and a venue project resolution for the state comptroller. Those are the first steps toward a sports and mixed-use entertainment district at the mall, according to the City’s Willow Bend FAQ. The district could include a sports venue, retail, restaurants, homes, and public space, and a venue tax election is tentatively set for November 3, 2026.

Plano’s next round of restaurant and retail build-outs won’t come from raw land. It’ll come from its malls.

The main entrance at The Shops at Willow Bend, where Plano is weighing a sports and entertainment district.

In southeast Plano, Research/Technology Crossroads covers about 800 acres beside the Bush Turnpike and the Telecom Corridor, and DART’s Silver Line now gives it a rail link to UT Dallas and DFW Airport.

Most Plano space has already had a tenant

Those census counts explain the buildings. Plano grew by about 54,000 people in the 1970s, 56,000 in the 1980s, and 93,000 in the 1990s. The shopping centers, office buildings, and subdivisions built for them are now roughly 25 to 50 years old. Downtown is older still: its earliest buildings went up after fires destroyed most of it in the late 1890s.

That makes second-generation space the Plano default. A previous tenant left behind walls, a ceiling grid, restrooms, and HVAC zoning, all permitted under an older code. Reusing them saves money when they still work. When they don’t, you find out during demolition.

Plano’s commercial submittal checklist draws the line between two permits. An interior finish-out permit is for a new tenant doing work and needing a certificate of occupancy. An alteration permit is for an existing tenant, a white box, or a spec suite. If the work disturbs the existing interior, the City wants proof of an asbestos survey before it issues the permit, and any project costing $50,000 or more needs a TDLR registration for accessibility review.

In a Plano suite on its third tenant, the old drawings are a starting point, never a promise.

Illustrative: a second-generation restaurant reopened with new finishes, the previous tenant’s kitchen line reused behind the counter.

Restaurants are the best case for reuse, and the most closely watched. Plano’s Environmental Health division requires approved plans before construction or remodeling starts on a new or extensively remodeled food establishment, and a food business can’t open until Building Inspections issues its CO. If only the owner or the name changes, with no mechanical, electrical, or plumbing work, the health side needs just a new food service permit application. Our restaurant construction work starts with that distinction.

For every other suite, our tenant improvement process begins with the lease exhibit and the landlord’s work letter, because those decide who pays for what’s already above the ceiling.

Plano permits run through 1520 K Avenue

The Building Inspections department works from Suite 140 of the Plano Municipal Center at 1520 K Avenue. Applications, contractor searches, and inspection requests run through eTRAKiT, and commercial interior finish and alteration/remodel permits are the only two types Plano accepts electronically so far.

What to know before you sign a lease or a contract:

• The codes changed in 2025. Plano’s 2024 building, residential, energy, fire, plumbing, and mechanical codes, along with the 2023 National Electrical Code, took effect August 1, 2025, with local amendments.
• Your contractor registers and stays current. The general contractor must register with the City before the permit issues, and the mechanical, plumbing, and electrical subs go on a validation sheet. A contractor who lets a permit lapse gets 10 working days after the City’s email notice to renew it before the registration goes on hold.
• Review has published targets. Plano’s plan review goals are 10 working days for first commercial comments, 5 to 7 for later rounds, and 5 for residential. Food businesses submit 3 sets of plans instead of 2.
• Big jobs carry a recycling deposit. Alterations and finish-outs of 10,000 square feet or more pay a construction recycling deposit of $0.15 per square foot, capped at $11,250 and refunded in full at 30% diversion. Plano is a franchised city, so only Republic Services may set trash containers on a construction site.

Then the certificate of occupancy. Plano’s CO information sheet requires a new CO for a change of ownership, a change of tenant, or a name change, and the order is strict. Power has to be on before Plano Fire-Rescue inspects, or you pay a reinspection fee. Fire and health inspections, each scheduled with its own department, must pass before Building Inspections will do the final.

Plano won’t do your final building inspection until fire and health have both signed off. Schedule backward from opening day.

Downtown adds one more reviewer. Plano has two local heritage districts: Haggard Park, designated in 1999, and Downtown, designated in 2002 around K Avenue and 15th Street. Under the Downtown design standards, all new construction and exterior repair or renovation needs a Certificate of Appropriateness. Items on the preservation officer’s delegated list get staff approval in 2 to 3 business days. Heritage Commission approvals take 4 to 5 weeks, City Council about 10 to 12, and a certificate is good for one year. Buildings from the 1890 to 1936 Period of Focus get less flexibility than later ones.

Brick storefronts on 15th Street in the Downtown Plano Heritage District, where exterior work needs a Certificate of Appropriateness.

Remodeling Plano houses from the 1970s to the 1990s

Most Plano houses went up in the same three decades as its shopping centers. Expect slab foundations, brick veneer, and floor plans that wall the kitchen off from the family room.

The City gives homeowners a shortcut for the most common jobs. The Residential Bathroom/Kitchen Remodel Scope of Work permit covers water supply, drain and vent, gas, wiring, GFCI and AFCI outlets, exhaust fans, ductwork, and tile backer board. It doesn’t cover removing a bearing wall, changing structure, rearranging a required exit, or altering a fire alarm or sprinkler system, and work that exceeds the declared scope can draw a stop work order. So if your kitchen remodel in Plano means taking out the wall to the family room, it needs a full alteration permit with drawings, and we file it that way from the start.

Moving a sink or a shower drain means cutting the slab, and when Plano inspects a replaced under-slab water or sewer line, the plumber has to produce photos of the work, a signed letter from the responsible master plumber, and a simple schematic of the new piping. The 2024 plumbing code Plano adopted adds support rules for buried piping under buildings in expansive soil. It also caps showerheads at 2.0 gallons per minute, which matters when you pick fixtures for a bathroom remodel.

Additions get engineering. Plano’s addition checklist requires engineered foundation plans when you add onto a post-tension slab and an engineer’s letter when you build on top of an existing slab. A new roof can’t anchor to brick veneer. Homes over 6,000 square feet need sealed structural drawings and a fire sprinkler system. The same checklist tells you to confirm your HOA’s deed restrictions and covenants.

Plano also allows backyard cottages: a detached second unit behind the house on a lot of at least 6,000 square feet, 400 to 1,100 square feet or half the main house if that’s smaller, no taller than the house, with its own kitchen, bath, and sleeping area plus an extra off-street parking space that isn’t tandem. It can’t be sold separately.

Illustrative: a detached backyard cottage built to match a 1980s brick house, the kind of second unit Plano allows on lots of 6,000 square feet or more.

One more Plano detail can cover part of the bill. The City’s Great Update Rebate returns $5,000 to owner-occupants who spend $20,000 or more on eligible improvements to a home at least 30 years old and appraised at or below $478,975 for 2026. Interior work qualifies only from the City’s mobility list, which includes redesigning a layout to an open concept, walk-in and roll-in showers, grab bars, and wider doorways. The catch: no deposit, purchase, or work before the City’s Notice to Proceed. If you’re applying, tell us first and we’ll time the proposal around it. A whole-home remodel that opens the plan and rebuilds the primary bath can line up with that list.

Rail history and creek trails: two Plano landmarks

The Interurban Railway Museum

From 1908 to 1948, Plano’s stop on the Texas Electric Railway stood at 901 E 15th Street, and the building is now the Interurban Railway Museum. The line was one of the largest interurbans in the South, with more than 226 miles of track linking Denison, Dallas, Waco, and Corsicana. Out front sits Car 360, built in 1911 by the American Car Company of St. Louis, rebuilt as a railway post office in 1932, and retired in 1948. The station is one of Plano’s 35 Heritage Landmarks, and it anchors Haggard Park.

The 1908 Texas Electric Railway station on 15th Street, now the Interurban Railway Museum.

Oak Point Park and Nature Preserve

Oak Point Park and Nature Preserve is Plano’s largest park: 800 acres from Parker Road north to Chaparral Road and from Spring Creek Parkway east to Los Rios Boulevard, with nearly eight miles of concrete trail and five miles of soft-surface trail along Rowlett Creek. On the city’s western border, Arbor Hills Nature Preserve adds another 200 acres and an observation tower off West Parker Road.

The Nature & Retreat Center beside the pond at Oak Point Park and Nature Preserve, Plano’s largest park.

Working with a general contractor based in Plano

Every job follows the same process. We start by walking the suite or the house with you and reading whatever governs it: the lease and work letter, the HOA covenants, or the heritage standards downtown. You see 3D renderings before we price anything. Then you get a fixed-scope proposal organized by trade, with allowances spelled out.

Once work starts, one project manager runs the job and sends a written update with photos every week. At the end you get a close-out package with as-builts, permits, inspection records, the certificate of occupancy, and warranties, and we stay reachable after handover.

MASACO is led by Sara Bannat, Founder and CEO, and Mahmoud Abu Saad, COO, and we’re a Goldman Sachs Preferred Vendor. If you need a general contractor in Plano, TX, for a Legacy office suite, a second-generation restaurant on US 75, or a 1980s house that’s ready for real home remodeling, book a consultation. We’re already in town.

Building in Plano: what to know.

Plano added more than 200,000 residents between 1970 and 2000 and only about 63,000 in the twenty years after, so most projects here are second-generation suites, 1980s shopping centers, and homes from the 1970s through the 1990s, with Legacy West and the Granite Park towers as the newer exception. Permits run through Building Inspections at the Plano Municipal Center, 1520 K Avenue, under the 2024 codes that took effect August 1, 2025. Exterior work in the Downtown and Haggard Park heritage districts also needs a Certificate of Appropriateness.

Plano neighborhoods and districts.

• Legacy West
• Legacy Town Center (The Shops at Legacy)
• Granite Park
• Legacy Central
• Downtown Plano Heritage District
• Haggard Park Heritage District
• Willow Bend
• Collin Creek
• Research/Technology Crossroads
• Kings Ridge
• Whiffletree
• Shoal Creek
• Hunters Creek Estates
• Country Place

Plano on the map.

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