Southlake is nearly finished. The city’s FY 2025 Annual Development Report puts it at 22.5 square miles and 92% developed. Between April and June 2026, Southlake issued 787 building permits, and only 17 were for new houses, according to the third quarter development update. The work left is reinvestment: suites along SH 114 and Southlake Boulevard changing hands, and custom homes from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s getting new kitchens, bigger primary suites, and outdoor rooms.
We’re MASACO, a commercial-first general contractor with a full residential practice, based on Legacy Drive in Plano. Southlake is about 35 minutes southwest of us on SH 121 and SH 114. We haven’t completed a project in Southlake yet. Our closest finished job is Pizza Twist in Irving, a 2,000-square-foot franchise restaurant we built out in six to eight weeks while it kept serving customers.
If you’re vetting a general contractor in Southlake, TX, here’s what the city’s own documents say about building here.
SH 114 and Southlake Boulevard, the two spines
State Highway 114 cuts across Southlake from the northwest to the southeast. The city’s SH 114 Corridor Plan, adopted in June 2017, covers about 1,878 acres along it, taking in Southlake Town Square, Gateway Plaza, the Sabre campus, and the Carillon master-planned community. Office and medical uses mostly line the frontage roads, and most retail sits between SH 114 and Southlake Boulevard (FM 1709). A 2015 city count put 58,202 vehicles a day on the corridor.
Southlake Boulevard is the second spine, and west of North Carroll Avenue it has its own FM 1709 and FM 1938 corridor plan.
The development report names the city’s five biggest retail destinations: Southlake Town Square, Shops of Southlake, Park Village, Gateway Plaza, and Southlake Corners. Its top employers are mostly offices. Sabre leads with about 1,900 people, followed by Charles Schwab, Carroll ISD, Verizon Wireless, and Keller Williams.
Full centers mean second-generation suites
Southlake’s shopping centers are close to full. The third quarter update put retail occupancy at 96.4%, against 94.9% across DFW, on about 4.68 million square feet. Office occupancy was 87.6%. In a market that tight, the suite you tour was almost certainly built out for somebody else. Their walls. Their ceiling grid, restrooms, and rooftop units. Maybe their grease interceptor.
New shells do appear. Trademark Southlake, approved for North White Chapel Boulevard, plans about 115,000 square feet of retail, including a grocery store, plus 41,500 square feet of office. Next Century Health Care Plaza on East SH 114 adds six single-story medical office buildings of roughly 50,000 square feet.
Shells carry their own rules. Each tenant space gets a separate permit. Under Southlake’s commercial construction guidelines, a sprinklered shell’s system has to be hydrostatically tested in front of the Fire Marshal’s office before a finish-out can alter it, and a shell without sprinklers has to be dried in before interior permits are issued. No tenant gets a CO until the shell passes final with Building, Engineering, Fire, Landscaping, and Zoning.
That’s where a tenant improvements budget is won or lost: knowing what’s above the ceiling before you sign the lease.
Food changes the math: new drain lines under the slab, a hood, and a grease interceptor. See restaurant construction and the county section below.
Town Square and the stamps that come before the city’s
The photo at the top of this page is Southlake Town Square. The City Council signed the first developer agreement for its Phase I in January 1998, and a joint city and county building opened there in early 2000, according to Select Southlake’s TIRZ page. Visit Southlake now counts more than 95 stores, 27 eateries, three parks, a Hilton hotel, and a Harkins theater, centered on Town Hall and alongside the public library, the municipal court, and the Department of Public Safety headquarters. The Texas chapter of the American Planning Association named it a Great Public Place in 2020.
Leasing there adds a step most cities don’t have. The city’s April 2026 commercial submittal guidelines require an approval stamp from Southlake Town Management, which they identify as KITE, before you can submit for a building permit.
In Town Square, the landlord signs off before the city even looks at your drawings.
Signs are their own permit, under Sign Ordinance No. 704-J, and centers such as Town Square, Shops of Southlake, Gateway/Wyndham Plaza, and Southlake Corners carry special sign regulations on top of it. Even string lights fall under it.
Exterior lighting follows Ordinance 693-C: fixtures mounted above 42 inches must be high pressure sodium or LED no warmer than 4300 Kelvin, and linear LED or up-lighting needs City Council approval. Change a facade and your plans must spell out materials and colors. New development also meets the Corridor Planning Committee, drawn from the City Council, Planning and Zoning, and the Parks Board, for early feedback before a formal application.
A boutique lives on millwork, a private fitting room, and lighting that flatters the product; our retail and salon build-outs page covers that scope.
Permits, plan review, and the CO in Southlake
Southlake Building Inspections works from Suite 250 of Town Hall at 1400 Main Street, and every application goes through the city’s online portal. The city still enforces the 2021 International Codes with local amendments, in effect since May 1, 2022, plus the 2023 National Electrical Code, adopted November 7, 2023.
A general contractor registers with the city for $100 before applying, and every subcontractor on the permit registers too, free for state license holders. Permits are multi-trade. The April 2026 guidelines set out the rest:
- A plan review fee of 40% of the permit fee at submittal, the other 60% at issuance
- Up to 10 business days for first comments, 15 for new buildings and additions
- Architect-sealed floor plans with a life safety plan, a COMcheck energy report, an asbestos survey, and proof of TDLR accessibility registration before any permit is issued
- A Texas Accessibility Standards inspection before the CO on every commercial tenant space, even jobs too small for state review
- Sprinkler plans whenever more than 20 heads are added or relocated, reviewed by one of three outside firms the city names, at your cost
On the city’s 2026 fee schedule, a $100,000 commercial remodel carries a $2,130 permit fee covering building, trades, drainage inspection, and plan review. New commercial buildings over 6,000 square feet need sprinklers and alarms, and a change of use can trigger them too. In the Airport Overlay Zone, a design professional also certifies that the design meets any required noise level reduction before the permit is issued.
Moving into an existing suite
Southlake requires a new certificate of occupancy for a new tenant, a change of use, a change of name, or a new owner. Planning construction? File a commercial remodel permit instead.
On a straight re-occupancy, the city’s re-occupancy guidelines have the tenant or management company apply online, and Zoning, Building, and Fire each review the file. Anything dangerous, unsanitary, or a fire hazard has to come up to the 2021 codes. You can occupy once building and fire both approve; the formal certificate is emailed within two weeks. A temporary CO costs $250 per 30 days, plus a $3,000 refundable deposit.
Food answers to Tarrant County
Southlake doesn’t operate a public health department, as its comprehensive planning page notes, so Tarrant County Public Health regulates food establishments here. Food service, grocery, day care, and assisted living all need a county plan review, and you submit it to the county directly.
“This will not hold up a building final inspection but will hold up opening your business.”
City of Southlake, Re-Occupancy Guidelines, on the county health permit
Grease belongs to the city. The permit needs a grease interceptor worksheet sealed by a plumbing engineer, and an existing interceptor gets pumped and power washed while Public Works inspects, before the permit is issued. Once you’re open, the city’s FOG program requires grease traps cleaned at least every 90 days.
Acre lots and estate homes: how Southlake was built
Southlake’s houses went up in one long run. The Handbook of Texas counts 2,808 residents in 1980, 7,065 in 1990, and 21,519 in 2000, and it places the city in northern Tarrant and southern Denton counties. The city’s visitor bureau says the area stayed rural until DFW Airport was finished in the 1970s, then boomed through the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.
Then it leveled off. The Census Bureau’s Vintage 2025 estimates put Southlake at 31,175 residents on July 1, 2025, 729 of them in Denton County.
The lots tell the rest. The development report lists 172 major residential subdivisions. Timarron is the largest, 1,396 lots averaging about 16,000 square feet. But 80 of the 172 average an acre (43,560 square feet) or more: Cross Timber Hills has 197 lots averaging 50,311 square feet, Clariden Ranch 112 averaging 45,607, and Harbor Oaks 49 averaging 116,437. Recent approvals follow the pattern; The Hideaway on East Bob Jones Road is seven lots of 43,600 to 52,900 square feet.
The houses on those lots aren’t cheap to open up; the average Southlake home sold for $1,727,214 between April and June 2026. Older acreage can bring a septic system or a private well, and the city wants a house tied to sewer where sewer is available and a well separated from city water by an RPZ assembly or an air gap.
Home remodeling in Southlake, room by room
Most home remodeling in Southlake, TX needs a permit. The city’s residential remodel and addition guidelines exempt only foundation repair, flooring, cabinets, and similar finish work, and replacing windows takes a permit. An interior remodel costs $50 plus 50 cents per square foot, with a $100 minimum.
An estate kitchen from 1995 usually has the square footage but not the layout. Two Southlake rules shape the new plan. Air admittance valves are allowed on island and bar sinks without the building official’s approval, which makes a vented island sink simple. And a range hood moving more than 400 cfm needs makeup air that starts automatically with it, which matters the moment you choose a pro-style range. Our kitchen remodeling page goes deeper.
In a primary bath on a slab, a moved drain means cutting concrete, and Southlake wants the new pipe bedded in sand and sleeved two pipe sizes larger where it passes under a footing. See bathroom remodeling for the full scope.
When the job touches the envelope or the ductwork, a RESNET-certified HERS rater tests it; city inspectors can do the visual check only on jobs of 500 square feet or less. Plan for one on any whole-home remodel. And in Carillon, the HOA’s approval stamp is required before you can submit for a permit.
Outdoor rooms, additions, and the 6,000-square-foot line
Outdoor living is where a lot of Southlake money goes; the city issued 27 pool permits in that same quarter. The permit follows the structure: a covered patio attached to the house is a residential addition, a detached cabana is an accessory building, and outdoor kitchens, fireplaces, and living areas apart from the house each take a separate permit.
Every addition gets a form survey inspected 48 hours before the foundation inspection, foundation plans sealed by a Texas engineer with a soils report, and a drainage plan that matches the subdivision’s grading. A masonry fireplace is inspected once the firebox, damper, and first flue tile are in, before any face brick goes on.
Then there’s the sprinkler line. When an existing house plus a new addition exceeds 6,000 square feet of enclosed space, Southlake requires an automatic fire sprinkler system in the house. Enclosed space counts the garage and any habitable attic, not open porches or patios.
Count the garage first. A 5,300-square-foot house with an 800-square-foot garage is already past the line, so any enclosed addition brings sprinklers with it.
Finishing unfinished attic space under the existing roof is the exception, unless the house already has sprinklers; then the system gets extended. We map that math before design on every home addition.
Trees come early on the calendar. Any construction site with trees needs a $50 Tree Protection Permit, a survey of every canopy tree over 6 inches, and orange fencing at the drip line before grading starts. Work hours run 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Saturday; on Sundays, only work that can’t be heard at the property line.
Three Southlake landmarks
Town Square, in the photo at the top of this page, is the one everyone knows, and with the permit counter inside Town Hall, you’ll likely end up there whatever you build. Two more are easier to miss.
Thomas Easter Cemetery on Southlake Boulevard
In the 2800 block of Southlake Boulevard, a grassy rise with a stone stair sits among the shops. It’s a cemetery. According to the Texas Historical Commission, Virginia native Thomas Easter settled in Tarrant County by 1848 and patented a 640-acre tract in the county’s northeast corner. Part of it became a burial ground when he died in 1862, and the Easter Schoolhouse stood beside it in the 19th century. The state marker went up in 1983.
White’s Chapel United Methodist Church
At 185 South White Chapel Road, at Pine, stands one of the area’s oldest congregations. Its 1971 state historical marker says settlers came by wagon train from Dade County, Georgia, in 1871 and met first in S. B. Austin’s home. Austin gave land for a church and cemetery, and a log meetinghouse was in use by February 1872, the first Methodist church in the vicinity. It began as Oak Hill and was renamed for a permanent pastor, the Rev. Mr. White. The community school met in its buildings until 1916.
How a Southlake project runs with MASACO
First we walk the suite or the lot with you and list every approval that sits outside the permit counter: Town Square’s management, an HOA like Carillon’s, Tarrant County for food, TDLR for accessibility. You see 3D renderings before we price anything, then get a fixed-scope proposal organized by trade, with every allowance written out.
During construction you have one project manager and a written photo update every week. We register with the city, request inspections before the 7 a.m. cutoff, and keep the stamped plans and permit card on site, where Southlake’s inspectors expect them. At handover you get as-builts, permits, inspection records, the CO on commercial work, and warranties, and we stay reachable after that. The full sequence is on our process page.
Opening a boutique in Town Square, a clinic off SH 114, or adding an outdoor room behind a Timarron or Clariden Ranch house? Book a consultation, and we’ll look at the lease or the lot and tell you which reviews stand between you and opening day.
Building in Southlake: what to know.
Southlake grew from 2,808 residents in 1980 to 21,519 in 2000 and is now 92% developed, so most residential work here is remodeling and adding on to houses from those decades, many of them on lots of an acre or more. Commercial space runs along SH 114 and Southlake Boulevard, from Southlake Town Square around Town Hall to Gateway Plaza, Park Village, and the Shops of Southlake. Southlake Building Inspections at 1400 Main Street issues permits and certificates of occupancy under the 2021 international codes, and Tarrant County Public Health reviews food businesses.
Southlake neighborhoods and districts.
- Timarron
- Carillon
- Southridge Lakes
- Stone Lakes
- Timber Lake
- Cross Timber Hills
- Clariden Ranch
- Harbor Oaks
- Monticello
- Myers Meadow
- Southlake Town Square
- Shops of Southlake
- Park Village
- Gateway Plaza
Southlake on the map.
Open Southlake, TX in Google Maps
Photo credits
- Southlake Town Square (6181958881).jpg by Southlake Texas, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
- TX 114 Southlake.JPG by Fredlyfish4, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
- Southlake TX.JPG by Fredlyfish4, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
- Mediterranean house in Southlake.JPG by NETarrantMan, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
- Thomas Easter Cemetery, Southlake, Texas (7001249563).jpg by Nicolas Henderson from Coppell, Texas, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
- White's Chapel Methodist Church, Southlake.jpg by Todd A. Porter, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
