Commercial construction has a different set of pressures than residential work. There’s a lease with a rent commencement date, a landlord with approval rights, a building full of other tenants, and a business that has to open on time. As a commercial construction company headquartered in Plano, MASACO handles commercial construction and build-outs across Dallas-Fort Worth with those pressures in mind: office, retail, restaurant, and medical interiors in existing buildings, plus ground-up light commercial projects. You get one project manager, a fixed-scope proposal, a written photo update every week, and a schedule built around your business hours.
The kinds of commercial work we take on.
- Office build-outs. Open plans, private offices, conference rooms, break areas, and reception, including the electrical, data, and HVAC changes those layouts need.
- Retail and showroom spaces. Storefronts, sales floors, fitting rooms, stockrooms, and lighting designed around how customers move through the space.
- Restaurant and food service. Kitchens, hood and exhaust systems, grease interceptors, walk-ins, bar and dining areas, and the health and fire inspections that come with them.
- Medical and dental. Exam rooms with plumbing at each one, sterilization areas, shielded imaging rooms where required, and the infection-control and accessibility standards those spaces demand.
- Ground-up light commercial. Single-tenant buildings, small multi-tenant retail or office, and additions to existing commercial properties.
- Second-generation space. Reworking a former tenant’s build-out into yours, which is often the fastest path to opening.
The leasing term for most of this is tenant improvement, and if your lease calls it that, so will we. We just don’t assume you speak leasing shorthand.
Where Dallas businesses are building right now.
Each Dallas commercial district brings its own building types and its own complications.
Uptown and Downtown Dallas are mostly mid-rise and high-rise buildings with strict landlord rules for contractors, freight elevator scheduling, and after-hours work. The Design District and Deep Ellum are full of converted warehouses and older masonry buildings where existing conditions, from slab levels to electrical service, drive the design. Bishop Arts and Knox-Henderson are pedestrian retail and restaurant streets with tight sites and neighbors on both sides. Preston Center serves medical and professional tenants who can’t shut down while work happens.
Outside the city limits, Las Colinas in Irving carries a large office inventory, Legacy West in Plano has a dense mix of office, retail, and restaurant space, and Frisco keeps adding new commercial buildings that need first-generation interiors. Each of those cities has its own permitting department and its own review timeline, and we plan for the specific one.
Start with the work letter, not the floor plan.
On a leased space, the most important document isn’t the floor plan. It’s the work letter attached to your lease. It defines what the landlord delivers as the base building, what you’re responsible for, how any improvement allowance is disbursed, what approvals the landlord needs, and which contractor requirements and insurance limits the building imposes.
We read it before we price anything. That’s how we avoid the 2 most common surprises in commercial work: a proposal that duplicates something the landlord was already doing, and a scope that leaves out something the landlord expected you to handle, like relocating a sprinkler head or upgrading the electrical panel. We also coordinate the landlord’s plan review and the building’s rules, from noise hours to loading dock access.
Space planning and rendered views, then a price.
On residential work we build a 3D model of the finished room. On commercial work the equivalent is space planning and rendered views. We take your program, how many people, what kinds of rooms, what has to sit next to what, and lay it out against the actual space: existing columns, window lines, restroom cores, and the mechanical systems already in the ceiling.
Then we render the spaces that matter to you, such as the reception area, the sales floor, or the exam room corridor, so you and your team can see finishes, lighting, and sightlines before we price. Accessible routes and clearances are checked at this stage, not after inspection. Changes here take an afternoon. Changes after drywall take weeks and a change order.
Permits, plan review, and the certificate of occupancy.
Nearly every commercial build-out in Dallas needs a building permit, and a new tenant needs a certificate of occupancy before opening. Inside Dallas, plans go to City of Dallas Development Services, where commercial review typically involves building, electrical, mechanical, plumbing, and fire reviewers looking at the same set. Restaurants add health department review. Suburban cities such as Plano, Irving, and Frisco have their own departments with their own timelines, and the Park Cities run their own building departments, so a shop in Highland Park Village files with the Town of Highland Park, not Dallas. Historic overlays in parts of Downtown and Deep Ellum can add a landmark review step for storefront and exterior changes, much the way conservation districts add review on the residential side, and we build that time into the schedule when it applies.
We coordinate the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineering and any structural engineering, prepare the drawing set, manage the submittal and comment responses, and schedule every inspection. Review time goes into the schedule at the start. The certificate of occupancy is the finish line, and we don’t consider the job done until it’s in your hand.
Accessibility built in, not bolted on.
Commercial spaces open to the public must meet federal ADA standards and the Texas Accessibility Standards. That covers accessible entrances and routes through the space, door hardware and clearances, restroom layouts and fixture heights, service counters, signage, and accessible parking. Projects above a certain construction value in Texas also go through registration and inspection under the state’s accessibility program.
We design accessibility into the floor plan from the first layout. It’s far cheaper to place a restroom correctly on paper than to move plumbing after the inspector flags it. Our project managers know what the inspectors look for and build to it, and where the state review applies, we handle the registration and coordinate the inspection.
Working in an occupied building.
Most build-outs happen in buildings where other tenants are open for business, and sometimes in a space where your own team is still working. We plan for that.
Loud or dusty work such as demolition, concrete cutting, and core drilling gets scheduled for evenings or weekends, within whatever hours the building allows. Construction zones are isolated with dust barriers and negative air where the building’s systems need protection. Deliveries and debris removal are coordinated around the freight elevator and loading dock schedule. Fire alarm and sprinkler work is coordinated with building management so the system is never down without notice. Our crews are badged where required, clean up daily, and stay out of the common areas your neighbors use.
How we price it.
Your proposal is a fixed-scope document organized by trade: demolition, framing and drywall, doors and hardware, ceilings, flooring, paint, millwork, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, fire sprinkler and alarm, low voltage, and signage. It carries allowances for finishes you haven’t selected, such as flooring, lighting fixtures, or plumbing trim, and it’s reconciled against the landlord’s work letter so you can see which items fall on which side.
Stay within an allowance and the price holds. Choose above it and you pay the documented difference. Anything outside the scope, whether you add a room or demolition reveals a condition the drawings didn’t show, becomes a written change order with a price and a schedule impact that you approve before the work proceeds. If your lease includes an improvement allowance, we structure invoicing to fit the landlord’s draw process.
One project manager, weekly updates, and a close-out package.
One MASACO project manager owns your build from the first walk to the certificate of occupancy. Every week you get a written update with photos: what happened, what’s next, which inspections passed, and any decision we need from you. When the space is finished, we walk it with you, and with your landlord if required, write down every punch list item, and close the list.
Then you get a close-out package: as-built drawings, permit and inspection records, the certificate of occupancy, manufacturer warranty documents, equipment manuals, and a list of the subcontractors who worked on the space. It’s what your facilities team or your landlord will ask for later, and we’d rather hand it over once than dig it out piece by piece. The full process is on our process page, and our project management page explains how we run larger or multi-phase commercial jobs.
Serving Dallas and the suburbs.
We serve commercial clients across Dallas and the surrounding cities from our headquarters in Plano, and we take on projects in Fort Worth, which has its own development department and its own downtown building rules. Commercial construction sits within our general construction practice alongside general contracting for owners who need one builder across multiple properties. Once you’re open, our facility maintenance programs keep the space running with one vendor and one invoice. Completed work is on our projects page.
If you’ve signed a lease, are about to, or are planning a new building, book a consultation and we’ll walk the space, read your work letter, and give you a realistic path to opening day. Contact MASACO Construction to get started. Think Massive. Build Smart.
What's included.
- Office, retail, restaurant, and medical interior build-outs in existing buildings
- Ground-up light commercial construction for single-tenant and small multi-tenant buildings
- Space planning and rendered views of the finished space before pricing
- Landlord work letter review and coordination with building management
- City of Dallas commercial permitting through the certificate of occupancy
- ADA accessibility compliance for entrances, routes, restrooms, and counters
- MEP coordination for HVAC, electrical, plumbing, fire sprinkler, and low voltage
- Work in occupied buildings with dust control, noise limits, and after-hours scheduling
- One project manager with weekly written photo updates
- Close-out package with as-builts, inspection records, and manufacturer warranty documents
How the project runs.
- Consultation and space walk. We walk the space with you and, where possible, the building engineer. We review the landlord's work letter and existing conditions, confirm what the base building already provides, and talk through your opening date so the schedule starts from reality.
- Space planning and rendered views. We turn your program into a floor plan that fits the space, checks accessible routes and clearances, and works with existing columns and mechanical systems. You review rendered views of the reception, work areas, or sales floor before we price anything.
- Fixed-scope proposal and work letter alignment. Your proposal lists every trade's scope, allowances for finishes you haven't selected, and a schedule tied to your lease dates. We reconcile it against the landlord's work letter so you know exactly which items the landlord covers and which you do.
- Permits, engineering, and landlord approval. We coordinate MEP and structural engineering, submit drawings to City of Dallas Development Services or the relevant suburban department, and obtain landlord sign-off on the plans. Permit review time is built into the schedule, not discovered halfway through.
- Build, inspections, and close-out. One project manager runs the build around your business hours, coordinates with building management, and sends a written photo update every week. We pass each inspection, secure the certificate of occupancy, walk the space with you, and deliver a full close-out package.
