For a number of reasons – usually cost, location or a lease agreement – commercial real estate owners are opting to refresh or remodel their retail stores, restaurants and hotels instead of building new commercial construction projects.

In fact, just recently Disney announced plans to completely transform its 340 stores in the United States and Europe from Disney Stores to Imagination Park.

Regardless for your reason to remodel, you need to realize that a commercial renovation is a completely different animal than building new commercial construction.

For example, during a new restaurant construction project, owners are responsible for providing the majority of the supplies and drawings while the general contractor executes the work.

However, in a remodeling project, those roles are usually reversed, with the general contractor using its resources to supply most materials. Of course it depends on the scope of the renovation, but your general contractor should provide a better value when it comes to items such as new flooring, lighting, etc.

And while it’s always best to bring your general contractor into a project as early as possible, did you realize it’s even more cost effective to partner with them from the onset of a remodel? A commercial general contractor who has design build experience can lend a critical eye to your plans and should be able to spot cost savings.

Case in point, Englewood Construction once worked on a project where a client wanted to install stone columns at $3,000 a pop in the store. Through our connections we were able to find fiberglass columns from a local manufacturer that looked the exact same, but only cost $900 each. Not only did we save the client thousands of dollars, but we also reduced shipping and labor costs as it would have taken four men to lift each stone column, but only one man to install the lighter columns.

If you have questions about undertaking a commercial remodeling project I’d love to hear them.