Retail construction strip centers and stand-alone stores.

Strip centers, shells and single stores

Retail work comes in three shapes. A developer’s strip center goes up as a shell with several suites, each with its own storefront, utilities and back door, to be finished out as tenants sign. A single-tenant store is built for one business from the start. And an existing center gets a new face or a new suite carved out of an old one.

In a multi-tenant building the details that matter are the ones tenants never see: demising walls rated the way the code requires between suites, separate electric meters and water service for each space, roof drains that don’t empty in front of a door, and a sprinkler system laid out so a suite can be finished without redoing it.

The face of the building

Many cities in Collin County and the rest of the Metroplex set rules for what a retail building looks like, from the share of stone or brick on each wall to where the roof equipment can be seen from the street. Prosper asks for a façade plan before construction plans. Getting the elevations approved early keeps the storefront and masonry orders on time.

Storefront glass and doors are often the longest lead item on a retail job, so they are ordered as soon as the elevations are final.

Parking, drives and the site

A retail building is only as good as the way customers get to it. The parking lot is laid out for the city’s parking count, with accessible spaces and the route from them to the doors, fire lanes and a drive the delivery trucks can use. The concrete is heavier where trucks turn and the drainage is graded so water leaves the lot, not the sidewalk.