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Retail fit-outs, built around your lease start.

Shopfronts, fixtures and back-of-house delivered inside a live mall or plaza, on the landlord's rules and your handover date.

What we build

In retail, the landlord writes half the specification.

Most retail fit-outs happen inside somebody else’s building, under a lease that already says what you may and may not do. Hours you can work, the route your trades take, what the shopfront has to look like, who approves the sign. None of that is negotiable once you have signed.

So the first thing we read is not the drawings, it is the lease exhibits and the landlord’s design criteria. They decide more about the schedule than the construction does.

The second thing is your fixture package. Gondolas, millwork and display arrive on their own lead times, and a store that is built but unfixtured cannot trade — so we plan the two together rather than in sequence.

Typical duration
4–8 weeks A mall or plaza unit fit-out in a shell or existing space, hoarding to handover.
Where we work
Malls & plazas Including live centres with after-hours-only access.
Where
ON · AB · BC Head office in Mississauga. Ask about your location.
How we are paid
Fixed price One number with its assumptions written down, so you can see which one moved.

Scope

What the work actually involves.

A mall unit and a street-front plaza store are governed very differently. This is the full range, so you can see what a complete fit-out contains before approving a price — and tell whether a quote has left something out.

  • Shopfront & signage

    The part the landlord scrutinises hardest, and the part with the longest approval chain.

    • Storefront glazing, entry doors and closure to centre criteria
    • Bulkhead, neutral pier and hoarding details
    • Signage design, permit and installation
    • Landlord design review and sign-off scheduled in
    • Barrier-free entry and threshold detailing

  • Fixtures & millwork

    Coordinated to your planogram, and to the lead times that actually govern when you can trade.

    • Gondola, wall standard and perimeter shelving install
    • Cash desk and service counter millwork
    • Fitting rooms with accessible clearances
    • Feature and display joinery
    • Fixture delivery sequenced against the trades

  • Lighting & electrical

    Retail lighting is a merchandising decision that happens to need an electrician.

    • Track and accent lighting laid out to the fixture plan
    • Colour temperature and rendering chosen for the product
    • Panel, load and service upgrade where required
    • POS, data and security power positions
    • Emergency and exit lighting to code

  • Back of house

    Stockroom, staff space and receiving — unglamorous and the first thing squeezed when the sales floor grows.

    • Stockroom shelving and receiving route
    • Staff room and lockers
    • Accessible washroom where the unit requires one
    • Sprinkler and HVAC adjusted to the new layout
    • Security, alarm and camera rough-in

  • Mechanical & base building

    What the landlord gave you versus what your store actually needs.

    • HVAC distribution reworked to the new plan
    • Sprinkler head relocation to suit the ceiling
    • Ceiling, bulkheads and demising wall work
    • Flooring transitions at the lease line
    • Base building deficiencies identified before you inherit them

  • Permits & landlord approvals

    Two approval chains running at once, and the landlord’s is usually the slower one.

    • Building permit and trade permits
    • Landlord design review, submissions and resubmissions
    • After-hours and centre access coordination
    • Pre-opening walkthrough with the centre management
    • As-builts, warranties and manuals at handover

Six areas of work — drag or use the arrows.

How it runs

From first walkthrough to first trading day.

  1. Step 01

    Read the lease and walk the unit

    Design criteria, access rules and what the landlord is actually delivering — before we price anything.

  2. Step 02

    Resolve shopfront and signage

    The longest approval chain in retail. Into landlord review while the interior is still being drawn.

  3. Step 03

    Price and permit

    One fixed number with its assumptions listed. Permit goes in while fixtures are ordered.

  4. Step 04

    Build

    One supervisor on site, working to the centre’s access rules. A weekly update you can forward.

  5. Step 05

    Fixture and handover

    We hold the site for your fixture and POS installers, walk deficiencies with you, and hand over closeout.

Worth knowing early

Four things that move retail dates.

  • The landlord approves before the city does

    Centre design review routinely takes longer than a building permit, and a resubmission can cost weeks. We get the shopfront package in early because it is the item most likely to hold everything else.

  • After-hours access is a cost, not a detail

    Many centres only allow noisy work overnight. That changes crew rates and the programme, and it belongs in the price rather than arriving as a change order.

  • Fixtures decide your trading date

    A finished store with no gondolas cannot open. We ask for fixture order dates when we quote so the two schedules are planned as one.

  • Check what the shell really includes

    Base building deficiencies become yours on possession. We walk the unit and list them before you sign off, not after.

Questions

What retailers usually ask us.

Yes — design review submissions, access permits, after-hours coordination and centre management. It is a large part of what a retail fit-out actually involves.

You stay in the loop on approvals; you do not have to chase them.

Yes, and most of our retail work is exactly that. Hoarding, dust control, noise windows and the route trades take through the centre are all priced in.

Where the centre restricts noisy work to overnight, we say so in the quote rather than discovering it on site.

We install, or we hold the site and coordinate your fixture contractor — whichever your brand programme requires.

Either way we want the delivery dates before we commit to a completion date.

We coordinate the sign permit and installation, and put the design through the landlord’s review with the shopfront package.

Signage is often the last approval to land, which is why it goes in first.

Firm enough that we will tell you at the walkthrough if it is not achievable rather than agreeing and explaining later.

The risks we cannot control are landlord review, permit turnaround and fixture delivery. All three are named in the schedule from day one.