Coordinating Tenant Improvements as a Property Manager: What to Expect From Your GC

The lease start date is fixed the moment it's signed — the TI timeline has to work backward from it, not the other way around. A GC who can't commit to that math is the biggest risk to your lease-up schedule.

Property managers coordinating tenant improvements are managing a hard deadline they didn't set — the tenant's lease start date — while depending on a GC to hit permit, construction, and inspection milestones that all have to land before it.

What property managers should expect from a TI contractor

• A realistic timeline built backward from the lease start date, with permit and inspection lead time already accounted for.
• Proactive updates when something threatens the schedule, not a surprise the week before the tenant moves in.
• One point of contact managing the GC relationship, instead of you coordinating between multiple trades yourself.
• Clear, defined scope tied to the TI allowance so there's no ambiguity about what's covered.

The property managers with the fewest lease-up delays are the ones who bring their GC in early enough to build the schedule around the real deadline, not after the timeline's already tight.