The Drawing Review – Landlord Comments

Over the past several years, I’ve worked on a number of different tenanbuild out projects. Most have been at Three Wells Fargo Center, but recent leasing interest/activity will likely manifest a few more retail projects at The Green.

I wrote previously about Café Nirvana, the new Indian restaurant that is under construction at Three Wells Fargo Center and interpreting the work letter that is a part of the tenant’s lease. One of the many steps involved in this process is the landlord’s review and commenting of the construction plans. Having done this with a few other construction projects:

100,000 SF, four floor office space build out in 2010
6,500 SF retail space build out for the new Wells Fargo History Museum in Charlotte
20,000 SF office space build out for a law firm in 2008

we have developed a list of notes for the mechanical, electrical, plumbing (MEP) subs as well as general construction notes. There can be a tremendous amount of complexity building out space in a high-rise office tower with post-tension cables in the concrete slabs and on-going tenant occupancy requirements. These notes/rules have been established to protect the property owner’s interests and not hinder the on-going maintenance of the newly constructed space post-construction.

This is a living list and frankly, continues to grow, but this is what has been compiled thus far:

Mechanical:

Test and balance all affected zones and provide a copy of the report to the landlord
Please coordinate t-stat locations with landlord
Building Management System graphics should be updated at the conclusion of the project
All new equipment should be added to the Building Management System graphics
All dampers, mechanical equipment, shutoff valves, water source heat pumps, etc. need to be accessible via access panels or similar for maintenance

Electrical:

Electrical Metallic Tubing (EMT) should be used in the electrical rooms
All panel schedules should be updated, with spare circuits labeled such and left in the off position
All existing wire and conduit that is being removed should be taken back to the main panel
No battery backup fixtures
Tie all emergency fixtures into emergency generator power
Please do not store materials in the electrical room during construction
Please label all receptacles with circuit and panel information
Any new circuits being added require engineered drawings

Plumbing:

Any existing piping that is being abandoned should be removed back to a main line
All coffee machines, ice makers or water dispensers need to be connected with copper piping
Water heaters should be installed in accordance with the accompanying water heater installation requirements

General Construction

All core drills need to be x-rayed, marked in the field and the location needs to be approved by a building approved structural engineer prior to drilling.

Did I miss anything? Add it to the comments if I did.