The Pro-Line Building Blog

Pro-Line’s Commercial Building Process—Vol. 1

Posted by Bill Maschmeier on Dec 27, 2017 2:00:18 PM

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Considering building a new space for your business? Commercial building is an exciting and sometimes scary time for a business, but choosing the right building partner can make all the difference.

Our next few blog posts are going to explore our commercial building process directly from our sales team. Today, we’re talking about the beginning stages of the process and our initial meeting.

The Lead

When Pro-Line receives a commercial lead, the business owner usually has a specific set of items they want to address in the new space. The sales team schedules some time to sit down with the prospect’s team to discuss these items. Typically, it’s about six to eight bullet points that the owner views as the most important items to address.

These points could include more space, better use of space, accessibility—the list goes on. We know that no project is the same, so the set of must-haves for each project is different. This makes our process and approach to each project unique based on the needs identified.

 

The Ground

A major phase of the process is choosing ground. It should come as no surprise that when building a commercial space, the location you choose is just as important as the building itself. We take our initial meeting where we discuss your must-haves to also understand where you are in the location process.

Sometimes owners will have already chosen their land. Others have not and are looking for some direction. Pro-Line’s sales team is prepared to work with you and make recommendations on potential ground that is conducive to what you need to build based on your must-haves.

Serious leads can be as far as building concepts in the choosing ground phase. Many prospects that come to Pro-Line have not only chosen and bought land, but they’ve also already worked with a civil engineer to conceptually lay out the type of building they think they can build on that specific piece of land.

The point is, Pro-Line can work with you no matter where you’re at in the ground selection process. Knowing what step you’re at upfront helps our team lay out the full scope of the project.

 

The Layout

Once our team feels like they have a good idea of what you need from your space, it’s time to dig deeper. We begin by looking at all facets of your business. We typically start with the reception area, then move back into office space. Followed by the typical necessities of conference rooms, break rooms, and restrooms.

We take the time to really talk through what you need from your office space. In doing this, it allows us to generate the percentage of your overall space that needs to be devoted to the office. In turn, that helps us determine how much space you need for a warehouse, shop, etc., and how much separation you need between the sections of your building.

This phase can be difficult to visualize and we understand that. We like to show examples of past projects that are similar to what you need to help you get the full picture of what we plan to do for you. This helps to get the design conversation going and really gets you thinking about your space.

 

In our next blog post, we’ll take a closer look at the floor plan, budget, and bidding of your commercial space.

Have questions for our team? Talk to a Pro-Line expert today.

Topics: Commercial