Services · Commercial Renovations
Commercial Renovations in Occupied Buildings
The building works. It is simply the wrong shape for what you now do in it, or it has aged past what your tenants will accept. Renovating a building that is still operating is a different discipline from building an empty one, and it is where most schedules come apart.
Send a floor plan, a lease exhibit, or a landlord work letter. We come back with a real number and the assumptions behind it.
67
Florida counties Romco Builders is licensed to build in.
3
Home counties on this desk: Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach.
4
Principals run the firm. There is no account-manager layer between you and them.
Self-perform
Dewatering, support of excavation and deep foundations we do with our own people.
Why this matters
What it costs to do nothing
Renovation is where hidden conditions live. South Florida commercial stock is heavily 1960s-to-1980s masonry and tilt-wall, which means undocumented electrical, asbestos-containing materials in older floor tile and mastic, and roof structures that were never designed for today’s mechanical loads. Discovering those after demolition, with tenants in the building, is what turns a fixed budget into a change-order argument.
Why clients choose us for commercial renovations
- We survey before we price. Existing conditions get documented, and the things we could not open up get listed as stated allowances rather than hidden in a lump sum.
- Phasing plans are part of the bid, not an afterthought — which floors stay live, where the temporary walls go, how the fire alarm stays in service during the work.
- Self-perform site engineering means a renovation that turns into a structural or below-grade problem stays with us instead of going out to another contractor’s schedule.
- Our leadership has delivered multi-floor fit-outs and a chiller replacement for Emigrant Savings Bank while the bank kept operating. That is the exact problem shape.
The practical answer
Commercial renovation scope usually spans some mix of: selective demolition, structural modification, roof and envelope work, full mechanical and electrical replacement, life-safety upgrade to current code, ADA path-of-travel corrections triggered by the permit, and finishes. The single biggest budget variable is how much of the work triggers a code upgrade for the rest of the building — in Florida, alteration level under the Existing Building Code is what decides that, and we establish it in preconstruction rather than at plan review. Expect a phasing premium of real money if the building stays occupied; we will quantify it rather than absorb it silently.
FAQ
Common questions
- Will we have to close while you work?
- Usually not. Most of the renovations we run are phased around an operating business, using temporary partitions, off-hours demolition, and a maintained path of egress. We will tell you honestly if a scope genuinely cannot be phased — some structural and utility work cannot.
- How do you handle asbestos or other hazardous material?
- It gets tested before demolition, not after. Abatement is a licensed specialty scope and we carry it as its own line with its own contractor. We do not fold it into general demolition, because the notification and disposal requirements are separate.
- Why does renovating trigger work we did not ask for?
- The Florida Building Code, Existing Building sets alteration levels. Once the value or extent of your work crosses a threshold, it can require accessibility, energy or life-safety upgrades to areas you were not touching. We establish which level you are in during preconstruction so it is in the budget, not in a change order.
Serving Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach
Next step
Ready to price your project?
Send a floor plan, a lease exhibit, or a landlord work letter. We come back with a real number and the assumptions behind it.