Commercial contractor in Southlake and Grapevine

By Lonnie Harrison, President · November 13, 2026

Who can build out a restaurant in a strip center in Southlake or Grapevine?

A general contractor that has built restaurants inside managed centers before, and that reads the landlord’s work letter as closely as the drawings. In Southlake and Grapevine most restaurant space is in centers with their own rules: approved plans, approved working hours, insurance on file, a storefront and a sign that match the center’s criteria, and a delivery condition that says what the landlord leaves in the suite.

Harrison Construction has done that work here. Our records include a 4,000 sq ft Luna Grill finish-out on East Southlake Boulevard (2015), a 2,900 sq ft Luna Grill finish-out in Colleyville (2015) and a 5,310 sq ft renovation of Oishii in Grapevine. Across our records, 123 of 190 projects are restaurants, most of them finish-outs in Dallas–Fort Worth centers.

What to check before you sign a restaurant lease in a center

Most of the cost of a strip-center restaurant is decided before construction starts, by the suite you choose and the lease you sign. These are the items we check with you, on site, before the lease is final:

• Hood and roofwhere the exhaust duct can go up through the roof, whether the landlord allows it, and how the roof is patched and kept under its warranty afterward.
• Grease interceptorwhether the center has one the suite can connect to or a new one has to be installed outside, and who pays for it.
• Electrical and gaswhether the service and the gas meter can carry the kitchen, or need an upgrade from the utility.
• HVACthe age and size of the rooftop units, and whether make-up air for the hood can be added.
• End cap or inlinean end-cap suite gives more storefront and patio room; an inline suite usually means a longer route for the hood and plumbing.
• The work letterwhat the landlord builds, what the tenant improvement allowance covers, and what is left for you to pay.

Our guide to finishing out a shell space in a DFW strip center goes through each of these in more depth.

Building in Southlake: codes, contractor registration and permits

Southlake builds to the 2021 International Codes with local amendments adopted by the City Council, in effect since May 1, 2022, and it adopted the 2023 National Electrical Code in November 2023. Plans are submitted, tracked and inspected through the city’s online permitting system.

One Southlake rule surprises owners who bring a contractor from elsewhere: general contractors must register with the city every year, and trade contractors register with their state license. Harrison Construction’s Fort Worth office is a short drive from Southlake, and we work with the city’s Building Inspections division on the permit and the inspections for you.

Building in Grapevine and Colleyville

Grapevine takes development applications and permit fee payments through its OpenGov permitting portal or in person at City Hall, 200 South Main Street. Colleyville runs its own plan review and inspections. The steps are the same in each city; what changes is who reviews the plans and what each landlord requires, so we collect both at the start.

Our Grapevine records include a renovation of Oishii and Huffman Warehouse, an 8,000 sq ft building we built from the ground up. That ground-up work follows the same process we use for a freestanding restaurant or a retail pad: civil drawings, utilities, paving and drainage, the city’s site plan review, then the building. See ground-up construction.

Dental office construction in Keller and Southlake

Keller and Southlake are next to our office in north Fort Worth, and dental and medical offices are part of our work there. A dental office looks simple from the waiting room. Behind it are plumbing to every chair, vacuum and compressed air from a mechanical room, imaging, sterilization and an electrical service that has to carry all of it, set by the equipment the practice chooses.

Brident Dental & Orthodontics and Kool Smiles are on our client list, and a 10,000 sq ft Kool Smiles finish-out is on our project records. Closer to Southlake, our medical records include renovations of the Nick Ritter Medical Office Building in Hurst and of Midcities Wound Care and QT Quik Med in North Richland Hills. Before he founded the company, Lonnie Harrison spent five years in medical construction with a general contractor. See dental and medical office construction and our guide to pediatric dental office build-outs.

Restaurant, dental office or retail suite: what drives the build

Three kinds of tenants account for most build-outs in Southlake and Grapevine centers. The table shows where each one puts its cost and its risk:

What drives a build-out, by type of tenant

How to read this table: the further left a column is, the more of the cost sits behind the walls and above the ceiling, and the more it depends on the suite you choose. That is why we review the space before the lease for a restaurant or a dental office, and why two suites of the same size can price very differently.

What a center landlord usually asks of your contractor

A managed center in Southlake or Grapevine protects its other tenants and its building, so the landlord approves your contractor as well as your drawings. Expect the lease or the work letter to ask for most of these before work starts:

• Insurance certificatesthe contractor’s liability insurance naming the landlord, on file before anyone is on site.
• Approved plansthe landlord’s sign-off on the drawings, often before the city permit is issued.
• Working hours and deliverieswhen noisy work, deliveries and dumpsters are allowed, so the neighbors can keep trading.
• Roof and structurethe landlord’s roofer for penetrations, and approval for anything that touches the structure or the roof warranty.
• Storefront and signthe center’s criteria for the storefront, the sign, the patio and the colors.
• Close-out documentsfinal inspections, the certificate of occupancy and the close-out package the landlord needs for its records.

We collect these at the start of pre-construction, so they are in the price and the schedule and not discovered at the first site meeting. Harrison Construction is fully bonded and insured.

Retail and service suites

Our Southlake records include a 1,000 sq ft Luxe Optix retail finish-out on West Southlake Boulevard (2015). A retail suite is the simplest build-out in a center, but the center’s criteria still apply to the storefront, the sign and the working hours, and an existing suite still needs its HVAC, electrical service and restrooms checked against the new layout.

For an operating store or restaurant, we plan the phases with you before pricing and keep the business open where the scope allows. Read more on our retail construction page.

Close to our office

Harrison Construction’s office is at 8553 N. Beach St. in north Fort Worth (76244), between Keller and Alliance, a short drive from Southlake, Grapevine and Colleyville. The same team runs the job: Lonnie Harrison, President; Alex Lioumis, VP of Operations; and Anne Hickey, who coordinates the schedule and the subcontractors. You get regular progress meetings and electronic project reports through close-out.

Call (817) 988-0242 or use the contact page to send the address and what you are planning.

Related: North Fort Worth, Keller and Haslet · Restaurant construction · Dental and medical office construction · General contractor in Fort Worth, TX.