construction articles

Strip mall construction looks simple from the street. A row of storefronts, a parking lot, a pylon sign. Under that simple picture sits a long list of decisions that decide whether the center leases fast or sits half empty. This guide walks through the parts owners get wrong most often: pad sites, delivery condition, shared

By Sam Bader, Horizon Construction Team LLC | 20+ years building retail, restaurant, and franchise projects across Chicagoland | Published September 11, 2026 Quick Answer Opening three franchise locations at once is almost always the wrong call, even when your development agreement is pressuring you. The version that works is a staggered rollout with roughly 6

By Sam Bader, Horizon Construction Team LLC | 20+ years building retail, restaurant, and franchise projects across Chicagoland | Published September 11, 2026 Quick Answer A franchise buildout in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs typically takes 9 to 14 months from site approval to grand opening. Actual construction accounts for only about 10 to 16 weeks

Quick Answer Commercial construction permits in Chicago and the suburbs typically take 2 to 6 months from application to issuance, and longer when zoning relief, a state highway access permit, or a change of occupancy is involved. In the City of Chicago, most commercial work runs through the Standard Plan Review program, with faster paths

Quick Answer Retail site development is everything outside the building footprint: parking, drives, stormwater detention, utilities, grading, landscaping, lighting, and accessible routes. On a ground-up retail project it commonly runs 15 to 30 percent of total construction cost, and it is decided almost entirely by code rather than by preference. Parking ratios in the local

Here is a trend we have been watching closely, and honestly, we are pretty excited about it! Middle Eastern coffee shops are opening across Chicago and the suburbs faster than almost any other kind of food and drink business right now. They are filling strip mall units in Bridgeview. Taking over corner spaces on Kedzie.

Quick Answer Chicago retail construction in 2026 is supply-constrained rather than demand-constrained. Roughly 1.1 million square feet of retail was under construction across the metro entering the year, about 0.2 percent of total inventory, according to CoStar data published by Matthews. Elevated costs and tight financing have shut down most speculative retail. What is actually