Retail & Mixed-Use
Retail MEP is a negotiation between the landlord's shell and every tenant fit-out you haven't signed yet. We deliver construction-ready documents that fix the scope split, reserve utilities and shafts so leasing moves faster, and produce tenant criteria packages a tenant's engineer can build straight from — behind the seal of the licensed engineer of record on your project.
Shell Today, Any Tenant Tomorrow.
A retail shell is a bet on tenants you can't name yet — a restaurant that needs a grease shaft, a salon that needs source-capture exhaust, a grocer that needs refrigeration heat rejection. We reserve the capacity, shafts, and utility stubs each likely use needs, document the landlord/tenant scope split so there are no gray areas at lease-up, and write criteria packages tenants build from — coordinated with your team and sealed by the licensed engineer of record on your project.
HVAC & Tenant Criteria
Shell systems and criteria packages built for whoever signs the lease.
- RTU zoning and shell ventilation allowances sized for variable retail occupancy per ASHRAE 62.1
- Tenant HVAC criteria packages defining available tonnage, capacity, and connection points
- Kitchen-ready grease-duct shafts and Type I exhaust routing reserved in the shell per the IMC and NFPA 96
- Source-capture exhaust for nail and beauty tenants — 50 CFM per station per IMC 403.3.1.1
- Animal-area exhaust and odor control for pet tenants
- Make-up air pathways reserved so a future food tenant doesn't depressurize the center
Electrical & Metering
Tenant power, separate metering, and the signage that drives the lease.
- Per-suite load allocation with diversity, sized to the leasing mix
- CT-metering or separate utility metering for tenant cost recovery from day one
- Sales-floor and display lighting to IES retail illuminance with NEC-compliant controls
- Pylon, blade, and storefront signage circuits
- Site, parking, and canopy lighting
- EV-charging infrastructure and service-capacity coordination with the utility
Plumbing & Fire Protection
Per-suite capacity and shared systems mapped before the first lease.
- Tenant water, sanitary, and gas stub-outs with capacity mapped per suite
- Shared grease-interceptor sizing per the local sewer authority
- Fixture counts by occupancy and accessible-fixture provisions per the IPC/UPC
- Roof and storm drainage with secondary/overflow design
- Shell fire-sprinkler design and tenant coordination per NFPA 13
- Backflow prevention and RPZ assemblies where required
Grocery & Refrigeration Anchors
The refrigeration loads and heat rejection a supermarket anchor lives on.
- Refrigeration rack and condenser heat-rejection coordination with the vendor package
- CO2 (R-744) transcritical and low-GWP systems per EPA SNAP and the AIM Act phase-down
- Machinery-room ventilation, leak detection, and relief per ASHRAE 15 and 34
- Heat-reclaim integration for space and domestic hot water
- Case-line power, controls, and condensate routing
- Slab, drainage, and utility coordination under the racking layout
Landlord / Tenant Scope
Every demising line defined so lease-up has no gray areas.
- Landlord-vs-tenant scope matrix documented to the lease work letter
- Utility allocations and stub-outs mapped per suite for fast tenant starts
- Cold-dark, warm, and vanilla shell scope defined to match the leasing strategy
- Tenant design criteria published so each tenant designs once, not twice
- Demising-wall MEP, metering, and life-safety provisions reconciled at the line
Quick answers about how we deliver design support for this sector.
Yes — it's the backbone of a clean retail set. We produce a landlord-vs-tenant scope matrix tied to the lease work letter, with no gray areas at the demising line, plus per-suite utility allocations and stub-outs. That means fewer disputes when a tenant's contractor mobilizes and faster openings, all behind the seal of the licensed engineer of record on your project.
Yes. We reserve Type I kitchen-exhaust and grease-duct shafts and make-up-air pathways in the shell per the IMC and NFPA 96, plus gas and grease-waste capacity, so a future restaurant or QSR tenant can build out without re-coring the building or fighting the center's air balance. We size the shell allowance to the leasing strategy you're targeting.
Yes. We coordinate refrigeration rack and condenser heat rejection with the vendor's package, and design machinery-room ventilation, leak detection, and relief per ASHRAE 15 and 34. We design around CO2 (R-744) transcritical and other low-GWP systems driven by EPA SNAP rules and the AIM Act phase-down, and integrate heat reclaim for space and water heating where it pencils out.
That's the goal. We publish tenant HVAC and utility criteria — available tonnage, electrical capacity, stub-out locations, and connection points — so the tenant's engineer designs once against a documented basis instead of guessing at what the shell provides. It keeps tenant coordination clean and protects the shell decisions behind your seal.
Yes. Salon tenants need source-capture exhaust at 50 CFM per station per IMC 403.3.1.1 (Table 403.3.1.1), with the inlet at the chemical-application point and discharge located to code; pet tenants need dedicated animal-area exhaust and odor control. We reserve the exhaust paths and make-up air in the shell so these uses don't depressurize neighboring suites or push odor into the common area.
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Core Engineering. X-pert Execution.
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