Tenants ask three things about an office building before they ask about rent: where do my people park, how will clients find the door, and what happens when it rains. In McAllen those questions are answered by the site as much as the building. Interstate 2 runs through the city from Taylor Road to Sugar Road, and US 83 is the major east-west artery, so an office address is judged by how quickly it connects to the expressway and how clean the driveway turn is.
We build professional office space for three kinds of owners: developers who want a shell and core ready for tenant improvements, owner-occupants such as accounting, engineering and law practices, and companies moving regional staff into a purpose-built headquarters. The structure is usually straightforward, steel or concrete masonry with a flat or low-slope roof. The difficulty is in the details that keep a lease on schedule, including the parking field, the stormwater, the elevator, the mechanical zoning and the accessibility review.
If your plan mixes offices with apartments or retail, read about multifamily and mixed-use buildings before you set the floor plate. If offices will share a campus with clinic space, the medical office page covers the plumbing and imaging requirements that change the budget.
Parking is the first constraint, and it is often the one that caps the building. A multi-story building on a small lot needs a structure or a surface field twice the size the owner imagines, and the cost of a deck can exceed the cost of the offices above it. We test that trade early with a simple massing study: one story on a larger lot, two stories on a mid-sized lot, or a taller building paired with a parking structure. Each option is priced so the owner sees the real difference.
Frontage and visibility follow. Along the expressway, a building that sits close to the road with parking behind it reads well from traffic, but it requires careful turning lanes and cross-access with neighbors. Signage placement, monument sign approvals and the approach from service drives all belong in the earliest site discussion, not in the last month of the schedule.
McAllen recently finished a comprehensive update of its Unified Development Code intended to encourage mixed-use projects, streamline permitting and add environmental standards, and it began citywide rezoning with fees waived under that effort. For an office owner, that matters twice: some parcels that used to be single-use may now allow offices alongside housing or retail, and the same rezoning can shorten the path for a mixed program that spreads risk across tenant types.
The city has also announced a plan to redevelop the 70 acre Boeye Reservoir site near the Convention Center into a mixed-use district with housing, retail and hospitality, still in planning and design. Offices near the convention center and 10th Street district may benefit from the traffic that such an area attracts. We caution owners to treat a district in design as an opportunity rather than a promise and to underwrite the building on tenants who exist today.
The most important decision is how much of the building you finish before a tenant signs. A shell and core delivers structure, envelope, roof, vertical circulation, restrooms, core mechanical and a tenant-ready slab. It is cheaper up front and invites the tenant to design the interior, but it leaves the owner carrying an unleased space. A build-to-suit finishes the interior to the tenant's plans, which raises cost and reduces risk if the lease is signed.
We encourage owners to price both and to keep tenant improvements in mind from the start. Ceiling heights, electrical capacity, HVAC zoning and floor loading should leave room for a tenant who needs more than the average. A shell that is too lean forces expensive changes later, and a shell that is too rich pushes the rent beyond the market. Our job is to help the developer find the middle.
McAllen adopted the 2024 International Code Council codes and the 2023 National Electrical Code effective January 1, 2026. Its Building Permits and Inspections Department, at 311 N. 15th Street, takes commercial permit applications through an online portal and began Saturday inspections in December 2025 for rough-in plumbing, foundation and insulation. Those Saturday slots can save a day on a foundation sequence, so we plan the schedule to use them.
Accessibility is a separate state review. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation requires projects costing $50,000 or more to be registered and reviewed, and smaller projects still have to comply with the 2012 Texas Accessibility Standards. We submit early because an accessibility comment can change a restroom layout or an entry slope after drawings are otherwise final. Our general guidance on permitting and entitlements outlines how we track each approval.
Office construction costs follow a handful of choices. The envelope matters most in a hot, humid, wind-exposed climate: glazing type, shading and wall assembly determine both the cooling load and the first-year energy bill. Next is the parking solution, followed by the mechanical system and the elevator count. Interior finish levels vary the most and are the easiest to adjust once a tenant is known.
Stormwater is the item owners often forget. Rain from Hurricane Hanna in July 2020 included 12.66 inches at a gage 2.4 miles northeast of McAllen, which is a reminder that detention and drainage design on a parking-heavy site can run into serious cost. We bring the civil engineer into the first budget conversation so that the site number is realistic. For developers weighing a portfolio of buildings, see how commercial real estate developers often phase these costs.
Send us the parcel, the floor area you have in mind and any tenant commitments. We will respond with a sequence, a price range and the few items most likely to move it, so you can decide between a shell and a finished building.
It depends on whether you have a signed tenant. A shell and core lowers upfront cost and gives tenants design freedom, but you will carry empty space until the lease. If a tenant is committed, a full build-to-suit usually produces a better building because the interior and mechanical systems are designed together.
The count comes from the city's requirements for the use and from what your tenants expect. Professional tenants often want more than the minimum, and staff and visitors arrive at overlapping times. We check the city's rules at the start and test whether a surface field or a structure fits the budget.
Projects permitted after January 1, 2026 follow the 2024 International Code Council editions and the 2023 National Electrical Code. The change mostly touches energy, fire and structural details. We use the current editions in pricing so there are no surprises at plan review.
As early as the drawings allow. Projects of $50,000 or more are registered and reviewed by the state, and comments can alter restroom, entry or parking layouts. Submitting early prevents late redesign.
Utilities, long-lead mechanical and electrical equipment, and late tenant decisions. We order long-lead gear as soon as drawings permit and lock down tenant finish selections on a fixed calendar.