How long does an industrial build-to-suit actually take, from LOI to certificate of occupancy?

It’s the first question every corporate user asks us, and it’s the one most developers answer badly. How long does a build-to-suit actually take, from a signed LOI to a certificate of occupancy you can move equipment into?

The generic answer is 12 to 24 months. That range is so wide it’s almost useless. The real answer depends on three variables: the site (clean greenfield versus contaminated infill, with utility and entitlement readiness), the entitlement profile of the host municipality, and the incentive stack you intend to layer in. A 200,000-square-foot single-tenant building on an entitled site in Kentwood with a clean IFT package can be turned around in 12 to 14 months. The same building on a brownfield in an outer-ring township that needs rezoning, with a competitive MEDC grant in the mix, runs 22 to 28 months without anyone misbehaving.

Below is the actual sequence we walk corporate users through when they ask, broken into the five phases that matter. The point isn’t to scare you. The point is that the schedule is built, not assumed, and the developers who give you a real schedule on day one are the ones you should be talking to.

Phase 1: site identification and control

Two weeks to three months, depending on what’s on the market and what you actually need.

Due diligence on an industrial site that can support a real building is not a desktop exercise. Geotech borings, environmental Phase I (and almost always Phase II), wetland delineation, utility capacity confirmation, and traffic and rail access verification are the standard work product before you put a parcel under contract that will not blow up on you later. Modern industrial users have electrical service requirements, water and sewer capacity needs, and stormwater profiles that earlier-generation industrial sites simply weren’t designed for. None of that is optional to verify.

West Michigan industrial inventory is tight, and it has been tight for a long time. The corridor matters. Kentwood, Cascade Township, Walker, and Wyoming each have different entitlement quirks, different industrial subzones, and different attitudes toward large-format projects. Kentwood, where we delivered the 600,000 sf building at 4175 60th Street SE for Proper Beverage Co. and Trane, is a generally responsive municipality with a clear site plan review process. Walker’s I-96 frontage parcels move faster on entitlements but have higher land cost. Cascade Township’s industrial subzones are more constrained on permitted uses than they look from the outside. The site-and-corridor decision drives every subsequent timeline. Don’t compress it.

Phase 2: entitlements

Three to nine months, depending on whether the site is by-right.

A zoning-compliant industrial use on a properly zoned parcel is the easy version: site plan review, traffic impact study, stormwater management plan, building permit. Municipalities like Kentwood can move that package in three to four months if the design team is responsive and the project doesn’t surprise anyone at the public hearing.

The rezoning scenario is the slower version. PUD overlay, rezoning, special use permit, or a planning commission negotiation around setbacks, screening, lighting, or buffers can add three to six months on its own, and that’s before any organized neighborhood opposition. The fastest way through is to start the conversation with city staff before you have a tenant locked in, with an honest acknowledgment that you’re scoping a project that needs their input to become real. That posture earns you the early flags about what’s going to be hard, and it builds the relationship that gets a continuance scheduled in two weeks instead of two months when something at the public hearing needs more time.

Phase 3: incentives

Two to nine months, in parallel with entitlements.

Incentive applications are not a phase you tack on after entitlements. They run alongside. The Industrial Facilities Tax (IFT) exemption application needs to be in motion before construction starts, because starting construction before the IDD is established can disqualify a project from full benefit. Brownfield TIF requires a local Brownfield Redevelopment Authority approving a Brownfield Plan, plus MEDC’s Act 381 work plan review if school tax capture or state-level benefits are in play. MEDC performance grants like the Michigan Business Development Program or CDBG run on the agency’s calendar, not yours, and the negotiated piece of those conversations is months long for projects of any meaningful scale.

The sequencing question we get most often is whether to lead with IFT or brownfield. The answer depends on the site. Clean greenfield: IFT is the only relevant property tax tool. Contaminated or functionally obsolete site: brownfield comes first, because eligible-activity reimbursements affect site preparation cost, which affects the project budget, which affects the rent the tenant ends up paying. For a full breakdown of how the Michigan incentive stack actually works, see our guide to industrial incentives in 2026.

Phase 4: design and construction

Eight to fourteen months for the building itself, depending on size and structural system.

The choice of structural system is one of the underappreciated decision points in build-to-suit. Three systems dominate modern industrial:

Tilt-up concrete. The right answer for bulk-industrial above about 100,000 square feet. Panels are cast on-site, lifted, and tied into a structural steel roof. Fast, durable, cost-effective at scale. The 4175 60th Street SE building is tilt-up.

Pre-engineered metal. The right answer for smaller flex and light-industrial, generally under 100,000 square feet, where speed of erection and lower base cost matter more than thermal performance or appearance. Pre-engineered packages can shave two to three months off the schedule.

Structural steel with metal panel or masonry cladding. The right answer when the program demands long clear spans, heavy crane loads, or architectural finish quality that tilt-up can’t deliver. More expensive, slower, but the only choice for certain manufacturing programs.

GC selection on a project of any size is a working relationship, not a low-bid exercise. We’ve worked with Pioneer Construction on most of our larger industrial projects in the Grand Rapids market because the value of an iterative pricing exercise (where the GC, the design team, and the development manager are talking weekly about what’s driving cost) is hard to overstate on a building that will be designed and re-priced three or four times before the GMP locks in. A single-shot competitive bid against a fully complete drawing set is a fine model on a small flex building. It’s the wrong model on anything north of 100,000 square feet with tenant-specific requirements.

The other piece of the design and construction phase is permit coordination. Foundation permits, full building permits, and trade permits (electrical, mechanical, plumbing) run on the municipality’s clock, and the GC’s project manager needs to be working the inspections schedule alongside the construction schedule. The handful of weeks you lose to a missed inspection adds up fast.

Phase 5: delivery and tenant fit-out

Two to four months from substantial completion to certificate of occupancy and tenant move-in.

The window between substantial completion of the shell and CO is where the handoff to the tenant’s fit-out contractor happens. On a single-tenant building, the tenant’s contractor is often on-site for the last 60 to 90 days before CO, doing process equipment installation, racking, dock leveler tuning, and IT cabling that the shell GC doesn’t touch. Coordinating those two workstreams, keeping the tenant’s people out of the GC’s way without slowing either down, is the last 5% of project delivery. It’s also where a developer’s reputation with the tenant gets formed for the next ten years.

Where projects lose months

Four patterns account for most of the slippage we see.

Incentive timing mismatch. The tenant wants to start construction in October. The IFT application requires a public hearing that can’t be scheduled until November. The hearing slips to December. Construction starts in January. Three months gone before anyone touches a shovel. The fix: start the incentive applications the day the LOI is signed, not after entitlements are complete.

Environmental surprise. Phase I clean, Phase II not clean. Remediation scope adds three to six months of MDEQ engagement, plus the brownfield plan amendment to capture the new eligible activities. The fix: a real Phase II up front, not a hopeful one.

Brokerage misalignment. The tenant’s broker negotiates the LOI on a schedule that the entitlement and incentive processes can’t deliver. The developer signs anyway, because losing the deal is worse than missing the date. Then the date slips, and the relationship absorbs the friction. The fix: the developer and the tenant’s broker need to talk about real timelines before the LOI gets countersigned.

Lender conservatism on construction debt close. Regional construction lenders want signed leases and a complete equity stack before they fund. Any gap in the package adds two to eight weeks at close. The fix: keep the design, the lease, and the financing conversations in sync so that all three are ready to close in the same month.

When to start the conversation

The single biggest determinant of build-to-suit timeline is when the corporate user reaches out. The conversation that begins after the LOI is drafted is too late. The conversation that begins when the operations team is six months from outgrowing the current facility is on time.

If you’re scoping a build-to-suit, an expansion, or a relocation in West Michigan, get in touch. And for the broader view of how we approach industrial development, see our industrial build-to-suit capability page.