Repainting a 12-Building Office Portfolio Without Disrupting Tenants

A twelve-building office portfolio had aged past the point where paint was a maintenance item. It had become a leasing problem.

Prospects were touring buildings that looked tired before they ever saw a suite. The owner brought us in to repaint all twelve exteriors, and to do it without pushing existing tenants out of their routine.

The challenge

Exterior condition is the first thing a prospective tenant reads. Faded paint, chalking walls, and stained trim tell a story about how a building is run, and that story follows the leasing agent into every conversation.

The owner already knew that. The harder part was scale.

Twelve buildings means twelve sets of occupied suites, twelve parking fields, and twelve groups of people who expect to get to their desks on a normal Tuesday. A paint job that shuts down entrances or blocks the accessible spaces is not a small annoyance to a tenant. It is a reason to complain, and eventually a reason to leave.

So the scope was straightforward. The sequencing was the real work.

Paint is the cheapest thing you can do to a building and the first thing a tenant judges it by.

What we did

We repainted the exteriors of all twelve buildings and treated the portfolio as one project instead of twelve separate ones.

That meant:

• Walked every building first. We looked at each elevation for the things paint hides but does not fix — failing caulk joints, soft trim, water staining. You want those noted before a crew shows up with a sprayer.
• Phased the work building by building. One building active at a time, so tenants in the other eleven were unaffected.
• Protected the ground floor. Entrances, storefront glass, and door frames got masked so tenants and their clients could keep using the front door.
• Walked each building with the owner at completion before moving to the next one, so punch items were closed while the crew was still there.

Repainted two-story office building with fresh white walls and dark trim, ground-floor entrances masked off during work

What the owner got

A portfolio that shows as well as it leases.

The buildings read as maintained, which changes how a tour goes and what the owner can defend on rent. Nothing about the space changed. The way people see it did.

What to take from this if you own more than one building

A few things hold true on almost every multi-building repaint.

Sequence it, don't blitz it. Crews on all twelve buildings at once sounds fast. It creates twelve simultaneous tenant problems and a punch list nobody can track. One building at a time finishes cleaner.

Fix the substrate or you'll pay twice. Paint over failed caulk and rotten trim and you will be repainting sooner than your budget assumes. Get repairs priced separately so you can see the number and decide.

Ask for a scope letter, not a bid sheet. At this project size the contract is a lump-sum proposal with a scope letter attached. That letter is where you find out whether prep, pressure washing, repairs, and trim are actually included — or whether they are going to come back as change orders.

Tell your tenants before we tell them. A short notice from the landlord a week ahead does more for goodwill than anything a crew can do on site.

Talk to us about your portfolio

If you own or manage multiple buildings in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, or South Carolina and the exteriors are working against you, we can walk them and give you a real number. Projects in the $50K to $500K range are where we spend our time.