Skip to content
Commercial building by DECOMA Industries

Commercial

Commercial New Construction

Ground-up multifamily, mixed-use, retail, office, and industrial construction across the South Bay — design-build or plan-and-spec, structural self-performed under Class A.

Why commercial new construction

Commercial new construction lives or dies in the first ninety days — before anyone breaks ground.

The deals that pencil are the ones where construction cost, entitlement strategy, and pro forma all get modeled together at the same table, before the architect starts schematic design. The deals that don't pencil are the ones where the developer designed the building first, ran the pro forma second, and discovered at GMP that the project is 30% over what the deal can support. By then the entitlement is sunk cost and the only way out is value-engineering away the things that made the project worth building in the first place.

DECOMA has been a developer-builder in the South Bay since 1978. We've built multifamily, mixed-use, retail, office, and industrial across Manhattan Beach, Torrance, Redondo Beach, Hermosa, El Segundo, Palos Verdes, the Harbor cities, and downtown-adjacent LA adaptive-reuse districts. CSLB Class A engineering and Class B building means we self-perform structural, framing, and rough carpentry — and our property management arm runs the buildings after CO, which means we build with operations in mind from day one.

We work three ways on commercial:

  • Developer-builder: DECOMA leads the project end-to-end — entitlement, design, construction, lease-up, and management. Most of our adaptive-reuse loft work runs this way. See Development.
  • Design-build: You bring the deal and the capital, DECOMA leads design through construction under one contract. Faster and lower total cost than plan-and-spec.
  • GMP construction: Your architect leads design, DECOMA delivers construction under a guaranteed maximum price with line-item contingencies. For repeat capital partners we'll work cost-plus with an audited fee.

If you have a site, a deal, or a capital partner looking for a builder, start with a free 30-minute consultation. We'll tell you within thirty minutes whether the project has the bones to pencil — and what construction type, entitlement path, and schedule it'll actually take.

Start with a free consultation → — or read more about our development arm.

Written by John Notaro, President & CEO, DECOMA Industries — CSLB A/B #375508, California Real Estate Broker.

What you get

Everything we deliver.

  • 01

    Pre-construction & feasibility

    Zoning analysis, entitlement path mapping (CUP vs. ministerial), Type I–V construction-type study, code-cost trade-offs, parking math, and pro forma input. Done before architecture starts so the design lands inside what the deal can support.

  • 02

    Entitlement & permitting

    Planning commission, design review, environmental clearance (CEQA where required), Coastal Commission filings, plan-check coordination across all disciplines. We handle the cycle end-to-end.

  • 03

    Structural & shell

    Foundation, framing, deck, roofing, weather-resistant barrier, exterior cladding, and structural steel where applicable. CSLB Class A engineering license — we self-perform the structural scope on Type V wood-frame and most Type III podium construction.

  • 04

    Tenant fit-out & MEP

    Full MEP coordination across mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire-life-safety, low-voltage, and elevator. Shell-plus-TI or vanilla-shell strategies depending on lease-up plan.

  • 05

    Code compliance & inspections

    Title 24 energy compliance, ADA path-of-travel, occupancy classifications, fire-rated assemblies, and seismic. We schedule and pass inspections in sequence so the project doesn't sit waiting for a sign-off.

  • 06

    Close-out & turnover

    Certificate of occupancy, owner manuals and as-builts, warranty registrations, commissioning report, and tenant move-in coordination. We hand off to operations clean, with no open punch items.

How we run it

Scope to sign-off.

  1. 01

    Site feasibility & pro forma input

    Before you close on the site or commit to entitlement spend — DECOMA walks the lot, runs construction-type and code analysis, models structural and parking constraints, and gives you order-of-magnitude construction cost input for the pro forma. About two to three weeks.

  2. 02

    Entitlement

    Planning submittal, design review, environmental clearance, and any state-law density bonus or streamlining applications (SB 35, SB 423, AB 2011, AB 1287). Entitlement timelines vary wildly by jurisdiction — South Bay cities are typically faster than LA proper.

  3. 03

    Design through CDs

    Schematic design, design development, construction documents, and engineering coordination. DECOMA's structural and constructibility input integrated from schematic phase so the CDs that get to plan-check are buildable.

  4. 04

    Plan-check & permit

    Plan-check submittal across building, planning, fire, and public works. Typical South Bay plan-check cycles 6–16 weeks for commercial work. We handle the corrections cycle.

  5. 05

    Construction & turnover

    Mobilization, structural shell, MEP rough, finishes, exterior, landscape, off-site work. Typical on-site duration: 14–28 months for podium multifamily, 10–18 months for Type V multifamily, 8–14 months for ground-up retail or single-tenant. Weekly owner meetings.

Why DECOMA

One license, three disciplines, forty years.

Family-run South Bay general contractor since 1978. We design, build, and manage — under one license — so the team you start with is the team that hands you keys and the team that answers the phone when something needs fixing in year ten.

Years building
48+
Projects delivered
3,000+
Repeat clients
300+
CSLB Class
A/B

FAQ

Common questions.

What construction types and project sizes do you handle?
Type V (wood-frame) up to 4 stories, Type III (wood-frame with non-combustible exterior) up to 5 stories podium, and Type II (steel-frame) on smaller commercial. We focus on projects in the 4-unit to 80-unit multifamily range, retail and office under 30,000 sq ft, and tenant improvements up to roughly 50,000 sq ft. Larger projects we partner with capital and bring in additional capacity.
Do you do design-build or just construction?
Both. Design-build means one contract end-to-end — DECOMA handles design through construction and turnover. Plan-and-spec means we bid the construction off your architect's drawings. On commercial work, design-build typically saves 6–12 months of schedule and 5–10% of total cost. We do roughly 60/40 design-build to plan-and-spec on our commercial pipeline.
How long does commercial new construction take?
From first-call to certificate of occupancy: entitlement 6–18 months (huge jurisdiction variance), design through permit 6–10 months (often overlapping with entitlement), construction 10–28 months depending on type and size. A typical 30-unit Type V multifamily in a South Bay city runs about 28–36 months total.
Can you work under state-law density bonus or streamlining provisions?
Yes. We've used SB 35 ministerial approval, AB 2011 (commercial-to-residential conversion), AB 1287 (density bonus stacking), and SB 423 streamlining on multifamily work. The right statute often saves a year of entitlement — but you have to position for it from schematic phase, not retroactively at submittal.
What financial structures do you work under?
GMP (guaranteed maximum price), cost-plus-fee with fee cap, stipulated sum, and design-build at-risk. For private-capital developer clients we frequently work GMP with line-item contingencies. For repeat capital partners we'll work cost-plus with an audited fee. We don't do hard-bid plan-and-spec under $5M — the documents are rarely tight enough to bid without contingency.
Do you self-perform or sub everything?
We self-perform structural, framing, drywall, and rough carpentry under our CSLB Class A and B license. MEP, fire, finishes, elevator, and specialty trades are subcontracted to long-standing South Bay subs. The mix keeps cost honest and keeps the schedule under one roof — most GCs that sub everything end up with three-way blame circles when something slips.

Service areas

Commercial new construction across the South Bay.

Born in Harbor City, working across LA County since 1978. Same crew, same license number, same shop at 25941 Frampton Ave, Harbor City.

Continue exploring

More from commercial.

All of commercial

Talk to a contractor

Tell us about your project.

One business day for a scope, timeline, and budget range. CSLB #375508 A/B.

Request consultation(310) 418-0258