Retail Electrical Contractor for Stores, Plazas and Malls in South Florida

Retail stores, plazas and malls

What a retail store needs from its electrical contractor

Why retail electrical work is different

Retail electrical work is driven by three things that other tenants rarely face together: a landlord with written criteria for how tenants build, a brand with its own standards for how the store looks, and an opening date that was announced before the permit was issued. The electrical scope itself is usually modest. The coordination is not.

The storefront and sign have to meet the landlord's criteria and the sign code. The sales floor lighting sells the merchandise. The cash wrap needs clean, dedicated power and data. In a mall, much of the work has to happen when the mall is closed.

This page covers the retail-specific parts. The general remodel sequence is on our commercial remodel and tenant improvement page, and the full range of work is under commercial electrical services. Restaurants in plazas and malls have their own page: restaurant and commercial kitchen electrical.

Start with the landlord's tenant criteria

Most shopping centers and malls issue a tenant criteria package or design manual, and the lease usually attaches a work letter saying what the landlord delivers. Read the electrical sections before the drawings are started. Packages commonly cover:

• Where power comes from. Whether the tenant gets its own meter and service, a feed from a house distribution panel, or a stub-out at the demising wall. The size of that stub-out is the ceiling on everything else.
• Metering and meter location. Some centers submeter tenants from a central meter room; others have utility meters on the rear wall.
• Sign criteria. Sign size, type, illumination, and often who controls the timeclock that turns signs on and off.
• Storefront lighting hours that tenants must keep, controlled by the tenant or by the center.
• Roof rules. Penetrations for rooftop units, conduit supports and sign feeds may have to be done by the landlord's roofer so the landlord's roofing terms stay intact.
• Submittals. Landlord review of the electrical drawings, sometimes before the permit application, which adds time to the schedule.

Our post on electrical questions to ask before signing a commercial lease lists what to settle with the landlord before the lease is final.

Storefront and sign circuits

Signs and show windows have their own requirements. Miami-Dade's electrical inspection guidelines check for the required outlets or receptacles, and GFCI protection, for show windows and signs (Miami-Dade electrical inspection guidelines). Practically, that means a circuit brought to each sign location and show window during rough-in, not added after the storefront glass is in.

• Sign feeds. A circuit to each sign, with a disconnect where the sign needs one, and a pathway through the storefront or parapet that the landlord's criteria allow.
• Controls. A timeclock or photocell, or a connection to the center's control, so signs and storefront lighting keep the required hours without someone flipping a switch.
• Coordination with the sign company. The sign company builds and installs the sign. The electrician provides the circuit and makes the connection. Agree who does the final hookup and who is on site for the inspection.

The sign itself usually needs its own permit, separate from the electrical permit. Miami-Dade's building permit application states that separate permits are required for electrical, signs and other trades (Miami-Dade building permit application), and in unincorporated Miami-Dade any fixed sign, or inside sign that can be seen from the street, needs a permit before it goes up (Miami-Dade sign regulations). Cities with their own building departments set their own sign rules, so check with the one that has the address.

Display and track lighting

Retail lighting is merchandising equipment. It gets redesigned more often than anything else in the store, so plan for change from the start.

• Track on its own circuits. Track lighting gets moved and added to as displays change. Give it enough circuits that the next reset does not overload one.
• Color quality and consistency. Fixtures with the same color temperature and rendering across the store, and across stores for a chain. Mixing fixtures from different orders shows on white walls and in product photography.
• Dimming compatibility. LED fixtures and dimmers have to be matched. A mismatch shows up as flicker, buzzing or fixtures that will not dim smoothly.
• Casework and shelving lights. Lit displays need a power source planned into the floor plan: a floor box, a wall receptacle behind the fixture, or a feed from above.

The energy code applies to retail lighting too. Florida's energy code includes occupant sensor and daylight-responsive control provisions, and a lighting compliance method suited to smaller office, school and retail spaces (FSEC report for the Florida Building Commission). Our commercial lighting and controls page covers controls, retrofits and exterior lighting.

Cash wrap, POS and the back of house

• POS circuits. Dedicated circuits for registers, card terminals and receipt printers, with data run alongside. Where the IT spec calls for isolated-ground receptacles, they are wired and identified as such.
• Cash wrap millwork. The cash wrap is often built off site. Agree where its power and data enter, and bring conduit up through the floor or down from the ceiling to that point before the millwork arrives.
• Door pedestals and counters. Anti-theft pedestals at the entry and door counters need power and cabling in the floor before the finish flooring goes down.
• Back of house. Stockroom lighting, the office, the break room with its refrigerator and microwave on their own circuits, and the network rack. Those go on the dedicated circuits list.
• Tenant equipment. Beverage coolers, freezers, salon chairs and dryers, or fitness equipment change the load picture fast. See tenant equipment power.

KRW runs the low-voltage cabling for data, cameras and security devices. The POS, camera and alarm systems themselves are supplied and set up by their own vendors.

Night work in malls and occupied plazas

Enclosed malls usually restrict noisy work, deliveries and anything that affects common areas to hours when the mall is closed. Open-air plazas are more relaxed, but neighboring tenants still expect their power, parking and storefronts undisturbed.

• Shutdowns of a house panel or a shared feeder are scheduled with the center's management, usually overnight.
• Tie-ins to the center's fire alarm are done by the center's fire alarm vendor. Plan and book that visit early, because it often sets the date for the final inspection.
• Inspections still happen in business hours, so a night crew has to leave the work ready and accessible for the inspector the next day.
• Barricades, dust control and after-hours access are set by the landlord's construction rules.

For work in a store that is already open, our post on getting electrical work done without closing the business covers keeping outages short.

Roll-outs for multi-location retailers

A chain opening several South Florida stores wants the same result in each one, but no two sites are the same electrically. The prototype drawings assume a service size, a voltage and a panel location that each landlord's shell may not match.

• Adapt the prototype to each site first. Confirm the voltage, phase and available capacity at each address, and flag the differences before equipment is ordered to the prototype.
• Keep the standards consistent. The same panel schedule naming, circuit labeling, fixture types and cash wrap layout in every store makes maintenance and future resets faster.
• Expect different building departments. In Miami-Dade, each municipality has its own building official issuing permits within its limits, and the county's process covers only unincorporated areas (Miami-Dade, how to apply for permits). Each has its own submittal and inspection habits. Our commercial electrical permits page covers how that plays out.
• Expect different utilities. Most of the region is served by FPL, but some cities are not; Homestead, for example, is served by the city-owned HPS Energy (City of Homestead, HPS Energy). New meters and service changes follow each utility's process.
• Keep a close-out package per store. As-built drawings, panel schedules and fixture lists, in the same format for every location.

Exterior, parking and security lighting

Parking lot lighting in a plaza usually belongs to the landlord, but tenants often add wall packs, canopy lights, rear-door lighting and cabling for cameras. In South Florida, exterior fixtures and fittings face salt air, sun and hurricane-season wind, so choose them for the location, not only the price. Security lighting and camera cabling are covered on our commercial lighting page and low-voltage wiring page, and surge protection protects POS and network gear from the lightning season.

What to decide early

1. The landlord's criteria and work letter, read for power source, metering, signs and roof rules.
2. Available capacity at the stub-out or service, checked against the store's equipment and lighting.
3. Sign locations, sign feeds and who controls the sign timeclock.
4. Cash wrap and door pedestal locations, fixed before the slab or floor work.
5. The lighting design and control approach, with enough track circuits for future resets.
6. For a mall, the night-work rules, shutdown process and fire alarm vendor contact.

Planning a project? Send the drawings and equipment list through our contact page or call (305) 359-7312.