Municipal permitting is frequently cited as the primary source of commercial construction delays. Architects blame slow city reviews, contractors blame unpredictable inspectors, and clients blame everyone involved. However, according to Mike Marden, a registered architect and licensed general contractor at WDS Architecture in Phoenix, the most damaging permit delays are caused by how professionals and clients approach the permitting process before submitting a single document.
Marden identifies a common problem: clients treat conversations with city counter employees as authoritative project guidance. A client researching a commercial build-out may call the city, describe the project in general terms, and receive responses about typical timelines and required documentation—responses that rarely reflect the specific project's actual requirements. “They often say, ‘We already spoke with someone at the city. They said we just turn in this form and this is roughly the time,’” Marden notes. “First of all, that’s not a documented conversation. There is no log number or record. None of that’s official. And everything on the checklist might not even apply.” The city employee works from a generic script, not a project-specific assessment. The checklist may include unnecessary requirements or omit crucial ones, and clients may not discover discrepancies until they are already in the review process.
This problem is compounded by clients' lack of knowledge about what they don't know. They conduct research in good faith, but the gap between generic permitting information and jurisdiction-specific, project-specific requirements can cost months. Beyond the information problem, Marden points to a structural issue in how most commercial projects are sequenced. The conventional approach—complete design, submit for permits, wait for approval, then begin construction—treats permitting as a gate that blocks all other progress. In a sequential model, nothing else happens during permit review: the client's lease clock runs, the contractor stands by, and trade partners are unavailable for other projects but not yet active on this one. Every week of permit review is a week of elapsed time with no construction progress.
Marden also notes that the gap between design completion and construction start is often extended by contractor selection and mobilization, compounding the permitting wait. Clients who finish drawings and then search for a contractor add weeks or months before submitting a permit. “Did you think about the gap where you’re bidding and trying to find a contractor, meanwhile, permits are ready and you’ve signed the lease?” Marden asks.
Professionals who consistently meet permit timelines do so not by moving faster through the standard process but by compressing the process itself. They engage the city early with preliminary questions, understand what specific inspectors in specific jurisdictions require, and begin non-permitted construction activities while review is underway. At WDS Commercial, “We can start building the project as we’re turning in for a permit,” Marden says. “We’re the contractor, already contracted with the Owner, and have spent months participating in the design. If we are questioned or told to turn in drawings, well, we have already done that because we are also the Architect! We can go right up to first inspection with our work, gaining a month versus waiting on bid results, contracts, permits, and mobilization, losing a month or two.” This approach is possible only when architect and contractor operate as a single entity or are genuinely integrated from the start.
WDS's dual credentials as both an architecture firm and a general contractor are central to its approach. Because the same office produces the drawings and serves as contractor, the firm can begin mobilizing for non-permit construction activities—staging, layout, scoping, testing, demo, subcontracting, scheduling crews, and ordering materials—while review is underway. The firm also draws on ongoing relationships with local jurisdictions to develop realistic project timelines. “Over here, where we do this every day, we know what really needs to go in, how long it’s really going to take,” Marden says. WDS also engages clients on permitting strategy during site selection, before a lease is signed, to help them understand how code compliance requirements, jurisdiction-specific rules, and existing building conditions will affect their timeline. A location that appears attractive on price may carry permitting complexity that adds months, while a more expensive option on a clean site may deliver a faster opening. “It’s like building a project twice, when dealing with existing conditions, removing what is there so that new material can be installed to meet code,” Marden says. A former restaurant space that looks ready for a new restaurant may require extensive code updates that erase apparent savings—something a client researching alone would likely miss.
For business owners planning a commercial build-out in Phoenix, the practical implication is direct: the permitting timeline they’ve been told to expect likely understates reality, and the gap often originates in decisions made before a permit application is filed, not in city processing speed.
