Paul Leongas | Why Paul Leongas Builds for the Next Tenant, Not Just the Current One

Paul Leongas

A commercial developer who builds for one tenant is building a problem for the next one. A retail space designed exclusively for a clothing boutique becomes expensive to convert when the boutique leaves and a dental office wants in. A restaurant buildout with custom millwork and a specific kitchen layout sits empty longer because the next restaurant operator has a different concept and none of the existing work fits.

Paul Leongas thinks about the second tenant before the first one moves in. Through Axis Development Group in Park Ridge, Illinois, he designs commercial spaces with enough specificity to serve the current occupant and enough flexibility to serve the next one without a full gut renovation.

Flexibility Starts in the Mechanical Room

The most expensive part of converting a commercial space between tenants is mechanical work. Plumbing, electrical, and HVAC changes cost more than paint, flooring, and walls combined. Paul Leongas specs mechanical systems with overcapacity. Electrical panels with spare circuits. Plumbing rough-ins for potential future use. HVAC systems rated above the current tenant's load.

That overcapacity costs more upfront. It costs dramatically less than ripping out an undersized system when the next tenant arrives with different needs. Leongas learned this from 25 years of operating The Curragh Irish Pub across Schaumburg, Edison Park, and Skokie, where every location required mechanical upgrades that the previous buildout did not anticipate.

Floor Plans That Do Not Trap the Next Operator

A floor plan locked to one specific use creates a conversion problem. Paul Leongas designs open structural plans where possible, with non-load-bearing partitions that can be reconfigured without touching the bones of the building. Demising walls between tenant spaces are placed at logical intervals. Ceiling heights are maintained rather than dropped to hide ductwork.

This approach comes from direct experience. Paul operated restaurant spaces that were previously something else. Every conversion required working around permanent decisions the previous developer made: a load-bearing wall in the wrong place, a dropped ceiling hiding ductwork that needed relocation, a bathroom stack that dictated the entire floor plan. Those limitations cost time and money on every project.

Infrastructure Outlasts Every Tenant

Roofs, parking lots, and building envelopes are landlord assets. They serve every tenant who occupies the building for the next 20 years. Paul Leongas invests in these systems as long-term infrastructure, not short-term expenses. A roof membrane rated for 25 years costs more than one rated for 15, but it outlasts two tenant turnovers instead of failing during the first one.

The parking lot gets the same treatment. Proper drainage, adequate lighting, and maintained surfaces. A tenant evaluating a commercial space looks at the parking lot before they look at the interior. A cracked, poorly lit lot signals deferred maintenance and a landlord who cuts corners.

The Twelve-Year Standard

Paul Leongas ran each Curragh Irish Pub location for approximately 12 years. He earned the Guinness Gold Standard Award for the Perfect Pint in 2002. That kind of longevity in a commercial space gives you a tenant's eye view of what holds up and what does not over a full lease cycle.

He builds for that timeline. Not for the three-year flip. Not for the five-year pro forma. For the tenant who stays, grows their business, and renews. That tenant needs a building that still works in year eight the way it worked in year one. And the next tenant, ten years after that, needs a building that can be reconfigured without starting over.

Building for the next tenant is not generosity. It is how commercial buildings stay productive across decades. Paul Leongas builds that way because he was the tenant who inherited other people's shortsighted decisions, and he knows exactly what they cost.