Plan a 3–6 month office move with a Gantt chart covering lease, fit-out, IT infrastructure cutover, phased employee move days, and post-move punch list.
An office relocation is one of the most complex operational projects a company runs — not because the tasks are technically difficult, but because it involves vendors with fixed availability windows, a hard move-day deadline, and employees who will lose productivity if the transition is rough. A contractor who shows up late delays the electrician. A delayed IT cabling job delays the network install. A delayed network install means employees arrive on move day to a building without internet.
A Gantt chart for an office move creates the dependency chain that keeps contractors, IT teams, facilities managers, and HR coordinated across a 3–6 month timeline. This guide covers every phase of a typical office move, with specific task sequences, realistic durations, and the failure points that cause move days to go sideways.
A 3–6 month office move breaks into five phases:
| Phase | Duration | Key Output |
|---|---|---|
| Planning and Lease | Months 1–2 | Signed lease, move budget, project team named |
| Fit-Out and Construction | Months 2–4 | Space built out to spec, base building ready |
| IT Infrastructure Build | Months 3–5 | Network, cabling, AV, phones operational |
| Move Execution | Final 2–4 weeks | Employees and equipment moved in waves |
| Post-Move Punch List | Weeks 1–4 after move | Outstanding construction items closed, old space surrendered |
Each phase has hard predecessors. IT cannot begin structured cabling until construction is substantially complete. Construction cannot begin until the lease is signed and permits are pulled. Employees cannot move until IT infrastructure is operational. Compressing these dependencies is the most common planning mistake — and it produces the most common result: employees sitting in the new office on day one without working phones, internet, or access cards.
Project team formation (Week 1)
Name the move project manager, the internal facilities liaison, and the executive sponsor on day one. Bring in an external tenant representative (tenant rep broker) immediately — they are free to the tenant (paid by the landlord) and provide significant leverage in lease negotiation.
For companies with 50+ employees, also name:
Needs assessment (Weeks 1–2)
Document current and projected headcount, workstation requirements, conference room count and size, private offices, server room or IT closet requirements, and any special spaces (labs, production studios, reception, café). This requirements document drives the space search criteria and eventually the fit-out scope of work.
Projected headcount 12–24 months out matters. Signing a lease for today's headcount and needing to re-expand in 18 months is an expensive mistake.
Space search and evaluation (Weeks 2–6)
The tenant rep coordinates tours and evaluates spaces against the requirements. Typical evaluation criteria:
Letter of intent and lease negotiation (Weeks 6–10)
The letter of intent (LOI) is a non-binding agreement on key terms: rent, square footage, lease term, TI allowance, free rent period, renewal options, and termination rights. Negotiating the LOI correctly saves far more money than negotiating the detailed lease document.
Key negotiating points for the TI allowance: TI is typically $50–$120/sq ft in major markets. A 10,000 sq ft office at $100/sq ft TI = $1M landlord contribution toward fit-out. The TI scope and draw process must be defined in the lease.
The lease itself takes 4–8 weeks to negotiate and execute. This timeline is frequently underestimated. Both landlords and tenants have legal counsel involved, and lease redline cycles add up.
Critical dependency: Construction cannot start until the lease is signed. Permits cannot be pulled until the lease is signed. Landlord work (if applicable) cannot start until the lease is signed. The lease execution date is the single most important predecessor in the entire Gantt chart.
Design and permitting (Weeks 1–6 of this phase)
Hire an architect to translate the needs assessment into construction drawings. The design process has three stages:
Permit submittal and approval varies dramatically by jurisdiction: 2 weeks in some cities, 8–12 weeks in others. Check with your architect on local timelines — this is frequently on the critical path.
While permitting is underway, solicit bids from general contractors. Issue the bid package once construction documents are complete, allow 2 weeks for bids, and award the contract with enough lead time to hit your target construction start date.
Construction sequence
A standard office fit-out proceeds in this order:
The total construction timeline for a 10,000–20,000 sq ft office build-out is typically 10–16 weeks from permit to certificate of occupancy. Budget 2–3 weeks of contingency for contractor delays, material lead times, and inspection scheduling.
Common construction delays
IT infrastructure is on the critical path to occupancy. Employees cannot work in the new space without network connectivity, and network connectivity requires structured cabling, fiber, and ISP provisioning — all of which have lead times.
Structured cabling (Weeks 2–8 of construction)
Structured cabling (Cat6A for data, coax for AV, fiber for backbone) is installed after the rough framing is complete but before drywall closes. This is the sequencing dependency that most moves get wrong: IT teams often don't engage the cabling contractor until construction is nearly complete, requiring expensive work after the fact or requiring walls to be opened.
Typical cabling scope for a 10,000 sq ft office:
The cabling contractor should be on site for a walk-through during design development — before construction documents are finalized — so IT requirements are incorporated into the architect's drawings.
ISP provisioning (Weeks 1–12, start immediately)
Fiber ISP provisioning is the longest IT lead time item. It takes 8–16 weeks from order to service activation, depending on whether fiber is already in the building (2–4 weeks) or requires a new street run (10–16 weeks). Order on the day the lease is signed — not when construction starts.
Order two ISPs from different providers for redundancy. This is not optional for any business with internet-dependent operations. Budget $500–$2,000/month per circuit depending on speed and market.
Network equipment installation (Week 10–12 of construction)
Network switches, wireless access points, and firewall installation happen after cabling is complete and tested. AV systems (conference room displays, video conferencing systems, digital signage) install in parallel.
Phone system
Cloud phone systems (RingCentral, Microsoft Teams Phone, Zoom Phone) provision through software — no PBX hardware required. Physical desk phones (if still in use) require network ports. POTS (plain old telephone service) lines for analog fax and elevator phones require physical coordination with the carrier — add 2–4 weeks.
Access control and physical security
Card readers, door controllers, and security cameras require low-voltage rough-in during construction. The access control system integrates with HR's directory to provision employee credentials before move day. Commission and test access control 2 weeks before move day — not on move day morning.
Wave approach
For offices with 50+ employees, move in waves rather than all-at-once. A single mass move day produces chaos: elevators are overwhelmed, IT support is stretched across every issue simultaneously, and problems compound.
Structure waves by department or floor, with 1–2 days between each wave:
| Wave | Department | Move Date | Employees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wave 1 | IT + Operations | Monday | 8 people |
| Wave 2 | Finance + Legal | Wednesday | 12 people |
| Wave 3 | Marketing + Product | Friday | 20 people |
| Wave 4 | Sales + Leadership | Following Monday | 25 people |
Move IT first. IT staff in the new space on day one can troubleshoot connectivity and configuration issues before other employees arrive. They become the on-site support resource for subsequent waves.
Move day logistics
Hire professional office movers. The difference in cost between office movers and residential movers is significant ($5,000–$15,000 for a 50-person office). The difference in risk — broken equipment, unmanaged furniture disassembly, lost or damaged files — makes professional office movers the correct choice.
Each wave's move day sequence:
What goes wrong on move day
Construction punch list
The contractor provides a punch list at substantial completion: a list of items that are incomplete or deficient. This typically includes minor items: missing hardware, touch-up paint, flooring repairs, light switch not working. The punch list should be complete within 2–3 weeks of substantial completion.
Withhold a portion of the contractor payment (typically 5–10%) until the punch list is complete. This provides financial incentive for timely completion.
Old space surrender
The lease on the old space has a surrender date. Leaving furniture, equipment, or debris in the old space triggers holdover rent — typically 150–200% of the base monthly rent. Schedule the final cleanout and space return on the Gantt chart with a hard date tied to the old lease expiration.
Building management at the old location requires a formal surrender inspection. Allow 1 week to resolve any disputes about the condition of the space.
Employee feedback
Send a short survey to employees 2 weeks after the move. Ask specifically about: workstation comfort, temperature, lighting, noise, and any equipment that is not working correctly. Small ergonomic and environmental issues compound into productivity problems if not addressed early.
Open gantt-chart.io and set your target move day as a fixed milestone. Work backward:
The lease signature date drives nearly every other date in the project. If the lease signs 3 weeks late, move day slips 3 weeks — unless there is float elsewhere in the schedule, which there rarely is for a lease-driven deadline.
Add swim lanes for: Facilities/Construction, IT, HR/Communications, and Finance/Legal. Each team's tasks are visible on the same chart, and the dependency lines between swim lanes show where hand-offs happen.
Share the Gantt chart with your general contractor, IT infrastructure vendor, and moving company. Contractors who can see the full timeline commit more reliably to their windows and flag conflicts early rather than on the day they miss a deadline.
For organizations managing multiple office locations, flow-chart.io can map the organizational structure of the move team alongside the project Gantt, making the RACI clear across departments.
How early should we start planning an office move?
For a 50-person company moving into a standard commercial lease space: 4–5 months minimum. For 200+ employees, a custom build-out, or a complicated lease situation: 8–12 months. The most common mistake is starting planning after the lease is signed — you lose the time that should have gone into design development and permitting.
Should we use an office design/project management firm?
For moves over 10,000 sq ft or 50 employees, yes. An owner's rep or project management firm coordinates the architect, general contractor, and IT vendors, reviews pay applications, and tracks the punch list. Their fee (3–5% of construction cost) is typically recovered in contractor accountability and schedule management.
How do we handle the IT cutover with minimal downtime?
For cloud-based operations (SaaS applications, cloud phone system), the cutover is nearly seamless — point the ISP circuits live and employees connect. For on-premise server infrastructure, a server migration weekend is required: similar to a data migration, with pre-migration staging, cutover window, and a rollback plan if the new location's infrastructure has issues.
What's the most underestimated cost?
Data and phone cabling. Many tenants assume the TI allowance covers everything, but standard TI scopes often exclude low-voltage cabling. A 10,000 sq ft office with 150 drops and AV in 8 conference rooms costs $40,000–$80,000 for cabling alone. Confirm what is and is not in the TI scope at lease negotiation — not after the architect's drawings are complete.