What Is Design-Build?
Design-build is the delivery model where one team holds one contract for both design and construction. Instead of hiring an architect, then bidding contractors, then refereeing the finger-pointing between them, you hire one accountable partner who owns the outcome from concept to keys.
For industrial facilities, design-build has a second advantage: the builder designing your building also understands the racking, automation, and equipment going inside it, so the facility is engineered around the operation instead of the operation squeezed into the building.
How Design-Build Works, Step by Step
Consult and program
Your operation, throughput, and growth plan define the building, not the other way around.
Design and engineering
Architectural, structural, and MEP design in-house and with our engineering partners, with stamped drawings.
Permits and approvals
MTLI manages permit applications, authorities, and inspections through to occupancy.
Guaranteed pricing
One number for the whole project, with in-house estimating pressure-testing every line.
Construction
Concrete and steel self-performed, trades supervised daily, schedule tracked against committed milestones.
Equipment and commissioning
Racking, conveyor, and automation installed and commissioned by the same team, then handed over operational.
How MTLI Works With Design-Build
Design & Engineering
It starts with your data, not a catalog: throughput, product profile, building, and budget. Our engineers design the right answer, with stamped drawings and permits where structures are involved.
Supply & Procurement
We source across 500+ manufacturer partners worldwide, brand-agnostic, new and used where it makes sense, with volume pricing passed through to you.
Installation & Commissioning
Our own crews install, integrate, and commission, phased around live operations when needed, with an MTLI supervisor on site every day and 98% on-time delivery.
Support & Lifecycle
After handover we stay: preventative maintenance programs, inspections, controls support, and 24/7 options, designed around your uptime targets.
Where MTLI Can Help You
- Ground-up warehouses, DCs, and manufacturing plants
- Major expansions and automation-ready retrofits
- Projects where speed matters: design and build overlap
- Owners who want one throat to choke, not five contracts
- Facilities engineered around ASRS, conveyors, and racking from the first pour
- ICI projects across all 50 states and every Canadian province
From under $100K to $100M+ turnkey. A specialist calls within one business day.
Common Questions, Answered
Why is design-build faster?
Because design and construction overlap: sitework starts while detail design finishes, and long-lead equipment orders early. Projects routinely finish months sooner than design-bid-build.
Is design-build more expensive?
Usually the opposite. One mobilization, no bid-market games, no adversarial change orders, and value engineering during design typically deliver a lower final number, which matters from under $100K jobs to $100M+ programs.
What if we already have drawings?
Then general contracting or CM may fit better, and we deliver those too. Design-build shines when the design is still open enough to optimize.
Does MTLI design around automation?
That is our edge: super-flat floors for VNA and ASRS, reinforced slabs and steel for racking loads, and power and data roughed in for conveyors and robotics, all designed in from day one.