Stop work for “potential” commercial tenant?

[Paul Callins]

Hello Everyone,

We were working on my job site last week on a commercial unit I acquired (1st one) and a potential renter saw us and is very interested in renting. They have a smaller unit in the office park. Mine is 2700sqft. They asked me to stop work since they will want to change the floor plan. They want to convert it to a hospice. The unit used to be a medical office. I have no lease agreement with them. I agreed to halt work and will meet with them tomorrow to come up with a term sheet I can present to my lawyer. During this time their contractor gave them a bid that was too expensive for them and they want to shop around some more. The work I was having my guys do would take 1.5 weeks to complete and I don’t want to leave this job unfinished any longer. My question is if we can’t come to an agreement tomorrow do I move forward with finishing the work to be done? I haven’t even advertised the place. I just don’t imagine they would want to put a deposit down if they don’t have a estimate for their buildout yet.