Shell-and-core leases are the cleanest way to occupy a Grade A office in DIFC, and the messiest if your move-in plan is wrong. We've moved corporate teams into ICD Brookfield Place, Index Tower, Boulevard Plaza, and Gate Avenue with budgets ranging from AED 180,000 to north of AED 600,000 just for the move portion. The single thing that separates a smooth move from a six-week catastrophe is whether the fit-out is actually complete-of-works approved the day the moving truck arrives.
If it isn't, you're stacking equipment in the corridor while a contractor finishes a glass partition. We've seen it. We've also seen the building security team turn an entire moving crew away at the freight lift because the contractor's permit was still active. So this guide is the version we wish every COO had on their desk.
What "shell and core" actually means
Shell and core means the landlord delivers the bones — base building MEP, raised floor, exterior glazing, structural columns, lift lobbies, fire systems — but no internal partitions, no ceiling, no flooring finishes, no pantry, no power to your floor plate beyond the riser tap-off. Everything you see in a finished office is on you. ISG Middle East is the framework contractor for the entire ICD Brookfield Place building, which means at that address you have to use them or a vetted partner for the fit-out scope; other DIFC towers are more flexible.
From lease signing to your first day in the office, the realistic timeline is 6-9 months. About four to six of those months are fit-out construction. The rest is the gap between drawings, DIFC Authority approvals, civil defence sign-off, and the actual move. The move itself is usually 3-7 days of crew time, but the prep that makes those days work runs across the full six months.
The phasing that actually works
The order matters. Do it wrong and you're moving twice.
- Lease signature → fit-out tender (week 1-3). Pick the fit-out contractor. For ICD Brookfield, it's ISG. For Index, Boulevard Plaza, or older DIFC stock, you have a real choice. The tender includes IT cabling, AV, security, fixed FF&E, and any custom joinery.
- Fit-out drawings → DIFC Authority approval (week 4-10). This is where most projects slip. DIFC Authority reviews drawings in cycles. A clean first submission goes through in 3-4 weeks. A messy one with revisions can run 8-10. Civil defence approval runs in parallel.
- Construction (week 10-22). Daytime works inside DIFC is restricted — most heavy/noisy work happens 6 PM to 6 AM under building permit. Move-relevant detail: the freight lift gets booked for fit-out deliveries during this window, which means your move-day booking has to land after construction completion, not during.
- Snagging and complete-of-works (week 22-25). The contractor walks the space with you and the fit-out team. List goes back. Snags get fixed. Complete-of-works (CoW) certificate is issued by the building when satisfied. This is the document the movers need to confirm before booking the truck slot. Without CoW, the freight lift won't open for furniture.
- Furniture and IT install (week 25-26). Furniture in first, IT cabling and devices second. This order is non-obvious — most teams want desks and PCs in the same week. Don't. Furniture takes 3-4 days and creates dust. IT goes in clean, on day 5 onwards.
- Staff move (week 26+). The white-collar move. Boxes from the old office, personal effects, and the ergonomic chair Kelly has to have. Usually 1-2 days for a 50-100 person office. Larger teams stage by department.
Building access — the part that bites people
DIFC towers are not commercial-friendly the way Business Bay or JLT towers are. The freight lift at ICD Brookfield Place is shared across the whole 53-floor stack, and the Concierge Operations team books it in 2-hour slots with hard cutoffs. Run over and your slot rolls; the next tenant gets priority. Index Tower, Boulevard Plaza, and Gate Avenue have similar systems — slots, not first-come.
What this looks like on move-day:
- Book the freight lift 2-3 weeks in advance via building management. Confirm in writing.
- Each delivery vehicle needs a separate gate pass. The DIFC valet gate runs a tight queue — a 7-tonne truck waiting for clearance can sit there 20-40 minutes if the paperwork is wrong.
- Crew badges issued at the building security desk, with passport copies submitted 48 hours before. Building security at ICD Brookfield in particular won't accept walk-ups.
- Loading dock height clearance at most DIFC towers caps at 3.6-4.0 metres. If you're delivering oversized millwork, you're using a 5-tonne, not a 7-tonne.
Real costs from recent jobs
Move-only scope (excludes the fit-out itself, which is a separate budget). All numbers are inclusive of full-service packing of the old office, transport, and unpacking on the DIFC end:
| Office size | Move scope | Cost range |
|---|---|---|
| 20-40 staff (~3,000 sq ft) | 2-day move, 1 truck, 6 crew | AED 28,000-44,000 |
| 50-100 staff (~6,000-9,000 sq ft) | 3-4 day move, 2 trucks, 10 crew | AED 70,000-120,000 |
| 150-250 staff (~15,000-22,000 sq ft) | 5-7 day move, 3-4 trucks, phased | AED 180,000-360,000 |
| 300+ staff with server room | Phased over 2-3 weekends | AED 400,000-700,000+ |
Server-room moves at the upper end are not really moves — they're decommission, cold-stage, transport, recommission, and tested-handover projects. We typically partner with a specialist IT relocation firm for the server portion and stay on the office furniture, partitions, and white-collar side. Get the integration in writing — who owns the cable patch panel handover is a question that has cost teams a full day of finger-pointing in our experience.
The mistakes we keep seeing
- Booking the move before CoW is confirmed. Treat the move date as a movable target until snagging closes. If fit-out slips two weeks, your move date slips two weeks. Don't lock crew, trucks, and announce-to-staff before then.
- Single-vendor IT and furniture. Tempting, but the timing pressure is incompatible. IT install needs a clean, swept, dust-free space. Furniture install creates exactly that dust. Phase them.
- Assuming building security knows you're coming. They don't. The building doesn't read your fit-out contractor's emails. The building reads its own concierge log. Re-confirm the freight lift slot 48 hours before.
- Ignoring the furniture clearance dimensions. The classic — a beautiful 4-metre boardroom table that doesn't fit through the lift. Measure twice. Most DIFC freight lifts are 2.4-3.0 metres internal depth. Anything longer needs to be flat-packed for delivery and assembled inside.
- No network failover on move-day. The team starts working in the new office the day after move-in. If the new internet circuit isn't tested two weeks earlier with full traffic, day 1 turns into a fire drill. Du and Etisalat both deliver but installation slots are 14-21 days out from order, longer for bigger circuits.
A note on micro-suites
If you're going into one of the Furnished Micro Units at ICD Brookfield (1,000-1,500 sq ft on levels 28-30) or the equivalent fitted product at Index, the shell-and-core problem doesn't apply — those are turn-key. The move is a one-day box-and-laptop job, AED 8,000-18,000 depending on team size. The hard logistics here are about the freight-lift slot and the gate pass, not the build.
For larger fit-outs, our office relocation service handles the move portion and coordinates with whichever fit-out firm you've chosen. The commercial movers team manages everything from packing the old space to setting up the new one, including the IT staging if you want it bundled.
If you're early in the lease cycle and still picking a vendor, our office movers RFP checklist covers the procurement side. For DIFC-specific context, our DIFC move guide goes deeper on the building rules and gate logistics. Teams upgrading from older space should also read the Grade A upgrade guide — most shell-and-core moves are also Grade A upgrades.
For a quote that actually accounts for shell-and-core phasing, request a site visit. We'll walk both the old space and the new one, including the loading dock and freight-lift dimensions, before quoting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who pays for the fit-out in a shell-and-core lease?
Almost always the tenant, with a contribution from the landlord called a fit-out allowance. Typical DIFC allowance ranges from AED 250-500 per square foot toward the build-out, against actual fit-out costs of AED 600-1,200 per square foot for Grade A finishes. The gap is the tenant's capital expenditure. Some landlords offer rent-free periods instead of cash; the math usually favours cash.
How long is the fit-out lead time at ICD Brookfield Place?
From signed lease to occupancy, plan for 6-9 months. Drawings and DIFC Authority approval take 6-10 weeks, construction takes 3-5 months, and snagging and complete-of-works runs another 3-4 weeks. ICD Brookfield's framework contractor model with ISG can shorten the construction window slightly because they know the building cores intimately, but it doesn't change the approval timeline.
Can we move in before complete-of-works is signed off?
Technically possible at some DIFC towers, never advisable. The freight lift won't be released to your moving crew without CoW. Building security treats the floor as an active construction site until then. Even if you can negotiate access, you'll have crews and contractors competing for the same lift, the same loading bay, and the same parking. Wait the extra week.
Should we move IT and furniture in the same week?
No. Furniture installation creates dust and movement that's incompatible with clean IT cabling and device commissioning. The phasing that works is furniture and partitions first, then 24-48 hours of cleaning, then IT cabling and rack install, then desktops and AV. For larger offices the gap should be longer — 5-7 days between furniture-complete and IT live is what we recommend on jobs over 100 desks.