diff --git a/build/common.props b/build/common.props
index afcc893e2..046c999bf 100644
--- a/build/common.props
+++ b/build/common.props
@@ -1,9 +1,16 @@
 <Project>
   <Import Project="..\version.props" />
   <Import Project="..\.build\common.props" Condition="Exists('..\.build\common.props')" />
+
   <PropertyGroup>
-    <CustomAfterMicrosoftCommonTargets>$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)common.targets</CustomAfterMicrosoftCommonTargets>
     <RepositoryUrl>https://github.com/aspnet/BuildTools</RepositoryUrl>
     <RepositoryType>git</RepositoryType>
   </PropertyGroup>
+
+  <Target Name="EnsureInitialized"
+          BeforeTargets="Build"
+          Condition="!Exists('$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)..\.build\common.props')">
+    <Error File="$(MSBuildProjectFile)"
+           Text="Project has not been initialized. Run 'build initialize' in the solution directory." />
+  </Target>
 </Project>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/build/common.targets b/build/common.targets
deleted file mode 100644
index 57621d65a..000000000
--- a/build/common.targets
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,11 +0,0 @@
-<Project>
-  <PropertyGroup>
-    <BuildDependsOn>$(BuildDependsOn);EnsureInitialized</BuildDependsOn>
-  </PropertyGroup>
-  <Target Name="EnsureInitialized"
-          Condition="!Exists('$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)..\.build\common.props')">
-    <!--TODO automagically execute build initialize. Will require changes to KoreBuild to avoid race conditions if invoked multiple times-->
-    <Error File="$(MSBuildProjectFile)"
-           Text="Project has not been initialized. Run 'build initialize' in the solution directory '$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)'" />
-  </Target>
-</Project>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/DependenciesPackager/DependenciesPackager.csproj b/src/DependenciesPackager/DependenciesPackager.csproj
index e2c767bc1..b758a47e4 100644
--- a/src/DependenciesPackager/DependenciesPackager.csproj
+++ b/src/DependenciesPackager/DependenciesPackager.csproj
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
+<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk" ToolsVersion="15.0">
 
   <Import Project="..\..\build\common.props" />
 
diff --git a/src/Microsoft.AspNetCore.BuildTools.ApiCheck/Microsoft.AspNetCore.BuildTools.ApiCheck.csproj b/src/Microsoft.AspNetCore.BuildTools.ApiCheck/Microsoft.AspNetCore.BuildTools.ApiCheck.csproj
index 6f1c20563..a40ffecde 100644
--- a/src/Microsoft.AspNetCore.BuildTools.ApiCheck/Microsoft.AspNetCore.BuildTools.ApiCheck.csproj
+++ b/src/Microsoft.AspNetCore.BuildTools.ApiCheck/Microsoft.AspNetCore.BuildTools.ApiCheck.csproj
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
+<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk" ToolsVersion="15.0">
   <Import Project="..\..\build\common.props" />
   <PropertyGroup>
     <VersionPrefix>1.0.1</VersionPrefix>
diff --git a/src/NuGetPackageVerifier/NuGetPackageVerifier.csproj b/src/NuGetPackageVerifier/NuGetPackageVerifier.csproj
index e277f197c..1fc5ea5fc 100644
--- a/src/NuGetPackageVerifier/NuGetPackageVerifier.csproj
+++ b/src/NuGetPackageVerifier/NuGetPackageVerifier.csproj
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
+<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk" ToolsVersion="15.0">
 
   <Import Project="..\..\build\common.props" />
 
diff --git a/src/PackageCacheUploader/PackageCacheUploader.csproj b/src/PackageCacheUploader/PackageCacheUploader.csproj
index 8d5dc09d1..d767839f2 100644
--- a/src/PackageCacheUploader/PackageCacheUploader.csproj
+++ b/src/PackageCacheUploader/PackageCacheUploader.csproj
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
+<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk" ToolsVersion="15.0">
 
   <Import Project="..\..\build\common.props" />
 
diff --git a/src/PackageClassifier/PackageClassifier.csproj b/src/PackageClassifier/PackageClassifier.csproj
index 3b3b0d2cc..a982b7a94 100644
--- a/src/PackageClassifier/PackageClassifier.csproj
+++ b/src/PackageClassifier/PackageClassifier.csproj
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
+<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk" ToolsVersion="15.0">
 
   <Import Project="..\..\build\common.props" />
 
diff --git a/src/SplitPackages/SplitPackages.csproj b/src/SplitPackages/SplitPackages.csproj
index e36522fc6..85c85edc8 100644
--- a/src/SplitPackages/SplitPackages.csproj
+++ b/src/SplitPackages/SplitPackages.csproj
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
+<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk" ToolsVersion="15.0">
   <Import Project="..\..\build\common.props" />
   <PropertyGroup>
     <Description>Copies NuGet packages form a given source folder into a specific set of folders based on a CSV file.</Description>
diff --git a/src/VersionTool/VersionTool.csproj b/src/VersionTool/VersionTool.csproj
index e63e1b02c..9bb67e4d4 100644
--- a/src/VersionTool/VersionTool.csproj
+++ b/src/VersionTool/VersionTool.csproj
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
+<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk" ToolsVersion="15.0">
 
   <Import Project="..\..\build\common.props" />
 
diff --git a/test/ApiCheck.Test/ApiCheck.Test.csproj b/test/ApiCheck.Test/ApiCheck.Test.csproj
index a2434700a..408c53e86 100644
--- a/test/ApiCheck.Test/ApiCheck.Test.csproj
+++ b/test/ApiCheck.Test/ApiCheck.Test.csproj
@@ -1,9 +1,7 @@
-<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
+<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk" ToolsVersion="15.0">
   <Import Project="..\..\build\common.props" />
   <PropertyGroup>
     <TargetFrameworks>netcoreapp1.0;net452</TargetFrameworks>
-    <RuntimeIdentifier Condition=" '$(TargetFramework)'!='netcoreapp1.0' ">win7-x64</RuntimeIdentifier>
-    <OutputType>exe</OutputType>
   </PropertyGroup>
   <ItemGroup>
     <Compile Include="**\*.cs" />
diff --git a/test/ApiCheckBaseline.V1/ApiCheckBaseline.V1.csproj b/test/ApiCheckBaseline.V1/ApiCheckBaseline.V1.csproj
index 2b7922917..e569eb62d 100644
--- a/test/ApiCheckBaseline.V1/ApiCheckBaseline.V1.csproj
+++ b/test/ApiCheckBaseline.V1/ApiCheckBaseline.V1.csproj
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
+<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk" ToolsVersion="15.0">
 
   <Import Project="..\..\build\common.props" />
 
diff --git a/test/ApiCheckBaseline.V2/ApiCheckBaseline.V2.csproj b/test/ApiCheckBaseline.V2/ApiCheckBaseline.V2.csproj
index 2b7922917..e569eb62d 100644
--- a/test/ApiCheckBaseline.V2/ApiCheckBaseline.V2.csproj
+++ b/test/ApiCheckBaseline.V2/ApiCheckBaseline.V2.csproj
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
+<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk" ToolsVersion="15.0">
 
   <Import Project="..\..\build\common.props" />