Most commercial buildings cost $240 to $870 per square foot to build in 2026, based on published national data. A simple warehouse can start near $100 per square foot, a 1 story office runs about $235 to $375, and a medical clinic or hospital can pass $1,000. That spread is wide because the cost to […]

A general contractor builds your building, a construction manager runs the construction process, and an owner’s rep works only for you and watches over all of it. The fastest way to tell them apart is to ask 2 questions: who holds the trade contracts, and who carries the risk if the job costs more? That […]

Lease if you need space soon or want flexibility, purchase if an existing property fits and you have the capital, and choose a build-to-suit if nothing on the market works and you want a custom facility without paying for it up front. The right answer comes down to 4 things: how much money you want […]

A tenant improvement allowance is the money a landlord agrees to put toward building out a leased commercial space, typically written as a dollar figure per square foot. Published 2026 ranges run from $3 to $15 per square foot for industrial space up to $50 to $120 for office, and the tenant pays whatever the […]

A build-to-suit lease is an agreement where a developer secures the site, then designs and builds a commercial facility to one tenant’s exact needs and leases it to that tenant long term. The tenant gets a new facility made for its operation without paying for the site and the build up front, and in return […]

An owner’s representative usually costs 1% to 5% of the construction budget. Smaller and more complex projects sit at the high end of that range, and large projects sit at the low end, because the oversight work does not shrink as fast as the project grows. On a $5 million building, that works out to […]