Commercial Construction

What is commercial construction, and what does it involve?

Commercial construction is the design, permitting and building of spaces used for business rather than housing — offices, retail, industrial and institutional buildings — delivered under a construction contract by a general contractor who carries the schedule, the budget and the trades. In practice it involves five distinct bodies of work: pre-construction planning and budgeting, consultant and drawing coordination, municipal permitting, the physical build with its structural, mechanical, electrical and finishing trades, and finally inspections, deficiency correction and handover documentation.

The part owners underestimate most is the paperwork that surrounds the physical work. On a Metro Vancouver commercial project, the drawings, the code analysis, the mechanical and electrical design, the permit application, the building department review comments and the inspection sequence usually consume more calendar time than the framing, drywall and finishing that people picture when they think about construction.

What does the process look like, start to finish?

A typical commercial project runs through the same eight stages in the same order, and skipping one almost always costs more than doing it.

1. Site assessment. Walk the building, confirm what is actually there versus what the as-built drawings claim, check base building capacity — electrical service, HVAC tonnage, structural loading, washroom count, accessible path of travel.
2. Scope and budget. Write the scope down in plain language, price it as a class of estimate that matches how much design exists, and agree a contingency for what the drawings do not yet show.
3. Drawings and consultants. Architectural, structural, mechanical and electrical drawings sealed by the consultants the municipality requires. Code review and, where applicable, a building envelope or fire protection consultant.
4. Permits. Building permit application with the authority having jurisdiction, plus trade permits for electrical, plumbing, gas and sprinkler, and any development or sign permit the use triggers.
5. Buyout and long-lead procurement. Subcontracts awarded, and long-lead equipment — electrical gear, rooftop units, glazing, custom millwork — ordered before site work starts, because these items, not labour, set the finish date.
6. Construction. Demolition, structural work, rough-in, close-in, finishes, in a sequence that keeps inspections in the right order.
7. Inspections. Framing, insulation, electrical, plumbing, sprinkler, fire alarm and final building inspection, with the fire department involved where life safety systems change.
8. Deficiency walkthrough and handover. A joint walk producing a written deficiency list, then close-out: occupancy, warranties, operating manuals, as-builts, commissioning records and keys.

What drives the cost of a commercial build?

Cost is driven far more by the condition of the base building and the mechanical and electrical scope than by finishes. The variables that move a commercial budget most are:

• Base building condition. An older building with undersized electrical service, aging plumbing or no accessible washroom will absorb budget before a single finish is chosen.
• Mechanical and electrical scope. New HVAC distribution, added rooftop capacity, a new panel or service upgrade, sprinkler head relocation and fire alarm modifications are the largest single swing factor on most projects.
• Structural work. New openings, mezzanines, added floor loading and seismic upgrades all bring in an engineer and change both cost and schedule.
• Occupied versus vacant. Building in a live building means protection, phasing, dust and noise control, and shorter productive work windows.
• After-hours work. Night and weekend work carries premium labour rates and is sometimes mandated by the landlord or by municipal noise bylaws rather than chosen.
• Long-lead items. Equipment with long manufacturing lead times can force a project to be built out of sequence, which costs money.
• Permit timelines. Time itself is a cost — carrying rent, financing and staged trade mobilisation while a permit is in review.

Anyone quoting a firm price per square foot before seeing the base building is guessing. Ask instead for the assumptions behind the number and the allowances carried for the unknowns.

What permits and approvals are involved in Metro Vancouver?

Almost all commercial construction requires a building permit from the municipality the property sits in, plus separate trade permits for electrical, plumbing, gas and sprinkler work. Depending on the project you may also need a development permit, a sign permit, a change-of-use approval, a health approval for food premises, or a demolition permit.

The important local nuance is that Metro Vancouver is not one jurisdiction. The City of Vancouver administers its own building by-law and its own permit streams, while Burnaby, Richmond, Surrey, Coquitlam, New Westminster, and the North Shore municipalities each run their own intake, review and inspection processes with different submission requirements and different queues. A project that is straightforward in one city may need an additional consultant report in the next one over. Everything sits on top of the BC Building Code, which sets the technical baseline provincially. Processing times move with volume and scope, so confirm current times with the specific municipality before committing to a schedule or a lease date.

How long does a commercial project typically take?

The honest answer is that the construction period is usually the predictable part and everything before it is not. Design and consultant coordination, permit review and any re-submission after building department comments are where schedules slip. Things that make a project faster: complete drawings at permit submission, early ordering of long-lead equipment, a vacant space, and a scope that does not change after buyout. Things that make it slower: incomplete or unsealed drawings, discovering undocumented conditions during demolition, structural or life safety changes, landlord approval cycles, and scope changes mid-construction.

What changes when the building is occupied?

Working in an occupied building changes the method, not just the manners. Expect hoarding and dust partitions, negative air where required, protection of common areas and elevators, waste removal routed away from tenants, and coordination with building operations for any shutdown of power, water, sprinkler or fire alarm. Noisy and disruptive work is often restricted to evenings or weekends by the landlord's rules or the local noise bylaw, and fire alarm isolation has to be arranged and logged with the building. All of this is real work that belongs in the schedule and the budget from day one rather than appearing as change orders later.

Common mistakes, and what to check before signing

• Pricing a project from a concept sketch and treating that number as a budget.
• No contingency, or a contingency that quietly gets spent on scope additions.
• Signing a lease with a fixed fixturing period before anyone has checked permit requirements for the intended use.
• Leaving long-lead equipment until after permit issuance.
• An unclear scope split between landlord's work and tenant's work.
• No written change order process, so verbal changes are argued about at the end.

Before you sign, check that the scope of work is written out and not just implied, that the schedule names the permit assumptions, that allowances and exclusions are listed, that the change order and progress draw process is defined, and that the close-out deliverables — deficiency list, warranties, as-builts, manuals — are contractual.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need an architect for a commercial project?

Usually yes for anything beyond cosmetic work. Municipalities in Metro Vancouver require sealed drawings from the appropriate registered professionals for most permit applications, and the scope of professional involvement depends on the building, the occupancy and the work.

What is the difference between design-build and design-bid-build?

In design-build, one contract covers both design and construction, so the builder is involved while decisions are still cheap to change. In design-bid-build, the design is completed first and then tendered, which gives a firmer price on a fixed scope but less early constructability input.

Can construction start before the permit is issued?

No. Work requiring a permit must wait for the permit. Some genuinely permit-exempt preparation can proceed, but assume the permit gates the start and plan the schedule around it.

Who handles inspections?

The general contractor schedules and attends municipal inspections and coordinates the trades so that work is not covered before it is inspected.

What happens at handover?

A joint walkthrough produces a written deficiency list with owners and dates, the deficiencies are corrected, and the project closes out with warranty documentation, as-built information, equipment manuals and commissioning records.

Which parts of Metro Vancouver do you work in?

Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, Surrey, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Coquitlam and New Westminster.

Related reading

• Commercial construction explained: what businesses need to know
• Why pre-construction planning saves time and money
• How contractors handle permits in Metro Vancouver

How do I get a project priced?

Send the scope, the address and any drawings you already have to info@multigroup.ca, call 778-819-5933, or use the quote request form. Multigroup Contracting has operated as a general contractor out of Suite 700 - 838 West Hastings Street in Vancouver since 2016, and works across Metro Vancouver including Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, Surrey, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Coquitlam and New Westminster.