Kay2 Commercial handles commercial construction in Calgary from the first site walk to the final inspection. We work as a commercial general contractor, a design-build firm or a construction manager, depending on what the project needs, and most of our work is tenant improvements and commercial buildouts in leased space. This page explains each service, how a project moves through the City of Calgary permit system, and what different project types cost in 2026. The sector pages go deeper on the codes and equipment for each kind of business.
What does a commercial contractor actually do?
A commercial contractor takes responsibility for getting a building or a unit built to code, on a schedule, for a price. In practice that means five jobs, and most owners only see the last one.
- Preconstruction: reading the lease and the landlord's drawings, walking the space, and building a budget before anyone signs.
- Design coordination: getting the layout drawn and the engineering stamped, either by our in-house designers or by working with your architect.
- Estimating and procurement: pricing every trade, ordering long-lead equipment and locking the number.
- Permits: preparing applications, answering City of Calgary review comments and booking inspections.
- Construction: running the trades on site in the right order, keeping the site safe and handing back a space that passes inspection.
A good contractor is most useful in the first two. By the time demolition starts, most of the cost and nearly all of the schedule risk has already been decided.
Preconstruction and budgeting
Most budget problems on commercial jobs start before the contractor is hired. An owner signs a lease, takes the TI allowance at face value, gets drawings done, and only then asks what it costs to build. By that point the rent clock is often already running.
We would rather be in the room earlier. On a preconstruction walk we check what the shell actually delivers: the electrical service size, whether there is a sanitary line where your sinks need to go, the capacity of the rooftop units, the condition of the slab, and the sprinkler layout. Then we put a planning budget against your concept, with the items that drive cost called out so you know which decisions matter.
The single most common surprise is the gap between the TI allowance and the real fit-out cost. A landlord's allowance is a negotiated number tied to the lease. It has nothing to do with what your restaurant or clinic costs to build. If your allowance covers the whole job, read the lease again, because it almost never does. The best time to find the gap is before you sign, when it can still change the rent, the free-rent period or the landlord's work.
Design-build, general contracting and construction management
How the project is delivered matters as much as who builds it. These are the three models we work under.
Design-build
One contract covers design and construction. Our designers draw the space with our estimators in the room, so the design is priced as it develops instead of after it is finished. The phases can overlap, which saves time, and there is a single point of accountability when something goes wrong. Most of our commercial work runs this way, and it is the model we recommend for tenant improvements with a fixed opening date.
General contracting (design-bid-build)
You hire an architect, the drawings are finished, and contractors bid on them. You get competitive pricing on a complete set, but the phases run one after another and you carry the design risk: if the drawings miss something, it comes back as a change order. Some landlords, lenders and public owners require this route.
Construction management
We join the project early, act as your adviser through design, then manage the trades on an open-book basis. It suits larger or phased projects where the scope is still moving and you want visibility into every trade price.
Our general contractor page compares the three in more depth and includes a checklist for vetting any contractor you are considering.
Tenant improvements and commercial buildouts
Tenant improvements are the core of what we do. Nearly every sector page on this site is, underneath, a tenant improvement: an interior fit-out of a leased unit to suit one business. The work ranges from a light office refresh with new paint, flooring and a few partitions, to a full restaurant buildout with a new kitchen exhaust, a grease interceptor and a gas service.
In Calgary, any alteration to a commercial interior needs a building permit. If the business use is changing, for example a retail unit becoming a medical clinic, you also need a Change of Use development permit, which has its own review and can add weeks. Our tenant improvement page covers the permit sequence, the work letter and the cost ranges in detail.
Commercial renovation and repositioning
Not every project is a new tenant. Owners renovate lobbies, washrooms and common areas to hold onto tenants, split large floorplates into smaller units, or bring an older building up to current accessibility and life-safety codes. Demising a unit into two is common enough that the City offers a quick-release permit for demising walls.
Downtown, the biggest renovation story is office-to-residential conversion. The City of Calgary's Downtown Development Incentive Program pays $75 per square foot toward converting vacant office space, with a goal of removing 6 million square feet of empty downtown office by 2031. By October 2025, about 21 buildings, roughly 2.7 million square feet, had been approved, adding more than 2,600 rental homes. Projects such as the Petro Fina building at 736 8 Ave SW, which became 103 suites, show what these conversions involve: new plumbing stacks through the floor plates, new exits and fire separations, and Plus 15 and lane logistics that shape the whole schedule.
How a commercial project runs, from lease to opening
Every project is different, but the order of operations rarely changes.
- Site walk and planning budget: before the lease is signed, if at all possible.
- Design and engineering: layout, finishes, and stamped drawings for structural, life-safety and mechanical work. Specialty sectors need longer, because a kitchen or a dental operatory cannot be designed until the equipment is chosen.
- Fixed price and contract: every trade priced against finished drawings.
- Permits: building permit, Change of Use development permit if needed, and trade permits for electrical, plumbing, gas and HVAC. Some sectors add other approvals, such as the Alberta Health Services plan review for food service.
- Construction: demolition, rough-in, inspections, close-in, finishes, then the final inspections.
- Handover: occupancy, deficiency list cleared, operating manuals and warranties handed over.
Two Calgary-specific notes. Long-lead equipment, such as electrical gear, rooftop units and kitchen hoods, often sets the critical path more than the construction itself, so we order it as soon as the design allows. And exterior work, such as a new storefront, a patio or a canopy, is scheduled around Calgary weather, with chinooks giving us windows in winter that we plan to use.
Permits for commercial construction in Calgary
Most owners only need to know three things about City of Calgary permits.
A building permit is required whenever a commercial interior is altered. That includes new walls, plumbing changes, mechanical and electrical work. The City offers quick-release building permits for some simple scopes: demising walls, removing interior partitions, and office interior renovations.
A development permit is usually not required for a tenant improvement, unless the work changes what the existing development permit approved. The big exception is a Change of Use: when the business use changes, for example from retail to medical or from office to restaurant, you need a Change of Use development permit before the building permit can be issued.
Structural, life-safety and mechanical work needs P.Eng-stamped drawings under the Alberta Safety Codes. Licensed trades pull their own electrical, plumbing, gas and HVAC permits under the project.
The City publishes its current permit checklists and review times on calgary.ca. We prepare the applications, respond to review comments and book the inspections.
What does commercial construction cost in Calgary?
The ranges below come from published 2026 contractor cost guides, grouped by project type. Use them to sanity-check a budget, not as a quote. Every figure varies by scope, the condition of the shell, the finishes and the equipment, so treat them as a starting point for a budget conversation.
| Project type | Planning range (as of 2026, varies by scope) |
|---|---|
| Light tenant improvement | $120–180 per sq ft |
| Medium tenant improvement | $180–260 per sq ft |
| Office fit-out | $125–250+ per sq ft |
| Retail fit-out | $150–300+ per sq ft |
| Salon, vanilla-box shell | $120–160 per sq ft |
| Medical or dental clinic | $200–400+ per sq ft |
| Quick-service restaurant | $325–525 per sq ft |
| Full-service restaurant | $425–725 per sq ft |
| Warehouse, new build | $130–175 per sq ft |
| Auto repair shop, 8 bays (about 6,000 sq ft) | $900,000–1.5 million total |
| Gas station and convenience store, ground-up | $1.5–4 million all-in |
What pushes a project to the top of its range is almost always mechanical, not finishes: a bigger electrical service, a new gas line, more plumbing fixtures than the shell was built for, or an exhaust system. Each sector page explains its own cost drivers.
Sectors we build
Each sector has its own page covering its codes, its equipment and its cost drivers.
- Restaurants, cafes and bars
- Tenant improvements
- Office fit-outs and renovations
- Retail stores
- Medical, dental and veterinary clinics
- Franchise rollouts
- Warehouses
- Gas stations and convenience stores
- Mechanic and auto repair shops
- Barbershops and salons
- Banks and credit unions
- Strip malls and retail plazas
- Shopping centre redevelopment
- Hotels
- Manufacturing and distribution
- Schools
- Community and recreation facilities
- Multi-family and mixed-use
- Car washes
- Grocery stores
- Pharmacies
- Gyms and fitness centres
- Daycares
- Churches and places of worship
- Cannabis retail stores
- Breweries and distilleries
- Data centres
- Self-storage facilities
- Auto and RV dealerships
Building something that is not on this list? Send us the project and we will tell you plainly whether it is work we take on.
Commercial construction questions, answered
What is the difference between a commercial contractor and a general contractor?
A general contractor is one way a commercial contractor can work: you bring finished drawings and we build them. A commercial contractor may also offer design-build, where design and construction are under one contract, or construction management, where we manage the trades on an open-book basis. We work under all three models.
How much does a commercial tenant improvement cost in Calgary?
As of 2026, light tenant improvements in Calgary plan at about $120 to $180 per square foot and medium ones at $180 to $260. Medical, restaurant and other specialty fit-outs run higher, as the table above shows. Cost varies by scope, so we give a real number only after a site walk and a design.
Do I need a development permit for my fit-out?
Usually not, unless the business use is changing or the work alters the existing development permit. A change of use, such as retail to medical, needs a Change of Use development permit before the building permit can be issued. Every commercial interior alteration needs a building permit.
How early should I involve a contractor?
Before you sign the lease. That is when you can still negotiate the TI allowance, the free-rent period and the landlord's work, and when a shell problem, such as an undersized electrical service, is cheapest to solve. Engaging a contractor early reduces redesign and surprise costs later.
Which delivery model should I choose?
It depends on what matters most on your project:
- A fixed opening date and one accountable party: design-build.
- An architect already hired, or a landlord or lender that requires competitive bids: general contracting.
- A large or phased project where the scope is still moving: construction management.