01Construction and fit-out cost
What it costs to build it, before anyone bids it
Buildlor publishes curated hard-cost bands for Canadian commercial construction and tenant improvements, then builds the full stack around them — site work, soft cost, municipal charges, contingency and escalation — into a printable all-in budget carrying your own numbers.
02Where the market sits
Toronto warehouse shell
$190/sf
Hard cost band $155 – $240
Toronto office fit-out
$135/sf
Band $90 – $200
Escalation
4.1%/yr
AB, quarter ending 2025-09-30
Coverage
134 × 8
Markets × building types
03The tools
Three utilities, one deal
Cost Stack Builder
Hard cost by division, soft cost, charges, contingency and escalation, with an all-in figure per square foot and a low-to-high band.
TI allowance gap
Put the landlord's improvement allowance against the real fit-out cost and see the shortfall as rent per square foot.
Development charges
What we hold on municipal charges and levies, with the bylaw citation and whether we have verified it.
04Why the stack
A cost per square foot is not a budget
The rate a contractor quotes covers the physical building. Design fees, permits, project management, financing, insurance, municipal charges, contingency and escalation are all outside it, and together they routinely add a third again. Every page here prices those lines explicitly.
Ranges, not false precision
We publish a low, standard and high band because that is what the underlying cost guides publish. A single number to the dollar on an early budget is a fiction, and pretending otherwise is how projects get approved and then repriced.
Every rate on this site is dated, sourced and labelled with how it was produced: observed from a published series, modelled arithmetically from observed inputs, or a baseline seed awaiting verification. Unverified figures are excluded from the default calculation rather than quietly inflating your budget.
Your inputs are never stored. They live in the URL, so a cost stack can be copied, reopened, shared with a partner or carried to a sister site that continues the same deal.
Buildlor facts
- A Toronto warehouse shell prices at $190 per square foot of hard cost at standard specification.
- Hard cost is typically 60 to 75 percent of an all-in construction budget; the rest is soft cost, charges, contingency and escalation.
- Non-residential construction cost in AB is escalating at 4.1 percent a year on the latest quarter.
05Questions
What does Buildlor publish?
Curated hard-cost bands per square foot for eight commercial building and fit-out types across fifteen Canadian markets, the regional construction escalation series, municipal development charges where we can cite the bylaw, and a cost stack builder that turns those inputs plus your own area and specification into an all-in budget.
Is this a quote or an estimate?
Neither. Buildlor is a data publisher, not a contractor or cost consultant. Every figure is an indicative order-of-magnitude benchmark for the stage before you engage a quantity surveyor or general contractor, and every page states what it excludes.
Why does the all-in number differ so much from the cost per square foot I was quoted?
Because a quoted rate is almost always hard cost only. Soft cost, development charges, contingency and escalation typically add 30 to 50 percent on top. The builder shows each of those lines separately so you can see where the gap comes from.
Do my numbers get stored?
No. Your inputs live in the page URL, which is why you can copy a link and reopen or share the exact scenario. There are no accounts, no email walls and no server-side record of your project.
Not advice — Buildlor is a data publisher. We do not bid, price, estimate, or build work, and nothing here is a quote, a tender price, or construction advice. Figures are indicative order-of-magnitude benchmarks for early budgeting and must be confirmed by a qualified cost consultant, quantity surveyor, or general contractor before you rely on them. About Buildlor