2022 BC Tenant
Improvement
Guide

For 2022 we wanted to address the escalating construction costs that are being caused by supply chain delays, inflation affecting material costs, labour shortages, and other economic factors.

The data in this guide is collected by our team in collaboration with our industry & project partners. Cutler has been involved in commercial Tenant Improvement projects since 2010, completing 500+ projects in BC. A tenant improvement can be challenging, so we created this guide to help you understand the fundamental requirements.

This guide provides

A data driven tool used to compare tenant improvement costs throughout BC. It is a broad overview of costs, along with comparison of permit times between cities and municipalities.

This guide does not provide

A comprehensive cost of occupancy tool. Tenant improvement costs can vary greatly based on the scope and requirements of the user.

A tenant improvement is the process to configure a space to better suit the tenant's needs. A tenant improvement may include the design, construction, and furnishing of a physical space.

The cost of tenant improvements can range widely in scope based on the tenant's needs and geography. For this guide, we assume a vanilla shell, adequate power, and no change of use or development permits required.

All costs are industry sourced.

This guide is based on the average costs of projects across BC.

All costs assume a full tenant improvement from a warm shell.

A "cold shell" is a space that has no furnishings, infrastructure, heat or plumbing. A "warm" shell, by comparison, could have heat and some other features already in place. To standardize costs included here, all figures represent the cost from a warm shell condition.

What is a tenant improvement allowance?

A tenant improvement allowance is money given from a landlord to a tenant to help pay for the improvements of a space.