Division 02
New commercial buildings
Ground-up commercial and institutional buildings in the Pikes Peak region — aviation, retail, automotive and industrial — with the site work and utilities self-performed.
Typical span 12–26 months
02The work
A new building is the project where the published per-square-foot number is most useful and most dangerous, so it is worth being clear about both.
Useful, because an owner deciding whether to build at all needs an order of magnitude long before there is a drawing to price. The usual industry answer — telephone us for a quote — is useless at that moment, because there is nothing to quote against. A board does not approve “we will find out”.
Dangerous, because the cost of a building is not evenly spread across its floor area. A 6,000 square foot building and a 30,000 square foot building of the same type do not cost the same per foot, because the service entry, the fire riser, the entrance and the site work do not scale. Nor does a corner of finished office inside a warehouse cost what the warehouse costs.
And underneath all of it sits the site, which on the Front Range is where the surprises live. Expansive soils in parts of this region can change a foundation from a conventional slab to an engineered system and move several hundred thousand dollars. That is why the geotechnical report is the first money we tell an owner to spend, before the architect and before us.
Before the architect and before us. Parts of this region sit on expansive clay, and the difference between a conventional slab and an engineered foundation system is measured in hundreds of thousands of dollars. It is the cheapest large piece of information available to an owner and it is skipped more often than any other step, because it feels like an expense before the project is real.
Establish these first
- Use and occupancy
- What goes on inside decides the code path, the fire protection, the parking and the accessibility scope.
- Gross area and shape
- Square footage, bay spacing, clear height, and how much of it is finished rather than shell.
- The geotechnical report
- The single most consequential document at this stage. If there is not one, that is the first thing to buy.
- Utilities to the site
- Water, sewer, gas and particularly the electrical service. A service upgrade can have a lead time longer than the building.
- Entitlement status
- Zoned and platted, or not. An unentitled site is a different and much longer project.
What you receive
Full drawing set, schedule of values, commissioning record, closeout package
In the format your records require, agreed at proposal stage rather than discovered at closeout. The full list is on closeout and what you receive.
02.1Values
What this division costs
Planning ranges, wide on purpose. The full schedule with every division on it, and the soft costs that sit on top of any construction number, is on the budgets page.
| Div | Building type | Unit | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 02.10 | Light industrial / warehouse shellPre-engineered metal, dock-high, minimal office | SF | $145–$245 |
| 02.15 | Light industrial, finished office portionThe office within the warehouse, separately | SF | $220–$380 |
| 02.20 | Retail shellReady for a tenant to fit out | SF | $180–$295 |
| 02.25 | Retail, complete to occupancyIncluding a standard fit-out | SF | $290–$470 |
| 02.30 | Automotive service facilityBays, lifts, drainage, compressed air | SF | $260–$420 |
| 02.35 | Dealership showroomTo a manufacturer image programme | SF | $380–$640 |
| 02.40 | Aviation hangarClear span, hangar door, limited heat | SF | $190–$340 |
| 02.45 | Hangar door assemblySupplied and installed, per door | EA | $95,000–$480,000 |
| 02.50 | Office or clinic, completeFinished to occupancy, mid specification | SF | $330–$520 |
| 02.60 | Site work, parking and landscapePer square foot of site area, self-performed | SF | $14–$42 |
| 02.90 | Foundation on expansive soilsEngineered system per the geotechnical report | LS | site visit |
Units are SF square foot of gross building area unless stated, LF linear foot, CY cubic yard, SY square yard, SQ roofing square (100 SF), EA each, LS lump sum, PCT a percentage of construction cost. Division references are for this document only and are not CSI MasterFormat numbers.
Figures are USD planning ranges for commercial construction in the Pikes Peak region. They exclude land, design fees where separately engaged, permit and tap fees, furnishings, equipment and any applicable tax, and they assume normal site conditions, normal soils and a buildable season. They are published so an owner can size a project before there is a drawing to price. They are planning ranges, not a bid. Reviewed October 2026. A price for your project comes from a proposal against a defined scope. See the disclaimer.
02.2Questions
Questions about this division
Specific to this kind of work. The general ones — contracts, pay applications, retainage, change orders, insurance, bonding — are on the FAQ page.
Why does a smaller building cost more per square foot?
Because a lot of a building does not scale with its floor area. One electrical service, one fire riser, one entrance, one set of restrooms, one site connection — those cost roughly the same at 6,000 square feet as at 30,000, and dividing them by a smaller number makes the rate look worse. It is not inefficiency, it is arithmetic, and it is why a published per-foot range is for sizing rather than for budgeting.
How long does a new commercial building take here?
Twelve to twenty-six months from first engagement to certificate of occupancy for a project of ordinary size, of which construction is usually eight to fourteen. The variables are entitlement if the site is not ready, the plan review queue, long-lead equipment, and the earthwork season — which in this region is shorter than the calendar suggests, and missing it costs a winter rather than a month.
What is the longest lead item?
Usually the electrical service or the switchgear, and on a hangar the door. Both have run far past their historical lead times in recent years and both can exceed the construction duration. The practical consequence is that those decisions get made during design, not after permit, and a design-build arrangement is genuinely better at that because the person who orders it is in the design conversation.
Can you build a shell now and finish it later?
Yes, and it is frequently the right financial structure — put up the shell, get a tenant or a decision, then fit out. What to watch is that a shell permit and a fit-out permit are separate reviews, and that a shell built without knowing the eventual use sometimes has to be opened back up for structure or services. We will tell you which parts are worth over-providing now and which are not.
00The rest
The other four divisions
Design-Build
The architect and the superintendent work for the same company. A detail that will not build gets caught at the drawing board by the person who would have had to install it.
- You receive
- Permit set, schedule of values, closeout package, as-builts, O&M manuals
Fitting out a shell or an existing space against a lease date that has already been signed. The work letter usually matters more than anything in the drawings.
- You receive
- Permit set, landlord sign-offs, certificate of occupancy, closeout package
Expanding or rebuilding a facility that has to keep operating. The phasing plan is the project; the construction is the easy half.
- You receive
- Permit set, phasing plan, schedule of values, closeout package
Earthwork, grading, utilities, paving and drainage, performed by our own crews with our own equipment and our own trucking — which is why the schedule holds.
- You receive
- Compaction and materials test records, as-built survey, utility sign-offs
Describe the building you need
What it is for, roughly how big, where it would go, and when you need to be in it. On a first call we can usually give you a realistic per-square-foot range, a realistic end date, and an honest answer about whether a firm this size is the right one for it.
T-Bone Construction, Inc. · 1310 Ford St, Colorado Springs, CO 80915