On a commercial fit-out the schedule is set by permits and inspections, not by how fast a crew can build. So the useful question when you are choosing a contractor is whether they know which permit path your space is on — and for office tenants in Vancouver there is a published test you can apply to your own building in about a minute.
Every claim about City of Vancouver process below is quoted from the City’s own pages, linked at the end. Where we could not verify something, it is not here. No figure quoted is our price; our price for your space comes as an itemised written quote after a site visit.
What does a commercial renovation contractor actually handle?
On a commercial job the general contractor is the single point of accountability between you, every trade, every inspector and your opening date. In practice:
- Pre-construction. Reading your lease scope against what the space physically allows, and flagging what will trigger a permit before anything is drawn.
- Drawings and submission. Coordinating the architectural, mechanical and electrical drawings the City requires and assembling a complete application package. Vancouver does not hold incomplete applications — they are returned with a request to resubmit with all required items.
- Permits, in the City’s order. Which is not always the obvious order. See below.
- Construction. Demolition, framing, fire separations, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, ceilings, flooring, millwork and finishes, sequenced so inspections land when the work is ready for them.
- Inspections through to occupancy. Including the final inspection, which the City requires before occupancy is allowed.
What a commercial contractor does not handle is everything in a move-in budget that is not physical construction: your furniture and fittings, IT and cabling, signage approvals, moving costs, and your landlord’s own base-building work. Cushman & Wakefield’s fit-out benchmarks are explicitly limited to physical construction and exclude soft costs, cabling and FF&E. Check what any per-square-foot figure includes before you budget against it.
Does my project need a development permit, or just a building permit?
The Tenant Improvement Program (TIPs) is the City’s dedicated stream for office tenants in eligible commercial buildings to get a building permit for minor interior renovations faster. In the City’s words: “If eligible for the program, you will: Not need a new development permit; Have an expedited field review.”
Note the condition. Eligibility has two halves — the building has to be on the list, and your project has to fall outside the ineligible list. Both have to be true.
The building half has a clean test. Any commercial office building constructed with a building permit applied for after 31 January 2007, under the 2007 Vancouver Building By-law or newer, is automatically included on the TIPs list. The City also publishes the list itself, including buildings completed and buildings still under construction.
| TIPs stream | Standard building permit | |
|---|---|---|
| Who it is for | Office tenants, minor interior renovation, in an eligible building | Everyone else, and any scope TIPs excludes |
| Building test | Building permit applied for after 31 January 2007 | Older buildings, or scope outside minor interior work |
| Development permit | Not required, where the project is eligible | May be required, depending on zoning |
| Field review | Expedited | Standard |
| Initial review target | 5 to 10 business days, in order received | Varies by scope |
What takes a project out of TIPs
The City’s ineligible list includes assembly occupancies that increase occupant load, impact exiting, or include work to kitchens and/or bathrooms; changes in major occupancy; balcony enclosures; added floor area including mezzanines; most major renovations; most exterior alterations; and projects involving interconnecting floors, upgrading existing systems, fire alarms, sprinkler systems or seismic upgrading.
Read that sprinkler line carefully, because it is easy to misread. The exclusion is about upgrading a system, not about touching one at all. The City positively provides for sprinkler work inside TIPs: a sprinkler coverage inspection forms part of your building permit inspection, and where you need to move or add up to 20 heads, a sprinkler contractor can apply for a sprinkler permit through their own online account. What the City does not say is that moving a head removes your eligibility. What it also does not do is spell the boundary out, so a City reviewer makes the eligibility call on your specific scope — confirm it before you plan a schedule around it. Kitchen and washroom work in an assembly occupancy is the exclusion that catches more fit-outs than people expect.
What order do the permits have to happen in?
Mostly the building permit comes first and the trade permits follow. There is one exception, and it sits on the trade most likely to be on your critical path.
- Fire sprinkler can come first. The City’s own note: “Depending on the complexity of your project, you may be required to apply for a fire sprinkler permit before you can have a building permit issued to you.” Establish this at the start. Assuming the sprinkler application simply waits its turn is how a fit-out quietly loses weeks.
- Building permit. On the TIPs stream the City books a field review inspection before the permit is issued, and states the building inspector issues the permit within one to two business days after that inspection is passed.
- The other trade permits. Plumbing, electrical and gas each carry their own. Where a sprinkler permit is required, the City advises applying for it as soon as your TIPs building permit is issued.
- Apply for the occupancy permit — during construction, not after it. The City’s condition is that you apply after the permits authorising the work have been issued, and at least three weeks before the date you plan to occupy. That puts the application in the middle of your build, not at the end.
- Final inspection. Required before occupancy is allowed. This is the last step, after the occupancy application is already in.
That three-week window is the date most tenants miss. It counts backwards from your move-in date, not forwards from your last inspection, so it has to be booked while construction is still running.
One more date for the calendar: a permit has a start window. A TIPs building permit not acted on within six months of the date it was issued becomes void.
What does an occupancy permit cost?
An occupancy permit must be issued before you occupy space in any commercial or multi-unit residential building. The City lists this as covering any new space created, major renovations, and a change to the proposed use.
Where the permit is required under the by-law, the City charges no additional fee. The published $314 fee runs the other way: it applies where a permit is not required by by-law and an owner wants one anyway. So on a normal commercial fit-out the occupancy permit costs you lead time rather than money, which is why the three-week rule matters more than the fee.
What does a commercial renovation cost per square foot in Metro Vancouver?
The institutional benchmark is Cushman & Wakefield’s 2026 Office Fit-Out Cost Guide, which puts a Vancouver office fit-out at $199.12 per square foot in hard construction costs — second of the four Canadian markets it surveys, behind Toronto at $204.45 and ahead of Montreal at $190.28 and Calgary at $181.10. We break that figure down, including what it excludes, in our guide to office renovation cost in Vancouver.
You will find a much wider spread of numbers on contractor pages across the region. Treat those carefully: they rarely state whether soft costs are included, or what scope the figure assumes.
The honest position is that per square foot is the wrong unit until the scope is defined. Two suites of the same size on the same floor can land a long way apart depending on whether the sprinkler layout changes, whether the existing mechanical can be reused, and what condition the landlord hands the space over in. Establishing those three things is what a site visit is for, and it is why we quote itemised rather than by the foot.
Where commercial projects actually lose time
- An incomplete application. Vancouver returns incomplete packages with a request to resubmit, and processes applications in the order they are received.
- Assuming the sprinkler permit waits for the building permit. Sometimes it is the other way round.
- Leaving occupancy to the end. The three-week minimum counts backwards from your move-in date.
- Finding kitchen or washroom scope late in an assembly occupancy, which can move you off the TIPs path.
- Strata buildings. A strata council letter may be required where the building is strata titled. Start that early; it is not in your control.
Who you are hiring
Naybur Contracting is a design-build general contractor working across Greater Vancouver — Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey, Richmond, Coquitlam, North and West Vancouver, Delta and Langley — building here since 2021. Commercial fit-outs sit alongside our residential work, and the commercial renovation service page sets out how we run them.
Before hiring anyone for commercial work, two things are worth doing regardless of who you choose: check they are licensed and insured, and know what to ask a general contractor before you sign. Both are short reads, and both apply whether or not you call us.
Does this apply outside the City of Vancouver?
The permit specifics above are the City of Vancouver’s. Every municipality in the region runs its own process with its own forms, fees and review times. The sequence logic is broadly similar; the thresholds and paperwork are not. We confirm the rule for your municipality before we quote a schedule.
Find out which permit path your space is on
A site visit establishes your building’s eligibility, what your scope actually triggers, and a realistic schedule — before you commit to a move-in date.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a permit for a commercial renovation in Vancouver?
Yes. The City lists tenant improvements for a commercial space among the work needing a building permit, and says most construction may also require separate trades permits — plumbing, electrical, gas and fire sprinkler each have their own. Whether you also need a development permit depends on your building and your scope — eligible office tenants under the Tenant Improvement Program do not.
How do I know if my building is on the TIPs list?
Any commercial office building constructed with a building permit applied for after 31 January 2007 is automatically on the list, and the City publishes the list itself. The building being listed is only half of it; your project also has to fall outside the ineligible list.
How long does a commercial permit take in Vancouver?
The City aims to complete an initial review of a TIPs application and contact you within five to ten business days, and processes applications in the order received. That is the initial review, not the issued permit.
When do I apply for the occupancy permit?
After the permits authorising the work have been issued, and at least three weeks before the date you plan to occupy the space.
Does sprinkler work take my project out of TIPs?
Not necessarily. The exclusion is written around upgrading existing systems, and the City provides for sprinkler permits inside the programme — a sprinkler contractor can apply where up to 20 heads are moved or added, and a coverage inspection forms part of the building permit inspection. The City does not publish a precise boundary, so a reviewer makes the call on your scope. Confirm it rather than assume it.
Sources
Every quotation and figure above comes from the source named. City of Vancouver pages were read directly on 22 October 2026.
- City of Vancouver — Tenant Improvement Program (TIPs). Eligibility and the 31 January 2007 test; no new development permit and expedited field review where eligible; the ineligible list; the fire sprinkler note on applying before the building permit; the 20-head sprinkler provision; the five to ten business day initial review; applications processed in order received and incomplete ones returned; the permit issued within one to two business days after a passed inspection; final inspection before occupancy; the six-month void window.
- City of Vancouver — Get an occupancy permit. Required before occupying commercial or multi-unit residential space, covering new space, major renovations and a change of use; apply after the work permits are issued and at least three weeks before occupying; the $314 fee applying only where a permit is not required by by-law, with no additional fee where it is required.
- City of Vancouver — Commercial Building Renovation checklist (DOC/2022/227241, updated March 2026). Application package contents, including the strata council letter where the building is strata titled.
- City of Vancouver — When you need a permit, which lists renovating or tenant improvements for a new or existing commercial space among the work that needs one.
- Cushman & Wakefield — Office Fit-Out Cost Guide 2026 (Canada). Hard construction cost per square foot in Canadian dollars: Toronto $204.45, Vancouver $199.12, Montreal $190.28, Calgary $181.10. Benchmarks limited to physical construction, excluding soft costs, cabling and FF&E.
