Hard cost benchmark
Starts with commercial construction cost per square foot ranges by building type and Ontario region, then adjusts for project-specific drivers such as floor count, site conditions, and specialty systems.
Use this free planning tool to estimate commercial construction cost per square foot in Ontario, including hard costs, soft costs, development charges, HST context, contingency, and early risk allowances.
The calculator is designed for owners, developers, and project sponsors who need a preliminary construction budget before they have a schematic design package or quantity surveyor takeoff.
It returns a range rather than a single number because early Ontario commercial construction budgets depend on building type, floor area, location, municipal charges, site servicing, building systems, schedule pressure, and regulatory triggers.
Starts with commercial construction cost per square foot ranges by building type and Ontario region, then adjusts for project-specific drivers such as floor count, site conditions, and specialty systems.
Adds planning, due diligence, design, permit, project management, legal, insurance, FF&E, contingency, and tax exposure where relevant to a Class D budget.
Includes planning-level development charge context for Ontario municipalities. Final DCs and permit fees must be confirmed against current municipal schedules.
Class D estimates are for early feasibility planning only. They are not a quote, tender value, guaranteed maximum price, lender-ready budget, or professional engineering opinion.
Commercial construction cost is typically built from gross floor area, building type, regional cost per square foot, site conditions, hard costs, soft costs, permit fees, development charges, HST treatment, contingency, and project-specific risk allowances.
A Class D estimate is an early conceptual estimate used when the project is still at feasibility or pre-design stage. It is useful for screening decisions, but it should be read as a range, commonly around plus or minus 20 to 30 percent.
The calculator includes development charge context where project type and municipal inputs support a planning-level estimate. Actual development charges and permit fees must be confirmed against the current municipal by-law before a budget is finalized.
No. This calculator is a feasibility and budgeting tool. It is not a quotation, tender, guaranteed maximum price, financing basis, or professional engineering opinion.
The tool is built for Ontario commercial and industrial projects such as warehouses, light industrial facilities, office tenant improvements, retail spaces, restaurants, QSRs, cold storage, institutional buildings, hospitality projects, and healthcare-related facilities.
Copyright 2026 ProWise Construction. All calculator content, page copy, interface design, methodology, formulas, cost logic, data structure, and generated report format are proprietary to ProWise Construction and are protected by applicable copyright and intellectual property laws.
You may use the calculator results for internal feasibility review and project budgeting discussions for the project information you enter. Reproduction, resale, public redistribution, scraping, reverse engineering, automated extraction, embedding, or republishing of the calculator, its methodology, or generated report format is not permitted without prior written authorization from ProWise Construction.
After you run the calculator, send the project basics to ProWise for a tighter scope review, especially if the result includes regulatory, site servicing, or engineering risk flags.
Request a scope review