Guides / Commercial and industrial
Commercial steel building cost per square foot
Cost per square foot is a useful number and a dangerous one. It is useful for setting a budget. It is dangerous when two people use it to mean two different scopes, which is most of the time.
Last updated: September 2026
Shell pricing by size
A dried-in commercial shell runs $52 - $68 per square foot in the smallest band and $27 - $36 per square foot at 20,000 square feet and up. Every number here includes the engineered slab, the frame, roof and wall panels, doors, erection, permits and basic site grading.
| Building size | Per SF |
|---|---|
| 1,500 - 2,999 SF | $52 - $68 |
| 3,000 - 4,999 SF | $46 - $58 |
| 5,000 - 9,999 SF | $38 - $50 |
| 10,000 - 19,999 SF | $32 - $42 |
| 20,000 SF and up | $27 - $36 |
Turnkey pricing by size and use
Turnkey for warehouse and light industrial use runs $98 - $125 per square foot small and $60 - $78 per square foot large. Retail, office and flex, which carry more finish and more mechanical, run $125 - $165 per square foot small and $78 - $102 per square foot large.
Use type moves this number more than size does. A 10,000 square foot warehouse and a 10,000 square foot finished retail center have the same frame and nothing else in common.
| Building size | Warehouse, light industrial | Retail, office, flex |
|---|---|---|
| 1,500 - 2,999 SF | $98 - $125 | $125 - $165 |
| 3,000 - 4,999 SF | $88 - $112 | $112 - $148 |
| 5,000 - 9,999 SF | $78 - $100 | $100 - $132 |
| 10,000 - 19,999 SF | $68 - $88 | $88 - $118 |
| 20,000 SF and up | $60 - $78 | $78 - $102 |
Worked examples
5,000 square foot flex building
Shell at $38 - $50 per square foot is $190K to $250K. Turnkey with a finished front office and open warehouse behind it, at $100 - $132 per square foot, is $500K to $660K.
15,000 square foot warehouse
Shell at $32 - $42 per square foot is $480K to $630K. Turnkey for warehouse use at $68 - $88 per square foot is $1.02M to $1.32M.
25,000 square foot distribution building
Shell at $27 - $36 per square foot is $675K to $900K. That is the cheapest per foot number on this page and it is why developers build big when the site and the demand support it.
What moves the number inside a band
Clear span
Steel weight climbs with span. A 40 foot span frame is light. A 120 foot span frame carrying the same roof is a different structure with a lot more steel in it. If the operation can accept an interior column line, take the savings. If it cannot, do not pretend it can.
Eave height
Height adds column steel, wall panel, insulation area and lift time. It also decides your racking. A 32 foot eave for a racked distribution building is money well spent. The same eave over a service shop is money on the ceiling.
Doors, docks and glass
Overhead doors need framing. Dock doors need pits, levelers, seals and a concrete apron rated for a loaded trailer. Storefront glass costs several times what wall panel costs per foot. Count these before you compare quotes, because they are where two numbers separate.
Slab loading
A five inch slab under light retail and a seven or eight inch slab under loaded forklifts are different pours with different reinforcement. If you tell a contractor the use, you get a slab designed for it. If you do not, you get the cheapest slab that passes, and you find out later.
Fire protection
Sprinklers get triggered by occupancy, area and what you store. If your building crosses a threshold, that is a system, a riser room, a service and sometimes a tank and pump if the water supply cannot carry it. It is not a line item you can value engineer away.
Site and soil
Blackland clay through Rockwall, Kaufman, Hunt and Ellis counties needs deeper beams and more steel than the sandier soils east of Canton. Detention, drainage and fire lane paving are civil scope that can rival the building on a tight infill site.
The building types this pricing covers
- Warehouses and distribution, high eave and dock served.
- Retail strip centers with storefront glass and separate tenant utilities.
- Multi-tenant commercial with demising walls and individual entrances.
- Industrial shops with heavy floors, tall doors and three-phase power.
- Flex buildings, front office with open warehouse behind.
- Agricultural buildings, hay barns, equipment storage, livestock and processing.
Why online metal building prices look so much lower
Because they are pricing a different product. A kit price is steel on a truck. It has no foundation, no erection labor, no permits, no grading, no doors installed and no inspections. By the time you add all of that yourself you are at a general contractor number, except you are the one carrying the coordination risk.
That trade can make sense if you have crews and a project manager. If you do not, buying a kit to save money is buying a second job.
What is never in a per square foot number
Not included in any number we quote. On rural East Texas land these routinely add $30,000 to $100,000 or more before we pour anything.
- Land
- Well or water tap
- Septic system or sewer tap
- Utility extension to the site
- Driveway and culvert
- Land clearing beyond one acre
- Rock excavation
- Retaining walls
- Detention and drainage improvements
- Impact and development fees
- Furniture, fixtures and equipment
Schedule, and what it costs you
Steel erection is two to four weeks once the frame is on site. That is the part that looks fast in a time lapse. The parts around it are not fast. Engineering and permitting run one to three months. Building package lead time from order to delivery runs another two to four. Interior finish runs three to five on a turnkey job.
Six to ten months from signed contract to occupancy is a normal commercial timeline in our area. If you are carrying a lease while you build, that carrying cost is a real line item and it belongs in your budget next to the building.
The fastest way to lose two months is an incomplete permit submittal. The second fastest is changing the building after the steel is ordered. A pre-engineered frame is fabricated to your drawings, so a change after release is not a revision, it is new steel.
How we contract
Lump sum against a written scope. One number, one document you can read, draws tied to milestones. Not cost-plus, and not a pile of allowances that turn into change orders once the frame is up and you have no leverage left.
A cheaper quote with a thinner scope is not a cheaper building. It is the same building with the difference deferred until you have already signed.
Questions
- How much does a commercial steel building cost per square foot?
- A dried-in shell runs $27 - $36 per square foot at 20,000 square feet and up, and $52 - $68 per square foot in the smallest band. Turnkey runs $60 - $78 to $125 - $165 per square foot depending on size and use. All of it includes the engineered foundation.
- What is the difference between shell and turnkey pricing?
- A shell is slab, frame, roof and wall panels, doors and windows. It is dried in and empty. Turnkey adds insulation, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, interior framing, drywall, finishes and restrooms, and it is ready for a certificate of occupancy.
- Does the price include the concrete slab?
- Yes, on every number we publish. Foundation on its own runs $8 - $22 per square foot depending on loading, so a quote that leaves it out is not comparable to one that includes it.
- How much does a 10,000 square foot steel building cost?
- Shell at $32 - $42 per square foot is $320K to $420K. Turnkey for warehouse use at $68 - $88 per square foot is $680K to $880K.
- What clear span can a steel building reach?
- Rigid frame clear spans run to about 150 feet with no interior columns. Past that you are into specialized framing and the cost per foot climbs quickly.
- What is the smallest commercial building you will build?
- 1,500 square feet of finished commercial space. Below that a kit supplier will beat us on price and you should let them.
Keep reading
Metal building cost in Texas
What a metal building actually costs in Texas in 2026, by size and by scope, with the site costs nobody puts in the brochure number.
Shell versus turnkey
What a dried-in shell includes, what turnkey adds, what the gap costs, and how to tell which one is right for your project before you sign anything.
Clear span, explained
What clear span means in a steel building, how far it can go, what it costs, and when a column line is the smarter answer than a wider frame.
Get a number
Reading is cheaper than guessing
Tell us what you are building and we will price it against a written scope. Or call 469-721-0196.