Tenant Improvement Cost per Square Foot by Use: Office, Medical, Retail and Food Service

What a build-out costs

What does a tenant improvement cost per square foot?

A tenant improvement typically costs $60–300 per sq ft in Texas, depending mostly on the use and the starting condition of the space. A tenant improvement, or TI, is the interior construction that turns a leased space into one that fits a specific business: walls, ceilings, lighting, plumbing, air distribution and finishes. The low end is a simple office refresh in a space that already has a ceiling and lights. The high end is a medical, dental or food service space built from bare concrete. Restaurants from an empty shell can go higher still. These are 2026 planning ranges for construction only. Pricing moves with materials, labour and how busy contractors are, so test any figure against a priced plan.

Why does TI cost vary so much between an office and a medical suite?

A medical suite costs more because it packs far more walls, plumbing, power and air into the same floor area. An office is mostly open floor with a few private rooms and 1 break area sink. A clinic of the same size typically has 4 or more exam rooms, each with a sink, plus a lab, a nurse station and a corridor to reach them. Every sink needs water, drain and vent lines, which often means cutting the concrete floor. Exam rooms also need more outlets, lighting and air supply per room. Same area, far more work.

Cost by type of space

What does a basic office buildout cost per square foot?

A basic office build-out typically costs $60–150 per sq ft from an empty shell, and $25–60 per sq ft to refresh an existing layout with paint, carpet and a few new walls. The spread inside each range comes from the number of private offices versus open seating, the ceiling and lighting quality, glass walls, the kitchen or break area, and how much the air system must change. Allowances are usually negotiated against these numbers, which we explain in how a tenant improvement allowance works. On most office projects, a priced test fit before the lease is signed is the cheapest way to find your real number.

What does a medical office buildout cost per square foot?

A medical office build-out typically costs $150–275 per sq ft from an empty shell and about $80–160 per sq ft when remodelling a space that was already a clinic. The second range is not a guess. Texas registers every project of $50,000 or more for a state accessibility review, and the public TDLR project registry lists each one's estimated cost and size. A sample of 10 Houston-area medical suite renovations registered in 2026 ranged from about $80 to $161 per sq ft, with a middle value near $120. Those are owners' estimates filed before construction, mostly in existing clinic space. Our article on why medical build-outs cost more explains the drivers in detail.

What does a dental office buildout cost per square foot?

A dental office build-out typically costs $175–300 per sq ft from an empty shell and about $120–200 per sq ft in a warm shell, before chairs and imaging equipment. Dental is the most expensive medical-type use per square foot because every treatment room needs compressed air, suction and water lines run to the chair, usually through trenches cut in the slab, plus an equipment room to feed them. X-ray rooms add shielding. Equipment is bought separately and often matches or exceeds the construction cost. The full breakdown is in what a Texas dental build-out costs.

What does a retail buildout cost per square foot?

A retail build-out typically costs $60–150 per sq ft from an empty shell, with the low end covering a simple shop and the high end a store with fitting rooms, a large restroom group and custom finishes. The landlord's work letter matters more in retail than anywhere else, because it decides whether the storefront, the restroom and the air conditioning unit are already there or yours to add. Display fixtures and shelving are usually bought by the tenant and sit outside the construction figure.

What does a food service buildout cost per square foot?

A food service build-out typically costs $250–450 per sq ft from an empty shell, $120–230 per sq ft when an existing kitchen is reworked, and $60–130 per sq ft for a light refresh that reuses most of the kitchen. Kitchens cost the most because they need a grease interceptor, a hood with fire suppression, makeup air, a gas line, floor drains and heavy electrical service. Reusing an old kitchen is not automatically cheap: worn equipment and outdated hoods often fail current code. We cover the traps in taking over a former restaurant space.

Reading a cost per square foot

What is included and excluded from a published cost-per-square-foot number?

A published cost per square foot usually includes construction only: walls, ceilings, floors, doors, plumbing, power, lighting, air distribution and the contractor's overhead and fee. It usually excludes design and engineering, permits, furniture, data cabling, security, equipment and moving. Cushman & Wakefield's 2026 office fit-out cost guide, for example, states that its figures cover physical construction and leave out soft costs, cabling and furniture. Its 42 US cities ranged from about $108 to $219 per sq ft for a standard office fit-out. Ask what is in any number before you compare it with your budget.

What are soft costs on a tenant improvement, and roughly what share are they?

Soft costs are everything you pay for that is not physical construction, and they commonly add 15–25% on top of the construction cost. They include architecture and engineering, which on our projects come from one team, plus city permit fees, the state accessibility review and inspection, testing, and project management. Smaller suites sit at the high end of that range because design and permitting do not shrink in proportion to the floor area. A Texas project of $50,000 or more must also be registered with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation for that review.

How much contingency should a buildout budget carry?

A build-out budget should carry about 10% contingency on a clean shell with complete drawings, and 15–20% in an older or previously built-out space. Contingency is money held back for what nobody can see until the ceiling is open: undersized air units, old wiring, slab problems or work the city adds during review. Federal accessibility rules add 1 known risk. When you alter a main working area, the ADA path-of-travel rule can require spending up to 20% of that alteration's cost on accessible routes, restrooms and drinking fountains serving it.

What the space already has

The single biggest swing inside any range is what the space already has. A cold dark shell is bare concrete with no ceiling, little power and often no air conditioning. A warm shell, sometimes called a vanilla shell, already has a basic ceiling, lights, air and a restroom. A second-generation space is a former tenant's finished suite. Each step along that line usually lowers the cost, unless the old layout fights yours and has to be torn out.

Houston, Austin and San Antonio

How do Houston, Austin and San Antonio buildout costs compare?

No public dataset compares build-out costs between Houston, Austin and San Antonio on equal terms, so the honest answer is that the use and the starting condition move the price far more than the city does. Local differences come from contractor workload, labour supply and how long permits take, since every month of review is a month of rent before opening. Get 3 bids from contractors who work in that city, and price the plan, not the square footage.

Greater Houston

In the City of Houston, most interior build-outs need a commercial buildout permit from the Houston Permitting Center, with plan review by trade. Suburban cities and unincorporated county areas each run their own permits and fire marshal review, so check who has jurisdiction before you schedule. The state accessibility registration at $50,000 applies everywhere in Texas.

Austin

Austin routes most commercial build-outs through its commercial plan review process. Review can take several rounds of comments, so it pays to budget the time as carefully as the money. Older buildings near downtown also tend to reveal more surprises once ceilings are opened, which argues for the higher end of the contingency range.

San Antonio

San Antonio's Development Services Department handles commercial permits and the certificate of occupancy, the city's approval to use the space. Its process could not be fully verified for this page, so confirm current review times and requirements with the department before you commit to an opening date. As elsewhere in Texas, the starting condition of the suite will move the cost more than the city's location.

Price your space before you sign

The most expensive build-out is the one priced after the lease is signed. If you are weighing a space for a clinic, a store, an office or a restaurant, we can draw a test fit and attach a cost range to it, with architecture and engineering from one team, so you negotiate the allowance against a real number. See how we work in medical spaces, or contact us with the address and the size of the suite.