The tenant improvement process, from lease to occupancy

CCT 01Before signing: the lease and the work letter

The work letter is the part of the lease that divides the construction between landlord and tenant. The landlord’s work is usually described as base building. The tenant’s work is everything the tenant designs and pays for inside the premises. The line between them is negotiable until the lease is signed, and fixed afterwards.

Electrical questions to settle in writing before signing:

On metering: any submeter or apportionment meter used to set a charge for electricity is a revenue meter. ¹ It must be of an approved type and be verified and sealed before being put into service. ¹ A tenant should know which arrangement it is signing up for.

How much a landlord contributes toward the fit-out is a leasing question, not an electrical one. What the electrical share of the budget depends on is covered in the electrical cost per square foot guide.

CCT 02Planning approval comes first

For changes to commercial or industrial space, the appropriate planning approval must be in place before the City issues the building permit. A building permit application without it is put on hold. ²

If the tenant’s use is already allowed for the space, the existing approval may be enough. If the use changes, for example a retail bay becoming a restaurant, a change-of-use development permit is needed. The City lists a permitted change of use at $190 and about 5 business days, and a discretionary change of use, or one needing a relaxation, at $624 and 10 to 12 weeks. ² Those are the City’s published figures for the development permit only. Confirm them for the specific use and site.

Electrically, a change of use is when capacity questions get serious. A restaurant fit-out brings cooking equipment, hood interlocks and make-up air. A retail bay may only need lighting and receptacles. An office fit-out sits in between. Knowing the use early is what lets the designer confirm the power before the building permit drawings are finished.

CCT 03The building permit and the 21-day figure

The City says a building permit for a minor tenant improvement may be issued within 21 calendar days, provided code requirements are met and the application includes all the necessary documents. For larger projects, the figure is 56 days. ³ For interior renovations generally, the City describes a typical range of 21 to 49 days, depending on complexity and completeness. ²

Read those numbers carefully:

• “Minor tenant improvement” is a description of the application, not a separate permit type. It is still a building permit.
• 21 days is the most the City says it may take for a complete minor application, not a promised turnaround. An incomplete application does not start that clock in any useful sense.
• It is the building permit only. It says nothing about the electrical trade permit, the ENMAX work or equipment delivery.

Whether the drawings need an architect or engineer depends on the building, not the fit-out. For business, mercantile and industrial buildings of 3 storeys or less, the exemption from professional involvement covers up to 500 m² (about 5,380 ft²) for a 1-storey building. Larger buildings need authenticated drawings. ⁴ The engineer versus contractor guide explains how that plays out. Additional plans review is charged at $119 an hour. ⁵ Once issued, a building permit expires in 180 days. ²

CCT 04The tenant’s electrical permit is separate

Calgary requires separate electrical permits for base-building work and for tenant spaces. ⁶ Each trade, including electrical, plumbing, gas and HVAC, needs its own trade permit, applied for by that trade contractor. ² Only master electricians can obtain electrical permits in Alberta, so the electrical contractor applies, not the general contractor or the tenant. ⁷

The fee scales with the job. A contractor electrical permit carries a $112 processing fee ⁵ plus $9.79 per $1,000 of construction value ⁵, and the Safety Codes Council adds 4% of the permit fee. ⁵ Starting work before the permit is issued doubles the permit fee. ⁵ A trade permit expires 330 days from issuance, so a stalled project can outlive its permit. ⁸

Two situations add requirements. If the fit-out needs a service upgrade of 600 A or more, Calgary requires plans and drawings. ⁶ If the fire alarm is altered, both a building permit and an electrical permit are required. ⁶ The commercial electrical permits guide covers both in detail.

CCT 05A timeline without invented durations

Nobody can give an honest fixed duration for a fit-out before the drawings exist. What can be laid out is the order of the gates and the few times the City or ENMAX actually publish. Everything else is a lead time to be quoted by a supplier or agreed with the landlord.

The critical path on many fit-outs is not a permit at all. It is a panel, a transformer or a piece of kitchen equipment with a long delivery. Ask for quoted lead times in writing at tender, as the bid comparison guide suggests.

CCT 06Building inside an occupied property

Most fit-outs happen next to tenants who are open for business. That shapes the electrical work more than the drawings do.

• Shutdowns. Tying a new tenant panel into a building distribution may need a partial outage. Agree the window, the notice to other tenants and who carries the after-hours cost.
• Utility work. If ENMAX is involved, work the customer requires outside 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on weekdays costs $352 an hour. ¹⁰ Night and weekend shutdowns are common in occupied buildings, so name who pays.
• City inspections outside business hours. A weekend or statutory holiday inspection costs $189 an hour, with a $756 minimum. ⁵
• Fire alarm impairments. Adding devices to a live base-building system needs coordination with the landlord’s fire alarm provider and monitoring, and the altered system must be verified before handover.

If the building’s service is near its limit, the service capacity calculator shows how recorded peak demand and new loads compare, and the ENMAX connection guide explains what happens when the building needs more.

CCT 07Inspections, occupancy and the landlord’s closeout

The occupancy permit is the City’s final approval that the space is safe to occupy. After all the required inspections are completed and signed off, the contractor books the occupancy or final inspection through 311, and a new business gets its business licence afterwards. ³ A failed inspection costs time and money: a City re-inspection is $327. ⁵

The landlord will usually want its own closeout package before releasing any contribution. For the electrical scope, that typically means:

• the electrical permit number and the final inspection result
• updated panel schedules and as-built drawings
• the fire alarm verification for any altered devices, to the standard the building code requires
• test and start-up records for lighting controls and major equipment
• confirmation that any submeter is approved, verified and sealed if it will be used for billing

Keep the tenant’s electrical records separate from the base-building records but cross-referenced. The next tenant, or the next renovation, will start from them.