Commercial reference

Commercial: tenant improvements, ground-up retail, office and industrial

On commercial work the occupancy classification drives review, fire protection and fees, and the review clock is set by your stated valuation rather than by whether you are fitting out a suite or building a shell.

Reference11 min readUpdated Aug 30, 2026

Commercial: tenant improvements, ground-up retail, office and industrial construction in the Las Vegas Valley — A steel-frame commercial shell going up on a valley corridor. Illustrative photo.

The short version

What sets the review clock: Valuation, not scope. $250,000 or more: 21 days. Under $250,000: 14 days. Zoning approved and under $100,000: 7 days. Phased: 42 days (Clark County Plan Review Timelines)
County transportation tax: $1.00 per square foot of the entire building area for commercial, industrial and other development on or after July 1, 2020 (CCC §4.22.025)
The tenant-improvement license: B-6 Commercial Remodeling — but it excludes structural members, mechanical systems, fire protection systems and life-safety systems (NAC 624.170)
Restaurants: Southern Nevada Health District approval is required for all restaurants before the County will review the tenant improvement (BPG-023)
Gateway to the fast tracks: Zoning approval. Without it a project cannot qualify for over-the-counter review in Clark County or expedited review in Henderson (BPG-023; Henderson)
Who may pull the permit in the City: "Only a Nevada licensed contractor may obtain a commercial building permit" (City of Las Vegas)

What each jurisdiction allows

The valley is five separate rulebooks. The address decides which one applies to you — not the mailing city on your envelope.

Jurisdiction	Allowed?	Key limits	Approval path	Source
Unincorporated Clark County	Nonresidential districts CN, CP, CG, CC, CU, IP, IL and IH. Multi-family is conditional in CG, CC, CU and CR; Accessory Living Quarters are prohibited in every commercial and industrial district (Title 30 §30.03.03).	Table 30.02-3 maximum lot coverage and height: CN 60% / 35 ft; CP 60% / 35 ft; CG 60% / 50 ft; CC 75% / 55 ft; CU coverage n.a. / 200 ft; IP 80% / 50 ft; IL 80% / 50 ft; IH 80% / 75 ft.	Commercial track keyed to valuation: 21 days at $250,000 or more, 14 days under $250,000, 7 days with zoning approved under $100,000, 42 days phased, 10 days for revisions and all subsequent reviews. Over-the-counter review requires zoning approval. Change of occupancy needs its own permit.	Title 30 · Plan Review Timelines · BPG-023 · Do I Need a Permit
City of Las Vegas	Occupancy-based fee categories for every IBC group, plus separate highrise categories. The exact commercial columns of the Table 2 use matrix are n.a. — the export did not parse reliably.	Not published here. City of Las Vegas commercial district dimensional standards were n.a. from the export parsed in our research; read them in the live UDC.	Electronic submittal required. Only a Nevada licensed contractor may obtain a commercial building permit. No published review turnaround; Civil Express at $300 application plus $54 administrative fee plus $500 minimum plan check, express meetings $600/hour. A year-round amnesty program exists for work performed without permits, at BuildingInfo@LasVegasNevada.gov or 702-229-6251.	City of Las Vegas UDC · Building & Offsite Permits · fee tables
Henderson	Commercial districts CN, CO, CC, CH, CT and CA, and industrial IL, IG and IP appear in the use table; multifamily is a special use in CN, CO, CC and CT (Development Code).	Not published here. Henderson numeric dimensional standards were not located in the sections parsed in our research.	Expedited review at 4x the normal plan review fee delivers 4 full working days, on initial and subsequent reviews, with working days counted Monday through Thursday — 50% due at submittal, the remainder at issuance and waived if the City misses the target. H-1 through H-5 hazardous occupancies are excluded.	Henderson Expedited Review · Fees Schedules · Development Code
North Las Vegas	n.a. — NLVMC Title 17 zoning text was not retrievable from a primary source.	n.a.	Turnaround times not published. Published service fees include fire review $100, revisions $80/hour, re-inspection $100, same-day inspection $100, weekend or holiday inspection $400 on a 4-hour minimum at $100/hour, code compliance research $100/hour, and temporary certificate of occupancy $200. Pre-construction meetings via (702) 633-1576. A wet-stamped release letter from the engineer or architect of record is required to release plan copies.	NLV Permit Application Center · NLV Building Safety

Occupancy classification is the first decision, and it drives everything after it

Before schedule, before fees, before licensing: what occupancy group is this space? The group drives review, fire protection and the fee table you land in. The City of Las Vegas fee schedule lists them the way a plans examiner thinks about them (City of Las Vegas Building & Safety fee tables):

A-1 theaters, TV and radio studios with an audience. A-2 casinos and banquet halls, nightclubs, bars and restaurants. A-3 halls, exhibition and recreation. A-4 arenas. A-5 amusement.
B offices and professional, medical and dental, office highrise.
E educational. F factory and industrial. H hazardous.
I-1 residential care. I-2 hospitals and 24-hour child care. I-3 detention. I-4 day care.
M mercantile.
R-1 hotels. R-2 apartments and condominiums. R-3 one- and two-family dwellings.
S-1 storage and repair garages. S-2 storage and parking garages. U utility and miscellaneous structures.

Two of those deserve a flag for anyone doing a restaurant or bar buildout: A-2 covers casinos, banquet halls, nightclubs, bars and restaurants, which puts a neighborhood taproom in the same occupancy family as a banquet hall. And a change of occupancy requires a permit in its own right (Do I Need a Permit) — converting a former retail suite into a restaurant is not just a tenant improvement.

Tenant improvement versus ground-up is a review track, not a code definition

People talk about "TI" and "ground-up" as if the code drew a line between them. It does not. In Clark County the commercial review goals key off valuation, at the $250,000 and $100,000 thresholds, not off scope (Clark County Plan Review Timelines). A large interior remodel can land on the 21-day track and a small shell can land on the 14-day track.

What a tenant improvement application has to state

Clark County requires the application to state the original building or shell permit number, the occupancy group, whether the building is sprinklered or non-sprinklered, the number of units, the occupant load and the valuation (BPG-023 Tenant Improvement Building Permit Guide). If you do not know the shell permit number, that is the first thing to go find.

The code analysis on the plans

A full code analysis has to appear on the drawings, covering construction type, occupancy classification, allowable area, allowable stories, occupant load, restroom fixture analysis, exit analysis, and whether uses are separated or non-separated under IBC 302.3.3 (same guide). An incomplete code analysis is one of the most common correction items on commercial plans, and it is entirely avoidable.

Also required at submittal, per BPG-023: zoning approval in order to qualify for over-the-counter review; Southern Nevada Health District approval for all restaurants; a Fire Department Survey form with the application; at least two sets of plans at a scale not less than 1/8 inch equals 1 foot on 24 by 36 inch sheets; a site plan showing the accessible route; structural calculations for any change to the shell; hazardous materials information; and IECC Chapter 5 commercial energy compliance including the hours of business operation plus panel schedules. Applicable codes are the IBC, UMC, UPC, IECC, NEC, ICC/ANSI A117 accessibility, the Clark County Fire Code and the Southern Nevada Amendments.

The two guides we rely on carry 2017 dates

BPG-023 and BPG-182 are the County’s own published guidance and they are the right documents for process and clearance sequence. But both carry 2017 document dates and reference pre-2024 code values, while Clark County adopted the 2024 International Codes and 2024 IECC effective January 11, 2026, with the 2023 NEC as the electrical code in force (Clark County Building Codes). Use the guides for sequence; verify every numeric code value against the 2024 adoption. The City of Las Vegas situation is messier — see the gaps note below.

Zoning: the envelope you are working inside

In unincorporated Clark County the nonresidential envelope comes from Table 30.02-3, and the range is wide (Title 30):

CN Neighborhood Commercial — 60% maximum lot coverage, 35 ft maximum height.
CP Professional Office — 60%, 35 ft.
CG General Commercial — 60%, 50 ft.
CC Corridor Mixed-Use — 75%, 55 ft.
CU Urban Mixed-Use — coverage n.a. in the table, 200 ft height.
IP Industrial Park — 80%, 50 ft. IL Light Industrial — 80%, 50 ft. IH Heavy Industrial — 80%, 75 ft.

Two use-table facts worth carrying: multi-family is conditional in CG, CC, CU and CR, and Accessory Living Quarters are prohibited in all commercial and industrial districts (Title 30 §30.03.03).

For the City of Las Vegas we are going to be straight with you: the commercial district dimensional standards and the exact commercial columns of the Table 2 use matrix were n.a. from the export parsed in our research. Read them in the live UDC rather than trusting a summary — including ours.

Permits, and the ones people forget

The core stack in Clark County: a building permit, referencing the shell permit for a tenant improvement, plus electrical, plumbing and mechanical sub-permits; fire permits under the Clark County Fire Code and IFC 105.1.1; sign permits on Form BPA-011; grading and offsite civil improvement permits for ground-up work; and a change-of-occupancy permit where the use changes (Do I Need a Permit; application forms; Title 30 §30.06.11E).

Ground-up commercial work pulls in the same grading gate that multifamily does: no clearing, rough grading or stockpiling before the grading permit issues, a Dust Control Permit where disturbance exceeds a quarter acre or trenching exceeds 100 feet, and the MSHCP land disturbance form completed before permit issuance (Title 30 §30.06.11E).

One statutory item that catches building subdivisions

Where a record of survey subdivides a building, NRS 278.325(4) requires "a Certificate of Building Code Compliance from a Nevada Licensed Architect," and Clark County lists it as a prerequisite to tenant improvement plan review (BPG-023). If your suite was created by a record of survey, budget time for that certificate.

How the review actually runs, jurisdiction by jurisdiction

Clark County. Initial review by discipline, then a plan correction letter, then resubmittal through the Citizen Access Portal, then a fee work-up once all disciplines show complete. Revisions to an issued permit go through the Hourly Plan Review Application, Form 1017, with delta and cloud markups and a 10-day goal. The plan examination counter runs 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Express plan review is available on Form 1007, revised 07.2026 (Plan Review Process; application forms). The County publishes both its goals and its historical performance against them (Plan Review Timelines; Statistics & Service Goals).

City of Las Vegas. Electronic submittal is required, and "only a Nevada licensed contractor may obtain a commercial building permit." There is no published review turnaround; the City sells access to speed instead, through Civil Express and Owner/Builder Express. It also runs a year-round amnesty program for work performed without permits, at BuildingInfo@LasVegasNevada.gov or 702-229-6251 (Building & Offsite Permits).

Henderson. Expedited review at four times the plan review fee delivers 4 full working days, excluding H-1 through H-5 occupancies — so a hazardous-materials tenant cannot buy speed at all (Henderson Expedited Review).

North Las Vegas. No published turnaround, but a clear published price list for the things that go wrong: fire review $100, revisions $80/hour, re-inspection $100, same-day inspection $100, weekend or holiday inspection $400 on a 4-hour minimum, code compliance research $100/hour, and a temporary certificate of occupancy at $200 (NLV Permit Application Center; NLV Building Safety).

Where the money actually goes on a commercial project

Two published fees dominate, and neither is the building permit.

First, the Clark County transportation privilege tax: $1.00 per square foot of the entire building area for all commercial, industrial and other development on or after July 1, 2020, with an exception for "rehabilitation or remodeling of commercial… where no additional square footage is added" (CCC §4.22.025; §4.22.030). That exception is the practical difference between a pure interior fit-out and a project that adds floor area.

Second, water. The SNWA regional connection charge on the non-residential schedule runs $7,998 at 5/8 to 3/4 inch, $15,780 at 1 inch, $31,476 at 1.5 inch, and then jumps to $105,517 at 2 inches, $390,640 at 3 inches and $579,804 at 4 inches, effective 3/1/2026, escalating each March 1 by 6.5% plus ENR-CCI through 2027; industrial laundries are assessed on higher schedules. The LVVWD facilities connection charge stacks on top by meter size — 2 inch $18,967, 4 inch $59,274, 6 inch $118,547, 8 inch $189,676, 12 inch $403,062 (LVVWD Service Rules, Appendix I). Above 2 inches this becomes one of the largest single line items on a commercial project, which is a good reason to have the meter sizing conversation early rather than at fee work-up.

Fireline and plan-review items on the water side are smaller but easy to miss: fireline application without domestic service $750, fireline inspection $550, water plan review with public hydrants $500 with revisions at $75, inspection for service over 2 inches or combined service $1,000, and public hydrant or temporary riser inspection $350 (same source).

On the sewer side, the CCWRD connection fee is $3,020 per ERU, with commercial ERU determination made under District rules rather than by a published formula on the page (CCWRD Services).

The license classification this work requires

Three classifications cover most commercial work, and the differences between them matter more here than anywhere else.

B General Building is the prime classification for ground-up commercial where the work involves more than two unrelated building trades or crafts, and there may be only one prime contractor per project (NRS 624.215) (NRS 624). B-2 Residential and Small Commercial is limited to structures not more than three stories above ground and one below (NAC 624.170) (NAC 624).

B-6 Commercial Remodeling, and what it cannot touch

B-6 covers "remodeling the interior of commercial buildings, including buildings which are more than three stories high, but does not include the alteration or repair of structural members, mechanical systems, fire protection systems or life-safety systems" (NAC 624.170) (NAC 624). That is the classification most tenant improvement work belongs in — and those four exclusions are exactly the scopes a real tenant improvement tends to include. Move a bearing element, touch the HVAC, modify sprinkler heads or alter the alarm and exit lighting, and B-6 does not cover it. That is why TI projects so often need additional licensed primes or specialty subs, and why a "licensed contractor" answer is not sufficient on its own.

B-4 Service Stations, B-5 Prefabricated Steel Structures and B-3 Speculative Building cover their named scopes (NSCB license classifications).

The specialties, which a general license never absorbs

A general building contractor "shall not perform specialty contracting in plumbing, electrical, refrigeration and air-conditioning or fire protection without a license for the specialty" (NRS 624.215) (NRS 624). Commonly required on commercial jobs: C-1 Plumbing and Heating with C-1a boilers and C-1b fire sprinklers, C-2 Electrical, C-21 Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, C-41 Fire Protection, C-7 Conveyance for elevators, C-13 Sheet Metal, C-14 Steel, C-15 Roofing and Siding and C-42 Video and Data Networks. Engineering scopes are a separate branch: A-7 and A-12 excavating and grading, A-15 sewers and drains, A-16 paving, A-17 electrical transmission, A-20 industrial piping, A-13 wrecking, A-23 asbestos (NAC 624; NSCB classifications). General engineering and general building are mutually exclusive branches under NRS 624.215; a contractor qualified in both holds AB.

One narrower path exists: NAC 624.580 allows a person to obtain a license to construct on their own commercial property under stated conditions (NAC 624).

How the monetary limit works

Every Nevada license carries a dollar limit, and the limit is not per contract. NRS 624.220 requires the Board to set a monetary limit that is the maximum contract a licensed contractor may undertake on one or more construction contracts on a single construction site or subdivision site for a single client (NRS 624). Read that carefully: it aggregates. Splitting one job into three contracts does not get a contractor under the limit, because all three are the same site and the same client. The Board can raise the limit for a single project on request, and where a contractor is bidding work above the limit, the increase has to be requested at least 5 working days before the bid opening and approved before the bid goes in (NRS 624.220). The Board may also count trades that are incidental and supplemental to the classification, and may condition a license in other ways.

Nobody at the permit counter is going to catch this for you. Clark County verifies that the license is active and that a Multi-Jurisdictional Business License and a matching DBA exist (Clark County licensing requirements). Whether the classification and the limit actually fit your job is your check to make, on the Board lookup, before you sign.

Published fees

These are government fee schedules, not a cost estimate for your project. Building Las Vegas is a media company — we do not bid, quote, or price work.

Fee	Published amount	Charged by	Source
Clark County transportation privilege tax	$1.00 per square foot of the entire building area for all commercial, industrial and other development on or after July 1, 2020. Exception for rehabilitation or remodeling of commercial space where no additional square footage is added	Clark County (Title 4.22)	CCC §4.22.025 · §4.22.030
Clark County plan review fee	65% of the permit fee, due at submittal — except over-the-counter permits, where it is paid at issuance	Clark County Building & Fire Prevention	Fees & Fee Calculator
Clark County building permit fee	n.a. as a published dollar table. The permit basis is Building Administrative Code Chapter 22.02, with §22.02.035 requiring the permit and §22.02.385 listing the fees; that fee listing was not retrievable, and the County directs applicants to an estimating calculator	Clark County	CCC §22.02.190 · fee calculator
MSHCP development disturbance fee	$550 per acre at grading or building permit	Clark County Desert Conservation Program	Development Disturbance Fee
CCWRD connection fee	$3,020 per ERU; commercial ERU determination per District rules	Clark County Water Reclamation District	CCWRD Services
LVVWD facilities connection charge, non-residential	By meter size, effective 3/1/2026: 2 in $18,967; 4 in $59,274; 6 in $118,547; 8 in $189,676; 12 in $403,062	Las Vegas Valley Water District	LVVWD Service Rules App. I
LVVWD fireline and plan review items	Fireline application without domestic service $750; fireline inspection $550; water plan review with public hydrants $500, revision $75; inspection over 2 in or combined service $1,000; public hydrant or temporary riser inspection $350	Las Vegas Valley Water District	LVVWD Service Rules App. I
SNWA regional connection charge, non-residential	5/8 to 3/4 in $7,998; 1 in $15,780; 1.5 in $31,476; 2 in $105,517; 3 in $390,640; 4 in $579,804. Industrial laundries assessed at higher schedules. Escalates each March 1 by 6.5% plus ENR-CCI through 2027	Southern Nevada Water Authority, via LVVWD	LVVWD Service Rules Table A.18
City of Las Vegas plan check and inspection	Occupancy-based tables, one row per group, plus highrise categories HRF, HRS and HRTI. Table 3-A of the 2020 Building User Fees, effective July 1, 2021 — label these as 2021-effective figures	City of Las Vegas Building & Safety	Building Safety Fee Tables
City of Las Vegas Civil Express	$300 application plus $54 administrative fee plus $500 minimum plan check; express meetings $600 per hour, one-hour minimum, follow-up meetings no sooner than a week after submittal	City of Las Vegas	Building & Offsite Permits
Henderson expedited review	Four times the normal plan review fee: 50% due at submittal, the remainder at issuance and waived if the City misses the target date. H-1 through H-5 excluded	City of Henderson	Expedited Review
Henderson fee amounts	n.a. — building plan check and inspection, MPE, fire plan check, public works, community development and utility schedules all took effect October 1, 2025 and are CPI-adjusted annually, but the amounts are in script-loaded PDFs that were not retrievable	City of Henderson	Fees Schedules
North Las Vegas	Valuation from Table 3-E with the 0.89 Nevada regional modifier; plan check 65% of the permit fee; planning and zoning review 10% of the permit fee; fire review $100; $75 administrative fee per permit; recording 3% of the permit fee; revisions $80/hour; re-inspection $100; weekend or holiday inspection $400; temporary certificate of occupancy $200	City of North Las Vegas	NLV Permit Application Center
State Water Impact Fee	n.a. — required under NRS 540.61 to 540.091 and administered by the Nevada Division of Water Resources, but no amount is published by the County	Nevada Division of Water Resources	Clark County fees page

Why these projects get rejected or stall

Incomplete code analysis on the plans — a missing allowable area, occupant load, restroom fixture count, exit analysis, or separated versus non-separated use determination under IBC 302.3.3 (BPG-023).
Application missing the shell permit number, occupancy group, sprinkler status, occupant load or valuation. All five are required on a tenant improvement application (BPG-023).
Health District approval missing on a restaurant, or the Fire Department Survey form not submitted with the application (BPG-023).
IECC Chapter 5 compliance documentation and hours of operation omitted from the energy submittal (BPG-023).
NRS 278.325(4) architect’s Certificate of Building Code Compliance missing where a record of survey subdivides the building (BPG-023).
No zoning approval, which disqualifies the project from over-the-counter review in Clark County and from expedited review in Henderson (BPG-023; Henderson Expedited Review).
Unlicensed or wrong-class contractor. The City of Las Vegas will not issue a commercial permit to a non-licensed party, and B-6 does not cover structural, mechanical, fire protection or life-safety alterations (City of Las Vegas; NAC 624).
Valuation misstated, shifting the project between the 7-, 14- and 21-day review tracks (Plan Review Timelines).

Verify before you start

The occupancy classification, and whether your change of use triggers a separate change-of-occupancy permit.
The sprinkler status of the existing shell, and the shell permit number itself.
Whether zoning approval already exists — it is the gateway to over-the-counter review in the County and expedited review in Henderson.
Southern Nevada Health District requirements if any food service is involved, and the Fire Department Survey form.
The code edition in force on your application date, given the January 2026 adoptions in the County and the City.
The contractor's classification — B versus B-2 versus B-6 — and whether the scope crosses B-6's structural, mechanical, fire protection and life-safety exclusions.
The contractor's monetary limit on the Nevada State Contractors Board lookup, against the full contract value for the site.
Meter size and the SNWA non-residential connection charge, which above 2 inches becomes one of the largest line items on the job.

What we could not confirm

Here is what is not published, or not settled, for commercial work in this valley.

Clark County building permit fee dollar amounts are not available in retrievable form. The Title 22.02 fee listing at §22.02.385 could not be retrieved, and the County directs applicants to a calculator that produces estimates only, with final fees set by staff at fee work-up. What we can state confidently is the structure: valuation-based, with plan review at 65% of the permit fee (Fees page; calculator).

City of Las Vegas commercial district dimensional standards, and the full commercial columns of the Table 2 use matrix, are n.a. The export we parsed did not resolve those columns reliably. Verify against the live UDC before relying on a district list or a height limit.

The City of Las Vegas code edition is genuinely ambiguous in the published record. The City’s Building & Safety page states adoption of the 2024 IBC, IRC, IEBC, ISPSC, UPC, UMC, IECC, IFC and IWUIC plus the 2023 NEC with a January 2026 effective date, retaining the 2019 City Administrative Code (City Building & Safety), while the City’s own permit landing page still describes the 2021 IBC and IFC adopted September 2022 with a March 23, 2023 effective date (Building & Offsite Permits). Two City pages disagree. Confirm the governing edition with the plans examiner before design — do not take either page, or this one, as final.

Henderson and North Las Vegas adopted code editions are n.a. The Henderson construction codes page returned no code editions (Henderson construction codes) and the North Las Vegas Building Safety page refers only to "adopted construction codes" without naming them (NLV Building Safety).

Henderson fee amounts and dimensional standards are n.a. The fee schedule took effect October 1, 2025 with annual CPI adjustment, but the documents are script-loaded and were not retrievable (Henderson Fees Schedules). North Las Vegas Title 17 zoning text could not be retrieved at all; call (702) 633-1536 (NLV Permit Application Center).

The State Water Impact Fee amount is n.a. Only the statutory cite, NRS 540.61 to 540.091, and the administering agency are published. No school construction impact fee was found in any published Clark County, Las Vegas, Henderson or North Las Vegas fee schedule — we report that as not found rather than as none existing.

Currency of the County guides. BPG-023 and BPG-182, which this page relies on for submittal content and process, both carry 2017 document dates and reference pre-2024 code values. Use them for sequence and required documents; verify every numeric code value against the January 2026 adoptions (Clark County Building Codes).

City of Las Vegas fee table currency. The fee PDF is titled "2020 Building User Fees," with Table 3-A effective July 1, 2021. Treat every figure from it as a 2021-effective number that may since have changed (fee tables).

Sources

This page is general reference information for the Las Vegas Valley, compiled from published code and agency schedules. It is not legal advice, not an engineering opinion, and not a bid. Codes change — confirm against the current adopted version for your address before you rely on any figure here. Corrections: corrections@buildinglasvegas.com

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