Commercial building replacement cost estimator: a ballpark in two minutes.

• Base figure: the published low and high hard construction cost per gross square foot for the building type and market. RLB's hard costs exclude land.
• Quality: the published range is split into thirds. Economy is the lower third, Average the middle third, High the upper third. The mid figure is the center of the band you picked. The thirds are our convention, not a published split.
• Other market: where your city is not one of RLB's 18 US metros, the figure is the median of the 18 metros' published endpoints for that building type. It is a national middle, not a Birmingham, Memphis, or Boise number, and because the 18 metros include several high-cost coastal markets it can run above what a smaller inland market costs. If a published metro is nearer to your building, use it.
• Insurable adjustment: construction cost is not the same as insurable replacement cost. Rebuilding after a loss also means design and engineering fees, permits, and demolition and debris removal that a new-build hard cost leaves out. We add a flat percentage (default 15%) for those. That percentage is our own assumption, not a published figure. For context, Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies puts all development soft costs at roughly 20% to 30% on a straightforward multifamily project, but that number includes financing and impact fees you would not insure. Change it to test your own view.
• What is still left out: land (not insured), foundations and site work below the policy's exclusions, tenant improvements and specialty equipment, and any rebuild-to-code cost, which usually sits under an Ordinance or Law endorsement rather than the base limit.
• Construction class: the published ranges are by building type, not by ISO class, so the class you pick does not change the number. It is on the form because it belongs on a valuation, and because a class that does not fit the building type is worth catching.
• Garden vs. mid-rise multifamily, the full-service hotel band, and the self-storage location scaling are derived from the published figures as described under each type above.

Rider Levett Bucknall (RLB) North America: Quarterly Cost Report, Q3 2026: Indicative Construction Costs

Data current to mid-Q3 2026; published September 2026. https://www.rlb.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/09/Q3-2026-QCR.pdf
Low and high hard construction cost per square foot of gross floor area, US dollars, by building type and metro. Excludes land. RLB notes costs vary with site conditions, specification, and market conditions.

Storable (citing Mako Steel): How Much Does it Cost to Build a Self-Storage Facility?

Undated web article; retrieved 2026-10-05. https://www.storable.com/resources/storage-facility-construction-cost/
Single-story $50 to $65 per square foot, multi-story $90 to $120, excluding land and site improvements. A vendor article quoting a steel-building supplier, not a cost consultant's report. Lower confidence than the RLB figures.

Cushman & Wakefield: 2026 Industrial Construction Cost Guide

2026 edition; retrieved 2026-10-05. https://www.cushmanwakefield.com/en/united-states/insights/industrial-construction-cost-guide
Used only as a cross-check on warehouse costs: small projects $144, medium $87, large $78 per square foot. Not used to compute the estimate.

Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies: Making Apartments More Affordable Starts with Understanding the Costs of Building Them

Retrieved 2026-10-05. https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/blog/making-apartments-more-affordable-starts-with-understanding-the-costs-of-building-them
Context only: puts total development soft costs (design, engineering, financing, permits, fees) at roughly 20% to 30% of costs on a straightforward multifamily project. Not used to compute the estimate.

This row uses: Lower half of RLB's published multi-family range for the market (low to midpoint). RLB publishes one multi-family range, not a garden/mid-rise split.