How much does it cost to build a 10,000 sq ft warehouse?

The new warehouse design needs to protect the company’s investment by providing secure space for short-term and long-term storage of materials and goods. Modern warehouses must consider hard costs, soft costs, long-term costs, and financial costs. When designing and constructing a new warehouse, business owners must carefully consider the selection of materials. The choice of materials has a significant impact on long-term costs. Nowadays, builders typically use insulated concrete or steel structures to construct warehouses.

The cost of building a 10000 square foot warehouse

When determining the total cost of building a warehouse, companies must consider several expenses: soft costs, hard costs, long-term costs, and financial costs.

• Hard costs (physical costs) include labor, materials, building equipment, site, landscaping, public facilities, life safety systems, HVAC systems, paving, leveling, LEED certification, etc.
• Soft costs include licenses, insurance, architectural design, engineering, taxes, legal fees, movable furniture and equipment, and other expenses unrelated to physical costs.
• Long term costs include utilities, maintenance, indoor environmental quality characteristics, and other daily, weekly, and monthly expenses.
• Financial costs include borrowing expenses related to obtaining construction loans.

For many years, builders have been using steel structure warehouses because of their low prices. However, before choosing steel structures as materials for new warehouses, companies should consider the total capital cost and long-term expenses. It is worrying that most steel structure buildings only provide external structures. They require separate cladding and insulation, fire prevention measures, and anti-corrosion methods to form a complete shell, all of which increase costs.

The basic cost of building a steel warehouse ranges from $8.60 to $42.00 per square foot. This range depends on the concrete floor options, the complexity of the structure, and the unique finish. Other factors that affect steel prices include natural disasters, global economic and political climate. It is worrying that the World Steel Association predicts that global demand will continue to grow. In addition, with the expected slowdown in China’s steel production, builders can expect steel prices to rise and fluctuate.

When designing a warehouse, there are several factors that can affect the total cost: building type, accessories, and customization. For example, the cost of frames, insulation materials, and basic accessories is approximately $4 per square foot, while the cost of concrete slab foundations is approximately $6 per square foot. Overall, accessories and customization often account for 15% to 20% of the basic cost of a building.

Estimated costs of building a 10,000-square-foot steel warehouse

Building Type	Cost per square foot	The basic cost warehouse	Total cost, including accessories and customization
Prefabricated building kits	$8.60 to $9.50	$86,000 to $95,000	$97,320 to $108,540
Rigid-frame warehouse	$11.50 to $20.00	$115,000 to $200,000	$124,600 to $228,000
Warehouse packages	$16.00 to $25.00	$160,000 to $250,000	$184,500 to $285,000
Finished and enclosed warehouse	$25.00 to $42.00	$250,000 to $420,000	$285,000 to $468,000