Retail renovations in Vancouver,
built to attract, guide and convert.

Where a store lands in the range depends on the storefront, how much of the layout changes, lighting, the amount of custom display millwork, fitting rooms and washrooms, and back-of-house storage. A refresh of an existing store with new finishes, lighting and fixtures sits toward the low end. A new store built into a shell, with a new storefront, custom millwork throughout and new washrooms, sits toward the high end.

QUAY prices every store from a site visit and your drawings or brief, and gives you a detailed fixed-price proposal with the scope, inclusions, exclusions and allowances. For more detail, see our store renovation cost guide and the commercial renovation cost guide.

Most new stores open in leased space, either on a high street or inside a shopping centre or mixed-use building. A retail fit-out turns that unit into a sales floor, fitting rooms, a cash wrap, storage and staff areas, with the storefront, lighting, power and data your fixtures need.

Shopping centres and larger landlords often have their own design criteria, approval steps, contractor rules and set hours for noisy work and deliveries. QUAY reviews those requirements up front, prepares the documents landlords ask for, such as insurance certificates and work schedules, and builds the schedule around them so approvals don't slow the start of construction.

Before you sign a lease, QUAY can walk the unit with you and check what is already there: the storefront, electrical capacity, washrooms, ceilings and lighting. Those answers can change your budget and give you something concrete to negotiate with, including any tenant improvement allowance. Learn more about tenant improvements and landlord's work vs tenant's work.

See a finished example: our Top Drawers Apparel store in Downtown Vancouver, with a custom wood slat wall, quartz cash desk, fitting rooms, glass railings and track lighting, including a video walkthrough.

A salon or spa looks like retail from the street, but behind the reception desk it works more like a small clinic. Shampoo and colour stations need water, drainage and hot water capacity. Treatment and esthetics rooms need privacy, sound control and good lighting. Every surface has to stand up to constant cleaning, and ventilation matters where colour, nail and skin products are used.

Many salon and spa services count as personal service establishments. Vancouver Coastal Health's personal service establishments page describes these as businesses where a person provides a service to or on the body of another person, such as esthetics, tattooing, piercing and tanning, with guidance that also covers hair salons and barbershops. Operators submit the required documents to their local environmental health office for health approval, alongside the licences and approvals needed to operate, so the layout and finishes should be planned with those requirements in mind.

QUAY builds salons and spas in leased units and refreshes existing ones, including stations, plumbing, treatment rooms, washrooms, millwork, lighting and finishes. We can work after hours and on weekends so an established salon keeps seeing clients, and you get one point of contact and a detailed fixed-price proposal before construction starts.

A store renovation usually runs against an opening date, a lease start or a busy season, so delays cost sales. QUAY confirms the permit, sign and landlord requirements early, orders long-lead storefront and millwork items as soon as the design is approved, and prices the full scope before you commit. During construction, one project manager coordinates the trades, your fixture and sign suppliers, and the landlord. Learn more about our process and why clients choose QUAY.