A North American office fit-out averages $295 a square foot in 2026 and 43% of subcontractors wait more than 90 days for final payment. When a tenant runs out of money mid-build-out, whether the contractor's lien reaches the landlord's fee estate is decided by the alterations clause, not by the lien statute.
Industrial vacancy hit 7.5% at the end of 2025 and is on track for 7.8% by the end of 2026, twice the sub-4% rate from 2023 and the highest in more than a decade. Two landlords who signed the same industrial tenant to million-square-foot leases this spring say the allowance went out the door before any of the promised buildout did.
US office inventory has shrunk by 33 million square feet in five quarters as landlords convert, reposition, and demolish less competitive space. A restoration clause is how a landlord gets a tenant to pay for the demolition part.
Construction input costs are up 7.1% year over year. The provision that decides who absorbs that is a two-page exhibit at the back of the lease that most negotiations treat as an afterthought.
