Commercial building permit data: how to find it city by city
Updated · Rotomal
There is no single free US database of commercial building permits. Commercial work sits in the same city permit datasets as residential work, and each city marks it with a different field. For permits issued 1–28 October 2026, our queries found 1,989 commercial permits in Miami-Dade County (ResidentialCommercial = C), 1,561 in Dallas (permit types starting "Commercial"), 1,147 in Philadelphia (commercialorresidential) and 1,136 in Austin (permit_class_mapped). Montgomery County, Maryland publishes commercial permits as their own dataset: 89 in the same four weeks.
No single US commercial permit database
DibDirt, which indexes commercial permit sources, puts it plainly: "There is no single U.S. commercial-permit database." Permits are issued by cities and counties, and some states run their own plan-review systems. The Census Building Permits Survey counts new residential units only. National commercial project data exists, but it is sold by vendors such as Shovels (from $599 a month after a free plan) and Construction Monitor (no prices on its site).
How each city marks commercial permits
Our counts for permits issued 1–28 October 2026, run on 29 October 2026 (Fort Worth: permits filed in the same window).
| City | Field and value | Commercial | All permits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miami-Dade County | ResidentialCommercial = 'C' | 1,989 | 5,021 |
| Dallas | permit_type starts with 'Commercial' | 1,561 | 5,250 |
| Philadelphia | commercialorresidential = 'Commercial' | 1,147 | 3,657 |
| Austin | permit_class_mapped = 'Commercial' | 1,136 | 4,425 |
| Kansas City, MO | permit_type contains '(Commercial)' | 518 | 3,364 |
| Columbus | B1_PER_TYPE = 'Commercial' (plus 373 'Multi Family') | 469 | 3,564 |
| Los Angeles | permit_sub_type = 'Commercial' (plus 570 'Apartment') | 404 | 4,738 |
| Fort Worth | Permit_Type = 'Commercial Building Permit' | 217 | 4,657 |
| Seattle | permitclassmapped = 'Non-Residential' | 102 | 475 |
| Montgomery County, MD | Separate Commercial Permits dataset | 89 | 89 (plus 390 residential) |
Counts are not comparable between cities: some include trade permits (electrical, plumbing, mechanical) and some only building permits. Use them to see what each field returns, not to rank markets.
Finding the bigger jobs
Declared valuation separates a storefront refresh from a new building, where the city records it. It is usually an estimate for fee purposes, not the contract price. Commercial permits issued 1–28 October 2026 with a declared value of $1 million or more: 207 in Miami-Dade County (EstimatedValue), 56 in Austin (total_job_valuation) and 16 in Columbus (G3_VALUE_TTL). Dallas recorded a value on only 22 of its 5,250 permits in that window, so valuation filters do not work there.
Montgomery County, Maryland: a commercial-only feed
Montgomery County publishes Commercial Permits separately from residential ones. The dataset was last updated on 27 October 2026 and has address, dates, building area, declared valuation, a description, application type and work type. It has no contractor column. Permits issued 1–28 October 2026, by work type:
| Work type | Permits |
|---|---|
| ALTER | 48 |
| CONSTRUCT | 12 |
| RESTORE AND / OR REPAIR | 10 |
| INSTALL | 9 |
| ADD | 5 |
| COMMERCIAL CHANGE OF USE | 4 |
| CONSTRUCT SHEETING/SHORING | 1 |
Who is building it: contractors on commercial permits
For subcontractors and suppliers, the contractor of record is the lead. On commercial permits issued 1–28 October 2026, the contractor or applicant business was filled on 446 of 469 in Columbus (95%), 1,025 of 1,136 in Austin (90%) and 1,005 of 1,147 in Philadelphia (88%). Miami-Dade County named a contractor on every permit in the window. Count permits by contractor over 90 days to see which general contractors are busy in your area.
Getting a commercial list for your metro
Permit Weekly's Pro plan lets you set custom permit types and keywords, so the weekly list can be limited to commercial permits for your trade and ZIP codes, with the contractor of record where the city publishes it. Before you pay, we confirm coverage for your ZIP codes by email.
Questions
Is there a free US commercial building permit database?
No. Commercial permits are published city by city, inside the same datasets as residential permits, and national commercial databases are paid products.
How do I find commercial building permits in my city?
Open the city's permit dataset and filter on its commercial field, such as permit_class_mapped in Austin, commercialorresidential in Philadelphia or ResidentialCommercial in Miami-Dade County. Where there is no such field, filter on permit type or description.
Do commercial permits list the contractor?
Often. In our October 2026 counts, 88% to 100% of commercial permits named a contractor or applicant business in Columbus, Austin, Philadelphia and Miami-Dade County. Montgomery County, MD and Los Angeles publish no contractor column.
Are commercial building permits public record?
In the US they are generally public records, but each jurisdiction decides how it publishes them, and some withhold parts of a permit file. This is not legal advice.
Sources
- DibDirt: Commercial permit source index Source: dibdirt.com
- Montgomery County, MD open data: Commercial Permits Source: data.montgomerycountymd.gov
- Austin open data: Issued Construction Permits Source: data.austintexas.gov
- OpenDataPhilly: L&I Building and Zoning Permits Source: opendataphilly.org
- Miami-Dade County: permit feed (ArcGIS item) Source: arcgis.com
- Dallas open data: Building Permits Source: dallasopendata.com
- Kansas City open data: City Issued Permits Source: data.kcmo.org
- City of Columbus: Building Permits (ArcGIS item) Source: arcgis.com
- Los Angeles open data: Building Permits Issued from 2020 to Present Source: data.lacity.org
- City of Fort Worth: CFW Development Permits Table (ArcGIS) Source: arcgis.com
- Seattle open data: Building Permits Source: data.seattle.gov
- US Census Bureau: Building Permits Survey Source: census.gov
- Shovels: pricing Source: shovels.ai
- Construction Monitor: homepage Source: constructionmonitor.com
Guides and answers
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