Commercial General Contractor in Vancouver, WA

Our work in Vancouver and Clark County

Work on this side of the river, not Oregon jobs relabeled. Project, city, and street for each:

• LifeStance Health, Vancouver. NE 51st Street. Behavioral health clinic tenant improvement.
• Journey Church, Camas. NE 4th Avenue. Tenant improvement.
• Zaiqa Indian Cuisine, Ridgefield. Royle Road. Restaurant tenant improvement.
• JCC Holdings, Camas. NE Cedar Street. Tenant improvement.

Washington jobs, permitted in Washington, under our Washington registration.

Permitting in Vancouver and Clark County

Where your project sits decides who reviews it, and that decides your timeline. Inside Vancouver city limits, commercial plans and permits go through the City of Vancouver Community Development Department and are submitted electronically through the city’s ePlans system. In unincorporated Clark County it runs through Clark County Community Development and the county’s Land Management System instead. Camas and Washougal each run their own building departments.

How a City of Vancouver commercial review actually runs

The city’s process has a step people are often surprised by. Before your application goes anywhere near a plan reviewer, a permit specialist gives it an administrative review to confirm the submittal requirements are actually met. If a drawing or a document is missing or incomplete, it comes back to you by email as required corrections and the clock has not started. Only after that prescreen clears does the application get routed out to every applicable discipline at once, planning and zoning, structural, and fire among them, for simultaneous review.

From there, each reviewer either signs off or sends comments back for revision. When every required review is approved the permit moves to pre-issue status and you are notified of the final fee total. The practical lesson is simple: an incomplete package does not get in line, it gets sent back. We would rather spend two more days on the submittal than lose two weeks at the front door.

Washougal has a step before the building permit

If your project is in Washougal, the order of operations is different and it matters. For commercial, industrial, and multifamily work the Planning Division processes a Site Plan application first, including Design Review and a Final Site Plan. The building or tenant improvement permit comes after that planning approval, not alongside it. Budget for that sequence at the start of the project rather than discovering it once you already have a lease and an opening date.

Washington and Oregon do not share a building code

This is the real difference between a Vancouver job and a Portland one, and it is what catches out contractors who mostly work the other side of the bridge. Commercial work in Washington is built to the Washington State Building Code, enforced by the local building department. Commercial work in Oregon is built to the Oregon Structural Specialty Code. Two separate codes, on two separate adoption schedules, amended separately. The licensing is separate too: Oregon jobs run on our Oregon CCB registration, Washington jobs on our Washington contractor registration MODERNI888R7. We hold both, which is why we can quote a project on either side without handing it off.

Because the two states update on their own timetables, we confirm the edition that actually applies to your permit when the job starts instead of assuming last year’s answer still holds. We handle the plan review, the permit, and the inspections in whichever jurisdiction you land in. Jurisdiction and code facts on this page verified July 2026.

Let’s Get Started in Vancouver

Send the address first. In Clark County that one detail decides which building department you deal with, which submittal system your application goes through, and whether a planning approval has to clear before the building permit is even on the table. We sort that out before we talk about anything else.

Call (360) 326-2747

That is a Southwest Washington number and it is our main line, not a forwarding service. You can also request a free consultation. Our shop is minutes from downtown Vancouver, Monday through Friday, so a walkthrough here is a short trip and it costs you nothing.

Ask us for the registration number. Washington law requires a contractor to show it on advertising. Ours is MODERNI888R7, active since 2012, bonded and insured. Anyone bidding your Washington project should be able to hand you theirs on the spot, and you can check it yourself against the state record before you sign anything.

We build on both sides of the river. Vancouver, Camas, Washougal, and Clark County are core service area. For an Oregon project see our Portland page or our Beaverton and Washington County page, where a different state code and a different registration apply.