Annemarie, I have installed the electrical systems for a number of commercial and light industrial buildings.
The usual method is for the power company to provice 480 volt "three phase" power, with a neutral - so it's 277v. from any 'hot' wire to the neutral, and 480v between any two 'hot' lines.
A customer-owned ('customer' being the building owner, and not the tenant paying the electric bill) transformer will be installed to supply a panel with 208v/120v three phase power.
Any line-to-neutral circuit is single phase.
Often there will be a 480v panel set next to the 208v panel. 277v circuits are often drawn from the 480v panel for the permanent lighting. Most of your machine loads will also come from the 480v panel.
The 208/120 panel is usually filled with just 120v circuits. An exception might be the air conditioning; those guys never order the right (480v) stuff.
This is the usual, and preferred, practice. There are plenty of exceptions, usually found in older areas.
