The Fast Path - Restaurant, Bar, and Winery Construction
Everyone planning a new restaurant, winery, bar, or any food & beverage business asks “how long will this take?” Let’s look at 5 major factors that play in:
1. Complete lease agreement with Landlord. This can be tougher than it sounds, as several considerations play in. Building owners generally want to see what tenant improvements include before approving, and if the building services can support your business. Power availability and covenants with other tenants are common issues. If the building is short of power, then someone has to upgrade, and that can be super expensive; this element can be negotiated as a base building requirement (i.e. Landlord responsibility), but it must be identified before signing a lease. Restrictive covenants are common in shopping mall developments, and are designed to limit competition moving in on existing tenants. Explore whether there is direct competition existing in a development, and ask the Landlord if there are any restrictive covenants on the property. These can apply to things you may not expect such as; restrictions on serving alcohol, on serving a type of food (i.e. pizza), on take-out, or sit down dining, etc. Don’t waste your time if there are fences in your path.
2. Develop a complete Floor Plan Design/Layout that will receive approval from stakeholders (i.e. local city inspectors, health inspectors, fire departments, landlords, and most important YOU). The Floor Plan Layout will include all equipment choices and required services, space planning, flow considerations… a snap shot of your entire concept on one page. Now you can move to the financial planning stage.
3. Make Commercial Food Equipment decisions and develop Electrical and Mechanical plans for construction. The commercial food equipment you select will determine the service requirements to the Amp and BTU, and rough in plans can be generated and bid quotes provided by your restaurant construction contractor. Your cook line decisions will determine the commercial cooking hood system specifications required to meet codes.
4. Receive Construction and Food Equipment bids using your floor plans and equipment list as specifications for the work. Vet your construction contractors carefully, as this is specialized work that only experienced restaurant, bar, and winery builders like Black Ink Company can manage on reasonable timelines. There are many contractors that want your business, and are willing to stumble their way through the building process…BUT time is of the essence in the food and beverage business. Most looking to build this type of business are looking to open as fast as possible, and find the planning stage can take longer then they anticipated; a fast construction timeline becomes priority. Construction timeline over runs are the most common problem for business owner’s starting a new restaurant, bar, or winery. Remember with the monster monthly lease space costs today, time is money, so give priority to experienced builders who specialize in getting the job done on time…not just price. Consider a 7 month construction delay and the costs associated with that (yes, it happens all the time). Speed is a huge factor and only reliable proven builders can deliver.
5. Go for it. Hire your carefully selected restaurant, bar, and winery builder. Build on your planning momentum and make a prompt decision to hire and allow your builder to get to work. Purchase your equipment and get it en-route to site. If there are back orders, mistaken orders, slow shipments, manufacturing delays, or any wild card events; then you have time to deal with them. Having equipment on-site during construction is an awesome decision. You can uncrate, assemble, and cover with tarps to keep clean of construction dust and debris. At the same time the trades can physically confirm sizes, connections, voltages, etc providing opportunity to catch any planning or shipping errors. Building to plans is important, but any opportunity to cross-check facts should be considered; and physical equipment checks work.
Use these steps to help put your project on a speedy and reliable timeline for opening. This will allow you to focus on food orders, staff training and scheduling, and preparing for operating. Miss these steps and you may find yourself dealing with unforeseen challenges like moving food order dates, delaying staff schedules, and paying for a lease space beyond the construction allowance period, or missing peak season. Now you are ready to ‘take the bull by the horns’ and make your restaurant, bar, or winery a blazing success.