What to Know Before Starting a Restaurant Build-Out

Start with the lease, not the floor plan

Most of the expensive decisions in a restaurant build-out are made before a contractor is hired. They are made in the lease. The lease sets what the landlord delivers, what you must build, how long you have to build it and who pays for what. Read the construction exhibit as carefully as the rent schedule.

Four lease terms affect construction directly:

• Delivery condition. The lease should state exactly what the landlord hands over: a bare shell, a shell with utilities stubbed to the space, or a former restaurant with existing infrastructure. Each one changes your scope.
• Tenant improvement allowance. How much the landlord contributes toward your build-out, when it is paid and what paperwork releases it. Many allowances are paid only after the certificate of occupancy and lien waivers are in hand, so plan the cash flow around that.
• Rent commencement. When rent starts, and whether that date is tied to delivery, the permit or the opening. If the clock starts at delivery, a permit delay eats the free-rent period.
• Landlord approvals. Most leases require the landlord to approve your drawings, your contractor and often your signage before work starts. Build that review into the schedule.

Know exactly what you are being handed

Walk the space with your contractor and your kitchen designer before the drawings start. Take photos and measurements. These are the items to confirm:

• Electrical service size and where the panel sits. Cooking equipment and refrigeration add up quickly, and a service upgrade puts the utility company on your schedule.
• Gas: at the building, at the space, or nowhere nearby.
• Water and sewer: line sizes, where the sanitary line leaves the space, and whether a grease interceptor already exists.
• HVAC: how much cooling the space has, whether the roof can carry new units, and whether make-up air for a hood has been considered.
• Roof penetrations, structure and ceiling height for the hood and its exhaust duct.
• Existing conditions in a second-generation space. Equipment left behind is not always usable and may not pass inspection.

Every one of these items becomes a line in the budget. Finding them on a walk-through costs an afternoon. Finding them after demolition costs a change order.

The drawings you will need

A restaurant needs more drawings than a typical retail finish-out, and several design professionals have to coordinate them. A typical set includes:

• Architectural: floor plan, reflected ceiling plan, finishes, details, accessible restrooms and paths of travel.
• Mechanical, electrical and plumbing, engineered and sealed, sized for your actual equipment.
• Kitchen equipment plan with a utility schedule: every piece of equipment, its electrical load, gas demand, water connections and drain requirements.
• Hood and fire suppression drawings, usually produced by the hood vendor and the suppression contractor.
• Structural, when the roof or the slab is being changed.
• Signage and storefront, which often go through a separate landlord and city review.

The kitchen equipment schedule is the keystone. The engineers cannot size the electrical service, the gas line or the hood until they know what equipment is going in. Lock the equipment package early, even if a few models change later.

Kitchen equipment decides the utilities

Operators often choose equipment last because it feels like a purchasing decision. In construction it is a design decision. A change from electric to gas fryers, an added combi oven or a larger walk-in each move the utility loads, and the loads decide whether the existing service is enough.

Decide these items before the engineers start:

1. The cooking line, piece by piece, with manufacturer cut sheets.
2. Refrigeration: walk-ins, reach-ins and remote condensers, and where the condensers will sit.
3. The dish machine type and the water heating it needs.
4. Beverage, ice and point-of-sale locations, which all need power and often water or drains.

If the brand has a standard equipment package, get the current version in writing. Standards change, and an outdated package produces outdated drawings.

Grease, hoods and fire suppression

Three systems in a restaurant are reviewed more closely than anything else, and they are the ones most likely to hold up an opening when they are coordinated late.

Grease interceptor

Commercial kitchens are required to have a grease interceptor so that fats, oils and grease do not reach the public sewer. The size and type are set by the local authority and depend on the fixtures you connect. In a shell space the interceptor is often an exterior in-ground unit that needs excavation, which affects the site, the schedule and sometimes the landlord's parking lot. Confirm early whether one exists, whether it is large enough and who carries the cost.

Hood and exhaust

Grease-producing cooking equipment sits under a commercial kitchen hood with an exhaust fan and make-up air. The duct runs to the roof, and its route through the ceiling and structure has to be planned, not improvised. The hood size is set by the equipment under it, which is another reason to lock the equipment schedule first.

Fire suppression

The hood carries a fire suppression system that is installed and tested by a licensed contractor and inspected by the fire authority. The building may also have a sprinkler system that needs to be modified for the new layout. Both usually have to pass before the health inspection and the certificate of occupancy.

Permits, inspections and accessibility

A restaurant build-out moves through several reviewers, not one:

• The city building department reviews the drawings, issues the building permit and inspects the work in stages.
• The local health authority reviews the kitchen layout, finishes, hand sinks and food-safety provisions, and inspects before you open.
• The fire authority reviews and inspects the suppression system, alarms and exits.
• Texas requires an accessibility review by a registered accessibility specialist for larger commercial projects, covering restrooms, counters, seating and the route from the parking lot.
• The landlord, who approves the drawings and often inspects before releasing the allowance.

Each reviewer can ask for changes. The fastest path is a complete, coordinated set submitted once, rather than a partial set submitted early and revised repeatedly. Your contractor's pre-construction team should map the permit path for your city before the drawings are finished. Requirements differ from one jurisdiction to the next, so check with the city on anything specific to your location.

Work backward from opening day

Pick the opening date, then build the schedule backward. Each step depends on the one before it. The health inspection follows the fire and building finals, which follow equipment start-up, which follows the hood and the utilities, which follow rough-in, which follows the permit, which follows the drawings, which follow the lease. Long-lead items such as the hood, walk-in panels, custom millwork and some HVAC units are ordered before the permit is issued, so they need deposits early.

Add time for the things you do not control: landlord review, permit comments, utility company work and inspection scheduling. A schedule with no slack is a schedule that will be missed.

Harrison Construction has built restaurants as tenant finish-outs and as freestanding buildings since 2011. If you have a lease in hand or one on the table, send it over and we will tell you what it means for construction before you commit.

Questions owners ask

Harrison ConstructionCommercial general contractor, Fort Worth, Texas, since 2011. About the company