What we build · Quick Service & Fast Casual
A Prototype Meets a Real Building
Usually a brand prototype rolled out across sites, where the value is repeatability and the risk is the specific tenancy.
Before you sign. We will tell you what the landlord has actually delivered and what it will cost to make it a restaurant.
Pre-lease
We will walk the space before you sign it
Rent clock
Every week of delay is a week of paying for a closed room
Grease
Routing checked before design, not discovered at permit
Licensed
General contractor, licensed in the state of Florida
The prototype assumes a building it has never seen
A prototype is drawn for an ideal rectangle with services where the prototype puts them. Real tenancies have columns in the serving line, ceilings too low for the exhaust run, and a landlord's base building that assumed retail. Every site needs a test fit before the lease and under rollout pressure that step is the one that gets skipped.
The rollout pressure makes it worse. A brand expanding to a target number of openings in a year has real momentum behind each deal, and the test fit is the step that looks like it can be compressed. It is the step that catches the column in the serving line and the ceiling that cannot take the exhaust run.
What varies site to site
- Exhaust route to the roof, which is completely site specific.
- Grease interceptor — existing, shared, or to be installed.
- Electrical capacity against the prototype's equipment schedule.
- Column positions against the serving line and queue.
- Drive-through, where applicable, and what the site allows.
What makes the second site cheaper than the first
Repeatability is worth real money, and it comes from resolving the details once. Equipment layouts, service positions, finish schedules and the sequence of trades all carry forward if the first site is documented properly rather than simply completed.
That documentation is the deliverable that gets skipped at the end of a first store when everybody is focused on opening. Capturing it is worth a few days and it pays back on every site after it.
How we handle it
- 01Test fit the prototype into the actual tenancy before signing.
- 02Identify base building gaps and price them honestly.
- 03Build repeatably so the fifth site is faster than the first.
- 04Coordinate the landlord work interface explicitly.
- 05Program to the opening date and flag risk early.
Test fit before signing, every single time. It costs a day and it catches the column, the low ceiling and the inadequate service while those are still the landlord's problem rather than yours.
Said plainly
Where we stop
Once the lease is signed, base building shortfalls are your cost. We will price them accurately and we cannot make them somebody else's.
FAQ
Common questions
- Does every site need a test fit?
- Yes. It is the only point at which base building gaps are negotiable.
- Do later sites get cheaper?
- They should. Repeatability is the whole value of a prototype.
- What varies most site to site?
- The exhaust route and the grease interceptor. Both are entirely site specific.
- What if the landlord delivers late?
- Your opening moves and your rent may not. Get the division of work explicit in the lease.
The hard parts
The Hood & Make-Up Air
commercial kitchen hood exhaust makeup air cost
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Grease & Drainage
grease interceptor restaurant requirement florida
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Health Department Review
restaurant plan review health department florida
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The Landlord's Delivered Condition
restaurant lease landlord work letter tenant improvement
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The Rent Clock
restaurant construction delay cost rent commencement
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Next step
Find out what is actually wrong with it.
An inspection, photographs of what we found, and a written scope. If the honest answer is that it can wait another season, that is the answer you will get.