There are three main options when it comes to how you may open your restaurant.
You could buy an existing trading restaurant, you could buy or rent existing restaurant premises, or you could fit out a purpose-built developer Shell. I would focus on the latter two options, but quickly. If you were to buy an existing business, you might consider why is it for sale?
Have you done your due diligence?
Have you looked at your site, your financial statement, accuracy, tax records, the footfall, the condition of the premises, the use class, and the lease?
Is it assigned, premium, or customer loyalty? Will that transfer the power of the existing concept and how you can adapt it to suit yourself and the existing staff and any transferable rights of their employment?
As with any work of this nature, there’s several different types of fit-out with varying degrees of complexity and of course, price.
Some projects will be looking purely at the aesthetic of your restaurant, bar, or cafe, while others will be a little bit more complicated and may include structural changes.
Even if budgets are purely for cosmetic fit-outs, they can vary considerably depending on the final touches, the quality, and the finishes.
While embarking on your new project, it’s imperative that you clarify the cost of your project and the complexity before setting off on your journey and finding your perfect venue. The type of venue that you operate will impact the cost of the fit-out.
The more complex the restaurant type, the more equipment and the more furnishings you will need. In general, it costs more for a full-service restaurant than it does for a takeaway venue, and there’s a level of complexity as you go down.
The most expensive to lease would be a full-service restaurant to a bar, to a quick service restaurant, or a single concept restaurant to a cafe and then the cheapest option is probably a takeaway.
There are a few reasons for this, but one major is the size of the venues that you need for the different types that I’ve just listed before. Also, the equipment and furniture that is required can be a significant factor.
There are six main areas of cost within any restaurant fit-out. We can talk about these in detail later, but for now, I’ll list them.
- They’re the main interior building envelope and associated finishes that could include the internal walls, partitions, doors, floors, walls, ceiling, the shop front, the doors, the windows, any structure, alterations, and staircases.
- Then you need to consider service installations. They might include the ventilation, the extract, any air treatment, whether that be air conditioning or heating, the electrical, power, lighting, data, security, plumbing, and wastewater including all hot and cold water connections, drainage, and your protective installations, such as a fire alarm or sprinklers.
- Other matters will include joinery and furniture, including anything that’s actually built in as counters, bars, fixed seating, screens, and the like.
- The Hub of your restaurant, your kitchen installation, and your catering installation. That includes your ovens, your grills, your fridges, your stainless steel benching, and sinks.
- You need to allow for your professional fees for your project team to design and manage your restaurant fits out for you. And also, most importantly, you need to allow a contingency at the end so that anything that’s not accurately determined or can’t be foreseen at the start can be covered within your budget.
If we’re looking at a refurbishment for your unit, that might be a unit that has been previously used for something else, or it could be that it’s been used as a restaurant dependent on the extent of reuse and existing elements that are within your restaurant that you’ve taken over or your unit.
This can drastically reduce your costs. Some of the most expensive bits of the fits out are the basic infrastructure your electrics, your extraction, and your plumbing.
The less stuff you need to change, the less cost that you have to spend. Also, if your unit can be kept within its existing building footprint, then we’re not changing too much and your costs again will be greatly reduced. However, taking on an existing restaurant is not necessarily the cheapest option when you take on an existing unit.
If you’re looking to change everything or most things, then you’ve got the cost of the fit-out plus the cost of removal. This will incur an additional premium on what you might have paid for an empty shell in terms of a shell and corks.
Generally a new shell unit, mostly to be fitted out purposely for the purpose of a restaurant. Shell and core works will generally comprise the structure of the perimeter of the unit to be done by the landlord.
This will include your external cladding, your base plant areas, your service connections, and your common utility areas and common areas with deliveries it may or precursor the shop front installation and it will include the central landlord facilities including the back of house, staircases, toilets, lift shafts or basements.
For a definition of requirements for what you might expect then please refer to my previous video where we discussed this before.
One thing you might consider is when you’re working in a shopping center the costs are often more and you might expect to pay more than 20% for a high street location.
This is because often the work is more labour intensive. It’s having to be worked out of hours to suit the existing environment at the shopping center and there are high expectations.
I hope you have found this useful.
If you would like to speak to Julian about your bar or restaurant then please contact us through our website we would be delighted to help.
