Commercial Construction/ Restaurant Construction

Restaurant Construction Franchise on the Rise – Where do you start?

Bill Di Santo Best Chicago Contractor, Chicago Construction News, Construction Costs, Construction Trends, Crain’s Chicago Business, Hiring a General Contractor, Moe’s Southwest Grill, Negotiating construction concessions, Restaurant Construction, Restaurant Construction Franchise, Restaurant Contractor, Shopping Center Construction 01/27/2011

Franchise restaurants are the rise, like this new Mrs. Fields that Englewood Construction built in Orland Park Mall.

As suggested in my 2011 commercial construction trends blog post, there seems to be a rise in new restaurant construction, particularly among franchise restaurants. In fact, Crain’s Chicago Business just reported that Moe’s Southwest Grill has sold restaurant franchise agreements to open 10 new units in the Chicago market.

So I thought I’d devote a blog to franchise restaurant construction. Whether you’re planning on buying a franchise agreement or you’re a shopping center landlord negotiating construction concessions with a franchise operator, you should know what is ahead of you.

Each franchise is different. Some give more guidance to operators than others, but typically a franchise gives a binder to an operator that instructs how to operate the store, but not how to build it. More often than not, a first-time franchise operator is given no design specifics on how to build a franchise store. All he knows is that it should look like the other one down the street.

For franchise operators new to the restaurant construction bid process, there is a definite learning curve with construction costs. First-timers tend to go with a low-bidding pick-up truck contractor only to realize you get what you pay for. I understand the concept of wanting to save money, but at what cost?

A franchisee needs to partner itself with a restaurant contractor that understands the brand standard, has experience in restaurant construction, knows what the county health inspector wants and expects, and is well versed in working with the municipality. Even better is to work with a national general contractor who has worked with your brand before and knows exactly what the franchise wants.

To really save yourself time and money, hire a general commercial contractor with restaurant design build experience. This way you won’t have to manage the architect and general contractor separately. A restaurant contractor with design build experience should be able to look at a photo of your store and build it. No hand holding involved.
Tying back to my first point, franchise operators should not expect a lot of support from the corporate office during construction. So in addition to hiring a contractor with restaurant construction experience, your GC should also care about the end product and fostering a healthy relationship between you and your landlord. You shouldn’t have an adversarial relationship with your landlord. Picking a general contractor who has the time and knowledge of working in shopping center construction can also make or break your project.

Finally, once you do open your franchise, make sure you protect your investment by scheduling restaurant preventive maintenance visits.