Renovating a restaurant in Florida is rarely a decorating exercise. Kitchen equipment, extraction, grease management, fire suppression, restrooms and accessible routes all sit under commercial code, and each one has an inspection attached to it.
Where the money goes
Budgets vary enormously with the size of the room and how much of the kitchen is being touched. A dining room refresh is a different animal to relocating a hood and re-running gas and power. The back of house is almost always the expensive half, and it is the half that determines whether you open on time.
Plan the licensing, not just the build
State licensing and local inspections are the most common source of delay. Getting drawings in front of the right department early, and sequencing inspections so a failed one does not stall the trades behind it, is worth more to your opening date than any saving on finishes.
If you are planning a restaurant fit-out in Tampa Bay, talk to us before the lease is signed. We will tell you what the space will realistically need.
