SO, YOU’D LIKE TO BUILD A RESTAURANT IN FLORIDA…………

You’d think it would be easy.  Maybe you already have a restaurant and want to build another one in Florida.  Just find a location, buy some equipment, hire some people, and open for business.

Reality Check!!!!  Where do you think you are?  YOU’RE IN FLORIDA!!!!

John Duranko, Owner/Architect of Master Plan Design, a registered Architect for over 35 years and involved in designing and building restaurants in Florida for at least 24 years, can tell you it’s not that easy.

I, John Duranko, have outlined the steps needed to navigate the beaurocracy created by the State of Florida to allow you to build a restaurant in Florida.

First.........

1. Know what type of restaurant you want to open. Is it a restaurant with just food? Is it fast food, like a drive thru?  There may be different parking requirements.  Is it going to be a restaurant with a bar (51% food- 49% alcohol) or is a bar that serves food?  Is it just a bar with alcohol?  Are you selling prepared food in a grocery store?  There are different licenses required for each example above.

2. Know where you want to open your restaurant. Who’s your customer? Florida demographics can dramatically change within a few city blocks.

3. Decide if you are going to lease or own the building.  Mc Donald’s is not only in the food business, it is also in the real estate business.

4. Make sure zoning is correct for a restaurant. It would help tremendously if the site you select has been a restaurant in the last six (6) months.  Also, brand new restaurants may require “impact fees” that are huge.

Where do you start after you find a location?

1.  Hire a design professional to do a floor plan layout and develop a kitchen equipment plan. If you are remodeling an existing restaurant, starting from scratch in a new space, or building a new building for your restaurant, hire an architect who is very familiar with restaurants and how they work.  A restaurant is more than an aesthetic statement; it resembles a machine with a lot of moving parts.  This is a scary thing for most architects who are not familiar with restaurant design.  One overlooked detail can set the owner back months and “beaucoup” dollars.  You can start with an experienced food service designer, but they are not familiar with the latest Florida Building Code (FBC) requirements and the Florida Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), especially concerning bathrooms.  Florida is the only state I know of that requires a hand sink in the handicapped stall.  I would estimate that over 30% of design time in restaurants is devoted to meeting the Florida Disability Act requirements.

2.  Make sure your design professional is easy to communicate with and is a good listener. Avoid those with big egos that try to “sell” you on their ideas. The best architects will allow you to believe the final solution was all your idea and he just “helped.”

3.  After you get the final plan developed, you are now ready to start the approval process.  It will require five (5) sets of plans submitted to the Florida Department of Hotels and Restaurants in Tallahassee.  The architect must complete a set of plans. They must show a seating layout, a restaurant equipment layout, including hand sinks, food preparation sinks, dishwashing facilities, trash disposal. They must also show other information such as wall, floor, and ceiling finishes, construction of walls, and any other permanent features. A copy of your menu must be included with a completed application showing a proof of a water and sewage source (water bill) at the address of the restaurant. You must fill out an application and include a check for $150.  Estimated approval time, if the plans are complete:  three (3) to six (6) weeks.

4.  Next you, or an architect, must hire registered Florida engineers to produce complete electrical, plumbing, mechanical, exhaust hood, and walk-in cooler drawings, based on the architect’s plans, which are capable of obtaining a building permit.  These plans plus the approved food service plans (from the Department of Hotel and Restaurants) must be submitted to the local Building Department by a Florida-licensed contractor.  If you haven’t decided on a building contractor, some but not all municipalities will allow you to submit the plans for review as “contractor not selected—out to bid.”  Some cities won’t take plans until the contractor and all their subcontractors sign applications.  And they all must have on file current registration in that city (see number 5 below).

5.  If you haven’t hired the contractor yet, now is the time to submit plans to some Florida-licensed contractors to obtain construction bids for the cost of the project.  This could take at least thirty 30 days. You have to compare bids and decide which contractor is the successful bidder.  Good luck with that!  Why do you think they call them “con”-tractors in the first place. Don’t even think about building the restaurant yourself, even if you’ve done it before. It’s against the law and could get you and your workers in deep trouble with the building department, not to mention the people from “workers compensation.”

6.  Once a building contractor is selected, he must take the architect’s plans and approved food service plans in duplicate or triplicate (some quadruplicate) to the building department.  There are at least 35 municipalities between Martin County and Dade County with local building departments.  Although all of them must conform to the Florida Building Code (FBC), they are individualistic and have their own “quirks.”  Some are more difficult than others and are proud of it.  The submittal requirements for each county are different.  Plans submitted in Broward have to go through “DNRP” (Department of Natural Resource Protection) before submission to the building department.  Plans submitted to Dade County must pass through “DERM” (Department of Environmental Resource Management) before submission to the building department.  Just recently, only building plans on disk, in PDF format, are accepted in Dade County.

7.  Now the plans have been submitted.  The plans will be reviewed by no less than a dozen departments, some of which include, but are not limited to, building, zoning, fire, electrical, plumbing, mechanical, traffic, and engineering.  Wait at least 3-6 weeks to hear back from the building department.  You will normally receive a list of building “review comments” critiquing the plans for conformance with the Florida Building Codes and the Florida ADA.  The building department will require your plans be revised to their liking before they will approver them. They must be corrected and resubmitted as many times as it takes to get them “right.”  If you have an inexperienced architect, this cycle could be repeated several times before approval—costing extra review fees and delayed time in opening.  If you are leasing, this will eat-up your “free rent” period.  Not being “on time” will also cost you thousands in lost revenue.

8.  Plans are finally approved by the building department.  The contractor must file a “Notice of Commencement” at the corresponding county courthouse (which is required by the State of Florida). This has to do with the Florida lien laws.  The contractor must also obtain an Asbestos Survey if there is any demolition involved—no matter when the building was constructed.  The Asbestos Survey must be performed by a professional testing company.

9.  It is advisable to make sure your contractor has contractor’s liability insurance and that everyone on the job is covered by Workers Compensation.  THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!

10.  You’ve got the permit.  Now you must keep after the contractor to make him do what he said he would do, when he said he would do it.  Contractors frequently underbid jobs to get them and later find ambiguities in the architect’s plans or circumstances to add extra charges to make-up for the low bid.  This sometimes results in conflicts between the architect and the contractor and you.  You will be stuck in the middle unless you have a lot of experience in this sort of thing.  Architects’ plans do not have to be elaborate or lengthy, but have to have all the required information that a contractor needs to complete the job.

11. The contractor will be required to go through at least 25-30 inspections which must be coordinated and done in a timely manner or the project will drag-on indefinitely.  Construction work cannot be covered over until proper inspections by the building departments have been completed.

12. Who is responsible for installing your fixtures, furnishings, and equipment?  Did the contractor include this expense in his bid?  Who is coordinating the exhaust hood installation and the walk-in coolers and outdoor signs?  Your Certificate of Occupancy (CO) will not be released until all inspectors have “signed off“ including the local Fire Marshall.  The structural inspector from the building department is the last to sign-off on everything.  Once all the paperwork is done by the building department, you will receive your CO.  Now you can bring in the employees and the food.  Don’t even think of having anyone but the construction crew in the space before the “CO.”

13. The contractor, or you, must coordinate all health inspections.

14. Pay your contractor if he did a satisfactory job and obtain “Release of Liens” from him before you hand him the check (see number 8).

15. Open for business.  First, get permission for temporary signs from the building department.

SEE, THAT WAS EASY!!

Our design company, Master Plan Design, performs any, or all of the above tasks, from assistance with site selection to all phases of restaurant design. You know the food business and that is complicated enough, just let us do the rest. Did I mention we are the least expensive? Because of our low over head you wont find a better deal for what we do anywhere! Would you like to do a restaurant chain outside of Florida? John Duranko, the registered Architect has licenses in most states east of the Mississippi and several out west. We are also registered Florida contractors and are Expert Restaurant Builders. We do it all under one roof!!