Before you sign
Leasing and site feasibility
The most expensive mistake in this business is signing a lease for a space that cannot become the business you are planning, or that can only become it eighteen months late. By the time permitting reveals the problem, you are paying rent on it.
- When to call us
- At the letter of intent
- Turnaround
- Days, not months
- Deliverable
- Written feasibility read
- What it prevents
- Rent against a dead site
Our work has been covered by
- SF Chronicle
- Mission Local
- Hoodline
- SFist
- Tablehopper
- SF Business Times
We read leases the way operators read leases, which is to say we read them against the permit path, the buildout cost and the opening date. We are not attorneys and we do not replace yours. We tell you what the space will cost you in time and money that the lease does not mention.
What a feasibility read covers
We look at the address the way the City will look at it, and at the building the way a contractor will.
- Zoning and use
- The Article 7 district controls, whether your use is permitted or conditional, and every trigger the project hits.
- Legal existing use
- What the space is actually entitled to be today, which is often not what the last tenant was doing.
- Change of use exposure
- What converting the space sets off across Planning, Building, Fire and Health.
- Alcohol feasibility
- License type, availability and concentration analysis at that tract.
- Entertainment feasibility
- Whether the room and its neighbors can hold the sound the concept needs.
- Building reality
- Grease, gas capacity, electrical service, ventilation routing, restrooms and accessibility.
- Accessibility
- What an accessibility upgrade will be required at this scope of work, which is routinely underestimated.
- Timeline and cost
- A defensible range for approvals and buildout, with the assumptions stated.
The lease terms that matter when permits are involved
A standard retail lease assumes a tenant who can open in sixty days. A permitted use cannot, and the lease should say so.
The terms we push on are the ones that decide whether an approval delay is survivable: a rent commencement tied to permit issuance or certificate of occupancy rather than to possession, a contingency period with a real exit if the entitlement is denied, landlord cooperation on applications and signatures, clarity on who owns the base building systems, an honest tenant improvement allowance with a schedule you can actually hit, and permitted use language broad enough that a concept change does not require a new negotiation.
We flag these for you and your attorney. Your attorney drafts them. The division of labor matters, and we stay on our side of it.
Buildout numbers that survive contact with a contractor
Early budgets fail in the same places: ventilation and hood work, grease interception, electrical service upgrades, accessibility, and the cost of waiting. We build estimate ranges from what these systems have actually cost in San Francisco buildings recently, and we separate the costs that are genuinely contingent from the ones that are certain.
A number with its assumptions written down is useful. A number without them is how projects run out of money at eighty percent complete, which is the condition most of our project recovery clients arrive in.
Related work
- See our conditional use authorization when a site needs a hearing before it can open.
- See our San Francisco liquor license consulting for alcohol feasibility at a specific address.
- See our San Francisco neighborhoods we work in for how the rules change corridor to corridor.
Questions
Leasing Consulting questions we get
When should I bring you in on a lease?
At the letter of intent, before terms are locked. That is when a feasibility finding can still change the deal, and when the rent commencement and contingency language can still be negotiated. After signature, we are working with whatever the lease gave you.
Do you negotiate the lease for me?
No. We are permit and operations consultants, not attorneys or brokers. We tell you what the space will require from the City and what it will cost to build, and we flag the terms that matter so your attorney can negotiate them with that information in hand.
Can you tell me if a space will work before I spend money?
That is the point of the engagement. A feasibility read takes days, not months, and it is a fraction of one month of rent on most San Francisco commercial space. We have told clients to walk away from sites, which is sometimes the most valuable thing we do.
What usually kills a site?
Four things, in roughly this order. The district does not allow the use without an approval the schedule cannot absorb. The space is not legally entitled to what the last tenant was doing. Ventilation or grease routing is impossible without the landlord's cooperation. Or the sound cannot be contained with residential neighbors that close.
More services
Other things we handle
ABC licensing
Liquor Licenses
A San Francisco liquor license is two jobs running at once. The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control de…
Read more→SF Planning
Conditional Use
Conditional use authorization is a discretionary approval. The Planning Commission is not checking boxes, it is making…
Read more→Entertainment Commission
Place of Entertainment
If there will be live music, a DJ, dancing, or a cover charge, the Entertainment Commission is in your project. Which …
Read more→Cannabis
Cannabis Permitting
Cannabis retail in San Francisco is a location problem before it is a licensing problem. Buffer requirements, district…
Read more→When it stops moving
Project Recovery
Most of the projects we take over are not stuck because someone made a dramatic mistake. They are stuck because an app…
Read more→Next step
Not sure which approval your project needs?
Tell us the address and the concept. We will tell you what it takes, in writing, before you spend anything.