A retail shell is not automatically ready for a restaurant tenant

A retail unit may have power, water and drainage yet lack a workable route for the services a food business needs. Exhaust discharge, replacement air, grease management, hot water and fire interfaces can determine feasibility before the tenant fits out the interior.

Assess the proposed menu, cooking equipment and operating hours against the landlord's actual provisions and permissions. Trace routes all the way to their accepted connection or discharge points. A spare shaft on a leasing plan is not proof that a kitchen duct is permitted or constructible within it.

Ask the consultant for an early constraint map with landlord and tenant responsibilities. Separate an evidenced provision from a capacity still to be measured, a route awaiting permission and a specialist design decision. Use that technical record alongside the commercial review before making fit-out commitments; it does not replace lease advice, landlord consent or authority approval.

Three feasibility checks before interior fit-out

• Prove the route: identify the intended exhaust discharge, replacement-air intake and drainage destination, including access for inspection and cleaning. Have the relevant specialists assess odour, noise, fire separation and neighbouring uses.
• Prove the provision: reconcile the equipment schedule with the landlord’s documented electrical, water and drainage provisions. Record the evidence still needed to confirm spare capacity and the responsibility for upgrades.
• Prove the interface: assign each landlord, tenant and vendor connection, the approval it depends on and the evidence required at completion. An unresolved critical route should remain an open feasibility item, not disappear into a fit-out allowance.

What to confirm before the next decision

• Confirm cooking equipment and utility requirements.
• Verify landlord-provided capacity and route permissions.
• Review exhaust, drainage and life-safety interfaces before committing.

Ask for this review output: A restaurant-conversion constraint map and landlord–tenant responsibility schedule, showing evidenced provisions, unresolved routes and the specialist decisions needed before fit-out commitments.

Discuss the consultancy scope

Share the lease technical schedule and proposed kitchen concept. Request a restaurant-conversion feasibility assessment. Request a scoped MEP review. Disciplines, inputs and deliverables are agreed before an appointment; installation and authority decisions are separate.

Continue with our guide to commercial occupancy and service-readiness planning or review the MEP design and consultancy scope.

Background guidance: HSE: ventilation in catering kitchens, WBDG — Determine Project Performance Requirements. These inform the review principles; local requirements, project applicability and any necessary approvals must be confirmed by the responsible specialists.