From the comments: "I walked away not because of the lack of TIs, but because it had a pizza hood and I needed a class 1 hood and if I put one in it would trigger a building permit that would require a bazillion other upgrades and possibly make that patio illegal."
You want to know why its so hard? That. Everything else is figuratively (and literally sometimes) cake.
You want local restaurants that aren't Chili's? Stop making them exist in some kind of Kafkaesque Clown-world where an oven hood can make a patio illegal.
There was a recent Granola Shotgun blog post talking about a new wine tasting room being stuck for months in a local board review process over the proposed color of white for the building, and being required to have a parking space for each bar stool. These kinds of regulatory hurdles really put into perspective how good software developers have it.
>>> According to Lahlou, “Once we were closed past 60 days, the restaurant was seen as an entirely new business in the city’s eyes. They are asking for all kinds of upgrades.” Among them: a new fire wall and evening out the floors so that they’re all on the same level for ADA compliance.
That last requirement might be debilitating. “Contractors have given me estimates and it’s cheaper to demolish the whole building than to level off the floors in the existing structure,” said Lahlou. Estimated cost for demolition is $3 million — a bill that Lahlou says he can’t take on “if he ever wants to pay investors back.”
You want to know why its so hard? That. Everything else is figuratively (and literally sometimes) cake.
You want local restaurants that aren't Chili's? Stop making them exist in some kind of Kafkaesque Clown-world where an oven hood can make a patio illegal.