With COVID-19’s social distancing requirements hanging over the retail restart, Landlords and restaurant tenants are married partners more than ever. They jointly share the risks inherent in the restaurant restart. This shared interest is helping 4Site Advisors develop winning strategies with the realities both face, but this requires diligent preparation, open dialog, and flexibility.
Restaurateurs are experts at their craft. Awareness of cuisine, ambience, customer preferences, labor metrics, and supply chain are mandatory. Lease terms, cash flow models, new loans, and utilizing technology are all tools they should have for the restart.
Landlords have a wealth of experience in lease terms, financial models, and lending requirements. They leverage technology to determine risk, cash flows, asset management, and strategy. As close partners with the Tenant, they now are sensitive to customer demands, health requirements, and even labor percentages.
Working with Landlords and Tenants, we are helping them leverage each other’s strengths in solving the restart challenge.
There are several other factors which restaurants will adjust to as the market opens. Labor will remain a key driver of profitability, and with lower volumes, front of house and back of house tasks may blend with less staff. Menu items will adjust with available supply chain, and we are encouraging a “special menu” mindset, whereas the menu is curated from the most popular dishes only for the first months. This will provide for easier training, lower food costs, and less waste. Pricing adjustments may also be an opportunity, depending on elasticity and concept price points.
Most restaurants have available technology which can assist in supply chain adjustment, labor tweaking, seating separation, and driving take out. These tech platform fixed costs should be maximized now as they will help drive both savings and growth. Although IT personnel may have been furloughed, we recommend systems evaluation for restart.
Although we’ve not seen a pandemic like this in our lifetimes, the fact is we are all dealing with the outcomes together. Landlords and Tenants equally are having to find ways to problem solve like never before, which strengthens their partnership and spreads the risk. We are encouraged by the initial signs of progress and hope these considerations provide guidance to those restarting during this difficult time.
*This report raises legal questions which are complex and fact dependent. We advise consulting with an attorney to best address them specifically as we are not attorneys nor practice law.
Quality control at 4Site Advisors is more than a protocol—it's a promise of excellence. By integrating our diverse industry experience with our architectural and engineering expertise, we deliver projects that stand as paragons of quality, safety, and innovation. Partnering with 4Site Advisors means choosing a path where every detail is considered and excellence is the standard, ensuring that your project not only succeeds but shines in its execution and final realization.