Progress

Hello,
New Day new stuff on my mind. No ranting today. Great news is I have copies of the plans ready for submittal to the health dept and waste water. You can download them if you want...it's a big file and 12 pages worth of stuff... but it's pretty cool!

https://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=batch_download&send_id=758542319&email=0b127ea347a56f570e93df13bc950589

"On the lease front, here are the only 2 issues we are negotiating... This is my agents em to the landlord's.

Item #17 pertains to the last two paragraph of paragraph #26. It is unreasonable that the landlord can terminate the lease within the final 24 months of the term even if the damage is covered by insurance. The landlord already has the right to terminate if the damage is outside the bounds of the coverage – that is more reasonable. The final paragraph seems to be in conflict with other provisions of the lease. We either need to exclude landlord’s negligence, or limit t the coverages provided within landlord’s insurance policy. We will each carry our own insurance, but if the landlord is found responsible, his insurance should be primarily liable. The tenant’s insurance carrier is taking another look at this language as well.

Item #25 pertains to the renewal option. The rent for the term is to be adjusted to fair market rent with a minimum of 103% of the previous year’s rent. That is fine. What is not acceptable is the next to last sentence of the paragraph which nullifies the option if the landlord and tenant can not agree on the fair market rent. There has to be a definitive way to set the market rent if landlord and tenant can’t agree. The most common way is to use an MAI appraisal, or brokerage opinions of value. Ultimately, we should have a binding arbitration clause, or similar provision, that will determine the rent. This is a deal breaker."
Keep your fingers crossed.
Talk again soon,
Julie

They're killing me here!

I soooo need to vent....but I shall refrain, a little or not.
Still no signed lease. Are you kidding me? Every day they sit on this thing is another day they don't make any money.
What I resent the most is the B.S. The excuses from their agent. Does he think I'm that gullible or stupid?
The latest two excuses are:
1. They missed their flight and won't be home tonight......uuhh so? what about the last five days?
2. Don't think this means they are not eager to do this deal. You just happened to catch them at a really busy travel time. OH really? and what accounted for the 3 week delay in responding 3 months ago when we 1st put an offer in?

I'm leaving for a week. I won't be able to sign any papers, write any checks. GRRRRR
The auction is Saturday & John wanted the fixtures for the auction. I'd like a signed lease before I spend 5K on equipment at the auction and I'd like to use the credit for the stuff being sold against my purchases. But thanx to these passive aggressive slackers (I'm so thinking a much stronger word here) none of that is likely to happen.
Everyone keeps saying that this doesn't mean they won't be good landlords. I'm really having my doubts about their response time if something goes wrong at the center.

That's it,
I'm going to beat a bag or my bed with a baseball bat.
Talk again soon when I've calmed down.
Julie

The final (I hope) word on hoods

Hello,
Ok, so here's what we talked about today.

Choice, a used 16' hood with an ansul that has to be adjusted OR a new 12' hood without an ansul system at all.

Either way I have to spend money on an ansul system.
The 12' hood won't fit all my equipment so I'd have to buy & install another smaller hood to fit the convection ovens I want while the 16' hood will fit all the equipment I need now.
So I went with the 16' hood.

The ansul will be on the up end of $3000.00 but that's true on either ansul.

We chose the walk-in combo...
18X10 with a 6' freezer installed and ready to go (except for any electrical work that needs to be done)

16' hood with ansul $5750
walk-in set up $4500 installed ready to go $8000
American 6 burner stove/oven (new) $1100.00 each
Legion tilt skillet $1500
Montague double convection oven $1600
Those are the costs I know right now....
Still need a 2 compartment sink, 3 compartment sink, faucets, stainless work tables, metro racks and various other items for the kitchen.

I think I'm doing fairly well on the pricing. If anyone knows something different be sure to let me know.
We'll talk soon,
Julie

disenting opinions

Hello,

So Bruce, the auctioneer's partner and installer says if we rearrange the line, put a 12' hood in and then a vapor in for the convection oven and tilt skillet all will be fine.

Sam the designer says that isn't right.
So tomorrow I'll be back to the auction house and talking to Sam, John and Bruce all at once.

I'm at their mercy as I have no idea about ANY of this stuff.

I sure would like to have the flooring be life deck epoxy...it is a really clean application, not slippery when wet or greasy.... we'll check on the cost...

That's all for today,
We'll talk soon,
Julie

picking out equipment

Hello,
It's been a busy day already. Spent the morning with John at the auction house. I've picked out a 2 compartment sink, a 3 compartment sink and a cool 9' stainless work top with 2 1/2 racks that it stands on...very cool set up.

I left a set of my plans with John (who sells stuff) and his partner (who installs and knows applications)...well that cool 16' hood I like won't work...the ansul (fire retardant system) is all wrong and the fire marshal will not pass it....back to the drawing board on the hood action.

John talked me into buying 2 new range/ovens so the line looks nice, clean and cohesive and everything is the same size...heck, why not, it's only a $1000 difference (grrr) everything is just a couple a hundred dollars more....it all adds up!

Well I just got my first call from a baker looking to rent space & I haven't even advertised yet....whoo hoo! She won't be ready til January so it's perfect.

It's so amazing when you're doing what you're supposed to be doing/meant to do, how everything lines up and falls into place. It all feels so very right. All the kinks and set backs are going to work themselves out and it's all going to be/is ok.....Please remind me I said this when I have my 1st 2nd and 3rd melt down.
We'll talk soon,
Julie

Next on the To Do list

Hello,
We are making our changes to the lease language. Small things like taking out paragraphs that require me to join a marketing association. Asking that the handicapped spots not be RIGHT in front of the only door we use to load supplies in and out from.

Yesterday my chef friend Joe came to the kitchen. He was horrified at the awful condition it's in. (It is a mess & dirty) He offered some design changes. John the auctioneer showed up to claim all the unwanted fixtures. And Dan Levy (contractor) showed up with Jack (VP) to look things over again.

Dan suggested saving money by not using tile on the floor but to grind the concrete fill the holes and epoxy the whole thing. Joe agreed. Great news for me as quarry tile is expensive.

Other great news is my 16' hood won't need a 2nd vent. They can pipe to the existing exhaust eliminating the need to cut the ceiling/roof for a 2nd exhaust. ALSO my convection oven fits under the hood. No need for a 2nd hood.

Bad news is there's no room for a 2nd convection oven (to be added at a later date)

Good news is there is room for the tilt skillet I want.

I was on the computer today with Sam the designer. We played with the interactive CAD program. He's urging me to put this design to bed so we can get it to the city...There's that 30 day wait before they even come back with corrections...delay delay.

So Sam and I have it pretty much nailed down. Tomorrow morning, I'll visit the auction house and get dimensions and model numbers on the equipment I'll need and we'll finalize the preliminary plans... yea!!! Next step... the construction bid...(holding my breath)

I'd like to figure out a way to post the plans here so you can see the kitchen's layout. I'll work on that & we'll talk again soon,

Julie

P.S. As if I don't have enough on my plate, I spoke today with a caterer who's looking to sell her business...heck... what's another chunk of change in my debt pile.
It's all good and all exciting!!!
stay tuned

Vote for your favorite kitchen name

Hi there,
Ok, please help me make up my mind!!!!
Which of these is your favorite name for my shared use commercial kitchen. I just can't decide. I keep coming back to Sharing Chefs but the other 2 names are good too.

I want it to sound professional. One friend suggested I keep it along the same lines as my catering "Just Call Us Catering"
Here are the top 3

Sharing Chefs
San Diego Kitchen Space
Just Call Us Commercial Kitchen Rental
Thanx for your help!
BTW, progress report....the landlord is checking my credit then we sign the lease.

talk soon,
Julie

stay focused

Good Morning,

OMG, I was looking through my inbox for an email and ran across 2 emails from 2 potential clients looking for proposals from me. E-gads, I've been so distracted by the kitchen these 2 folks slipped through the cracks.

Note to self:
Keep 1 pad of paper by the phone and computer and WRITE things down!
I think I've been forgiven by both and still may get the jobs.
That was a wake up call tho for sure!

I'm still waiting to hear back on signing the lease and in the meantime, I'm playing with design stuff. Other than that nothing new to report.

Talk soon,
Julie

To Do List

Things that need to be decided...

The name:
Just Call Us Commercial Kitchen Rental
Just Call Us Catering Kitchen
Sharing Chefs
Commercial Kitchen Co-Op

S Corp or C Corp or LLC

Tilt Skillet or not?
Got to get that web site going.

I've been dreaming about this kitchen/biz for about 5 years now. So if you're dreaming of something my advice is keep dreaming and always be taking baby steps towards the goal. Baby steps can be doing research, thinking of names, talking about it to others making drawings of it... Just keep it alive and never give up.
Be patient (which I'm not) and remember everything in it's own time. And that rarely means in YOUR own time. That's where the never give up and patience things comes into play.
Good night.
Julie

Whoo hoo!!!!

So funny, my cell was in the car when I wrote my last post. As I was writing, my agent was leaving a message saying that the landlords have agreed to the terms and are drawing up the lease.

Yikes, so what's next?

I'm meeting with 2 chef friends and an architect friend this week. I'm getting input from all of them for the layout and then Sam the designer and I do the remote interactive CAD editing and submit it to the contractor.
My contractor, Dan Levy Construction then gives me the bad news and tells me I have champagne tastes and a beer budget.
Then back to the CAD drawing board and finally I pay my $890.00 to the health dept so they can sit on my blueprints for up to 30 days.

During the down period, I'll be selling all the fixtures I don't want to my auctioneer John. I mght even be able to sell the old galvanized hood for scrap.

Then we'll get started on the demo.
Stay tuned!

Hi again,
Well it's Monday morning and still no response from the landlords. We are really close to an agreement. we countered that we'd like the lease agreement to start (rent abatement) after health dept sign off or Jan 15 whichever comes first and I have access the demo & build out starting at lease signing.

I think writing them a letter explaining that once we submit our plans to environmental health, they sit on them for 30 days then the fire marshal sits on them before we can even start the build out and then mechanical gets to weigh in.

Then if all goes according to schedule (in construction???... not) then we call the health dept again for a final inspection BUT that takes at least 2 weeks to get them out. AND if you try to guesstimate and miss your deadline it's best case another 2 weeks waiting worst case $283.00 and another 2 weeks wait.

So our timeline for completion isn't a random fabricated date. It's because so much of it is dead time out of our hands.

I'm close to tears. Have you noticed that buying/leasing is really tough and emotionally charged while the selling end of it is relatively painless. I guess by the time you sell, a certain detachment has happened.

Well that's it for now. Keep your fingers crossed.

Name That Space

Oh boy,
This is a really important decision, almost as important as the kitchen design itself.
So here are a few of my friend's suggestions.
Please comment & add your thoughts ... Ms Flamingo, my only reader (-:

Julie's Joint Kitchen
Julie's Kitchen Co-op
Darling Kitchen
Kitchen Space
Great Kitchen Space
Mi Casa Su Casa Kitchen
The Kitchen
Chef's Kitchen Co-op
Pro Kitchen Co-op
Chef's Kitchen
Sharing Chef’s Rental Kitchen
Timeless Cooking
Cooks Space Co-op
Cooks Kitchen Co-op
Corner Kitchen Co-op
Pro Kitchen rental
Sd Kitchen co-op
Sd Kitchen rental

Commercial Kitchen Corner
Commercial Kitchen Co-op
Sharing Chef’s Pro Kitchen/ sharingchefs.com
Executive Kitchen Rental
Sharing Chefs Kitchen
Chefs Kitchen Quarters

I think I like:

Sharing Chef's Pro Kitchen Rental www.sharingchefs.com
a shared use commercial kitchen

I wonder if I need a logo....

Name it

HMMM, I need to come up with a name for this 24/7 shared use catering rental kitchen.
Any ideas anyone?

To Do Items:

Get started on the web site.
Finish the User Handbook

I have the pricing structure in order and I have the tenant handbook mostly complete. It was easy. My business model came from Kitchen Chicago and she sent me all her paperwork which is extensive. All I need to do is change names here and there and have it printed up.
The contracts will be month to month and tenants can reserve 2 months out unless certain advance reservations are made. One of my current tenants cooks from 5 pm until 3 am 6 days a week. So I'll block that time off for him.

Mostly, our schedules vary with catering so rather than pay for time you don't use, just book it 2 months out and use the time you need. If things come up last minute, we'll work to accommodate.

Of course there are other requirements for the tenants. I'll need a copy of their 40 hr serve safe class and liability insurance with me as additionally insured, stuff like that.

I'm just plugging along, trusting that it will all fall into place.