Restaurants are one of the riskier, yet highly profitable businesses to be in these days.  To be the real estate partner of a restaurant is a solid investment as even if the space has quick turnover, there is sure to be another tenant who has ambition to be a successful food service operator.  Thus, retail spaces that come with all the commercial kitchen FF&E have more demand than supply.  For example, I helped a client list a commercial kitchen and I got over 20 expressions of interest within the first day.  There are many potential groups of tenants: coffee shops, cafes, restaurants, catering companies, food preperation companies, etc.

Yet, if one wants to lease out a space for restaurant usage, especially for high-end ones, there usually is a lot of tenant improvements or build-to-suits that need to be done.  And for those to be done successfully, one must enlist the talents of a skilled architecture firm with good solid work in the restaurant field.  Recently, I have been reading Commercial Construction News and they have listed the following as the top 10 restaurant architects, in terms of billings:

10th… EDG Interior Architecture + Design
9th… Cuningham Group Architecture
8th… Stantec Architecture
7th… CASCO Diversified
6th… CMA
5th… Cubellis
4th… Chipman Adams Architects
3rd… Greenberg Farrow
2nd… Leo A Daly
1st… WD Partners

Overall, for your retail property, having a food related tenant is a good component of the tenant mix and keeps your pool of tenants diversified, so that if one market segment fails you are still covered.  And as an owner of the property, especially large scale shopping centers and other retail properties, it is essential to have design and construction standards that are consistent with the value of your property.

This is part 4 of our ongoing series, Top Commercial Architects.  I continue to read Commercial Construction News and they provided the following for top 10 architects in the hospitality sector.  Hotels, especially need good design in order to attract guests and get the highest daily room rate in your market segment.  The following architects should have a high level of speciality with hospitality projects:

10th place… RTKL Associates
9th place… Hnedak Bobo
8th place… Cooper Carry
7th place… TVS Design
6th place… BBG-BBGM
5th place… BLT Architects
4th place… Leo A Daly
3rd place… Pro Con
2nd place… WATG
1st place… HKS

For your hospitality investment, I wish you the best of luck.  Overall, architecture is one of the more important areas your customers will look for.

This is part 3 of our ongoing series, Top Commercial Architects.  Today, we will talk about top architects that have top 10 billings in the retail field according to the Commercial Construction Magazine.

10th place… Design of the Interior
9th place… Nadel Architecture
8th place… FRCH Design Worldwide
7th place… Little
6th place… Stantec Architecture
5th place… Cubellis
4th place… Perkowitz + Ruth Architects
3rd place… WD Partners
2nd place… Greenberg Farrow
1st place… RTKL Associates

These 10 architects have actively been engaged in the retail sector.  They should have a decent amount of work in their portfolio and may be a solid choice to consult with for your retail project.

This is part two of our ongoing series, Top Commercial Architects.  Now, once again, why are architects important to urban property investors?  Essentially, without them buildings can’t be built and nobody could invest in improved real estate, other than buying and selling land.  This time they will be ranked by the number of total projects.  Once again, this listing was based on Commercial Construction Magazine.

10th place was Baskervill.  9th place was Leo A Daly.  8th place was Interplan.  7th place was CMA.  6th place was Fitch.  5th place was SSOE.  4th place was Little.  3rd place was WD Partners.  2nd place was FRCH Design Worldwide.  And last but not least, 1st place was Stantec Architecture.

In many cases, I have noticed that good architecture will lead to high return on investments.   Total number of projects can indicate the popularity of an architect. For your commercial architectual needs, I would recommend contacting a reputable architect in your area to help you design the building of your dreams.  Good luck!

I was reading Commerical Construction Magazine and I noticed they had a section about “Top Commercial Architects.”  Architects are essential to every real estate project.  Without them there would be no real design.  No real marketable selling point.  So the following is a list of top 10 commercial architects in terms of total billings.   Tenth on the list is Cooper Carry.  Ninth is TVS Design.  Eighth is Cubellis.  Seventh is WATG.  Sixath is RTKL Associates.  Fifth on the list is DLR Group.  Fourth is Pro Con.  Third is Stantec Architecture.  Second is Leo A Daly and the first is HKS.  Many of these firms appear to have offices internationally and many within the United States.  Although they are large, they should still have a localized regional approach to doing things.

For more information about architects for your real estate projects, I would suggest contacting a reputable licensed firm in your area.  Associations like the AIA are a great place to start.  Many areas have local chapters of such association.