Four months to build a restaurant. Sixteen months to permit it. This stunning disconnect isn't just frustrating—it's fundamentally reshaping restaurant development timelines across America. At RestaurantSpaces, Pulley Co-founder Andreas Rotenberg pulled back the curtain on this painful reality, tracing the historical arc that transformed permitting from simple fire safety measures to a complex maze of regulations blocking expansion plans nationwide.
The Permitting Crisis by the Numbers
The hard truth for developers: while construction has barely slowed (6% less productive than in 1960), permitting has become a major bottleneck—400% slower than six decades ago.
The system's evolution has created multiple friction points:
- Plan requirements have expanded from 10 sheets to 50+
- Nearly 19,000 jurisdictions with unique requirements
- Post-pandemic staffing issues extending review periods from weeks to months
Breaking the Bottleneck: A Restaurant-Specific Playbook
For restaurants with ambitious growth plans, waiting for 19,000 jurisdictions to reform isn't an option. Instead, Rotenberg outlined actionable strategies that progressive restaurant design and construction leaders are implementing today:
1. Stop Researching Requirements From Scratch
Rotenberg highlighted how tools like Pulley eliminate the "blank piece of paper" problem by providing instant access to jurisdiction-specific requirements. "A solution like Pulley enables you to understand exactly which permits, submittals and submittal items are required, as well as forecast the overall time to approval," he explained.
2. Create Clear Accountability
"We use software to manage every aspect of construction today, except for permitting," Rotenberg noted. Restaurants see the best results by breaking permitting into discrete tasks with single assignees and firm deadlines—bringing the same operational discipline to permitting that they apply to their kitchens.
3. Submit Right the First Time
"Everyone has to go through plan review once. No one has to go through it five times," Rotenberg emphasized. Design collaboration tools like Bluebeam help architects and engineers create coherent submissions, while code analysis tools like UpCodes can identify compliance issues before city review—potentially eliminating multiple revision cycles.
4. Leverage Emerging Technology
Tools like TestFit allow teams to try different site layouts in seconds instead of days, while advances in generative AI promise to dramatically accelerate construction document preparation. As Rotenberg put it: "We could be talking about saving two weeks per submittal, or two months over the lifetime of a ground-up project."
Beyond the Permitting Panacea
Rotenberg offered no illusions of a silver bullet solution. The permitting crisis wasn't created overnight, and it won't be solved with a single technology or policy change. But his message carried a hopeful edge—by combining streamlined processes with emerging technologies and human expertise, restaurant developers can gain a significant competitive advantage.
As the race for prime locations intensifies in a post-pandemic landscape, those who master the permitting puzzle won't just survive the process—they'll use it to outpace competitors still stuck in the paper-pushing past.
"It will never get easier," Rotenberg concluded, "but I genuinely believe that together, we can go faster."
Watch the full talk below: 👇
REQUEST INVITE
Comments