Estimating cost of conversion to coffee shop or restaurant
Sorry if this is a newbie question. First time CRE investor here. 

I’m currently doing due diligence on a single tenant building that is a bank branch (1500 sq ft). Despite the corporate guarantee, I am concerned about potential recession and the company going out of business, which would lead me to find new tenants. Suppose I need to convert the location to a coffee shop or a restaurant when that happens, how would I go about estimating that cost?
[{"id": "ifhsc3e", "text": "Ask a contractor in your area. I\u2019m a GC though and can say that a coffee shop conversion is going to be $250k unless you\u2019re in a primary market with union labor. That includes about $20k in design and $20k in FF&amp;E. The restaurant will cost more due to the additional kitchen equipment needed.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ifi196d", "text": "Why would you ever just do that? The new tenancy will dictate the use. Let them build it, reimburse based on actual costs", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ifi9gli", "text": "\"Despite the corporate guarantee, I am concerned about potential recession and the company going out of business\" Bank would likely be acquired by another before it went out of business. Besides, your solution to a bank going out of business (which would likely imply substantial, widespread decline across all industries) is to convert it to a business in an industry that is synonyms with high defaults/bankruptcies?", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ififpn5", "text": "We just leased 2,400 SF in Orange, CA that has water, gas and electricity in place.  The buildout the tenant was quoted was $385K which does NOT include the new kitchen equipment. \nWe are receiving LOI\u2019s from national brands requesting anywhere from $50-$100/SF for T/I improvements on 2nd gen restaurants.", "replies": [{"id": "ir4u5e7", "text": "This is good info. In the case of the tenant leasing 2400sq ft for a restaurant build out, did the landlord give the tenant free rent for a few mths,  discounted rent until operational,  etc..? How did the tenant needing time and landlord needing rent work this out?", "replies": [{"id": "ir8htr0", "text": "We are about 9 months in to \"hell\" aka...plan check, fire department, etc.\n\nIt took the fire department 9 months to inform the tenant that their plans needed to be redrawn because it is considered a Group A-2 occupancy (this caught us off guard because we did have another restaurant in the space prior without that classification. The fire department states they were unaware of the use because there were no T/I's completed when the tenant took possession and opened the business. I countered them in saying they had to have known because the tenant was able to obtain a permit from the health department, fire department and city before opening - long story short - they didn't care).\n\nToday we were finally able to determine that the property already has a 2 hr fire wall so all that is needed it to add a 4 hr on the opposite side and we won't have to install fire sprinklers. \n\nSo, to answer your question - the LL has extended the rent abatement as these issues are being resolved with the city and the fire department. \n\nCities are making it more and more difficult for businesses to open up and be profitable and successful.", "replies": [{"id": "ir8jakt", "text": "Wow! Yes im experiencing the city and there double standards right now. They claim to want to help small businesses but give them no flexibility with zoning and ordinances that they copied from another city that does not have the same economic infrastructure as the one we are in. Thanks for the info.", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "ifimlti", "text": "I\u2019m honestly surprised at some of these answers that you are getting from people who seem to know what they are talking about.  For a cooking kitchen conversion you would need that infrastructure which is usually fairly expensive.  In my area, the SF Bay, it\u2019s extremely expensive.  A coffee shop would still require health code compliance to serve food and all that.  The only real way to know what these costs would be is to have a local, reputable contractor give you some average prices that they have observed and then check with another contractor to back check the first ones numbers.  Another comment had said to let the tenant decide what the space will be and while I would agree, a restaurant tenant or food service tenant will usually not be interested in a space unless it has that pre-existing infrastructure.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]