In the race to open new locations, the fastest brands aren’t just lucky; they’re disciplined. They understand that speed isn’t about cutting corners—it’s about eliminating the friction that causes delays. Their secret weapon isn’t a bigger budget; it’s a smarter, more predictable process. They’ve mastered the art of permit due diligence, transforming it from a simple checklist into a powerful strategic tool. By front-loading the research and identifying every potential hurdle, they submit cleaner applications that get approved faster. This proactive strategy is what allows them to consistently hit aggressive opening dates and pull revenue forward while competitors are stuck in review.
Key Takeaways
- Eliminate surprises with upfront research: Your goal is to uncover every potential roadblock—from zoning conflicts to old code violations—before you ever submit an application. This front-loaded investigation is what separates a smooth approval from a project stuck in a cycle of costly corrections.
- Create a repeatable playbook for every location: For multi-site rollouts, you need a standardized process. Build a master checklist for each jurisdiction and implement a strict quality control check before any package is submitted. This ensures consistency and drastically reduces the risk of simple errors causing major delays.
- Free up your team by partnering with a permit expert: Your team’s time is best spent on design and construction, not deciphering municipal codes. Bringing in a specialist gives you access to established AHJ relationships and deep local knowledge, allowing you to get approvals faster while your team focuses on getting stores open.
What is Permit Due Diligence?
Think of permit due diligence as the critical research phase you complete before you ever submit an application. It’s the process of gathering, verifying, and fully understanding all the information required for a successful permit submission. This isn’t just about downloading the right forms; it’s a deep dive into local rules, confirming which drawings and documents are needed, and sometimes even speaking with city or county officials to get the most current requirements.
This upfront investigation is what separates a smooth approval from a project stuck in a painful cycle of corrections and resubmittals. For multi-site brands managing rollouts across different states and municipalities, this step is non-negotiable. Each Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) has its own unique codes, processes, and preferences. Due diligence ensures your submission package is tailored to meet those specific demands, giving you the best shot at a first-pass approval. It’s the foundation for a predictable and efficient permitting process.
The Goal of Permit Due Diligence
The primary goal of permit due diligence is to eliminate surprises. It’s a strategic first step that involves intensive research to give your team all the necessary information for a successful project. By uncovering potential roadblocks early—like a little-known zoning ordinance, a required environmental study, or a specific engineering report—you can address them proactively instead of reacting to a rejection notice weeks or months down the line.
Ultimately, the objective is to create a clear and predictable path to approval. You’re replacing guesswork and assumptions with concrete data. This allows you to submit a permit package that is so clean, complete, and compliant that the plan reviewer can move it straight to the approval pile.
How It Protects Your Timeline and Revenue
Every day a project is delayed waiting for a permit is a day of lost revenue. Permit due diligence is your best defense against these costly setbacks. This proactive work is specifically designed to prevent delays and ensure submissions are correct, which is essential for keeping your project moving forward smoothly. When you identify potential issues during the due diligence phase, you can build solutions directly into your project plan.
Instead of scrambling to fix a problem after your application has been kicked back, you’re already ahead of it. This protects your construction schedule from unexpected disruptions, helps you lock in a reliable opening date, and allows you to start generating revenue on time.
The Stakes for Multi-Site Rollouts
For a single project, a permitting mistake is a headache. For a national, multi-site rollout, it’s a catastrophe. The complexity multiplies with every new location, as each jurisdiction has its own set of rules that are constantly changing. What worked for your project in Austin last year might not work for your project in Boston today. A small oversight repeated across 50 locations can bring an entire program to a grinding halt.
That’s why the first step is always to identify the correct governing jurisdiction and its unique requirements. Without rigorous due diligence for each site, you risk inconsistent submissions, repeated rejections, and a rollout schedule that quickly falls apart. It’s the essential framework for achieving predictable, on-time openings at scale.
Your Permit Due Diligence Checklist
Think of due diligence as the foundational work that prevents costly surprises down the road. For multi-site brands managing rollouts across different states and cities, a standardized checklist is your best defense against timeline slips and budget overruns. When you’re trying to open 20, 50, or 100+ locations on an aggressive schedule, you can’t afford to have a project derailed by an unforeseen zoning restriction or a decade-old code violation from a previous tenant.
A thorough due diligence process ensures every site is viable before you invest heavily in design and construction. It’s about systematically uncovering any potential red flags—from property line disputes and environmental hazards to utility capacity issues—that could force a major redesign or, worse, halt the project entirely. By front-loading this research, you create a predictable path to permit approval, reduce the risk of resubmittals, and keep your national expansion plan on track and on budget. Let’s break down the essential documents and information you need to have in hand.
Property and Title Documents
Before you get too far, you need to confirm the property is free of any hidden legal snags. A comprehensive title report is non-negotiable. It verifies the seller has the legal right to sell and, more importantly, uncovers any easements, liens, or covenants that could impact your plans. An old utility easement running through your proposed patio space or a restrictive covenant that forbids your standard brand signage can bring a project to a standstill. Getting these documents early allows you to understand the property’s legal landscape and ensure you have a clean slate to build on, protecting your timeline from unexpected legal hurdles.
Environmental and Safety Reports
No one wants to inherit a contamination problem. A Phase I Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) is a critical step to protect your investment, especially when acquiring existing commercial properties. This assessment investigates the site’s history to identify potential contamination from previous uses, like a gas station or dry cleaner. Skipping this can leave you responsible for expensive cleanup efforts that were never part of your budget. It’s about mitigating environmental liability and ensuring the site is safe for your employees and customers. This isn’t just a box to check; it’s a crucial safeguard for your brand’s reputation and bottom line.
Zoning and Land Use Ordinances
This is where the details can make or break your project. You need to go beyond simply confirming the commercial zoning. Dig into the local municipal code to verify that your specific use is permitted. Will the city allow a drive-thru? Are there restrictions on your operating hours? Does your plan meet the minimum parking space requirements? Understanding these nuances upfront is essential. Discovering you need a zoning variance mid-project can add months of hearings and uncertainty to your schedule. Confirming every detail ensures your standard store layout and operational model align with local law from day one.
Existing Permits and Code Compliance
When you’re taking over an existing building for a tenant improvement or remodel, you’re also inheriting its permit history. It’s vital to check with the local building department for any open permits or outstanding code violations tied to the address. An unresolved electrical permit from a previous tenant’s sign installation can prevent you from getting your own permits approved. By conducting a thorough permit history search, you can identify and resolve these legacy issues before they become your problem. This step clears the way for your project, preventing frustrating delays caused by someone else’s unfinished business.
Utility and Infrastructure Records
Will the existing infrastructure support your operational needs? Don’t just assume it will. You need to verify that the property has adequate utility capacity for your project. Can the electrical panel handle your kitchen equipment, HVAC systems, and EV chargers? Is the water line large enough to support your fire suppression system and daily operations? Answering these questions early prevents major budget hits and delays. Discovering you need to request a utility service upgrade from the local provider can be a lengthy and expensive process, so confirming capacity is a key step in validating a site’s feasibility.
Historical Approvals and Site Plans
Past decisions can have a lasting impact on a property. It’s important to track down any historical site plans, as-built drawings, and records of previous approvals, like conditional use permits or variances. These documents often contain critical information that won’t appear in a standard zoning report. For example, a past approval may have included conditions that dictate delivery hours, limit outdoor seating, or require specific landscaping. Uncovering these historical constraints ensures your new design doesn’t accidentally violate a pre-existing agreement with the city, helping you avoid unnecessary redesigns and conflicts with the local jurisdiction.
A Step-by-Step Due Diligence Process
A structured due diligence process is your best defense against the surprises that derail multi-site rollouts. Instead of reacting to problems as they pop up, you can anticipate them, plan for them, and keep your projects moving forward. By breaking it down into manageable steps, you can create a repeatable system that ensures no detail is missed, whether you’re opening one new location or one hundred. This methodical approach transforms due diligence from a daunting task into a strategic advantage, giving you the clarity needed to make informed decisions, secure faster approvals, and protect your revenue timeline. Think of it as building a solid foundation—the stronger it is, the more secure your entire project will be.
Start with Research and Planning
Every successful project begins with a solid plan, and permit due diligence is no exception. This initial phase is all about gathering intelligence. It’s a crucial first step that involves deep research to give your team all the necessary information before you even think about submitting an application. You’ll investigate the property’s history, the jurisdiction’s specific requirements, and any potential red flags that could cause issues later. This isn’t just about ticking boxes; it’s about building a comprehensive understanding of the landscape for each specific site. This early work sets the stage for the entire permitting journey, helping you map out a clear path to approval from day one.
Collect and Review Key Documents
Once you have a high-level overview, it’s time to dig into the details. This means gathering and carefully reviewing all the essential paperwork associated with the property. This includes everything from title reports and ALTA surveys to environmental assessments and existing entitlements. A thorough document review is critical for any successful real estate project because it uncovers the legal and physical realities of your site. Are there any easements that conflict with your site plan? Are there historical records of code violations? Finding the answers to these questions now helps you avoid costly surprises and ensures your project is built on a foundation of facts, not assumptions.
Assess for Code and Zoning Compliance
With your documents in hand, the next step is to verify that your project plans align with all local zoning ordinances and building codes. This is where many projects get stuck. A plan that works perfectly in one city might violate a dozen rules in another. This assessment helps prevent delays by making sure your submissions are correct the first time. You’ll need to confirm that your intended use is permitted, that your design meets setback and height requirements, and that you’re compliant with all accessibility and safety codes. Getting this right is fundamental to a smooth process and is a core part of any effective permit expediting strategy.
Evaluate and Mitigate Project Risks
Due diligence isn’t just about finding problems—it’s about solving them before they can impact your timeline. This step involves taking everything you’ve learned from your research, document review, and compliance check to identify potential risks. A comprehensive due diligence report helps you understand the entire permit process, how long it might take, and what hurdles you might face. Once you’ve identified risks like a lengthy historical review process or a required traffic study, you can develop a mitigation plan. This proactive approach to risk management turns potential disasters into manageable tasks, giving you control over your project’s destiny.
Develop a Realistic Project Timeline
Finally, all your research and analysis come together to help you build a project timeline you can actually trust. It’s always best to start due diligence as early as possible, because permit rules change often, and even small mistakes can cause your submission to be rejected, leading to costly delays. By understanding the specific requirements, potential risks, and typical review times for each jurisdiction, you can forecast your days-to-permit with much greater accuracy. This allows you to set reliable opening dates, coordinate contractors effectively, and pull revenue forward. An informed timeline, built on the back of thorough due diligence, is one of your most valuable assets in a multi-site rollout.
How to Handle Multi-Jurisdiction Due Diligence
Managing a single construction project is complex enough. When you’re rolling out dozens of locations across different states or even countries, that complexity multiplies. Each city, county, and state has its own set of rules, processes, and authorities having jurisdiction (AHJs). A successful multi-site rollout depends on your ability to manage these variables systematically. It’s about creating a repeatable process that accounts for local nuances while maintaining a consistent standard of quality across your entire portfolio. This approach not only prevents delays but also builds a predictable path to getting your doors open on time, every time.
Decode Local Regulations
The first step is understanding that permit rules are not universal. What works in Austin won’t necessarily fly in Boston. That’s why starting due diligence as early as possible is so critical. Local ordinances, zoning laws, and building codes can change frequently, and as one industry expert notes, “even small mistakes can cause your submission to be rejected, leading to costly delays.” You need to investigate the specific requirements for each project location, from setback rules to signage allowances. This deep dive into local building codes ensures your plans are compliant from day one, saving you from the costly back-and-forth of corrections and resubmittals down the line.
Coordinate with Multiple Authorities (AHJs)
Once you know the rules, you need to identify who enforces them. For any given project, you could be dealing with multiple departments—planning, building, fire, public works, and health, to name a few. The challenge is to “figure out which government group (called a ‘jurisdiction’) is in charge of the project’s location… then… find out which specific departments within that group need to approve things.” This requires building relationships and establishing clear lines of communication with each AHJ. For a national rollout, this means managing dozens of different contacts, each with their own preferred process. A proactive communication strategy is essential for keeping your projects moving forward smoothly.
Track Requirements for Each Location
With different rules and different AHJs come different submission requirements. You need a rock-solid system for tracking all the moving parts for every single site. This includes identifying “all the different types of permits required for the project (like building, electrical, plumbing, or fire permits)” and knowing exactly “what documents, fees, and application forms are needed for each.” A simple spreadsheet might work for a few projects, but for a large-scale program, you need a centralized system. This ensures every application package is complete and correct before it’s submitted, which is the key to minimizing review cycles and getting faster approvals.
Maintain Consistent Compliance Standards
While adapting to local rules is crucial, you also need to maintain a consistent standard of quality across all your projects. Due diligence isn’t just about checking boxes for one location; it’s about creating a reliable, repeatable process that protects your timeline and budget everywhere. This creates long-term value by “ensuring everything is correct from the start.” By establishing a clear, internal standard for what a complete and accurate submission package looks like, you create predictability. Your team knows what’s expected, and AHJs come to recognize your submissions as high-quality, which can help build trust and streamline reviews for future projects.
Common Due Diligence Hurdles (and How to Clear Them)
Even with a solid plan, you’re bound to run into a few challenges during the due diligence phase. The difference between a minor hiccup and a major delay is how you prepare for them. Think of these common hurdles not as stop signs, but as predictable curves in the road. By anticipating them, you can build a process that keeps your multi-site rollouts moving smoothly, protecting your timelines and your budget from costly surprises. Let’s walk through the five most common issues and, more importantly, how to get ahead of them.
Missing or Incomplete Documents
It’s the most frequent and frustrating cause of delays: a submittal package gets kicked back because a single form is missing, a signature is in the wrong place, or a plan isn’t up to date. When you’re managing dozens of projects, it’s easy for these small details to fall through the cracks. The goal of due diligence is to prevent these delays by ensuring every submission is correct and complete the first time.
How to Clear It: Create a master checklist for every jurisdiction you work in and perform a rigorous quality control check before anything goes out the door. This simple step catches errors internally, saving you from weeks of back-and-forth with a plan reviewer.
Communication Gaps with AHJs
Every Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) operates a little differently. The person you need to speak with, the preferred method of communication, and the unwritten rules of the road can vary from one city to the next. Misunderstanding these nuances can lead to confusion and stalled progress. A key part of due diligence involves figuring out exactly which government group is in charge and how to make the review process faster by working with them effectively.
How to Clear It: Identify the key contacts at the AHJ early on. A quick, introductory call to confirm their specific requirements can save you a world of trouble. Building these relationships helps turn an adversarial process into a collaborative one.
Slipping Timelines
A delayed opening can have a massive impact on revenue, and slipping timelines often start with a rushed or incomplete due diligence process. It’s tempting to jump straight into design and construction, but even small mistakes found late in the game can cause a project to be rejected, leading to costly rework. Because permit rules change so often, you have to start your research early to avoid getting tripped up by a new ordinance or code update.
How to Clear It: Begin due diligence the moment you identify a potential site. Build buffer time into your project schedule specifically for this phase. This proactive approach gives you the space to resolve issues without derailing your entire rollout schedule.
Unexpected Budget Hits
Nothing blows up a project budget faster than surprise fees, fines, or change orders. These unexpected costs are almost always the result of something missed during due diligence—a forgotten impact fee, a required utility upgrade, or a zoning variance you didn’t plan for. A thorough review of all project documents is essential for protecting your bottom line and ensuring your real estate projects succeed.
How to Clear It: Treat your due diligence report as a financial planning tool. Dig deep to uncover all potential costs associated with a site, from submittal fees to development taxes, so you can build a realistic and resilient budget from day one.
Environmental Compliance Issues
Environmental regulations are complex and carry significant legal and financial risks if overlooked. Issues like soil contamination, wetland protections, or endangered species habitats can bring a project to a screeching halt. Failing to check for these potential problems can lead to serious legal trouble and cleanup costs down the road. That’s why environmental reports are a non-negotiable part of any thorough due diligence process.
How to Clear It: Make a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment a standard step for any new property acquisition. For remodels or upgrades, check for any new local or state regulations that may have come into effect since the original construction.
How to Streamline Your Due Diligence Process
A thorough due diligence process doesn’t have to be a slow one. When you’re managing a multi-site rollout, the goal isn’t to cut corners—it’s to build a repeatable, predictable system that catches issues early and keeps your projects moving. A streamlined process is your best defense against the timeline slips and budget surprises that put opening dates at risk. It’s about working smarter, not just harder, to get ahead of potential roadblocks before they become full-blown crises.
By creating a structured approach, you can transform due diligence from a reactive scramble into a proactive strategy. This means establishing clear standards, implementing checks and balances, and using the right tools to maintain visibility across your entire portfolio. When every member of your team follows the same playbook, you reduce errors, eliminate redundant work, and ensure that every permit application package you submit is clean, complete, and ready for approval. The result is fewer back-and-forths with the AHJ, more predictable timelines, and the ability to get your doors open and generating revenue on schedule.
Create a Master Due Diligence Checklist
Your first step is to build a master checklist. This isn’t just a to-do list; it’s the foundation of a consistent and scalable process. For multi-site brands, a standardized checklist ensures that no critical step is missed, regardless of the project’s location. A comprehensive checklist is essential for identifying all the different types of permits required—from building and zoning to electrical and fire—along with the specific documents, fees, and application forms needed for each one. Think of it as your project’s source of truth. It creates accountability and makes it easy for anyone on your team to understand the requirements for any given site, saving time and preventing costly oversights.
Implement Quality Control Checks
Submitting an incomplete or inaccurate application is one of the fastest ways to derail your project timeline. That’s why building quality control checkpoints into your process is non-negotiable. These checks are your internal review gates, designed to catch errors before the AHJ does. Implementing quality control checks means having a second set of eyes review every application for accuracy, completeness, and compliance with local codes. This simple step helps you submit clean packages the first time, drastically reducing the risk of rejection or a lengthy cycle of corrections. It’s a proactive measure that prevents delays and keeps your project moving forward smoothly.
Set Clear Documentation Standards
When you’re juggling dozens of projects across multiple jurisdictions, organized documentation is everything. Without it, you risk losing critical files, submitting outdated versions, or wasting hours searching for a single piece of information. Establishing clear documentation standards is crucial for keeping your projects on track. This means creating a logical folder structure, using a consistent file-naming convention, and maintaining a central, accessible repository for all project-related documents. When your files are organized systematically, your team can operate with greater efficiency and confidence, knowing they always have the right information at their fingertips.
Use a System to Track Progress
Spreadsheets can only take you so far. For a national rollout, you need a robust system to track the status of every permit at every location. A centralized tracking system gives you real-time visibility into your entire portfolio, allowing you to monitor deadlines, follow up on submissions, and anticipate potential bottlenecks. After completing your initial research, you should be able to provide stakeholders with a clear, organized report of all findings, including estimated timelines and key milestones. This level of transparency not only keeps your internal team aligned but also helps manage expectations with leadership, ensuring everyone understands the permitting landscape for your projects.
Integrate the Right Technology
The right technology can transform your due diligence process from a manual, time-consuming effort into a streamlined, efficient workflow. Utilizing technology like a dedicated permit management portal can centralize all your documents, communications, and status updates into a single source of truth. These platforms are designed to handle the complexities of multi-jurisdiction permitting, offering features like automated reminders, task assignments, and real-time dashboards. By integrating the right tools, you can reduce manual data entry, minimize human error, and give your team the visibility it needs to manage a large portfolio of projects effectively and proactively.
Keys to Successful Due Diligence
Executing a successful due diligence strategy comes down to a few core principles. It’s less about a single secret and more about building a consistent, proactive approach. For teams managing national rollouts, these keys aren’t just best practices—they’re the foundation for predictable timelines and on-time openings. By embedding these habits into your workflow, you can move from reacting to permit issues to getting ahead of them, ensuring every project starts on solid ground.
Plan and Prepare Early
The single most effective way to protect your project timeline is to start due diligence as early as possible. Permit rules change often, and a requirement that was true for your last project might not apply to your next one. Kicking off your research at the site selection stage gives you the runway to uncover potential hurdles before they become urgent problems. An early start allows you to identify long-lead-time requirements, understand unique jurisdictional quirks, and prepare a submission package that’s complete and accurate from day one. This simple step is crucial for preventing the kind of small mistakes that can cause your submission to be rejected, leading to costly delays.
Monitor and Update Regularly
Due diligence isn’t a one-time checklist you complete and file away. For multi-site programs that span months or even years, it’s an ongoing process. A jurisdiction might update its zoning ordinance, or a new environmental regulation could come into effect mid-project. That’s why it’s essential to have a system for ongoing compliance monitoring. Regularly checking for changes that could impact your projects ensures you can adapt quickly and avoid being blindsided by new requirements. This continuous oversight keeps your projects aligned with current rules, protecting your investment and keeping your rollout on track from start to finish.
Organize Your Documents Systematically
When you’re managing dozens of projects across multiple states, a disorganized document management process can bring everything to a halt. A systematic approach is non-negotiable. This means creating a clear, consistent structure for organizing every critical file, from title reports and environmental assessments to site plans and AHJ communications. Your team needs one central, accessible place to find the latest versions of all documents. A well-organized system streamlines reviews, simplifies the submission process, and ensures everyone is working with the right information, which is fundamental to building a successful real estate project.
Know When to Partner with an Expert
Your team is skilled at construction, design, and project management. But are they also experts in the permitting nuances of every city and county you’re building in? Probably not, and that’s okay. Recognizing when to bring in a specialist is a strategic move, not a sign of weakness. A dedicated permit expediter lives and breathes this work. They have established relationships with AHJs and an up-to-the-minute understanding of code changes. Collaborating with an expert frees your team to focus on their core responsibilities while a specialist handles the complexities of the permitting process, ultimately saving you time and preventing costly missteps.
Take a Proactive Approach to Risk
The best way to solve a problem is to prevent it from happening in the first place. A proactive approach to due diligence is centered on a thorough risk assessment that identifies potential issues long before you submit your application. This means digging deep to find hidden zoning conflicts, potential environmental flags, or infrastructure limitations that could derail your project. By identifying these risks early, you can develop a strategy to mitigate them, whether it’s adjusting your site plan, applying for a variance, or choosing a different location altogether. This foresight allows you to plan solutions proactively instead of scrambling to fix problems after they’ve already caused a delay.
Build Your Due Diligence Strategy
A solid due diligence strategy is your project’s foundation. Without one, you’re essentially building on shaky ground, hoping you don’t hit a sinkhole of zoning issues or code violations halfway through a national rollout. A reactive approach just won’t cut it when you have aggressive timelines and revenue goals on the line. Instead, you need a proactive, repeatable system that turns due diligence from a box-ticking exercise into a strategic advantage. This means defining what success looks like, assigning the right people to the job, and creating clear lines of communication from day one. By mapping out your strategy, you can consistently get ahead of potential roadblocks, prevent costly delays, and make sure every project moves forward smoothly and predictably. It’s about shifting from hoping for the best to planning for success, ensuring your team has the intelligence it needs to submit clean applications that get approved faster.
Set Clear Objectives
Before your team even starts pulling documents, you need to define what you’re trying to accomplish. Your primary objective is to get a complete picture of a site’s permitting landscape to prevent delays and ensure your submissions are correct the first time. Is the goal simply to identify red flags, or is it to create a comprehensive roadmap for the entire permit approval process? For a multi-site rollout, your objectives should include confirming zoning compliance, identifying all required permits (building, environmental, signage, etc.), and estimating realistic timelines for each jurisdiction. Setting these clear goals ensures everyone on the project team, from architects to contractors, is aligned and focused on gathering the specific information needed to keep the project on track.
Allocate the Right Resources
Permit due diligence is not a task you can just hand off to an already overextended project manager. It’s a research-intensive process that requires dedicated time and expertise to give you the necessary information to make critical decisions. You need to allocate resources—whether it’s an internal team member with deep permitting knowledge or an external partner—who can focus solely on this critical first step. This person or team will be responsible for digging into municipal codes, speaking with city planners, and compiling a detailed report. Under-resourcing this phase is a classic mistake that often leads to incomplete research, missed requirements, and surprise delays that put your open dates at risk.
Establish Communication Protocols
Clear communication is crucial, especially when you’re dealing with multiple Authorities Having Jurisdiction (AHJs). Decide who will be the primary point of contact for each municipality. Having one person manage these conversations prevents mixed messages and helps build a rapport with city officials. Internally, you need a system for sharing findings with all stakeholders, including your design team, general contractor, and real estate group. A good strategy involves identifying the correct government groups in charge of each location and finding ways to make the review process faster. Centralizing this communication ensures that everyone is working from the same information and that insights from one jurisdiction can be applied to others in your rollout.
Define How You’ll Measure Success
How do you know if your due diligence was successful? The ultimate measure of success is a clean permit submittal that sails through the review process with minimal corrections. A key deliverable should be a clear, organized report that outlines all findings. This report should help you understand the entire permit process, from expected timelines to fees and specific submission requirements for the project. Success isn’t just about getting a report; it’s about receiving actionable intelligence that allows your team to develop a realistic project schedule, anticipate challenges, and move forward with confidence, pulling revenue forward instead of pushing it back.
Integrate Expert Partners into Your Workflow
For multi-site brands, handling the complex and constantly changing rules of different jurisdictions is a massive undertaking. Each city, county, and state has its own set of codes, processes, and personalities. Integrating a permit expediter or consultant into your workflow from the start can save you countless hours and headaches. These experts live and breathe municipal code and have established relationships with plan reviewers across the country. A specialized permit partner can help you manage the complexities of a national rollout, ensuring that you’re not only compliant but also leveraging local insights to get approvals faster. This allows your internal team to focus on what they do best—managing construction and getting stores open.
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Frequently Asked Questions
When is the right time to start the due diligence process? You should begin due diligence the moment you identify a property as a potential site, ideally before you sign a lease or purchase agreement. This early research gives you a clear picture of any potential roadblocks and provides leverage in negotiations. Waiting until you’re ready to start the design phase puts you in a reactive position, forcing you to solve problems that could have been avoided entirely.
Does the due diligence process change for a remodel versus a ground-up construction project? Yes, the focus shifts. For a new, ground-up project, your research is heavily concentrated on zoning, land use, environmental factors, and ensuring adequate utility capacity. When you’re remodeling an existing space, you’re also an investigator. You have to dig into the building’s permit history to uncover any open permits, past code violations, or historical approvals that could restrict your plans. You’re inheriting the property’s complete history, so your job is to make sure no surprises are hiding in its past.
My architect and general contractor are already involved. Can’t they just handle the due diligence? While your architect and GC are essential to your project, their expertise is in design and construction, not the nuances of municipal code. Permit due diligence is a specialized research discipline. A dedicated permit partner focuses entirely on this work, often bringing established relationships with city officials and an in-depth knowledge of local requirements that generalists may not have. This allows each expert to focus on their core role, which is the most efficient way to move a project forward.
What’s the most common mistake you see teams make during this phase? The single biggest mistake is making assumptions. Teams often assume that a process that worked in one city will apply to the next, or that a property zoned for “commercial” use will automatically permit their specific operational model, like a drive-thru or specific signage. Every jurisdiction has its own unique rules. A solid due diligence process is built on verification, not assumptions. You have to confirm every detail directly with the local authorities.
How long should a thorough due diligence investigation take? The timeline really depends on the project’s complexity and how responsive the local jurisdiction is. For a straightforward tenant improvement in a well-organized city, the research might take a couple of weeks. For a more complex ground-up project that requires zoning analysis or environmental reviews, it could easily take a month or more. The important thing is to build this dedicated research time into your project schedule from the very beginning.