Below is a video tour of Lolli and Pops, which was a pretty ideal project: The owners were great collaborators, they gave us a completely blank slate to work with.

We all agreed we wanted something special. In the early design phases we asked a lot of questions about why the owner is in the candy business, about what they find magical about candy, and what makes their store and approach unique and authentic to them. We thought a lot about the customer experience – the approach to the store, moving through the store, and eventually landed upon discovering the hidden worlds of candy. Lastly, we had a lot of discussions about the iconic gummy bear, it’s instantly recognizable, and at once charming and sublime. It’s Buddha like presence presented a design opportunity: make a gummy shrine.

We have found that the New York market brings about $130-160 per rentable square foot for a mid-end build-out, and $160-200+ for a high end build-out.

We are often in New York for business and are happy to help visit prospective office spaces to review for possible unforeseen capital expenditures and discuss design opportunities.

Below are some recent completed medical offices we designed in NYC.

408 W 14^th Street; completed Fall 2011

515 Madison Ave; completed Spring 2011

We’ll be glad to lend some guidance.  We have designed and built numerous restaurants, including casual restaurants such as Hot Spud, Ritual Coffee Roasters, Blush Organic Frozen Yogurt, and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.

From the perspective of construction costs, taking a space with an existing kitchen would be a huge advantage. The major costs to build a kitchen from scratch add up quickly as it includes electrical, gas, plumbing, and the hood (including ducting/venting and fire suppression).  At its most extreme, the kitchen can cost up to 3/4 of the overall budget. For a 1,500 square foot space, the kitchen would be about 600 square feet and the dining room about 900 square feet. The cost of a new kitchen is typically $300-500 per square foot, putting the cost of the kitchen at $180K to $300K.

If you are looking at a space that has an existing kitchen, it will dramatically reduce construction costs. But be aware you might have to bring some items up to code or make other improvements to suit the menu.  Pay close attention to the type of hood and the ducting as correcting these items can be expensive and are often out-of-code.

The square footage costs for the dining room are lower, but can still add up.  They tend to range between $100-200 per square foot, which is $90,000 to $180,000 for a 900 square foot dining room.  If your design aesthetic can support a more “rustic” look, then we can work to lower those figures.  A past project had a very limited budget and we were able to reduce the cost to $50 per square foot.  However, a number this low is very rare.

You can find some more responses to typical restaurant questions at our Restaurant Q&A.

Thanks for your question and congratulations on finalizing your space.  The range of costs for dental offices we’ve been seeing is about $110-$150 per square foot.  $110 per square foot is the low side, and will get you something very straightforward – painted drywall, plastic laminate counters and other very standard finishes and lighting.  $150 per square foot will get you a well designed office, with higher-end finishes and more elaborate design.  $120 seems to be the median cost.

Yes, we have designed several dental offices, our largest being a high-end 10 operatory dental office in the historic 450 Sutter Building in downtown San Francisco.  We currently have three dental and one orthodontic office in design right now.