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Don’t get screwed.</text><text x="58" y="258" font-family="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" font-size="30" font-weight="600" fill="#6b5b4d">Leases, TI, NNN &amp; buildouts — negotiated in your favor</text><g transform="translate(1010,86)" fill="none" stroke="#C0531F" stroke-width="9" stroke-linejoin="round"><rect x="20" y="40" width="150" height="130"/><line x1="20" y1="40" x2="95" y2="6"/><line x1="170" y1="40" x2="95" y2="6"/><rect x="50" y="80" width="36" height="36"/><rect x="104" y="80" width="36" height="36"/><rect x="74" y="128" width="42" height="42"/></g></svg>

How Do I Budget a Coffee Roastery Buildout?

Direct Answer

Budget a roastery around two cost centers that dwarf everything else — the roaster's venting and gas system, and the electrical and floor it sits on — and make the landlord eat the building infrastructure before you spend a dime on the machine. A production roastery buildout runs $150,000 to $500,000, or roughly $80 to $250 per square foot for a typical 1,500 to 4,000 square foot space, and the roaster itself is a separate $25,000 to $250,000 depending on batch size.

The money-saving move that most first-timers miss: the roaster venting and afterburner are the single most expensive and most-regulated item, often $30,000 to $90,000 all-in once you add the exhaust stack, make-up air, and an afterburner or catalytic oxidizer that many air-quality districts now require.

A typical 12 kg to 35 kg commercial roaster needs 150,000 to 600,000 BTU of gas, so a beefed-up gas line and meter can be $10,000 to $30,000 by itself. The biggest landlord trap is a lease that hands you a shell with no roof access for the stack, inadequate gas, and a restoration clause that forces you to rip out your $60,000 venting at move-out.

Demand a tenant improvement (TI) allowance of $40 to $100 per square foot, written roof and stack rights, a gas-capacity guarantee, and confirmation in writing that the zoning permits roasting (a "light manufacturing" use) before you sign — a café-only zoning that bans on-site roasting will kill the entire business after you've spent the money.

Where the Money Actually Goes

A roastery is part café, part light-manufacturing plant. The build splits roughly like this:

• Roaster venting + afterburner + make-up air: $30,000 to $90,000 — the most expensive single system and the one that triggers air-permit review.
• Gas line upgrade + meter: $10,000 to $30,000 to feed a 150,000 to 600,000 BTU roaster.
• Electrical service: $15,000 to $50,000 — a production roaster, grinders, packaging, and a café load often push you to 400-amp three-phase power.
• Reinforced flooring + roaster pad: $5,000 to $20,000 — a loaded roaster plus green-coffee storage is heavy; the slab may need reinforcement.
• HVAC + dust/chaff collection: $10,000 to $40,000 — roasting throws chaff and heat; a cyclone chaff collector is standard.
• Café finish-out (if attached): $40,000 to $150,000 — counters, espresso plumbing, seating, restroom ADA work.
• Green-coffee storage + production area: $10,000 to $30,000 — pallet racking, climate control, and workflow space.

The roaster itself sits outside the buildout budget: a 5 kg sample-to-small roaster runs $25,000 to $60,000; a 12 to 35 kg production machine is $60,000 to $250,000.

The Venting and Afterburner Reality

This is where roastery budgets explode, so price it first. Coffee roasting emits smoke, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and particulate, and most metro air districts regulate it:

• Exhaust stack to roof: the run, the roof penetration, and the stack height to meet code can be $8,000 to $25,000, and you need landlord-granted roof rights to do it at all.
• Afterburner or catalytic oxidizer: increasingly mandatory above a roaster-size threshold, this burns off smoke and VOCs and costs $15,000 to $50,000 plus its own gas load. The South Coast AQMD in California and many other districts require it.
• Make-up air unit: the exhaust pulls conditioned air out; you must replace it. A make-up air unit is $8,000 to $25,000.
• Air permit: filing and engineering for the air-quality permit can be $3,000 to $15,000 and weeks of lead time. Start it early — it's often the long pole that delays opening.

Get a mechanical engineer and the roaster manufacturer to spec the system together before you sign the lease, because a building that can't host the stack or the afterburner is the wrong building.

How Not To Get Screwed By The Landlord

A roastery's value to you is locked in expensive, permanent, building-altering systems — which gives the landlord leverage. Defend against these:

• The "shell delivered as-is" trap. A bare shell with no roof access, undersized gas, and single-phase power forces $50,000+ of building work onto you. Negotiate a base-building definition that puts roof rights, adequate gas capacity, and 400-amp three-phase service to the suite on the landlord.
• The restoration clause. Standard leases require you to "restore to base building" at move-out, which means ripping out your $60,000 stack, afterburner, and floor reinforcement. Strike it, cap it at a fixed dollar amount, or limit removal to non-permanent items.
• The zoning bait-and-switch. A landlord eager to lease may downplay that the zoning is café-only and bans roasting. Get a written zoning representation and pull your own zoning verification — this single point can void the whole concept.
• The roof-penetration veto. Some landlords later refuse or over-charge for the roof penetration your stack requires. Lock roof and stack rights in the lease with a fixed (or zero) fee, and require the landlord to warrant the roof against your penetration.
• Skimpy TI on a heavy build. Roasteries cost more to build than a café, so a standard retail TI allowance won't cover it. Push to $40 to $100 per square foot and a 4 to 8 month free-rent buildout period given the long air-permit timeline.
• The percentage-rent reach. In a retail center the landlord may want percentage rent on your wholesale roasting revenue too. Limit any percentage rent to on-premises café sales only — your wholesale coffee shipped out the back door is not their tenant traffic.

A Budget Sequence That Saves Money

1. Verify zoning and the air permit path first — both are deal-killers and cost almost nothing to check.
2. Spec venting + afterburner with the roaster maker and an engineer before committing to a space.
3. Confirm gas BTU capacity and electrical service against the roaster's nameplate, not a guess.
4. Negotiate the TI allowance and free rent to absorb the infrastructure, not just cosmetics.
5. Phase the café — open roasting and wholesale first if cash is tight, add the café build later.

FAQ

How much does it cost to build out a coffee roastery? A production roastery buildout runs $150,000 to $500,000, or about $80 to $250 per square foot for a 1,500 to 4,000 square foot space, not counting the roaster itself ($25,000 to $250,000). The venting, afterburner, and make-up air are the biggest line at $30,000 to $90,000, and a gas upgrade adds $10,000 to $30,000.

Why is roaster venting so expensive? A roaster emits smoke, VOCs, and chaff that most air-quality districts regulate. You need an exhaust stack to the roof, a make-up air unit, and increasingly an afterburner or catalytic oxidizer to burn off emissions — the afterburner alone is $15,000 to $50,000 and carries its own gas load.

Districts like the South Coast AQMD require it above a roaster-size threshold, and the air permit itself takes weeks.

Do I need three-phase power for a roastery? Often, yes. A production roaster plus grinders, packaging equipment, chaff collection, and an attached café frequently pushes the electrical load to 400-amp three-phase service, costing $15,000 to $50,000 to bring in. Confirm the roaster's nameplate requirements and make the landlord deliver adequate service as part of base building.

What zoning do I need to roast coffee? Roasting is treated as light manufacturing, not retail, in most jurisdictions. A space zoned café-only may legally ban on-site roasting even if it allows coffee sales. Get a written zoning representation in the lease and independently verify the zoning before signing — this is the most common deal-killer for first-time roasters.

Should the landlord pay for the exhaust stack? At minimum the landlord must grant roof and stack rights at a fixed or zero fee and warrant the roof against your penetration. Push to fold the building-side infrastructure — roof access, gas capacity, three-phase power — into a base-building definition the landlord delivers, and grind the TI allowance to $40 to $100 per square foot to offset the venting you do build.

Sources

• CBRE — U.S. Industrial and Light-Manufacturing leasing market reports and construction cost trends.
• JLL — Food & Beverage and Specialty Manufacturing tenant build-out cost guides.
• Cushman & Wakefield — Industrial and Flex-Space advisory and tenant-improvement briefs.
• RSMeans (Gordian) — Commercial mechanical, electrical, and food-production unit cost data.
• Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) — Roastery equipment, ventilation, and facility planning guidance.
• South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) — Coffee roaster emissions and afterburner permit rules.
• NAIOP (Commercial Real Estate Development Association) — Industrial and flex development pro forma research.
• BOMA International — Base-building standards and roof-rights lease guidance.