Electrical surprises are the most expensive kind in commercial space
In Southern California, plenty of restaurant and warehouse leases have been signed for spaces whose electrical service could never support the tenant's equipment. Finding out after the lease starts means paying for upgrades on someone else's building, on your opening deadline. These six items belong before the signature.
The six items
Illustrative photo- Confirm the service size — and whether three-phase exists. A restaurant kitchen or a warehouse with production equipment usually needs three-phase power. Many small commercial spaces only have single-phase 200A or less. Upgrading service in a commercial building involves the utility, the landlord, and the city — months, not days.
- Inventory every piece of equipment and its electrical demand. Fryers, ovens, walk-in refrigeration, compressors, chargers for forklifts — list them all with voltage and amperage from the nameplates. 'Roughly' is not good enough; the load calculation is only as honest as its inputs.
- Settle the lease question: who pays for electrical work. Tenant improvements, service upgrades, new subpanels — spell out in the lease who pays, who owns the improvement at the end, and who pulls the permits. Verbal agreements on electrical scope are where commercial disputes are born.
- Check code requirements for your specific occupancy. Restaurants face kitchen hood, grease, and egress lighting rules; warehouses face high-bay lighting, dock equipment, and storage-height sprinkler coordination. The electrical scope for a restaurant and a warehouse in the same building can be completely different.
- Plan the installation window around your opening date. Commercial electrical work means shutdowns. Sequence the work — service upgrade first, then branch circuits, then equipment hookups — and build inspection time into the schedule. Inspectors do not care about your grand opening.
- Leave headroom for growth. The cheapest time to add capacity is before the walls close and the equipment arrives. A service sized exactly for day-one loads will be undersized by year two. Plan one step ahead of the business plan, not exactly at it.
Opening a shop or leasing warehouse space? Send us your city, the space type, and your equipment power needs. We will give you a free preliminary assessment and register your intent — no site-visit commitment.