We ran the numbers on every restaurant TI permit our studio submitted in 2025. Eighteen projects, five AHJs (Phoenix DSD, City of Mesa, City of Scottsdale, LA DBS, Houston Permitting Center). Cuisines ranged from a 1,800 SF coffee shop to a 4,200 SF Korean BBQ with downdraft tables.
The trade-press number for restaurant permit timing is 8–12 weeks. That's true on average — across our 18, the mean was 41 business days, which rounds to roughly 8 weeks. But the average hides the variance. The fastest cleared in 11 business days. The slowest took 88. Median was 34. That spread, not the mean, is what should drive your project schedule.
What the data looked like, sorted by AHJ
Mean business days to permit issuance, by jurisdiction (n = number of projects):
- Phoenix DSD (n=7): 24 days mean, 19 days median. Range 14–38.
- City of Mesa (n=3): 21 days mean, 22 median. Range 17–24.
- City of Scottsdale (n=2): 29 days mean. Range 22–36.
- LA DBS (n=4): 64 days mean, 58 median. Range 41–88.
- Houston Permitting (n=2): 32 days mean. Range 27–37.
Phoenix DSD and Mesa are the predictable end. Both cleared every project we filed in 2025 inside 6 weeks. Scottsdale a hair slower, mostly due to additional zoning review on the two projects (both in downtown overlay). Houston Permitting was right around 5 weeks — slower than the Valley average but still tight.
LA DBS is where the variance lives. The 41-day project was a coffee shop in Eagle Rock with no menu changes from the previous tenant — simple, clean. The 88-day project was a Korean BBQ in Koreatown with downdraft tables, a major hood replacement, and ADA corrections that ran through three review cycles. Same AHJ, 47-day delta.
Cuisine matters more than people think
If we re-sort the data by cuisine instead of AHJ, the AHJ-mean and cuisine-mean give different signals about what to expect:
- Coffee shop / juice / boba (n=3): 19 days mean. Lowest-friction cuisine — no hood reclassification, minimal grease load, light MEP scope.
- Sandwich / deli / fast-casual (n=2): 22 days mean. Same reason — counter service without a hood-heavy cook line.
- American diner / burger (n=2): 31 days mean. Flat-top + char-broiler hood split adds review time but no surprises.
- Mexican / Tex-Mex (n=2): 36 days mean. Plancha hood length is the usual correction.
- Pizza / Italian (n=3): 47 days mean. Wood/deck oven structural review eats time, every time.
- Korean BBQ / hot pot (n=2): 73 days mean. Downdraft per-table extraction is review-intensive in every jurisdiction.
- Chinese / wok (n=2): 51 days mean. MUA sizing + gas-meter capacity review are the choke points.
The Phoenix wok project landed at 38 days. The LA Korean BBQ landed at 88. Same family of cuisine-MEP review concerns, very different AHJ rhythms. Add a flexible-cuisine concept and the prediction widens further.
If you want the cuisine-specific MEP review pattern for your project, the per-cuisine restaurant-conversion manuals at /guides/restaurant-conversion break out the 5 gotchas per cuisine that we see correction-cycled most. Reading the one for your cuisine before you sign the lease changes your timeline estimate by 2–4 weeks.
What actually predicts your project's timeline
Looking at the 18 projects, three signals predicted slow more reliably than any of the others:
- Change of occupancy classification (e.g. retail M to assembly A-2). Adds 2–4 weeks regardless of AHJ.
- Solid-fuel hood (wood, charcoal). Adds 3–5 weeks because the hood schedule needs its own NFPA 96 review separate from the gas-line hood.
- Inherited interceptor undersized for the new menu. Adds 4–8 weeks because health-department review runs parallel to building, and they don't finish until your set lands the upsized interceptor.
Conversely, three signals predicted fast:
- Same occupancy class as previous tenant (M to M, A-2 to A-2).
- No exterior changes (hood termination uses existing roof curb, sign mounts use existing brackets).
- Gas service was right-sized for the previous tenant's cook line (sometimes lucky, sometimes confirmable from utility records).
Of our 11-day project — a coffee shop in a former bagel shop — all three were true. Same A-2 occupancy classification, no exterior changes, existing gas service had the right capacity. We submitted Tuesday, picked up the permit Tuesday eleven business days later. Phoenix DSD cleared it on first review with zero corrections.
The lease implication
If you're walking a space and need a defensible timeline number to give the landlord or your build team, the right approach is:
- Identify the AHJ. Their plan-check rhythm sets your floor.
- Apply the cuisine penalty. Add 2–8 weeks based on the cuisine + MEP profile.
- Apply the occupancy delta. Add 2–4 weeks if you're crossing M↔A-2 or similar.
- Add 2 weeks of buffer for correction cycles. Most projects clear in 1–2 cycles; budgeting for 3 gives you cushion.
That math, applied to our 18 projects, would have predicted within 5 business days for 14 of them. The 4 outliers were all LA DBS projects where additional ADA correction cycles drove a long tail.
The single biggest mistake we see operators make on permit timeline is using a national average instead of the local AHJ rhythm + cuisine penalty. National averages will mislead you by 4–6 weeks in either direction.
We've shipped a state-by-state permit narrative for the five states we work in most — Arizona, California, Nevada, Texas, Ohio — at /locations. Each page covers the AHJs we file with, the hood/MUA rule that drives corrections, and the AHJ quirk to watch for. Pair it with the cuisine guide for the menu you're planning, and the timeline estimate gets accurate fast.
If you'd like the 5-day prediction for a specific space, send the address and the menu — we'll do the calculation and send it back the same day. The form on /contact is the fastest route in.