Ghost Kitchens in Shopping Malls

Ghost Kitchens: The Shopping Mall Trend Gathering Steam

Have you heard about ghost kitchens in shopping malls? Mall owners all over are transforming their spaces. These kitchens can provide a viable way to utilize empty retail space in your buildings. However, there is a lot to know about before you jump on the ghost kitchen trend in shopping malls. It is important to pay attention to the unique challenges that repurposing existing space in malls into ghost kitchens presents. These insights have been contributed by the experienced commercial builders at Headwaters Construction Inc.

What is a Ghost Kitchen?

Under normal circumstances, commercial kitchens are located in spaces where a restaurant or hotel exist. This is to serve clients who sit and dine in the space availed for that purpose.

In contrast, a ghost kitchen is a commercial kitchen that is set up in a location where there is no intention for customers to come in, order, and have a meal. Ghost kitchens are established to fulfill the orders made through food delivery apps, such as Uber Foods. This is so the food can be prepped and transported to a restaurant elsewhere. 

Why Would You Be Interested in Ghost Kitchens in Shopping Malls?

Ghost kitchens are enticing to shopping mall owners because they utilize unused space that may exist.

Commercial renovation contractors like Headwaters Construction Inc. are seeing a lot of unused space in shopping malls due to the increasing trend of businesses taking their operations online. 

This shift to digital platforms, and the transfer of brick and mortar outlets to the suburbs, poses a real existential threat to shopping malls. This is unless alternative uses for the available space can be found quickly. Ghost kitchens are one of those alternatives available to shopping mall owners having unused space in their malls.

Considerations When Converting Existing Retail Space into a Ghost Kitchen

• Infrastructure Intricacies

Turek’s Plumbing, an Appleton, WI Kitchen remodel company explains that any commercial kitchen, regardless of its size, requires more. Commercial kitchens require more water, gas, and waste lines when compared to other commercial spaces. As you plan a retail renovation project to convert existing space into a ghost kitchen, think about the costs that will be involved in implementing these upgrades.

One safeguard that you can negotiate to rationalize these upgrades is securing a long term tenant. This will make the cost of the upgrades offset gradually and the conversion makes business sense.

• Layout Limitations

Commercial construction companies rely on the existing utility lines (water, gas and waste) to plan the layout of a commercial kitchen during a renovation or repurposing project.

If the available space wasn’t originally designed to be a commercial kitchen, then the commercial renovation contractor may have no choice other than to tear up the existing floors and walls in order to install these lines as demanded by a commercial kitchen.

Needless to say, making those layout modifications will come at a significant cost, and shopping mall owners have to think about this cost when considering whether to take on a ghost kitchen as a tenant for retail space that is currently unused.

• Mechanical System Additions

Setting up a ghost kitchen in a space that was a kitchen before makes things easier. If the ghost kitchen is created from space that wasn’t used as a kitchen before, then there will be a need to install mechanical systems like black iron ductwork (that also has fans to link the exhaust system of the kitchen to the exterior of the building), a fire suppression system, and so on. 

The cost of these mechanical systems may be hard to estimate, so it is wise for you to enlist the help of Headwaters Construction Inc.’s experienced Sacramento commercial builders.

Work out the feasibility of having ghost kitchens as tenants before you make any commitments to potential tenants. At Headwaters Construction Inc., we have experience in performing different kinds of commercial renovations. We have converted many existing retail spaces into commercial kitchens. Contact us today and we can help you to realize your dream of having ghost kitchens as tenants.