Old Town Hoi An is a well-preserved historic district that is known as a trading port of South East Asia, dating from the 15th to the 19th centuries. Its architecture and style reflects the characteristics of native and foreign influences of Chinese, Japanese and French.

In Hoi An, Faifo means, “peaceful meeting place.” Enter, Faifo Pho & Grill, a collaborative Design/Build by TAM Interiors and Faifo’s owner designed for customers who love great food and design.

The owner of Faifo didn’t have experience in the restaurant business so I was responsible for negotiations with the landlord on the lease. I was able to arrange seven months of free rent for tenant improvement TI time, a brand new water heater and half the cost of adding an additional HVAC unit to the building paid by the landlord.

The second and biggest challenge was with the city of Westminster during the plans review. The city demanded that either the landlord or the restaurant owner pay a fee of $63,553 to upgrade the water tap in order to obtain the build-out permit, as the shopping plaza was a very old plaza and the existing water tap was insufficient for a new restaurant.

The client contacted me on the day that he was on his way to meet with the landlord to sign the lease agreement. I was curious and asked how many months of free rent for tenant improvement did the landlord offer him and he replied, “two months.” I immediately told the client not to sign the lease and set up a meeting for me to meet with the landlord, as restaurant projects generally need a minimum of six to nine months for design and construction.

As a result, I was able to negotiate for my client seven months free rent, a brand new water heater paid for by the landlord and half the cost of added HVAC unit to the building.

When the City of Westminster demanded a payment of $63,553 to upgrade the water tap before issuing the build out permit, the client freaked out. I immediately called for a meeting with the design team and the city planning department so we could re-examine the plaza and the existing water tap system. The goal was to work with the current business tenants businesses to find the best solution, so no one tenant had to pay the upgrade water tap fee of $63,553, which is a significant amount to either the landlord or the restaurant owner.

After the team examined the plaza, the city agreed that the best solution was for the landlord to replace all existing toilets for all tenant units with water efficient toilets and to reduce the number of water faucets for the new restaurant. At this point, the build out permit was issued without the water tap fee of $63,553.