When fast-growing Potbelly Sandwich Works Inc. decided to open a 2,200-square-foot restaurant in the Fairfax Corner shopping center in 2003, the chain dutifully applied for a construction permit from the county. It was granted -- 34 days later.
A year later, when Potbelly decided to open a 2,300-square-foot restaurant on 17th and L streets NW in the District, it sought a similar permit from the D.C. government. It, too, was granted -- 78 days later, D.C. records show.
Jorge Bernardo performs at the Potbelly Sandwich Works at 19th and L streets NW. It took more than three months for Potbelly to get a building permit.
(Lucian Perkins -- The Washington Post)
|
|
The longer wait in the District forced Potbelly to pay its contractors extra, according to company officials. They said it distracted the staff, which could not move on to the next project. And it delayed the store's opening by weeks.
For Potbelly, the experience is hardly isolated in the District, executives said. According to their records, it has taken the chain an average of three months to obtain building permits in the District, compared with seven weeks in Maryland and five weeks in Virginia.
"It is one of the longest permitting processes we have encountered in any of the markets we are in," said Tom Jednorowicz, director of real estate for Potbelly.
Chicago-based Potbelly has restaurants in seven U.S. cities. In the Washington region it has 15 -- seven in the District and four each in Maryland and Virginia.
Potbelly's experience illustrates how a seemingly small difference in a jurisdiction's business climate can have a significant impact on companies.
Retail real estate managers who work in the District say the District has never been an easy place to open a store, compared with the suburbs. There are historic districts with special design rules and tight urban spaces that make it difficult to build.
"When you are in the District, there is always more complexity," said Avis Black, real estate manager for Safeway Inc., the region's second-biggest grocery chain, with 140 stores.
The District government says it meets its 30-day schedule for reviewing building permit requests 96 percent of the time. To speed up the process, the District recently installed an automated system that tracks applications through several levels of review, said Gwen Davis, a spokeswoman for the District's Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs , which oversees building permits.
In Potbelly's case, D.C. inspectors at times asked the chain to correct its original building permit applications, which lengthens the review process, said David A. Clark, the department's director.
"If complete and proper plans are submitted, they are reviewed and permits are issued within 30 days," Clark said.
Potbelly does not dispute that claim, but executives at the company still described the District's permitting review process as unusually long, given their experiences elsewhere.
Before beginning construction of its Dupont Circle restaurant, for example, the chain said it waited 83 days for a building permit. Nationwide, the chain estimates it receives final construction permits, even after corrections, in an average of about 42 days.
