Page 25 - The Dental Entrepreneur

The Dental Entrepreneur

If you work just for money, you’ll never

make it. But if you love what you’re

doing and you always put the
customer first, success will be yours”

Ray Kroc

CHAPTER 3

Selecting The Type of Facility

1. The Vanilla Box / Fit-Up

2. Own Your Own Building

3. The Prestige Location

The Vanilla Box, Vanilla Shell, White Box

These three terms are inter changeable and describe the majority of dental office start up
projects. This office is typically 1000 to 2000 square feet of space in a strip mall or other
business oriented location. This may be a solo office or an extended hour group practice. The
vanilla box is a term used to describe how many shopping center type spaces are delivered to
a tenant at a time of lease. The “box” provided is the perimeter walls dry-walled, sanded, and
with a suspended ceiling in place. Handicapped accessible rest rooms may or may not be
provided by the landlord in the “box”.

The Lessor (that’s you) is responsible for finishing off the space. Fit-up is the term used to
describe the construction necessary with the walls of a leased space. This would include the
partition walls, floor coverings, electrical and plumbing. These are collectively called
Leasehold Improvements. These improvements are generally permanent in nature and often
return to the landlord at the conclusion of the lease. Leasehold improvements can be a
substantial expenditure in the opening of a dental practice. An average figure today might
range from 75- $125 per sq foot. Landlords often provide a partial “allowance” toward this
depending on lease conditions, length etc.

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