Shop construction in Batumi: a building or a pavilion

A grocery shop with fridges, a building materials store with heavy racking, a boutique with a large shop window and a beach pavilion for a single season turn out to be four different buildings, even when their floor area is the same.

A stand-alone shop or the ground floor of a building

A stand-alone shop is simpler to design: its own roof, its own delivery entrance, parking in front of the facade. With a floor area of up to 500 m², a height of up to 12 m and spans of up to 7 m, such a building usually stays in Class II, like a private house, and the permit needs fewer documents. How the class changes the preparation is described on the page about commercial construction. For a single storey, a steel frame with walls and roof of sandwich panels works well: the shell of the sales floor goes up in a few weeks.

A shop on the ground floor of a building with offices or apartments above gets more passing trade, but it is more complicated. The columns of the upper floors come down into the sales floor, so we fit their spacing to the shelving and aisles from the start. Refrigeration units go on anti-vibration mounts, and deliveries are arranged so that the lorry with the goods doesn't stand under the residents' windows at six in the morning.

Sales floor height and column-free spans

We work out the height of the sales floor from the display. In a grocery or clothes shop the shelving is about 2 m high, with lighting, department signs and ducts above it, so our clear height is usually 3.5–4 m. A furniture or building materials store with multi-tier racking needs 5–6 m, sometimes with a mezzanine for storage.

A column in the middle of a small sales floor gets in the way of the display and the view across it. A steel frame spans such a floor in one go, while in cast-in-place concrete the same span needs deep beams, and their depth comes off the ceiling height. The width of a column-free floor also changes the class: a span over 7 m puts a shop into Class III, and one of 12 m or more into Class IV. So it sometimes pays to divide a wide floor with a single row of columns on the line between the shelving. We design the floor load under multideck chillers and racking from the equipment plan, which we ask the supplier for before the design starts.

Shopfronts, entrance and roller shutters in the structure

A shop window starts in the structural design. A large opening has a lintel beam above it, calculated by the structural engineer, and we set embedded fixings for the frame into the slab and columns in advance. An aluminium and glass shopfront or entrance costs from 780 to 1,080 ₾ per m². We use toughened or laminated glass, so that it doesn't shower onto the pavement if something hits it. The window display, lighting and merchandising are then worked out in a shop design.

We build roller shutters into the design from the start: the box is concealed in the lintel above the opening, the guide rails are built into the reveals, and the cable for an electric motor is run before the finishes go on. Aluminium roller shutters with manual operation, installed, cost from 385 to 505 ₾ per m². Above the entrance we fit a canopy on cantilevers from the frame.

Deliveries, stockroom and forecourt

Goods shouldn't come in through the sales floor. We put a service entrance with a wide door and a canopy at the back, with the stockroom and staff room next to it. If goods arrive by lorry, we build a loading dock level with the lorry's load bed; for vans, a platform with a ramp is enough.

In front of the shop you need parking and a pavement. Paving an area with concrete paving blocks, including the sub-base and kerbs, costs from 125 to 170 ₾ per m². We design the falls and surface water drainage of the forecourt together with the building.

Sales floor services

In a grocery shop most of the electricity goes to the fridges and chest freezers. We calculate the power from the equipment list and put the outdoor units on the roof or in the yard, away from the neighbours' windows: in summer they run round the clock and heat the air around them. How the circuits for tills, cameras and lighting are laid out inside the sales floor is covered in detail on the page about shop renovation.

We size the supply and extract air for the flow of customers, put the fire alarm and emergency exits into the design, and make the entrance step-free.

Modular retail pavilion

For seasonal trade, a takeaway coffee shop or a kiosk by the beach, a factory-built modular pavilion works well. A 3×6 m sandwich panel module with a shop window costs from 17,400 to 24,000 ₾; it arrives finished and is set on concrete blocks or a prepared base. Installation on site takes a few days.

By the sea we anchor a lightweight pavilion to its base, otherwise the wind will shift it. We put the pavilion on your plot or on a site you already have the rights to, and before ordering the module we check whether it needs a permit or a notification is enough. Where a module makes sense and where a permanent building is the better choice is clear from our comparison of modular and traditional homes.

How much shop construction costs in Batumi

A turnkey shop or retail pavilion costs from 1,650 to 2,160 ₾ per m². The price includes the foundations, frame, walls and roof, the shopfronts and entrance, the wiring, ventilation and the sales floor finishes. Retail equipment and the sign are not included, but we provide the outlets and fixings for them. The design, paving and roller shutters are separate lines.

If you only need the shell and the tenant will fit out the sales floor, a 1–3 storey commercial building without facade and services costs from 990 to 1,260 ₾ per m². Full-height shopfronts, refrigeration equipment and a loading dock push the price up, while a steel frame and a simple sales floor shape bring it down. We send a preliminary estimate from photos of the plot and a concept sketch within 24 hours on business days, and the final cost is set on the basis of the design, after a visit to the plot and once the estimate is agreed.