Author

Colm Brady

Fit-out writer

15+ years experience

Colm managed restaurant and retail fit-outs for a general contractor for fifteen years before he started writing about them. He knows what a realistic schedule looks like, where budgets go over, and why the end of a lease can cost as much as the start. His habit is to read a fit-out quote line by line and ask who pays for each item, when it is placed in service and what happens to it when the tenant leaves. At New Club Cocoon he covers build-out budgets, contractors, timelines and make-good obligations.

Credentials

  • Fifteen years managing restaurant and retail fit-outs for a general contractor
  • Ran budgets and schedules on build-outs from small cafés to multi-floor stores
  • Covers fit-out and make-good for New Club Cocoon
  • architecture, building, glass, modern
    Fit-out

    How to deduct fit-out costs in 2026

    Interior build-out work can usually be written off in year one under the restored 100% bonus depreciation. Exterior work and landlord-funded work cannot.

    Colm Brady 7 min read

  • A flat illustration of a small corner shopfront with a ladder, a toolbox and a paint roller outside

    Six weeks to fit out a corner café

    The build took six weeks because the hard part, the drawings, approvals and orders, happened in the four months before anyone picked up a tool.

    Colm Brady 5 min read