Bubble Tea Shop Build-Out — Mississauga | GTA Commercial Renovation Case Study

Project type

Full interior build-out of a bubble tea shop, taken from a bare retail shell to an opening-ready store.

Location

Mississauga, Ontario.

Approximate scope

Roughly 1,500 square feet delivered in six weeks — a front-of-house dining room and service bar, a beverage prep line, back-of-house prep and storage, and an accessible washroom. Turnkey cost worked out to approximately $200,000, or about $133 per square foot.

Completed bubble tea shop service counter and dining room in a 1,500 sf Mississauga build-out — The finished store on handover — service bar, pick-up counter and dining room under the black open ceiling.

Where we started

The unit came to us as a bare shell: slab, perimeter walls, and the base building's services running exposed overhead. Every partition, every service drop and every finish in the photos below was built new.

Steel stud partition framing under an open ceiling during a Mississauga bubble tea shop build-out — Steel stud framing going in. The base building's services stayed exposed, so their routing had to be settled before board.

Scope of work

Steel stud framing for the service bar surround, back-of-house partitions and washroom
HVAC ductwork, electrical distribution and plumbing rough-in coordinated above the open ceiling
Drywall, taping and paint throughout
Exposed structure, ductwork and conduit painted out black in the sales area
Suspended T-bar ceilings in the back-of-house and washroom
Large-format porcelain floor tile through the front- and back-of-house
Full-height wall tile in the prep areas and washroom
Custom millwork — service bar and pick-up counter with stone-look slab facing, wood-slat wainscot and freestanding wood-slat partitions
Track and pendant lighting on the exposed ceiling
Brick display feature with a glazed surround at the bar
Stainless prep equipment set and connected, with hand sinks, three-compartment sink and floor drains
Accessible washroom with grab bars and fixtures

HVAC ductwork and electrical conduit rough-in above the open ceiling of a Mississauga bubble tea shop — Ductwork, conduit and sprinkler lines roughed in overhead — routed as a finish, because none of it would be covered.

Drywall and taping complete on the partition walls of a bubble tea shop build-out in Mississauga — Board, tape and mud complete across the front- and back-of-house.

Leaving the ceiling open

The design called for no dropped ceiling in the sales area, and that changes how the mechanical work has to be done. When ductwork, conduit and sprinkler lines stay visible, their routing becomes a finish decision rather than just a coordination one — runs get straightened, hangers get aligned, and everything is painted out black so the eye reads the ceiling as one dark plane instead of a tangle. The payoff is the full clear height, and lighting that reads as the feature.

Exposed structure and ductwork painted black over primed walls in a Mississauga bubble tea shop — Ceiling painted out black. Structure, duct and conduit read as one plane, and the room keeps its full height.

Track lighting and pendant fixtures installed on the black open ceiling of a bubble tea shop — Track and pendant lighting set into the black ceiling. With nothing dropped, the fixtures do the visual work.

Tile and millwork

Large-format porcelain runs continuously from the storefront through to the prep area, so there is no threshold or material change anywhere in the customer's line of sight. The wood-slat detail then does three jobs in the same room: wainscot around the dining area, a wrap on the service bar, and a freestanding screen in front of the washroom corridor.

Large-format porcelain floor tile laid through the sales area of a Mississauga bubble tea shop — Large-format porcelain going down — one continuous floor from the storefront through to the prep area.

Wood-slat service bar millwork under fabrication during a bubble tea shop build-out — Service bar millwork in fabrication — slat wrapping a carcass built to the counter line, not to stock dimensions.

The finished store

Front-of-house was laid out around a single service run — order at one end, pick-up at the other — so a queue at the counter does not spill into the seating. The stone-look slab carries the bar face, and the brick display feature sits behind glass at the corner of the counter where it is visible from the street.

Finished dining area with wood-slat wainscot and backlit feature wall in a Mississauga bubble tea shop — Finished dining area — slat wainscot wrapping the room, backlit feature panel above.

Finished pick-up counter with stone-look slab facing and wood-slat wrap in a bubble tea shop — Pick-up counter — stone-look slab face against the slat wrap, set away from the order end so the queue does not block seating.

Finished bubble tea shop interior looking toward the storefront glazing in Mississauga — Looking back toward the storefront glazing on handover.

Timeline

Six weeks of active construction, with framing, mechanical rough-in, board, paint, tile, millwork and equipment sequenced so no trade sat waiting on the one ahead of it.

Outcome

An opening-ready bubble tea shop delivered in six weeks at roughly $133 per square foot. That figure sits between an office fit-out and a full-service restaurant for a reason: a beverage-led store still needs the plumbing, drainage and health-department compliance of a food premises, but none of the kitchen exhaust, make-up air or gas that pushes a cook-line build-out past $200 per square foot. If you are pricing a café or bubble tea shop in Mississauga or across the GTA, that is the band to plan around.

Bubble Tea Shop Build-Out — Mississauga