What permits do you need to open a restaurant in Spokane?

There is no single figure, and any site quoting one is rounding away the part that matters. Of the 14 records listed for a restaurant in Spokane, WA, 9 apply to every business of this type and 5 are conditional. Adding every fee on the page together would overstate what most operators pay, because it would include permits they never need.

Of the 9 that always apply, 3 carry a flat fee, coming to $70.00. That is a floor, not a total. 6 of the 14 are charged as a range or a formula set by the issuing agency, and 1 has no fee published at all. The ones that vary:

Business Registration: $131 base to originate (or renew at the standard rate), plus a per-employee fee: $10 each for employees 1–5, $15 each for 6–10, $20 each for 11+. A reduced $65.50 renewal rate applies if gross income is $18,000/year or less. Nonprofits, social purpose corporations and B-corps pay $65.50. A temporary registration is $65.50 for the first 90 days, $55.50 to renew for another 90. An additional branch location is $131 each.

Commercial Building Permit: Valuation-based, effective January 1, 2026: $73 up to $2,000; $73 + $13/$1,000 over $2,000 to $25,000; $372 + $10/$1,000 over $25,000 to $50,000; $622 + $7/$1,000 over $50,000 to $100,000; $972 + $5/$1,000 over $100,000 to $500,000; $2,972 + $4/$1,000 over $500,000 to $1,000,000; $4,972 + $3/$1,000 above $1,000,000. Plan review is 65% of the building permit fee for commercial work (125% for Fast Track). A $65 processing fee, a 2.5% technology fee, a small state-set Building Code Fee, and a $119 Development Services Review Fee also apply.

Sign Permit: Wall, projecting, or incidental sign: $48.70 per sign. Pole or billboard sign: $121.00 per sign. Plus a $119 Sign Review Fee.

Food Establishment Permit: Annual, current for 2026: Basic food establishment $290; Limited food establishment $380; Complex food establishment $850; Seasonal Complex $425; School cafeteria $300; Caterer with approved kitchen $570 (supplemental $260); Concession stand $240; Meat and fish market $250; Mobile unit with approved kitchen $630 (supplemental $340, additional unit $120); Micro market $150.

Certificate of Occupancy: Change of Occupancy with no work required: $93.20. Temporary Certificate issuance: $518.00 (capped at 100% of the building permit fee); extending one: $259.00 (same cap). A standard Certificate of Occupancy for newly-completed permitted work is issued at final inspection with no separate line-item fee beyond the building permit already paid.

Food Establishment Permit: $240–$1,386 a year, set by the local health jurisdiction — there is no state fee

Permits for a restaurant in Spokane, WA come from 7 separate offices: City of Spokane, Taxes and Licenses, Spokane Regional Health District, City of Spokane Development Services Center, Spokane Fire Department, Fire Marshal's Office, Washington State Department of Revenue, Business Licensing Service, Washington Secretary of State, Corporations and Charities Division, Washington State Department of Health, Food Safety Program. No single office issues them all, which is why an opening means filing in several places rather than one.

• City of Spokane, Taxes and LicensesIssues 1 permit on this page: Business Registration(509) 625-6070my.spokanecity.org/business/doing-business/licenses
• Spokane Regional Health DistrictIssues 2 permits on this page: Food Worker Card, Food Establishment Permit1101 W. College Avenue, Spokane, WA 99201 · (509) 324-1500srhd.org
• City of Spokane Development Services CenterIssues 3 permits on this page: Commercial Building Permit, Sign Permit, Certificate of Occupancy(509) 625-6300my.spokanecity.org/business/commercial
• Spokane Fire Department, Fire Marshal's OfficeIssues 1 permit on this page: Fire Safety Site Inspection(509) 625-7000my.spokanecity.org/fire/prevention/permits
• Washington State Department of Revenue, Business Licensing ServiceIssues 2 permits on this page: Washington State Business Licence, Reseller PermitPO Box 9034, Olympia, WA 98507-9034 · (360) 705-6705dor.wa.gov/open-business/apply-business-license
• Washington Secretary of State, Corporations and Charities DivisionIssues 3 permits on this page: Certificate of Formation (LLC), Articles of Incorporation, Annual ReportPO Box 40234, Olympia, WA 98504-0234 · (360) 725-0377www.sos.wa.gov/corporations-charities/business-entities
• Washington State Department of Health, Food Safety ProgramIssues 2 permits on this page: Food Establishment Permit, Food Worker Card(360) 236-4700doh.wa.gov/community-and-environment/food

Processed as a city endorsement through Washington's statewide Business Licensing Service, but this is a genuine city fee, not the separate state Business License Service fee already covered at the state layer. Unlike Seattle and Tacoma, Spokane does not levy a gross-receipts business-and-occupation tax — its fee is flat-plus-headcount. Several SEO sites mislabel this a 'B&O tax'; that terminology is not used here.

A statewide Washington requirement administered locally by SRHD. Most food establishments must also have at least one employee with a Certified Food Protection Manager (CFPM) certificate per WAC 246-215-02107 — there is no fixed government fee for CFPM certification; cost is set by the private ANSI/ANAB-accredited provider chosen.

Permits can only be issued to a sufficiently licensed contractor (or, in some cases, the property owner) under RCW 18.27.090(12).

The city's separate Sign Permit Application form itemizes a slightly different breakdown (a $65 processing fee, a $115 sign review fee, a $25/sign illumination fee, and a $117 'State Building Code Fee' that does not clearly reconcile with the flat, state-set figure used elsewhere in the master schedule). The 2026 master fee schedule is used here as the more current, codified source; the discrepancy should be confirmed directly with the Development Services Center at (509) 625-6300.

SRHD runs food permitting county-wide, including inside Spokane city limits — the city itself has no independent food-permitting role. Plan review is billed separately ($270 submittal, $180/hour pre-operation inspection); operating without a permit draws a $450 enforcement fee. This table was retrieved through a read-proxy after srhd.org blocked direct fetch, and could not be cross-checked against a downloadable PDF version — recommend one further confirmation pass before treating individual figures as final.

The city's own Temporary Certificate of Occupancy application form still states a flat $250 fee — that form appears stale relative to this codified, effective-dated 2026 schedule, which is used here as the current figure. Requires sign-off from the Fire Prevention Bureau, Water, Wastewater, SRHD (where applicable), Solid Waste, and Urban Forestry.

Waived for low-hazard 'general business office' operations, explicitly including — quoted directly — 'insurance office, tax consultant, attorney, accountant, therapy, hair/nail salon, coffee/espresso stands, photography studios.' Salons and similar personal-care businesses are exempt from this fee, and no separate salon-specific city licence was found beyond the standard business registration. General fire-code permits for alarms, sprinklers, standpipes and range hoods also exist (Spokane Municipal Code 17F.080.050) but the code does not print dollar amounts for them, and no separate fee-schedule table could be located.

This is a real statewide business licence, which almost no other state has, and the $50 is only the handling fee — each endorsement carries its own charge on top, though state tax registration itself is free and a trade name is $5. Adding a location or a partner city's non-resident endorsement costs nothing; anything else is $10; renewal is $5 a year with a late penalty of half the endorsement fee up to $150. The statute allows up to $90 to open, so do not publish the cap as the price. The important limit is geographic: 223 cities have partnered with the department so their licence can be bought on the same form, but Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue, Everett, Kent and Renton have not, and a business in those cities files separately — Seattle's own certificate runs from $73 to $3,210 by revenue band. Spokane and Vancouver are partners. Registration is required if you use a trading name, hire within ninety days, collect sales tax, need any endorsement, or gross $12,000 a year or more. Form the entity with the Secretary of State first.

$180 by post and $200 online, because Washington charges a $20 surcharge for filing online rather than a discount — the reverse of most states, and easy to miss since the fee tables print only the $180. Annual reports are expressly exempt from that surcharge. A corporation costs exactly the same $180; a nonprofit is $80, or $40 if it grosses under half a million. Expediting adds $100 for three days or $150 for same day. Name reservation is $30 for a hundred and eighty days and cannot be done online at all.

The rule treats an LLC's certificate of formation and a corporation's articles as the same thing — the public organic record — and prices both at $180, with no share-based component. So Washington gives no filing-cost reason to prefer one structure over the other, at formation or afterwards, since the annual report is $70 either way. There is also an initial report due within a hundred and twenty days of formation, free if filed with the formation document and $10 if left until later.

$70 for an LLC and $70 for a corporation, with no online surcharge — annual reports are one of the few filings the $20 charge does not touch. The due date is the last day of the entity's own formation month rather than a common calendar date, and filing up to a hundred and eighty days early does not move it. Late costs $25, taking it to $95, and reinstatement after administrative dissolution is $140 plus every missed year. The Secretary of State sends a courtesy notice sixty days out but the statute is explicit that failing to send it does not excuse the filing. A nonprofit pays $10.

No fee — the department answers the question in one word. The permit is generally good for four years but only two if you are a contractor, have been open under twelve months, have reported no gross income in the last twelve months, were on non-reporting status when you applied, or have missed a return in the last year. Many renew automatically; where they will not you get about ninety days' notice. It does not transfer when a business is sold, and a seller must keep a copy or an electronic verification for five years. Separately, Washington's main business tax is the business and occupation tax on gross receipts, which has no registration fee of its own and is banded for services — 1.5 per cent under a million dollars of prior-year revenue, 1.75 to five million and 2.1 above, against 0.471 per cent retailing and 0.484 per cent manufacturing and wholesaling.

The state writes the retail food code and prices nothing — the whole chapter contains no dollar figure anywhere. The local board of health, acting through the local health officer, is the regulatory authority, and each of the thirty-five local health jurisdictions sets its own schedule capped at actual cost. They do not even band the same way: King County crosses establishment type with seat count and a three-level risk category, from $441 to $1,386; Spokane bands by complexity, $290 basic, $380 limited and $850 complex; Pierce County bands by seats from $1,080 up to $2,400 for a large buffet. King County's permit year runs from 1 April and prorates by quarter. Plan review is separately and substantially charged — a thousand dollars and upward in King County. A single Washington restaurant permit fee does not exist and any figure offered as one is invented.

Ten dollars, and unusually the card is issued locally but valid across the whole state — the exam is uniform and any legally issued card works everywhere in Washington. The term rewards staying current: two years for a first card, three on renewal, and five if you document additional food safety training within the previous two years. One warning worth repeating because the state itself repeats it: there is exactly one authorised online provider, foodworkercard.wa.gov, and other sites offering a similar card are not valid in Washington. You may renew up to sixty days early. This is a separate thing from the certified food protection manager requirement in the food code.