Notes on retail development, site selection, and the markets we build in. Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
The $325 million that went into Authentic Restaurant Brands this week is earmarked for home markets, and that language is showing up in every development announcement worth reading — the pad that gets built next is the one that completes a cluster somebody already runs.
Freddy's own disclosure numbers price what a brand gives up when it moves off the pad, and the growth landing in Georgia and the Carolinas this week is landing inline.
Four brands are discounting royalty, fees and equipment to get units opened, and two of those offers are priced by when the lease is signed and where the site sits.
7 Brew paid just under $2 million a site for leases it will not own, and the three-times spread inside one identical portfolio is the number worth reading.
Corporate QSR and franchisee QSR trade a full point apart, growth has moved to the franchisee side, and the land is the only line left that can absorb it.
Retail space is not what is short in 2026 — pads with drive-thru access are, and the restaurant closure wave will not fix that.