The New Brand Is Shopping for a Used Restaurant

Two Hawaiian Bros development agreements covering the Southeast reached the press in the past week. WFTV reported October 12 that the chain signed a 52-restaurant Florida agreement with Southern Rock Restaurants covering Orlando, Jacksonville, Gainesville and Tampa, over six years, with 24 in the first three. Franchising.com reported October 8 and 13 that MRCO, a group running nearly 90 Taco Bells, has signed 34 units across North Carolina, West Central Georgia and North Alabama.

Our position: if the chain builds here the way it says it builds elsewhere, this news matters first to owners of existing restaurant buildings, not owners of raw pads. In September the company told KCUR that more than half of its restaurants are second-generation conversions. In our reading, that makes a new fast-casual brand in Florida and Georgia a tenant for used restaurants first. Owners of dark or soon-dark drive-thru boxes in those markets have one more name to call. We would not price a pad off a headline unit count.

What the agreements say

Per WFTV, the Florida operator runs nearly 200 McAlister's Deli and Dave's Hot Chicken restaurants in 13 states. The announcement named no Orlando addresses and no opening dates.

Per Franchising.com, MRCO has signed a lease for its first restaurant, at 112 Courtland St NE in downtown Atlanta, next to Georgia State University. It is expected to open in the first quarter of 2027. The group also added about 10 more restaurants in Birmingham, Columbus, Macon and Auburn. It will join a ghost kitchen the brand runs in Decatur.

So the first physical Georgia unit is an urban storefront by a campus. It is not a suburban pad with a drive-thru.

What the company says it builds

KCUR's September 5 profile lays out the real estate model. Formats include freestanding drive-thrus, inline and end-cap spaces, smaller delivery-focused sites and shared kitchens. The freestanding prototype adds a dedicated lane for delivery drivers. Two-window drive-thrus target an average pickup time of 30 seconds or less.

The company told KCUR its average unit volume is about $2.5 million, with the top quarter of franchised restaurants averaging about $3.5 million. It ranks trade areas on density, income and buying patterns, then checks a site's access, visibility, signage and neighbors.

Count leases, not agreements

The same KCUR piece gives the pace. As of September 5 the chain had 83 restaurants in 14 states, nearly 300 more under development agreements, and 11 openings so far in 2026. The company said it was on pace for more than one a month through year-end.

We do not read that gap as a weakness. A development agreement gives a franchisee rights to a territory. It does not put a lease on any one site. The real estate signal is the signed lease. Across those 86 units, the reporting shows one: downtown Atlanta.

What we would do with it

• Second-generation box owners in the named markets: Jacksonville, Gainesville, Tampa, Orlando, Columbus and Macon. The company says conversions are over half its system, and both operators already run large restaurant portfolios. A box with a drive-thru window and room to stack is the closest match to the prototype the company described.
• Pad owners: we would not move a pad price on a six-year, four-market agreement. It does not say which corner gets picked.
• Landlords on any lease: both deals are franchisee-run. Underwrite the operator that signs, as we wrote on October 5.

Two things we will watch. First, the first Florida address, and whether it is a conversion or ground-up. Second, whether Florida leases start to arrive at the pace the agreement implies: 24 restaurants in three years is about eight a year across four metros. If the first Florida sites are former restaurant boxes, the second-generation read is confirmed in our own markets.