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RANGE

11

An operator on your side of the table, from the lease to opening night.

Opening a location puts an operator across the table from architects, contractors, and landlords, negotiating a build they’ll run for the next ten years, usually while running everything else. We sit on your side of that table (providing owner-side oversight through site selection, lease negotiation, design, permitting, and construction management) and step in as the operational project lead for renovations, rebrands, technology implementations, and multi-unit rollouts. One point of accountability from concept through delivery.

Tell us what’s breaking.

Take the Diagnostic

Thirty to forty-five minutes, with the Straight Read back within 48 hours.

Scope of Work

  • Site selection criteria and trade area evaluation
  • Letter of intent and lease review
  • Design brief development and architect coordination
  • Construction oversight and contractor management
  • Renovation, rebrand, and technology rollout management
  • Timeline, milestone tracking, and stakeholder reporting

The build is where operating costs get locked in.

The risk in any build or major initiative is that no one at the table has both development expertise and operational judgment, so decisions get made for construction convenience that the team pays for every shift afterward. We manage that risk from the operator’s side: site selection criteria set by how the unit will trade, a lease read for the clauses that bite an operator later, design decisions weighed against labor and throughput, and construction held to a timeline the business can plan around.

One calendar runs the whole build: a critical path that ties permitting, buildout, and hiring together instead of managing them in separate silos; FF&E lead-time tracking so a six-month hood or walk-in order doesn’t quietly become the reason the promised opening date slips; disciplined change-order management that keeps the contractor’s convenience from becoming your budget overrun; and a real punch-list and final-walk process before anyone calls a space done.

Most delays trace back to one of these breaking quietly for weeks before anyone notices. The same discipline runs renovations, rebrands, and technology rollouts, phased around live operations so the work gets done without giving up the revenue.

The record is on Selected Outcomes.

How it works

StepWhat happens
01Set site criteria by how the unit will trade
02Read the lease for the clauses that bite later
03Tie permitting, buildout, and hiring to one calendar
04Track FF&E lead times and change orders weekly
05Walk the punch list before anyone calls it done

Before

Timeline, budget, and vendor decisions live in separate spreadsheets and separate heads, and the opening date slips a little at a time until it’s slipped a lot.

After

One critical-path calendar ties construction, FF&E, and staffing together, so a lead-time delay or a change order gets caught and priced before it moves the opening date.

Common Questions

What does owner-side project management mean?

It means we represent your interests, not the contractor’s or architect’s, through site selection, lease, design, permitting, and construction. We bring both development experience and operational judgment, so decisions are made for how the restaurant will actually run, not just for what’s easiest or cheapest to build.

Can you manage a remodel or rebrand without closing us down?

Yes. Phasing a renovation, rebrand, or technology rollout to protect operations and revenue is exactly the kind of project we lead. We manage the timeline, vendors, and sequencing around the business so the work gets done with the least possible disruption to the units and the guests.

What’s the reporting cadence during a build or rollout?

Weekly at minimum against the critical-path calendar: budget, timeline, and open decisions in one read, so nothing waits a month to surface. During the final stretch before opening, that cadence tightens further, because that’s when small slips compound fastest.

Aren’t you a fourth party at the table?

The GC represents the build, the architect represents the design, and both get paid whether the restaurant works or not. Nobody at that table owns the operating outcome: whether the line can cook the menu, whether the layout holds a full Friday, whether the lease clauses bite in year three. That’s the seat we hold, and it’s the one that decides whether the project was a good one.

At what point in a project should we bring you in?

Before the lease is signed, ideally. Site criteria and the lease read are where an operator’s judgment saves the most, and those decisions can’t be unmade later. If the lease is already inked or construction is underway, we join wherever the project stands and take over the critical path from there; the earlier stages just come with fewer options to protect.