Experienced Businessman and Entrepreneur
How I Explain IRR to My Kids at the Dinner Table
My kids know what IRR stands for: Internal Rate of Return. They're not old enough to use it in a sentence that would impress anyone, but they understand the concept, and that's enough for now. I've written before about why family is the best financial education a...
The Renovation vs. Demolition Decision: How I Think About Adaptive Reuse When the Numbers Aren’t Obvious
Every adaptive reuse project starts with the same deceptively simple question: Is it worth saving? The romantic answer is almost always yes. Old buildings have character. Industrial bones have aesthetic value. Preserving a neighborhood's history matters. There is...
Why Some of California’s Best Coffee Brands Don’t Lead With “California”
When you think of coffee brands that prominently display their home state, a typical Pacific Northwest chain likely comes to mind. However, if you drive along nearly any commercial street in Southern California today, you'll notice two brands quietly expanding their...
Dunkin’s Asset-Light Model Makes It One of the Most Landlord-Friendly QSR Tenants in the Country
A category of QSR investment rarely gets splashy headlines: no $9 million AUV records, no two-story drive-thru prototypes, and no investment-grade credit upgrades in the news cycle. But for net lease investors focused on consistent, passive income from well-located...
What the Japanese Convenience Store Perfected That American Retail Still Can’t
Visit a 7-Eleven in Tokyo, and you'll see fresh onigiri rotated three times daily, a bank ATM, a dry-cleaning drop-off, concert ticket sales, bill payment options, and a hot food counter that would shame many quick-service restaurants. In contrast, the American...
Taco Bell’s ‘Defy’ Concept and the Rise of the Multi-Lane QSR: A New Asset Class Is Forming
A two-story building in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, is being studied by every serious QSR developer and net lease investor in the country. It has four drive-thru lanes, a kitchen on the second floor, and a proprietary vertical lift system that delivers food downward to...
Subway Has More U.S. Locations Than Any Other Restaurant Brand. Why Don’t More Landlords Talk About It?
With 18,773 U.S. locations as of early 2026, Subway remains America's largest restaurant brand by unit count. It operates in more strip centers, more inline spaces, and more suburban corridors than any other quick-service concept. Yet in net lease investment...
McDonald’s spent $9B on Remodels. Here’s What That Means If You Own the Land
There is a reason McDonald's ground leases trade at the tightest cap rates in the net lease universe, approximately 4.38% to 4.40% as of Q1 2026, right at or below the 10-year Treasury yield. The market has essentially concluded that a McDonald's ground lease is a...
Starbucks’ Next Growth Chapter: Why Smart Development, Better Experience, and Stronger Partnerships Matter
Starbucks remains one of the most important brands in American retail. It has scale, loyalty, brand awareness, real estate history, beverage innovation, and one of the strongest consumer platforms in the world. In many ways, Starbucks is still best-in-class. That is...
The Deal I Almost Didn’t Take: What it taught me about trusting market data over gut instinct
Developing retail and QSR sites across the West, I thought I'd earned the right to trust my gut. I'd walked enough pad sites, sat through enough broker pitches, and closed enough deals to believe I could feel a good corner before the numbers confirmed it. Then a deal...