Scaling Development in a High-Cost Market

As fast-casual brands face rising construction costs and a tightening real estate market, the traditional "build it and they will come" model is evolving. In this session, development experts will share how they are leveraging AI-driven site selection, modular construction, and flexible footprint designs to maintain aggressive growth targets without sacrificing ROI. We will explore the tactical roadmap for operators looking to modernize their expansion strategy without bloating their capital expenditures.

Goal: Pivot from traditional "gut-feeling" expansion to a data-backed development model that reduces site-selection risk and lowers initial build-out costs.