Nick Waeltz, Vice President of Construction and Real Estate for Craveworthy Brands. , breaks down how Crave University systematically fast-tracks frontline talent into elite franchise operators
When you sign a franchise agreement, it’s easy to feel like you’ve crossed the finish line. You have a proven concept, an excited team, and a brand you believe in. But as any veteran operator will tell you, the real work—and the real game—begins the exact second you start looking for real estate.
In the latest episode of Chicago Sam’s Franchise GPS, Co-Host Justin Egan sat down with Nick Waeltz, Vice President of Construction and Real Estate for Craveworthy Brands. With 25 years of architectural and restaurant development experience under his belt, Nick pulled back the curtain on the real estate and construction pitfalls that first-time franchisees usually learn the hard way.
If you want to protect your portfolio, keep your timeline intact, and keep your budget from bleeding before your doors even open, here are the three major takeaways from their conversation.
One of the greatest dangers a highly successful entrepreneur faces when entering franchising is trying to recreate the wheel. Many new franchisees have incredibly strong track records in corporate America or other business sectors, but restaurant infrastructure is an entirely different beast.
Nick’s single most important piece of advice? Trust the people who got you here.
"You've bought into a franchise for a reason," Nick notes. "Trust the people who are supporting you. And that goes not just from my function real estate and construction, but marketing, operations, all of it... Let us guide you. Let us, let us help you. Let us, let us do our jobs as a franchisor."
When you partner with an established franchise system like Craveworthy Brands, you aren’t starting from scratch. You are stepping into an existing infrastructure designed to guide you around the costly, hidden corners you don't yet know are coming. Success leaves clues—lean on your team’s historical data and operations veterans.
When it comes time to hunt for a location, too many first-time owners make the mistake of playing detective on their own. They hop in their cars and look for windows with signs. According to Nick, driving around aimlessly is a fast track to a downward spiral.
Instead, your very first step needs to be partnering with a dedicated commercial real estate broker who is deeply plugged into your target market.
"A very wise mentor of mine told me a long time ago that if there's a for lease sign in the window, you don't want it," Nick shared. "Working with a broker means that you're understanding the entire market. And you can you can tap into currently occupied spaces that are going to be on the market... The best sites are never on the market."
A broker unlocks off-market opportunities, but finding the site is only half the battle. Once you find a space, you must keep your emotions completely out of the negotiation.
"Don't fall in love," Nick warns. When you fall in love with a site, your negotiation tactics skew, you view the property with rose-colored glasses, and you suddenly feel like you have to be there. This clouds your judgment and prevents you from walking away from a bad deal.
Nick reveals that some of the best money he ever spent in his career was paying architects and engineers thousands of dollars to perform deep-dive front-end due diligence—only to ultimately kill the site because of underlying structural traps.
Remember: it is always better to spend a little due diligence cash upfront than to sign a lease that forces you into an unforeseen, budget-busting CapEx investment.
Once the lease is signed, the pressure shifts entirely to the construction timeline. In the restaurant industry, there is an old saying: You can have it fast, you can have it cheap, or you can have it good—but you can't have all three.
When vetting general contractors, first-time franchisees frequently fall into the low-bid trap. They select the cheapest quote on paper without realizing that a lack of front-end due diligence will inevitably come back to haunt them. Rushing to execute agreements with vendors just to feel like you’re outrunning material lead times, or blindly selecting the lowest numbers, sets off a dangerous domino effect of project delays.
Nick broke down exactly how a low-ball bid instantly transforms into a massive financial loss:
"There's a trade off sometimes of are you going to go with the lowest number, then they're going to wind up hitting you with a ton of change orders. They're going to wind up three weeks late... And the I think the largest unseen cost of construction projects in restaurants are lost sales. By which I mean, if your schedule drags on two, three, four weeks beyond what you were originally told and your pro forma shows, let's say $20,000 a week in sales, you've cost yourself $80,000."
When those low-bid contractors fall weeks behind schedule and slap you with unexpected change orders, your total build-out cost matches the higher, more accurate bidder anyway—except now you’ve lost tens of thousands of dollars in opening momentum and sales.
To protect your timeline, ensure your lease includes an appropriate amount of free rent or build-out time, and always push for rent commencement to be contingent upon actually receiving your building permits.
Franchising gives you an exceptional blueprint for business ownership, but navigating leases, permits, contractors, and site viability requires an experienced corner. By trusting your franchise support network, leveraging professional brokers, and prioritizing tight, vetted front-end timelines, you can protect your bottom line before day one of operations.
Want more insider franchise tips and real estate strategy? Listen to the full conversation on Episode 3 of Chicago Sam’s Franchise GPS with host Justin Egan on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube!
Nick Waeltz is a 25-year architecture, restaurant development, and commercial real estate veteran who serves as the Vice President of Construction and Real Estate for Craveworthy Brands. He holds a degree in architecture from the University of Illinois and began his career in Saint Louis at a major architecture and engineering firm working in the public sector.
Following shifts in the architectural field in 2001, Nick transitioned seamlessly into restaurant infrastructure and development when he joined the construction team at Jimmy John’s. Over the next two decades, he built an extensive track record in franchise systems, mastering restaurant build-outs, project management, and site viability.
Today, Nick directs the real estate and construction strategy across the multi-brand Craveworthy Brands portfolio. He leads a comprehensive support network that helps new and experienced franchisees safely navigate the complicated transition from a signed franchise agreement to an operational storefront. Known for his data-driven and process-oriented philosophy, Nick acts as a critical advisor to business owners on market evaluation, broker integration, tight front-end due diligence, and landlord lease negotiations. Through strategic vetting of general contractors and proactive management of material lead times, his department works to minimize timeline extensions, shield franchise partners from unexpected change orders, and eliminate the costly risk of lost sales due to delayed openings.
Gregg Majewski has a vast amount of experience as a corporate executive in the restaurant industry. As the former CEO of Jimmy John’s, he played a major role in expanding the franchise from 33 to 300+ stores in just 5 years by surrounding the company’s marketing strategy around the innovative approach of delivering sandwiches and being “freaky fast”. Majewski has worked to develop restaurant concepts over the last two plus decades, before starting Craveworthy Brands in 2023, which currently includes a growing portfolio of restaurant brands. Craveworthy Media is Majewski’s gift back to the industry that has given him so much. The goal of Craveworthy is to inspire the up and coming industry leaders by providing important information, stories, and insights from titans past and present.
Do you know someone who would be great on this show? Let us know by emailing us at roomforsecondspodcast@gmail.com or sending a DM on social media @craveworthybrands