Vendit.AI CRO Brandy McAdams share how franchisees can leverage AI site selection, target daily-commute co-tenancy, negotiate blended lease terms, and utilize rolling guarantees to maximize profitability and protect their downside.
When launching a new franchise location, securing real estate is often described as a 10-year business "marriage"—a decision with long-term financial consequences that can make or break unit-level profitability.
In Episode 6 of Franchise GPS, host Sam Stanovich ("Chicago Sam") sits down with Brandy McAdams, Chief Revenue Officer at Vendita AI, to break down how top-performing operators use data, artificial intelligence, and strategic lease negotiations to protect their upside and avoid costly real estate pitfalls.
Here are the three critical takeaways every franchisee and multi-unit developer must know before putting ink to paper
It is easy to get caught up in the AI hype cycle. From Instagram reels to late-night brainstorming sessions, it seems like everyone is suggesting you drop a prompt into ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude to build your business strategies. But when it comes to million-dollar site selection, relying on open, unvalidated LLMs is practically a coin flip.
As Doug bluntly pointed out during the episode: "Garbage in, garbage out."
Open AI models are, at their absolute best, about 60% accurate when handling real estate data. They rely heavily on basic internet scraping, which often serves up hallucinated details, outdated listings, or closed-down properties. If you base your brand's growth on unvalidated data, you risk wasting time—or worse, capital—on bad locations.
"People are stopping by what we consider more daily needs... anything that's close to something that's grocer anchored, anything that's on their traffic pattern to and from work... Now the decision is based more on: Is it in my neighborhood? Is it in my day-to-day commute?"
Rising construction costs have changed how landlords approach tenant concessions. Rather than offering flat rate reductions or isolated free rent, developers are favoring blended deals that balance upfront capital with long-term rent structures.
in new construction projects, landlords increasingly deliver spaces in "gray shell" condition. Because full build-outs are costly for developers, they are often willing to allocate higher Tenant Improvement (TI) allowances—giving franchisees the capital needed to build out exact brand specifications.
"Most are doing a blended deal. We'll do a little bit of free rent and we'll do some tenant improvement allowance... specifically developers with new construction, they're willing to put more tenant improvement allowance into the deal, doing a lot more of what we call a gray shell delivery..."
One of the most dangerous terms in commercial real estate is an uncapped, 10-year personal guarantee (PG). In some extreme cases, standard landlord guarantee language can even pass financial liabilities down to a franchisee's estate or heirs.
To mitigate personal exposure without tanking the deal, experienced operators negotiate a Rolling Guarantee.
"So don't immediately say yes to a ten year personal guarantee. Don't do that. Please don't... We try to negotiate an initial term with a guarantee again to cover the landlord's exposure. And then we'll do something through the remaining term of the lease, which is called a rolling guarantee... the fast casual user is only responsible for one year's rent."
Beyond economics and guarantees, Brandy McAdams and Sam Stanovich emphasize several "what-if" clauses that must be negotiated during the Letter of Intent (LOI) stage:
Streamlining Site Selection with AI
Traditional site hunting required weeks of driving trade areas, collecting paper broker flyers, and taking multiple expensive out-of-state site tours. Today, franchisors and developers leverage AI platforms like Vendita AI to analyze traffic counts, customer demographics, and 3D spatial mapping remotely—reducing multiple site visits down to a single, targeted tour.
Whether you are looking to open your first location or build out a multi-unit territory, grounding your site selection in real-time data ensures your deal terms align with your brand’s Average Unit Volume (AUV) and long-term financial goals.
Want more insider franchise tips? Listen to the full conversation on Episode 6 of Chicago Sam’s Franchise GPS with host Sam Stanovich on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube!
Brandy McAdams is a commercial real estate professional and Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) of Vendita AI and Vendita CRE. She specializes in commercial real estate (CRE) execution, AI-driven site selection, market mapping, and lease negotiations for national franchise brands, multi-unit developers, and fast-casual operators across Florida and nationwide
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.
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