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6 Franchise Updates: TGI Fridays, Burger King, McDonald’s and More
3.5M SF of Retail Acquisitions, Refinancing and Development
Grocery, Big-Box and Discount Stores Lead Halloween Shopping Plans
Mars Says AI Shopping Assistants Could Boost Experiential Retail
Adam Hines Will Join His Sister as Hines Co-CEO

TGI Fridays Plans To Open 5 Franchised Restaurants in New York State

TGI Fridays, once a mainstay among America’s casual dining chains, plans to open five franchised restaurants across New York state as it bounces back from bankruptcy. The deal with franchisee Bliss Bites is TGI Fridays’ first U.S. franchise development agreement in more than a decade. In January, the chain outlined a plan to operate more than 1,000 restaurants and generate $2 billion in annual revenue by 2030. TGI Fridays filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2024. In July, the chain gained approval for a bankruptcy wind-down plan after selling its company-owned restaurants, Bloomberg Law reported. The wind-down didn’t affect franchisee-operated locations in the U.S. and other countries, according to Chain Store Age. TGI Fridays operates nearly 400 restaurants in almost 40 countries, including 69 in the U.S.

Burger King Plans To Refranchise About 200 Restaurants in 2026

Burger King is selling company-owned locations back to independent owner-operators to fire up growth. Ultimately, the burger chain wants to wind up with 300 company-owned restaurants, compared with more than 1,000 two years ago, CNBC reported. Franchisees would run the more than 6,000 remaining U.S. locations. Independent owner-operators will be key to Burger King’s U.S. turnaround, according to CNBC. That owes partly to franchised locations’ typically stronger financial results “because their own money is on the line,” Quartz reported.

Burger King parent Restaurant Brands International bought the chain’s largest U.S. franchisee, Carrols Restaurant Group, in 2024 for roughly $1 billion, according to CNBC, adding 1,023 locations to Burger King’s company-owned portfolio. Restaurant Brands always planned to sell most of the Carrols restaurants to smaller franchisees, CNBC said. Burger King previously targeted about 300 restaurants for refranchising this year but now expects to sell only about 200.

McDonald’s Pledges $8.5B To Modernize Franchised Restaurants

McDonald’s, the largest U.S. restaurant chain as measured by sales, plans to provide about $8.5 billion in support to update franchised locations through 2036. The initiative includes about $5 billion in capital support and rent relief through 2030. The company detailed the funding at this year’s Investor Day as part of the McDonald’s > Next growth strategy, which launched in June.

The chain said the $8.5 billion program will accelerate restaurant modernization, technology upgrades and operational improvements. As of Dec. 31, franchisees operated 95% of the chain’s 13,706 U.S. locations, and the U.S. accounted for 30% of McDonald’s global store count. McDonald’s said markets will phase in the modernization rollout with “a clear focus on franchisee capacity and investment returns.”

3 Franchises Have 500+ Combined Locations in Their Development Pipelines

A smoothie chain that probably isn’t on your radar is bulking up. HB Protein Smoothies has just one location, in Scottsdale, Arizona, but its franchise pipeline exceeds 250 locations in the U.S. and Canada, Franchise Times reported. The company launched its franchise program in 2025.

A Hawaii-born coffee chain has over 100 franchised locations in its development pipeline. Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii, which recently moved its headquarters from Denver to Lexington, Kentucky, has nearly 50 franchised stores in the U.S. and expects five more by the end of the year. Expansion markets include California, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Tennessee and Texas, according to the chain’s website.

3.5M SF of Retail Real Estate Sold, Refinanced and Breaking Ground

From a major Canadian mall acquisition to a self-storage owner's return to retail, investors are pursuing opportunities in the sector. Meanwhile, CBL has secured new financing for a St. Louis-area mall, and a Houston-area mixed-use megaproject is moving forward with plans for 1 million square feet of retail and restaurants.

Primaris Buys Toronto Area’s Upper Canada Mall for 411M Canadian Dollars

Just one week after Primaris closed an equity offering of more than 230 million Canadian dollars in pursuit of 1 billion Canadian dollars’ worth of properties, it has scooped up a major shopping center. The Canadian retail REIT acquired Upper Canada Mall in suburban Toronto for 411 million Canadian dollars. The deal for the 990,114-square-foot enclosed mall — which sits on 76 acres in Newmarket, Ontario — is expected to close by Oct. 31. The sellers were Oxford and CPP Investments, Real Estate News Exchange reported. The mall draws 8 million annual visitors, according to Oxford. Tenants include Apple, Aritzia, Browns shoes, Lululemon, Sephora, Sport Chek, Uniqlo, Victoria’s Secret, Winners and Zara.

Upper Canada Mall will join Primaris’ 25 other Canadian shopping centers and, according to Simply Wall Street, is the fourth-largest property in the REIT’s portfolio. Simply Wall Street also said Primaris has an opportunity to re-lease former anchor space, lease up smaller spaces and develop or monetize 6 acres on-site.

Self-Storage Landlord Buys 2 Shopping Centers as It Returns to Retail

10 Federal, which owns 132 self-storage facilities across the U.S. and a number of multifamily properties, continues its reentry into the retail property market. Last month, the company bought Fort Worth, Texas’s 105,182-square-foot Cherry Lane Commons and North Carolina’s 219,850-square-foot Eric Lane Shopping Center, renaming it Burlington Commons. Though the retail acquisitions represent a new phase, 10 Federal said it previously owned shopping centers. It expects to continue raising capital and pursuing opportunities in retail and other sectors.

CBL Refinanced West County Center Near St. Louis for $135M

CBL secured a $135 million refinancing of a mortgage backed by West County Center, a regional mall in the St. Louis suburb of Des Peres, Missouri. The nonrecourse loan replaces a $136.4 million loan that was set to mature in December; it carries a five-year term and a fixed interest rate of 7.4%. The refinancing also is expected to free up more than $7 million in annual cash flow by lifting restrictions under the previous loan. “We have completed nearly $1 billion in new financing activity in 2026, addressing all of our near-term maturities,” said CBL executive vice president and CFO Ben Jaenicke. Macy’s, Dick’s and Nordstrom anchor the nearly 1.2 million-square-foot property. CBL’s owned and managed portfolio comprises 88 properties totaling 54.5 million square feet across 23 states.

Presidio Manvel Near Houston Plans 1M SF of Retail and Restaurants

Grocery, Big-Box and Discount Stores Lead Halloween Shopping Plans

Would-be witches and ghosts resoundingly favor in-store shopping for Halloween merchandise, the 2026 Deloitte Halloween Survey found. The August poll of 1,500 U.S. households showed that 67% plan to spend money on Halloween items at stores compared with 33% online. More than half, 55%, of shoppers picked grocery stores as the No. 1 destination for Halloween buying, followed by big-box stores at 47% and discount or dollar stores at 40%. Shoppers could choose more than one retail category.

Adam Hines Will Join His Sister as Hines Co-CEO

Real estate investment manager Hines has revamped its C-suite, including new roles for two children of company leader Jeff Hines. Effective Jan. 1, Adam Hines will join his sister, Laura Hines-Pierce, as co-CEO. He currently is chief of staff and senior managing director at the company. Hines-Pierce and Jeff Hines have been co-CEOs since 2022. Adam Hines will take his father’s place, and Jeff Hines will remain chair.

Additionally, Hines-Pierce will replace her father as chair and CEO of Hines Global Income Trust. In other moves, Hines global chief investment officer and managing partner David Steinbach will become the firm’s first president. Managing partner and co-head of investment management Alfonso Munk will succeed Steinbach in the global chief investment officer role.

As of June 30, Hines had $90.9 billion in assets under management worldwide and provided third-party management services for 379 properties spanning 105.2 million square feet.