VP, Real Estate

Founded in San Antonio, Texas, in 1952, Church's Texas Chicken® is a highly recognized brand name in the Quick Service Restaurant industry and is one of the largest quick service chicken concepts in the world. Church's Texas Chicken serves up a rich tradition of gracious Southern hospitality and freshly prepared, high quality, authentic home-style fare, to help people provide affordable, complete meals for their families. Church's menu includes its world famous Original and Spicy chicken, Tender Strips® and chicken sandwiches with classic sides and hand-made from scratch honey-butter biscuits. The Church's system consists of more than 1400 locations in 25+ countries and system-wide sales of over $1.8 billion. Throughout the world the company operates two brands: Church's Texas Chicken and Texas Chicken.Church’s Texas Chicken is seeking a strategic and visionary Vice President of Real Estate to lead our national real estate strategy and expansion efforts. This executive role is responsible for driving growth through site selection, market analysis, lease negotiations, and portfolio optimization across all corporate and franchise locations.Key Duties / ResponsibilitiesDirect and manage field real estate team and work closely with construction services, operations and finance departments.Define and create specific trade area and site selection criteria based on historical new restaurant openings to ensure profitable future openings.Conduct, and/or manage others in preparation of, targeted marketplace analysis including, assessment of key site criteria metrics related to trade areas and specific sites (demographics, visibility, accessibility, competition, population growth trends, sales potential, etc.).Coordinate preparation and presentation of new restaurant (company and franchise) site proposals for senior management review and approval including new restaurant CAPEX and SAR approval processes.Prepare and present real estate activity and status updates for senior management.Evaluate pro-form P&L statements and respective investment analyses for prospective sites.Develop and manage collaborative partnerships for vendor, brokerage and developer relations to support real estate planning, site selection, new unit pipeline buildup and holistic multi-unit portfolio management in alignment with corporate strategic goals.Lead on-going development and training of corporate and franchisee teams around real estate functional expertise and execution.Position Requirements (Education, Qualifications, Experience): Bachelor’s degree in real estate, business, or other related discipline. MBA preferred.High achieving results-oriented professional with a proven track record (10-15 years) in commercial real estate in a retail or multi-unit restaurant environment.Strong technical skills including the use of Excel, PowerPoint, Word, geographic information systems, etc.Strong understanding of demographics, psychographics, model development.Must have experience managing, coaching and leading diverse group of high performing individuals to achieve aggressive and possibly changing objectives.Excellent oral and written communication and interpersonal skills are required; must be flexible and able to think creatively.Proven track record around profitable & sustainable unit growth in multi-unit retail industry in both domestic markets.Demonstrated experience and direct oversight of a brand’s real estate strategy, new site pipeline, site selection criteria and portfolio management functions.Strong leadership/people oriented / management skills with experience in supporting, influencing and managing domestic franchisees (QSR experience preferred).Strong functional knowledge with solid skills in communicating and disseminating real estate knowledge via training, workshops, road-shops, and one-on-one interaction with corporate employees and franchisees.Position requires 25% - 50% domestic travel to review potential markets, sites and existing locations.Well-respected within the industry with broad network of relationships to position the brand as a preferred QSR choice for developers and landlords.Individual must have served in a senior-level store development capacity with broad US geographic (US) responsibility for real estate function.