The Greene Turtle Sports Bar & Grille announced today that it has secured its biggest franchise deal to date, a 10-unit commitment for Nassau and Suffolk Counties on New York’s Long Island. The new franchisee group is led by Jeff and John Froccaro, operators of 38 local Burger King restaurants under the name Burger Brothers Restaurant Group, based in Port Washington, N.Y. The Froccaros have partnered with Sunset Capital Fund, acting through its managing partner, Harry Braunstein, to pursue a long-term growth strategy. The group will open its first location in early 2013 in Nassau County’s Franklin Square, on a highly trafficked stretch of Hempstead Turnpike between the famous Belmont Racetrack to the west and both the Nassau Coliseum and Hofstra University to the east. The site will be the casual dining/sports bar chain’s first unit outside of its Mid-Atlantic base.
“‘The Turtle’ is coming to New York, and we are very excited that such an established organization as Burger Brothers is leading the way,” said Bob Barry, CEO of The Greene Turtle. “Jeff and John Froccaro represent ideal partners for us, with extensive experience in restaurant operations, knowledge of the market, and exceptional operational capabilities. We are eager to find other franchisees of their caliber to take advantage of immediately available opportunities throughout the East.”
New York is a bountiful market for The Greene Turtle, with its abundance of professional, college and high school sports teams, the passion of the resident population for supporting them, and the regular influx of new residents from around the globe who want to follow their own favorite teams. Long Island’s suburban communities are also highly populated by two other key demographic groups to which The Greene Turtle caters: businesspeople hungry for new lunchtime and happy hour options; and young families with children. With its crowd-pleasing, affordable menu, its assembly of craft and commercial brews, its bounty of big screen TVs bringing all the day’s sporting events to the fans, and its booth-based flat-screen TVs broadcasting family-friendly programming, The Greene Turtle offers broad appeal.
“This is a great opportunity for us and for our neighbors throughout Nassau and Suffolk Counties,” said Jeff Froccaro. “For us, The Greene Turtle will complement our portfolio of quick-service sites with a popular and higher-ticket full-service concept. For Long Island businesses and residents, it’s a chance to enjoy great food and drink in a comfortable atmosphere at an affordable price, relax while cheering on their favorite teams or meeting up with friends, attend fun-filled live events and gain a willing partner in their fundraising and other community efforts. We can’t wait to get started.”
Conversions Continue to Bring Faster Market Entry
The Froccaro’s first location will be retrofitted into an 8,000-square-foot freestanding space that previously housed a Boulder Creek restaurant. Such conversions of vacated properties have long been a strategy of The Greene Turtle, designed to expedite the process and lower the cost of readying a new property to receive customers. While certain brand features and front-of-house/back-of-house proportions remain standard in each location, The Greene Turtle maintains a flexible format that allows franchisees to capitalize on the available inventory of existing local spaces.
“Conversions remain a key component of our development strategy,” said Tom Finn, Vice President of Franchise Business for The Greene Turtle. “If our flexible format lets us avoid a prolonged ramp-up process or unnecessary expenditure by using a perfectly good existing structure, we’re happy to help our franchisees open earlier and have more to spend on marketing and other bottom-line building measures.”
The Greene Turtle is now seeking multi-unit franchisees to develop sites in New York City’s outer boroughs, Westchester, lower Connecticut and northern New Jersey. Additional franchise opportunities exist in New England as well as in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida. Information about available opportunities can be obtained online at www.thegreeneturtle.com or by contacting Tom Finn at (855) TGT-INFO or tfinn@thegreeneturtle.com.
First opened in Ocean City, Md., in 1976, The Greene Turtle today includes 34 locations in markets across Maryland and extending into Washington, D.C., Virginia and Delaware. Combining comfort food, a casual atmosphere and a sports bar theme marked by big screen TVs broadcasting local and national events, “The Turtle” has become a popular year-round destination where families, friends and fans of all ages feel at home. AOL users in Baltimore named the chain “Best Sports Bar” (December 2010) and CBS Baltimore named The Greene Turtle among the best local spots to enjoy “March Madness.” Information is available online at www.thegreeneturtle.com/franchise.php and www.facebook.com/thegreeneturtle. Fans can also join their favorite location’s individual Facebook page for the latest news about special events and offers, or follow their local restaurant for updates on Twitter.
In January 2012, The Greene Turtle once again made Entrepreneur Magazine’s prestigious Franchise 500 listing of top opportunities. More recently, the concept was named one of the Top 25 Franchise Opportunities by Restaurant Management magazine. Franchise opportunities with The Greene Turtle are available throughout the eastern United States to qualifying investors through The Greene Turtle Franchising Corp., whose majority stakeholder is JPB Capital Partners, a Columbia, Md.-based private equity partner for lower- to middle-market companies.
