11
Cost per square foot
Divide an Item 7 range by a square-footage range and you get four numbers. None of them is a contractor's bid.
Dividing an Item 7 total by square footage is a way to see that two ranges describe different projects. It is not a way to bid a restaurant. The numerator is a low-to-high opening-investment estimate that includes fees, deposits, equipment, inventory, and working capital. The denominator is a low-to-high footprint. Four combinations are possible, and none of them is the contractor’s number for the room under lease.
Brands without both an Item 7 range and a square-footage range do not appear below. Wienerschnitzel has neither. The Halal Guys, Dog Haus, Crave Hot Dogs and BBQ, Pepper Lunch, and Capriotti’s have Item 7 totals in the directory and no square-footage field on the brand record.
Four combinations, not a unit rate
For each brand, four implied dollars-per-square-foot figures exist:
- low total ÷ large footprint (the smallest implied $/sq ft)
- low total ÷ small footprint
- high total ÷ large footprint
- high total ÷ small footprint (the largest implied $/sq ft)
| Brand | Sq ft | Item 7 | Low ÷ large | Low ÷ small | High ÷ large | High ÷ small |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| German Doner Kebab | 1,200–1,400 | $690,500–$1,123,000 | $493 | $575 | $802 | $936 |
| Shah’s Halal Food | 1,200–2,000 | $197,000–$405,000 | $99 | $164 | $203 | $338 |
| The Great Greek | 1,800–2,000 | $582,014–$1,088,560 | $291 | $323 | $544 | $605 |
| Mad for Chicken | 2,000–4,000 | $321,125–$691,700 | $80 | $161 | $173 | $346 |
| 375° Chicken ‘n Fries | 800–1,500 | $324,100–$521,500 | $216 | $405 | $348 | $652 |
| Döner Haus | 850–1,200 | $359,500–$586,000 | $300 | $423 | $488 | $689 |
| Doner Shack | 1,200–1,800 | $498,000–$1,007,000 | $277 | $415 | $559 | $839 |
| Atomic Wings | 1,200–1,800 | $222,220–$860,773 | $123 | $185 | $478 | $717 |
The dollars are rounded to the nearest dollar after dividing the filing’s totals by the endpoints of the published footprint. GDK’s $690,500 ÷ 1,400 = $493.21, shown as $493. Döner Haus’s $359,500 ÷ 1,200 = $299.58, shown as $300.
Shah’s $99 (low total on 2,000 square feet) next to Döner Haus’s $689 (high total on 850) is the same mismatch in another form. One is a licensed 1,200–2,000 square-foot restaurant priced across a national footprint. The other is an 850–1,200 square-foot imbiss in New York and Los Angeles. The unit-cost column does not make those the same room.
The last two rows are the closest like-for-like here, and they are worth sitting with. Doner Shack’s FDD issued 29 April 2025 and Atomic Wings’ issued 29 April 2025 publish the same footprint band, 1,200 to 1,800 square feet, so for once the denominator is not doing the work. The numerators are $498,000–$1,007,000 against $222,220–$860,773. At the low end that is $277 per square foot against $123, a difference of more than two to one for a room the two filings describe in identical terms.
Even here the comparison does not survive contact with the documents. Doner Shack’s low includes a $40,000 franchise fee against Atomic Wings’ $25,000, and Atomic Wings’ band is nearly four to one from end to end where Doner Shack’s is roughly two to one, which says the two franchisors made different judgements about how much of the uncertainty to put in the range rather than that one builds more cheaply. What the pair does establish is that when two filings genuinely agree on the footprint, the spread that remains is a spread in what each chose to estimate.
Mad for Chicken’s $80 (low total on 4,000 square feet) and GDK’s $936 (high total on 1,200 square feet) are both “Item 7 per square foot.” They are not two bids for comparable rooms. Mad for Chicken’s table in the FDD issued 12 March 2025 is a 2,000–4,000 square-foot full restaurant at $321,125–$691,700. GDK’s 2024 table is a 1,200–1,400 square-foot outlet inside a five-outlet minimum at $690,500–$1,123,000. The formats, filing years, and included rows differ before anyone divides.
Why the numerator is the wrong kind of cost
Item 7 is an opening-investment estimate. The FTC’s Franchise Rule compliance guide includes amounts paid to establish the business and additional expenses through the initial period. A contractor bids work in the premises. Those are different objects.
GDK’s $1,123,000 high includes a $30,000 franchise fee, $25,000–$30,000 of deposits, $15,000–$20,000 of additional funds, $15,000–$20,000 of opening inventory, and $10,000–$15,000 of pre-launch marketing. None of that is flooring. Dividing the whole high by 1,200 square feet and calling the result a construction unit cost attributes fees and working capital to the slab.
Construction-only division is still not a bid, but it is a less mixed numerator for the brands that itemise it:
| Brand | Construction-bucket range | Construction ÷ large sq ft (low–high) | Construction ÷ small sq ft (low–high) |
|---|---|---|---|
| German Doner Kebab | $355,000–$680,000 | $254–$486 | $296–$567 |
| Shah’s Halal Food | $80,000–$160,000 | $40–$80 | $67–$133 |
| The Great Greek | $260,000–$660,000 | $130–$330 | $144–$367 |
| Mad for Chicken | $85,000–$255,000 | $21–$64 | $43–$128 |
| 375° Chicken ‘n Fries | $108,000–$212,000 | $72–$141 | $135–$265 |
| Döner Haus | $131,000–$266,000 | $109–$222 | $154–$313 |
Shah’s $40–$80 of construction per large-footprint square foot is the conversion-shaped band. Great Greek’s $130–$367 spans a design fee plus leasehold improvements of $250,000–$650,000. GDK’s construction unit costs stay high even at the low end because mechanical, electrical, and plumbing ($150,000–$175,000) and fit-out ($175,000–$205,000) do not go to zero when leasehold improvements do. Döner Haus’s band comes from a single row — construction and leasehold improvements together — where GDK’s comes from four, so its width is the filing’s own uncertainty rather than a sum of separately estimated trades. Doner Shack discloses a total and a footprint but no line items here, so it cannot appear in this second table.
A contractor will still bid from drawings, existing conditions, and the authority having jurisdiction — not from $254 per square foot derived from a 2024 FDD.
Footprint endpoints are not the room
Square-footage ranges in these filings are typical-outlet statements, not measured areas of a leased premises. GDK’s 1,200–1,400, Shah’s 1,200–2,000, Great Greek’s 1,800–2,000, Mad for Chicken’s 2,000–4,000, 375°’s 800–1,500, Döner Haus’s 850–1,200 and Doner Shack’s 1,200–1,800 are format descriptions. Rentable area, usable area, and kitchen area are different measurements. A 1,350 square-foot GDK-shaped shop with a 400 square-foot back of house is not “the midpoint.”
Mad for Chicken’s Express Model at $243,500–$470,700 is a second Item 7 with its own footprint of 750–2,000 square feet, not a second square-footage field on the brand record. Dividing it by the full-restaurant 2,000–4,000 square feet would mix two offerings, and this page does not.
The same filing’s Multi-Unit Development Agreement at $263,500–$711,700 has no place in this arithmetic at all, in either direction. It prices entry into a three-outlet development agreement plus the first outlet, so it has no footprint of its own — its own footnote says the low end assumes the first outlet is an Express Model and the high end assumes a Full Restaurant. There is no denominator that turns it into a rate. Reading a multi-unit Item 7 sets out what can be done with it instead.
Worked example: 375° versus GDK
375°’s high total of $521,500 on 800 square feet implies $652 per square foot. GDK’s low total of $690,500 on 1,400 square feet implies $493 per square foot. A ranking that says “375° is more expensive per foot” has compared a small outlet’s high end on its small footprint with a larger outlet’s low end on its large footprint, across two 2024 filings with different row structures. 375° itemises FF&E at $100,000–$120,000 and construction-bucket costs at $108,000–$212,000. GDK itemises restaurant equipment at $140,000–$175,000 and construction-bucket costs at $355,000–$680,000. The unit-cost ranking hid that.
Döner Haus’s $300–$689 band overlaps several of the others because an 850–1,200 square-foot imbiss total of $359,500–$586,000 can be divided four ways. The line items behind it do explain some of the spread: $45,000 of fees and training sits in every one of those four figures whatever the room turns out to cost, and construction moves by $135,000 across the range while the footprint moves by 350 square feet. They remain a way to see the issued range against the issued footprint, and not a unit rate for a build.
Write down all four combinations, as in the first table, so the midpoint does not masquerade as a typical cost. Keep filing year and format on the same line as the unit cost. If you need a construction unit cost, divide only construction-bucket rows that the filing already separated — never a guessed slice of a restaurant package. Compare the result with a contractor’s schematic estimate for the actual room, not with another brand’s implied $/sq ft. Put landlord TI, stated as dollars per square foot in the lease, on a separate line from Item 7 per square foot. They look similar and fund different things. See tenant-improvement allowance.
A per-square-foot rent quote and an Item 7-per-square-foot figure will look alike on a spreadsheet and fund different things. Rent is occupancy for a term. Item 7 is opening cash, including fees and reserves. Landlord TI is a third dollars-per-foot number, defined by the lease. Keep all three labeled. Mixing them is how a $50 TI looks like it “covers” Shah’s $80,000–$160,000 build-out until the reimbursement date arrives.
What the range hides is the qualitative version of this arithmetic. Construction is the row-by-row version. This page exists so that a divided range is shown as a divided range, and then left behind when the drawings come in.