The process of getting any franchise business off the ground and successful can be an overwhelming and daunting experience. Our Franchise Development team understands this and has created streamlined tracks to help our Franchise Partners grow their Iron Tribe Fitness communities quickly and efficiently.

The Franchise Development team focuses 100% of their efforts on assisting you with Site Selection, Lease Negotiations, Construction Management, and Vendor Coordination to ultimately produce a State of the Art Fitness Facility.

What is Iron Tribe?

The Commercial Real Estate services offered to our Franchise Partners were designed to take the guesswork out of a potentially confusing and intimidating task of securing the correct site to do business.

You know the saying, when it comes to real estate – “location is everything”. We will do our due diligence and work hard to identify the ideal and most economical location for your Iron Tribe franchise business.

Our team understands your needs when it comes to strategically managing your location decisions; you need solutions that address multiple location factors, such as labor, logistics, economic incentives and your customers. We have developed a systematic process that produces highly replicable results that are consistently accurate and uncover the most important factors that influence initial and ongoing business success.

The site selection process includes a detailed evaluation of potential locations. The process typically includes selecting and evaluating communities, real estate site analysis and negotiating favorable terms and conditions. Our team will empower you to maximize the true value of your real estate dollars.

Site selection considerations will begin immediately following the execution of the Franchise Agreement. The process includes the following steps:

 

• Evaluate communities
• Create a short list of approved communities based upon our specific site criteria
• Identify real estate sites within each community
• Real estate analysis
• Negotiate incentives
• Site acquisition
• Great care should be given to gym deployment research and subsequent gym placement based on solid findings. Proper gym placement can fuel success.

 

Our experience over the years has enabled our team to lay out all the pros and cons of each requirement, and to direct you through the process step-by-step.

A detailed construction management package that you can hand directly to your architect and contractor allows each franchisee to easily build our beautiful model. Our objective is to streamline the gym opening process to get your location open and generating income in a timely and efficient manner – all the while managing the your budget, schedules, strategic vendor relationships, with the objective to keep your involvement and workload to a manageable level. The main focus is to ‘build your business – not your gym’. We will get you out of the construction business and into the business of changing lives.

It is critical to have an experienced project team looking out for your best interest. A team of experts who have already worked out the kinks and have perfected the process and have executed it multiple times.

Once the commercial lease is signed we provide weekly steps to complete the process of developing a store and bringing it to completion.

These steps include, but not limited to:

1. PRE-CONSTRUCTION
The architect will draft an AutoCad layout using the information supplied by the real estate team and survey data. This AutoCad plan will reflect the specific layout of the various zones to include the merchandise area, common area kitchen/break room, restrooms, storage closets, fitness equipment flow, etc. all designed to maximize the space and ensure design compliance.

2. ARCHITECTURAL PLANS
Upon approval of the preliminary plan, the architect will draft the final, engineered, stamped, working construction plans ready for permitting and bid solicitation. The architecture firm that we recommend can provide stamps for any of the 50 states. They are well versed in construction and knows our brand’s specific needs as well as local permitting and ADA compliance requirements.

3. CONTRACTOR BID SOLICITATION, SELECTION AND PAYMENT STRUCTURE
Parallel to the permitting process, your project manager will solicit construction bids from multiple licensed and qualified contractors. Some contractors might be local, regional or national. We will take the advice from landlords as well as you the franchisee who may have a relative ‘in-the-business’. Your Project Managers will review all bids for completeness, accuracy and that all contractors are making an ‘apples-to- apples’ comparison. Any potential contractor must also show that they are financially qualified with experience in commercial construction and sign a non-compete, non-disclosure agreement. We will avoid the low-ball contractors who bid low only to assess significant hidden up-charges and change orders. After negotiating and selecting the most qualified and best fit General Contractor for the given project – you will retain and hire the contractor.

4. FURNITURE, FIXTURES & EQUIPMENT
Iron Tribe has vetted and secured vendors to supply the interior gym opening elements that makes financial and logistical sense within the program. This ensures quality, brand consistency, functionality and a standardized cost structure across all locations. Vendors will deliver these items at the appropriate time in the construction cycle and coordinate installation.

5. COMMUNICATION
Your Project Manager will engage you early on and guide you through the whole development process. They often communicate with you, architects, general contractors and Iron Tribe corporate on a daily basis, or as needed but will also schedule a formal bi-monthly progress conference call.

Is building a fitness business so simple that anyone with passion for it can accomplish it on their own? We think not. The roadblocks and learning curve is intense. There are many opportunities to get sidetracked and make mistakes. Instead, the Iron Tribe team of experts who are involved every step of the way.