Franchise Tenant Representation
If you have signed a franchise agreement, you are already on a clock. Your development schedule has dates in it, your franchisor has approval rights over the site, and the lease you sign will outlast most other decisions you make about the business. Tenant representation is having someone on your side of that table.
And it typically costs you nothing. In most retail and commercial leases the landlord pays the commission, and it is split between the landlord's broker and the tenant's broker. If you walk in unrepresented, that money does not come back to you. It goes to the listing broker, who works for the landlord.
What a tenant rep actually does
Site selection. Not simply finding available space, but matching real estate to the model. Trade-area demographics against your franchisor's criteria, traffic counts, ingress and egress, parking ratios, co-tenancy, and what is opening nearby that has not been announced yet.
Getting the site approved. Most franchisors have a real estate department with veto power. Knowing what they will approve before you fall in love with a location saves weeks you do not have.
Negotiating the terms that matter. Base rent is the number everyone watches and rarely the one that decides the deal. Tenant improvement allowance, free rent during buildout, exclusivity, co-tenancy protections, assignment rights, renewal options, and personal guaranty terms are where the money and the risk actually sit.
Managing the timeline. Letter of intent, lease negotiation, permitting, buildout. Every one of those takes longer than a first-time franchisee expects, and your development schedule does not move because the city was slow.
Why unrepresented franchisees pay for it twice
The listing broker on a shopping center represents the landlord. That is their job and they do it well.
When a franchisee negotiates directly with that broker, there is nobody in the room whose interest is the tenant's. The commission still gets paid. It just does not buy the tenant anything.
The second cost shows up later, in a lease with a weak improvement allowance, no co-tenancy protection, an unlimited personal guaranty, or a renewal option priced at market with no cap. Those terms do not hurt on signing day. They hurt in year four.
Read more: Who pays the tenant rep broker?
What the San Antonio market looks like right now
Retail here is tight. Vacancy was 4.2 percent in Q1 2026 with average asking rents of $19.45 per square foot NNN, though that range is enormous. The CBD asks $33.47 while the Far West submarket asks $14.98. Net absorption stayed positive at roughly 338,000 square feet. Source: Partners Real Estate, San Antonio Retail Q1 2026.
What that means for a franchisee: good space moves, and the difference between submarkets is larger than most national site-selection models account for. A concept that works at $15 a foot on the Far West side may not work at CBD pricing, and the trade area matters more than the rent number in isolation.
Concepts we have worked with
JJ Gorena currently represents Cheba Hut in the San Antonio market, and has represented La Madeleine, Ink Couture, Rounders Card Club, and The Lodge Card Club, among others.
Several of these operators have appeared with JJ on The American Dream TV, where he hosts the San Antonio market.
Cheba Hut on The American Dream
Rounders Card Club on The American Dream
That range is deliberate. A fast-casual sandwich franchise, a bakery-cafe, a specialty retail concept, and licensed card clubs have almost nothing in common as real estate. Different footprints, different trade areas, different zoning, different landlords. Card clubs in particular carry siting and permitting constraints most brokers have never encountered.
Who this is for
First-time franchisees who have signed an agreement and need a site that will actually get approved.
Multi-unit operators expanding into or across the San Antonio market.
Franchisors looking for market coverage and someone who can work multiple sites at once.
Independent operators. You do not need to be a franchise. The work is the same for any business signing a commercial lease.
Service area
San Antonio, Boerne, New Braunfels, Schertz, Cibolo, and Seguin, across Bexar, Comal, Kendall, and Guadalupe counties.
Start the conversation early
The best time to call is before you have signed the franchise agreement, or immediately after. The worst time is once your development schedule is already tight and your options have narrowed to whatever happens to be listed.
JJ Gorena II
Trey Group Commercial | eXp Realty
TREC License #0522975
(210) 367-6024
commercial@thetreygroup.com
About The Trey Group
The Trey Group is a San Antonio real estate team operating under eXp Realty, serving Bexar, Comal, Kendall, and Guadalupe counties. J.J. Gorena handles commercial real estate and franchise tenant representation, TREC #522975. Robert "Bobby" Cortez handles residential sales and purchases, TREC #546997.
