Multi-Location Restaurant Construction: 10 Bubbakoo’s Burritos Build-Outs Across Five States

Location: Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Georgia

Industry: Commercial & Corporate Facilities

Service: Programmatic Multi-Location Rollout

The Situation

As Bubbakoo’s Burritos expanded into new markets, its franchise operators needed a construction partner capable of reproducing the brand’s restaurant environment across different buildings and jurisdictions.

JBrennon completed a multi-location restaurant construction program encompassing 10 Bubbakoo’s locations in Clarksville, Tennessee; St. Matthews, Kentucky; Martinsburg, West Virginia; Jonesboro, Georgia; and six Ohio markets—Dublin, Liberty Township, Springboro, Broadview Heights, Hamilton, and Avon.

The portfolio included tenant-shell build-outs, renovations of former restaurant spaces, extensive conversions of existing commercial interiors, and separate landlord and tenant construction packages at the Hamilton location. Several projects proceeded on overlapping schedules, requiring consistent purchasing, subcontractor coordination, owner-equipment planning, and field management across multiple states.

The Challenge

A repeatable franchise design does not create identical construction conditions. Each location began with a different combination of existing walls, slabs, utilities, electrical capacity, rooftop equipment, drainage, fire protection, and landlord-provided infrastructure.

Local requirements also changed from market to market. Several locations required work beyond the standard franchise plans, including new fire-alarm notification devices, sprinkler modifications, backflow protection, electrical service upgrades, grease-system revisions, emergency lighting, revised insulation, and additional kitchen protection requested by local authorities.

At the same time, the finished restaurants still had to present a consistent customer experience. Dining areas, service lines, kitchens, beverage stations, restrooms, flooring, wall finishes, lighting, counters, and branded elements had to follow the Bubbakoo’s concept even when the work required to create them differed substantially behind the finished surfaces.

How We Worked

JBrennon managed each location as an integrated restaurant build-out. Depending on the existing space, construction included selective demolition; slab sawcutting, coring, and trenching; underground sanitary, domestic-water, gas, electrical, and grease-system work; concrete pour-backs; and new interior partitions, soffits, blocking, and ceiling assemblies.

Public areas were completed with polished concrete, tile, or epoxy flooring as required, along with laminate wainscoting, painted finishes, custom millwork, service counters, beverage stations, doors, hardware, and restroom accessories. Kitchens and preparation areas received ceramic tile, cove base, FRP wall protection, stainless-steel finishes, and the substrates and clearances needed for commercial food-service equipment.

The coordinated building systems included tankless water heaters, grease traps or interceptors, gas distribution, walk-in cooler and freezer infrastructure, rooftop HVAC equipment, ductwork, Type I kitchen hoods, exhaust fans, make-up air systems, fire suppression, lighting, equipment power, menu-board and television power, POS/data pathways, and fire-alarm interfaces.

Representative location-specific solutions included:

• Clarksville, Tennessee: Installed exterior-wall R-19 insulation required by the local jurisdiction, additional horn/strobe devices in the common area and restrooms, and additional stainless steel at the cookline requested by the fire marshal.

• St. Matthews, Kentucky: Converted an existing restaurant through drive-thru removals, exterior patching, slab trenching, underground utility modifications, polished concrete refinishing, ceramic-tile repairs, new service-area construction, stainless-steel components, and electrical and data upgrades.

• Dublin, Ohio: Remediated existing sanitary-drain conditions, installed an additional stainless-steel hood backsplash, modified the office door with one-way glazing, added office receptacles and a built-in desk, and repaired deteriorated exterior shed materials.

• Liberty Township, Ohio: Added emergency exit lighting, dedicated grease-tank circuits, cookline GFCI protection, a three-compartment-sink backflow preventer, three sprinkler heads beneath the hood, and interfaces connecting the hood suppression system and duct detector to the existing addressable fire-alarm equipment.

• Springboro, Ohio: Installed a new 400-amp electrical panel and 100-amp subpanel, extended service wiring from the meter, added dedicated grease-equipment power, completed backflow protection and testing, installed a horn/strobe device, and applied blackout film to 13 rear windows and one door.

• Martinsburg, West Virginia: Reconstructed exterior and rear-wall assemblies using metal hat channels and new drywall, extended finished walls to the roof deck where required, installed fire caulking, and provided a new fire-alarm panel with the detection and notification devices needed for the restaurant layout.

• Broadview Heights, Ohio: Removed and reconstructed localized mold-affected wall areas, modified the drink-station walls and ceilings, relocated hood components with field welding, fabricated grease ductwork, installed new rooftop equipment curbs, and applied solid-color epoxy flooring in public areas.

• Hamilton, Ohio: Coordinated separate landlord and tenant scopes at one location. Landlord work included structural supports, two rooftop units, custom welded curbs, economizers, roof flashing, two ADA restrooms, a grease interceptor, electrical distribution, a new sprinkler system, and relocation of an existing storm and roof-drain line. JBrennon then completed the restaurant’s partitions, finishes, service areas, kitchen systems, plumbing, ventilation, power, lighting, low-voltage, and life-safety interfaces.

• Avon, Ohio: Completed extensive demolition and reconstruction with new service and beverage counters, ADA restrooms, a Type I hood, walk-in cooler, tankless water heater, replacement rooftop unit with custom curb, new ductwork, upgraded fire suppression, grease-trap relocation, electrical transformer and gas-service modifications, and exterior awning resurfacing.

• Jonesboro, Georgia: Installed roof-mounted hood exhaust and make-up air equipment, two air-conditioning units, a new Type I cooking-line hood, service and beverage counters, revised seating and queue areas, a walk-in cooler, additional plumbing fixtures and drainage, menu-board and television infrastructure, and new wall, ceiling, and flooring finishes.

The Outcome

JBrennon delivered 10 completed Bubbakoo’s Burritos locations across five states, adapting the franchise design to tenant shells, existing restaurants, landlord infrastructure, and varying local requirements.

The finished portfolio included:

• 10 operational restaurant locations represented by 11 completed construction records

• Six Ohio locations and one location each in Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Georgia

• Complete architectural, plumbing, mechanical, electrical, kitchen-ventilation, low-voltage, and life-safety coordination

• Separate landlord and tenant packages delivered at the Hamilton location

• Location-specific utility, drainage, electrical, fire-protection, and existing-condition solutions

• Consistent dining, service, kitchen, restroom, and branded finish environments across the program