LaundroLab Partners with Master Brokerage Legacy Partners for Real Estate Selection

When elevated laundromat concept LaundroLab launched its franchise opportunity in 2021, the brand promised to disrupt the industry by providing a new standard of service and amenities for the millions of consumers who had become used to run-down, ugly facilities with old machines and lackluster service. Key to the franchise’s plan to take over the $5 billion-plus industry is a data-driven approach to real estate that puts laundromats in the most convenient locations for target consumers — and the most lucrative locations for franchisees.

Now, LaundroLab is partnering with Legacy Partners, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based Master Brokerage, to elevate its real estate strategy and accelerate the franchise’s growth.

“Before we even thought about franchising LaundroLab, we knew that we had to work with the best brokers available to find locations for our stores,” said Dan D’Aquisto, LaundroLab’s co-founder and president. “In this industry, location is critical.”

LaundroLab enlisted Legacy Partners’ help to establish its very first location back in 2017. D’Aquisto says he worked closely with Scott Fuller, the brokerage’s senior broker, to find the perfect location, which turned out to be occupied by a McDonald’s that was looking to sell.

“Buying from a national franchise is no simple task,” Fuller said. “There are a lot of intricacies. We had to prove that we would not be selling food or otherwise competing with McDonald’s in any sense for a certain number of years. But the location was right, so we got it done.”

That initial prioritization of real estate proved effective for the brand, and since then, the brand has doubled down on its focus on real estate, culminating in LaundroLab’s official partnership with Legacy Partners.

“Laundromats generate virtually all of their revenue from customers who live within a three-mile radius. That’s about as hyper-local as you can get,” said D’Aquisto. “We are adamant about ensuring that every single franchise owner is located in the best possible spot to support their community and drive revenue.”

With Legacy Partners’ support, LaundroLab is leveraging troves of data to identify the most lucrative sites for new franchise locations.

“We start by taking a bird’s-eye view of the target market — typically looking for highly dense trade areas that have a lot of people and access to public transportation — then start layering on tons of data, factoring in hundreds of metrics to create a heat map, then narrow down to the perfect site.”

That data includes rankings of other laundromats in the market, the number of apartments that don’t have washing machines, median income, percentage of renters, average number of vehicles per household, and number of complementary neighboring businesses that will drive foot traffic and allow costumes to work LaundroLab into their existing errand routine.

On that latter point, Fuller says his team is focused on co-tenancy — finding locations with a target tenant mix that will drive cross-traffic.

“Typically, we’re looking for dollar stores, wireless retailers, Walmarts, multi-cultural grocers and a number of other tenants that share our target demographics,” Fuller said. “We have technology that allows us to enter in a list of our ideal tenants and find strip centers or other locations that have a high density of that tenant mix.”

LaundroLab franchise owners also benefit from the brand’s strategy of targeting opportunity zones — economically distressed communities in which municipalities offer substantial tax breaks to investments that uplift the community. And LaundroLab is designed to do exactly that.

“When you enter a LaundroLab, it’s an entirely different animal than what you are used to with laundromats,” Fuller said. “It’s bright, it’s very tech-driven, it’s safe — it’s even fun. That allows the brand to stand out in its segment, but it also genuinely improves the communities it enters, and landlords get very excited to bring the brand to their shopping centers.”

Beyond site selection, Legacy Partners also offers LaundroLab crucial support with a range of real estate concerns, from drafting letters of intent to lease negotiations to work orders and more.

“Our real estate strategy for franchisees is truly comprehensive,” D’Aquisto said. “Not only are we finding the best locations, we are ensuring franchise owners get the most favorable terms and the quickest, easiest and most effective path to opening. On the front end, our major points of differentiation as a brand are our next-level services and amenities, but behind the scenes, it’s our real estate strategy that really sets us apart from competitors.”

The liquidity requirements for a new LaundroLab franchise ranges from $321,000-$483,000. A new LaundroLab store can range anywhere from $1M - $1.7M, which includes equipment, buildout, franchise fee, working capital and more. For more information on franchising, visit https://www.laundrolabfranchise.com/become-an-owner/.