Director of Real Estate, Vale Matcha

**Director of Real Estate, Vale Matcha** Vale Matcha is a company looking to turn matcha on its head, creating the first modern matcha company. Our Director of Real Estate will take everything they’ve learned from a more traditional restaurant group’s market expansion and develop an innovative approach, leveraging Vale’s unique technological and concept-specific advantages to create a competitive advantage to building the market-leader in matcha. The Director of Real Estate leads Vale’s market expansion and new-location strategy. This person is responsible for identifying high-potential sites, evaluating the financial and operational viability of each opportunity, negotiating favorable business terms, and guiding transactions from initial market research through lease execution. ### **Key responsibilities** - Develop a market and site-selection strategy aligned with the company’s growth plans. - Leverage Vale’s unique mix of concepts to creatively enter new markets - Identify and evaluate potential locations, including street retail, shopping centers, mixed-use developments, food halls, hospital complexes, educational facilities, and nontraditional venues. - Build relationships with landlords, developers, brokers, property managers, and other real estate partners. - Analyze trade areas, customer demographics, foot traffic, visibility, access, parking, competition, occupancy costs, and projected sales. - Prepare financial analyses and site recommendations for company leadership. - Negotiate letters of intent, leases, renewals, amendments, tenant-improvement allowances, rent structures, exclusivity provisions, and other key commercial terms. - Coordinate with legal counsel through lease review and execution. - Conduct site tours and manage the company’s pipeline of prospective locations. - Partner with operations, finance, construction, design, and marketing teams to determine whether a location can operate successfully. - Manage due diligence, including zoning, permitted use, utilities, mechanical requirements, licensing constraints, delivery access, and construction feasibility. - Maintain real estate schedules, deal summaries, approval materials, and reporting. - Support lease administration and landlord relations for the existing portfolio. - Track projects through lease execution and handoff to design, construction, and operations. ### **Qualifications** - Experience in restaurant, retail, hospitality, or commercial real estate. - Demonstrated experience sourcing locations and negotiating commercial leases. - Strong understanding of restaurant occupancy costs, unit economics, and site-performance drivers. - Ability to interpret letters of intent, leases, site plans, demographic data, and financial projections. - Strong negotiation, relationship-management, and project-management skills. - Comfortable working independently in an entrepreneurial, growth-oriented organization. - Willingness to travel within target markets and visit sites regularly. ### **Success measures** - Quality and volume of the new-site pipeline - Number of approved and executed locations - Achievement of target occupancy costs and deal economics - Tenant-improvement allowances and other landlord concessions secured - Speed from site identification to lease execution - Performance of new locations relative to underwriting - Accuracy and completeness of site due diligence ### **Benefits** - Company Equity - ORCA Card - Medical, Dental, and Vision - Unlimited matcha ### **Compensation** - 150,000 - 170,000 annual salary + commissions - Annual bonuses - Equity