The largest franchisee of Arby’s restaurants in Southwest Florida has cut its number of locations by 40%.
Within the past four weeks, four of Southwest Florida’s 10 Arby’s restaurants have closed permanently, all in Lee County.
The Arby’s in Cape Coral, Estero, Lehigh Acres, North Naples and two in Port Charlotte remain open.
AES Restaurants, based in Zionsville, Indiana, is one of the brand’s most prolific franchisees, at one point owning as many as 229 Arby’s across 17 states, including 57 in Florida, according to its website.
AES Restaurants could not be reached for comment.
Joey Gulino, an associate with LQ Commercial Real Estate Services, is the listing agent for the vacant Arby’s location at 13050 N. Cleveland Ave. in North Fort Myers. It closed April 20.
former Arby’s restaurant at 13050 N. Cleveland Ave. in North Fort Myers is now vacant and listed for lease. The location is one of four Lee County closures tied to franchisee AES Restaurants.
David Dorsey
The location in south Fort Myers at 12126 S. Cleveland Ave. also closed, along with the restaurants at 9290 Daniels Parkway and 16461 Corporate Commerce Way near Gulf Coast Town Center.
“Essentially, they all had the same lease structure,” Gulino said. “They were 20-year leases. They were all pretty much at the same term at the same time. They didn’t want to renegotiate at a higher rate.
“I think the brand itself has been having some struggles across the country, not just in our market. I think they’re trying to trim some of the fat here. I think that’s why they decided to shift gears and get out of these markets.”
The Gulf Coast Town Center location had been open since 2015, permit records show, and it was the only one of the four where the franchisee owned the building rather than leased it.
On April 27, ZANN Real Estate Group LLC, which shares the same address as AES Restaurants in Zionsville, Indiana, sold the property for $2.1 million to 16461 LLC, owned by Thomas Schafer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Schafer could not be reached for comment about his plans for the property, but it will not remain an Arby’s. BizTimes – Milwaukee Business News reported in April 2024 that Schafer purchased Pizza Man, a Milwaukee pizzeria that has been in operation since 1970.
Schafer’s company paid $1.4 million more for the Gulf Coast Town Center property than the franchisee did in January 2024, when ZANN purchased the real estate for $700,000, according to property records.
Matt Simmons, managing partner of Maxwell, Hendry & Simmons.
Provided
Matt Simmons, a property appraiser with Maxwell, Hendry & Simmons of Fort Myers, explained how the real estate price could have increased so sharply.
“That price may be artificially low,” Simmons said of the 2024 amount. “If the prior franchisee sold the business and the real estate to someone new in 2024, they may have inflated the price on the business and run the real estate price as low as possible to save money on the doc stamps on the purchase. It’s possible that’s what $700,000 is about. Because that land is pretty valuable.”
The North Fort Myers Arby’s had been performing well, Gulino said, but perhaps not well enough.
“The North Fort Myers one did $1.3 million in sales in 2025,” Gulino said. “Even with the rents they were paying, it wasn’t a terrible rent ratio. But fast-food trends are changing. If the margins don’t make sense, they’re not making enough money. I think that’s what it came down to.”
The North Fort Myers location has about 3,300 square feet of space, Gulino said, and the other locations are similar in size.
“These are going to be too large for the coffee operators,” Gulino said. “What it’s really going to be geared toward is another quick-service restaurant.
“I don’t think a Chick-fil-A would work there, because they tend to own their own real estate. There’s a ton of these new foods that are coming out. Del Taco could make a push into Southwest Florida. We’ve had a number of groups look at it already. That’s been the feedback so far.”