Originate
See an operating opportunity inside a real estate portfolio.
Family Video + Marco’s Pizza
See the opportunity.
Put the deal
together.
Recognize the potential. Bring the right parties together. Structure a relationship that gives both a reason to grow.
An experience from our principal’s Family Video years, and a lesson in seeing what a property can become.
01 / THE REAL ESTATE
The movies got smaller.
The buildings didn’t.
The transition from VHS to DVD changed the economics of a 7,000-square-foot video store. The same movie selection could occupy less space, leaving room to put the building to work in a different way.
At Family Video, the response was to carve out 1,200 or 2,400 square feet for one or two additional tenants. Our principal recalls completing approximately 80 Little Caesars carve-outs. Pizza beside movies proved a compelling combination.1
Owning the real estate made that flexibility possible. A building could serve the existing business and create room for its next use.
A smaller video store. More productive space.
A 7,000-square-foot building, reallocated as the operating business changed.
Video: 5,800 SFAdditional tenant space: 1,200 SF
Illustrative allocations from the Family Video experience. Individual layouts varied.
02 / THE OPERATING IDEA
Keep the real estate.
Find the right partner.
Being both landlord and operator had worked well in video. The next question was whether the company could apply that model to another business.
Experiments with Pops Ice Cream, Dad’s Pizza and other concepts exposed a difficult reality: experience running a video chain did not remove the learning curve in a restaurant business with tight margins. A franchise offered an established product, operating systems and a partner invested in making the model work.1
Little Caesars was a natural candidate, but its existing footprint overlapped heavily with Family Video’s. Our principal recalls only 10 to 15 potential franchise opportunities across the chain. The search turned to Marco’s Pizza and Just Pizza, with Marco’s standing out for its product and an existing relationship as a tenant.1
The commercial logic was straightforward: Family Video could offer locations and a development engine. Marco’s could offer a business ready to grow.
03 / THE APPROACH
Start with a big ask.
Our principal’s recollection of the first meeting is direct: gather the Marco’s principals at a franchise convention and open with a proposal to buy the business. The reception was cold. But the initial reaction did not end the conversation.1
A contemporary trade report places Family Video’s approach at Marco’s franchise convention in March 2011 and records CEO Jack Butorac’s initial skepticism. That independently supports the setting and the resistance at the start of the discussions.2
Over roughly the next year to 18 months, the idea evolved. The opportunity was to align an owner with a large property portfolio and a growing franchise system, then create incentives for both to expand.
The value was in connecting the buildings, the operating business and the partner’s ambition.
Our principal describes the resulting master franchise arrangement as combining reduced royalties with an opportunity to earn an ownership stake in the Marco’s franchisor by meeting development milestones.1 The public launch coverage described standard royalties initially and future growth incentives; it did not disclose franchisor-equity terms.2
Align
Connect the growth needs of a franchise brand with a capable development partner.
Structure
Negotiate a path from individual stores toward a broader stake in the growth story.
04 / INTO THE MARKET
Pizza and a movie.
At portfolio scale.
The March 2012 announcement identified Keith Hoogland, president of Family Video, and Jack Butorac, CEO of Marco’s. It described a partnership of more than $100 million and a plan for 350 restaurants. Those were announced ambitions, not a count of completed openings or a purchase price for the franchisor.3
The concept connected the customer experience as well as the space. In-store pickup windows let movie customers order pizza without leaving the video store. Marco’s later described online orders that paired pizza delivery with movies and allowed drivers to return rentals.4
The 2012 announcement.
The rollout
An idea that became
a substantial operating business.
Restaurants targeted in the original partnership announcement.3
Family Video co-locations reported by Marco’s, including 52 opened in 2014.4
Marco’s stores in 14 states operated by Hoogland Restaurant Group.5
These are dated targets and operating snapshots. They are not cumulative openings or a count of projects personally completed by our principal.
05 / A BUILDING YOU CAN SEE
The strategy,
in square feet.
The Akron property provides a concrete example. The Legacy brochure identifies a 7,040-square-foot building at 2130 Eastwood Avenue, with a 1,550-square-foot Marco’s suite at 2126 Eastwood Avenue. One property, divided to support two operating spaces.6
This is the combination of experience we bring to Eastwood Chalmers assignments: understand the real estate and the operating business, recognize an opportunity, identify the right counterparties and negotiate a practical structure.
We are selective about the assignments we take on. We look for situations where that combination of experience, relationships and judgment can materially change the outcome.
Have something that needs a different approach? Let’s talk.Sources and further reading
- Firsthand account supplied by Eastwood Chalmers’ principal for this case study.Carve-out experience, concept selection, opening proposal and recollection of negotiated terms.
- Mark Brandau, “Marco’s enters $100M deal with Family Video,” Nation’s Restaurant News, February 9, 2012.
- Marco’s Pizza, “Pizza and a Movie? Marco’s Partners with Family Video,” March 5, 2012; published by Franchising.com.
- Marco’s Slice of Support, “Marco’s Pizza and Family Video Partner Up, Generate Social Media Buzz,” November 10, 2015.
- Highland Ventures, “Hoogland Restaurant Group Acquires Five Marco’s Pizza Locations,” August 18, 2026.
- Legacy Commercial Property, 2130 Eastwood Ave., Akron, OH 44305, pages 1–3. Supplied as “2100 Eastwood Akron.pdf”; brochure date unspecified.