Scott Thompson, Chief Development Officer at Level 5 Capital Partners, the firm spearheading Big Blue’s franchise development, said that Seattle is a perfect region for the brand because of its strong economy and established market. “Seattle is a visionary city. Big Blue is more than a ‘version 2.0’ swim school—it’s a 3.0 swim school. As a forward-thinking community, Seattle is going to be very receptive to our concept and approach,” said Thompson.
Big Blue Swim School’s real estate footprint falls between 10,000 to 14,000 square feet and is the perfect filler business for these vacancies. Its ability to attract families and drive-by traffic to other businesses makes it an extremely attractive business option for landlords. While competitors in the swim school space typically connect new education franchise owners to local real estate brokers who source Class C or Class D locations, Big Blue Swim School has a team of eight dealmakers that use data-driven real estate assessment methodology to identify prime real estate in trade areas across the country that fit the brand’s member profile.
This pre-opening strategy will be applied to franchise locations in the future as the company begins growing with qualified education franchise partners. To learn more about franchise opportunities with Big Blue Swim School.
Big Blue Swim School has gained a solid foothold in its home state of Illinois, and now, the brand plans to expand with its franchising efforts throughout Texas.
“We are literally knocking on doors of properties that fit our profile, even if there’s a current tenant, to make sure we have the very best location. As an experience-based business that drives a lot of traffic to shopping centers, Big Blue Swim School is very attractive to landlords. The right real estate is pivotal to our success from a consumer standpoint, and our turnkey, hands-on approach to sourcing real estate and managing the process from lease negotiation through the construction makes it very easy for franchisees to open locations.”
Big Blue Swim School, one of the nation’s fastest-growing swim school franchises, is coming to Colorado thanks to Denver-based entrepreneurs Wendy and Erik Skaalerud. The pair recently signed a lease for their first pool, which will be located at the intersection of Himalaya and Smokey Hill Road in Centennial, Colorado.
We considered the size of the industry and looked at the players already in the space; there wasn’t really a dominant player who was removing pain points for parents and maximizing franchisee success. We knew we had the franchising expertise to become that and today, that player is Big Blue Swim School.
Everything we do is data-driven,” said Thompson. “Big Blue has 10 years of customer data to inform their decision making process. Most early-stage top franchises can’t claim that.