Dive Brief:

• Convenience retailer Yesway has named Thomas W. Brown to its newly created chief real estate officer role, according to an emailed press release on Monday. 
• Brown has served as president and director of real estate acquisitions at Brookwood Financial Partners, the founder of Yesway, since 2015, and will continue in the president role. Before that, he also served as senior managing director with Brookwood from 1994 to 2015.
• Brown’s role will include finding locations to build new stores and identifying potential acquisitions, as well as leading new-build and raze-and-rebuild plans. Yesway completed 17 new builds and 21 raze-and-rebuilds in 2022 and has 28 new builds on tap for 2023, largely paid for by $190 million raised earlier this year. 

Dive Insight:

With its growing focus on new builds, Yesway is hoping that a new leadership role in real estate will help it meet its eventual goal of building 60 to 80 new stores per year.

Yesway also plans to file for an initial public offering later this year, after withdrawing its application last year for strategic reasons. The paperwork for its initial IPO application listed Brown as an expected member of its board of directors once public. 

Before joining Brookwood, Brown served as a vice president with Winthrop Management, a wholly owned subsidiary of Boston-based Winthrop Financial Associates. As director of national real estate operations, he was responsible managing over $3 billion of real estate. 

Brown is also a member of the Urban Land Institute, the National Association of Office and Industrial Parks and the International Council of Shopping Centers.

“[Tom Brown] is extremely well respected by colleagues and clients in the private equity, commercial real estate, and convenience retailing realms for his astute knowledge and depth of experience,” said Tom Trkla, chairman and CEO of Brookwood, and chairman, president, and CEO of Yesway. “Having worked side by side with Tom for nearly 30 years, I am excited about this next chapter for the company, and look forward to him providing even more guidance and support as Yesway continues to grow.”

Fort Worth, Texas-based Yesway’s 435-store footprint encompasses parts of Texas, New Mexico, South Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Wyoming, Oklahoma and Nebraska under the Allsup’s and Yesway brands. Its stores are food-focused and often serve as a grocery destination for the suburban and rural communities where they’re found.