Yeah, the sale-leaseback model has been popular for a while, it's more than just a tax advantaged, it's also a capital/cash flow advantage. Wal-Mart took over the US by doing the following: (a) studying all the major intersections and the 10-year growth projections in the area, then buying 10-year options on certain real estate parcels, (b) announcing the construction of new Wal-Marts, which were all built by Stan Kroenke, a Walton in-law who is not nearly as bright as he thinks he is, followed by (c) the sale of a completed Wal-Mart to a big institutional investor like an insurance company with a long-term lease anchored by Wal-Mart. The cash flows were very stable and reliable, not as great in the early years, but often with bonuses for Wal-Mart exceeding certain growth targets in the outer years (past the first 10 years of operations). I got to see some of the leases, it's fascinating. Bottom line, Wal-Mart would get back all of their construction costs (to go build more Wal-Marts), they locked into favorable terms for the first decade that nearly guaranteed that they would get off the ground at new locations profitably, then they could afford to kick back more rent in the second decade once they were entrenched and dominating in a particular area.
Chick Fil-A, though, runs a tighter ship, they are not publicly-traded, so they exert a lot more family control (both business and ethics/morals) over the operators. If you look at some of the things they say on the website or in documents, they will NOT engage with you if you try to go to them with land or a particular location (because you are likely expecting a sweetheart arrangement, and they just don't do that). CFA selects all their own locations and builds, and I do not think they do very many deals with the local operators when it comes to sale-leaseback arrangements. Essentially, the Operator agreement that CFA has allows them to "cut someone loose" with very little ramifications. They might have done more sale-leaseback deals in the early days, but I don't think they have a need to do so any longer.
I know some of you guys know Jose, he is the CEO of Bojangles. About 12 or 13 years ago (before Jose was there), the company was all fired up to move into Central Florida, they did a huge sponsorship with NASCAR, and they opened two immaculate double-covered-drivethrough stores in Sanford and Altamonte Springs. Within a year or two, Bojangles had troubles with the franchisee, and they closed both stores. The one in Sanford got snapped up by CFA, and they converted it to a very high-volume CFA. The one in Altamonte sat empty for a while, because CFA was having issues with the local Operator of one of the "old-fashioned" CFAs (the ones that are like Checkers/Rally, drive-through/outside seating only). They were basically giving the guy a chance to make BANK by running a much bigger CFA and he was happy running his little ****hole CFA. Eventually, CFA...ironed it out. There's a new operator running the bigger CFA 100 yards to the east.
And for the record, I just drove over to my brother's house the other day...AND BOJANGLES IS MAKING A COMEBACK. They are building a brand-new Bojangles across the street and just down the road from their original location in Sanford. Glad to see that Jose is fixing things at Bojangles.
I googled what you make. I spill more in booze 
I hope you know the LB is a Cane
