One broker boasts of negotiating two bidding wars for restaurant space in just the last three weeks. A landlord says he has seven groups either trading letters of intent or touring one prime second-generation location in Houston's Inner Loop. And five brands with the same concept are vying for a single open spot in one group’s development. Four years after the pandemic arrived and wiped out an estimated 110,000 eating and drinking establishments and 2.5 million industry jobs, the restaurant industry in Sun Belt cities like Houston is back big. And with the resurgence has come a battle for the best locations, with landlords in the driver seats as an increasingly international group of operators clamors to get in while the getting is good. 
“It’s a good time to be a landlord, in that you have lots of selection for your good spaces,” NewQuest Properties co-founder and Managing Partner Jay Sears said of a hotly competitive Houston food and beverage market that is seeing a spike… Read the full story here. | 
