News

Blaze Pizza paves way for Chicago, Miami development

May 30, 2013

Blaze Fast-Fire'd Pizza has signed an agreement with an affiliate of Levy Family Partners. This agreement paves the way for the development of 15 franchise stores in Chicago and 10 in Miami.

Blaze Pizza now has a development pipeline of more than 100 franchise stores in nine states, including New York and California.

Levy Family Partners was established by entrepreneur Larry Levy, founder and chairman of Levy Restaurants, as the holding company for his family's investments in restaurants, hotels, real estate and other ventures. The first Blaze Pizza restaurants are scheduled to open in Chicago and Miami before the end of the year, with additional locations scheduled to open in 2014.

"We see this as a tremendous growth opportunity for the Levy Family's restaurant business. The innovation that Blaze Pizza brings to the category is tremendous," said Steve Florsheim, managing partner of Levy Family Partners and Larry Levy's stepson. "It's an assembly line format for artisanal pizza where you get to choose any toppings you like, and it's fired and ready in around two minutes — all for about seven bucks. Our bet is both Miami and Chicago are going to flip for this concept."

Blaze Pizza plans to announce several more multiunit area development agreements in the coming weeks.

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