Guide to Refreshes, Remodels, Buildouts, and Shell Conversions for Multisite Brand Consistency

Your Phoenix location looks nothing like your Miami one.

Every facilities leader managing multiple sites deals with this reality. Locations age at different rates, contractors interpret brand standards differently, and somehow your newest site feels like it belongs to a completely different company than your flagship.

The real challenge isn’t just budget — it’s knowing which type of project solves the problem. Your marketing team calls everything a “renovation,” but there’s a world of difference between touching up paint and ripping out walls. A refresh handles surface-level issues. A full remodel restructures operations. Interior buildouts transform empty spaces. Shell conversions start from scratch.

Each approach serves different needs, costs different amounts, and creates different problems. But most facilities teams are flying blind, treating every project like it’s the same beast.

This guide maps out when to use refreshes, remodels, buildouts, and shell conversions — and more importantly, how to execute them without the typical contractor mishaps that kill brand consistency.

Refreshes: When Your Location Needs a Haircut, Not Surgery

Your location looks tired, customers are starting to notice, but you’re not ready to shut down for weeks and blow half your annual budget. So consider giving it a refresh, the facilities’ equivalent of getting a good haircut instead of plastic surgery.

A refresh tackles the surface-level stuff that makes locations feel dated: fresh paint, updated fixtures, new signage, maybe some furniture swaps. The bones stay the same, but suddenly the space feels current again. Most refreshes happen fast — sometimes overnight — and keep your doors open while work happens.

Why It Sticks Out (How a Refresh Differs)

Refreshes work with what you’ve got instead of ripping everything apart. No walls come down, no plumbing gets moved, no permits pile up on your desk. The magic happens in the details: on-brand paint colors, updated lighting, graphics that don’t look like they’re from 2005.

Moreover, while a full remodel might shut you down for months, a refresh team can transform your space in days or even hours. Costs stay reasonable because you’re swapping out finishes, not rebuilding infrastructure.

Brands with strong visual consistency across locations also see 10-20% higher revenue than those with uneven execution. A refresh lets you nail that consistency easily without the construction nightmare — same look, same feel, regardless of location.

When It’s Necessary

Most smart operators refresh locations every five to eight years to stay current, but certain triggers fast-track the timeline. Your color scheme starts feeling dated. Wear and tear accumulates faster than you expected. Corporate rolls out new branding, and suddenly half your locations look off-brand.

Competition forces your hand too. Walk into your location, then visit the newer concept down the street. If the comparison makes you wince, it’s time for a refresh.

The numbers back up the investment. Burger King’s “Royal Reset” refresh program focused on changes that drive sales and more than delivered. Burger King skipped the trivial tweaks and targeted updates that improve customer experience.

Remodels: When You Need to Gut Check Your Space

Sometimes a fresh coat of paint won’t cut it. Your layout feels like it was cutting edge when the Dallas Cowboys last won a Super Bowl, customers bump into each other trying to walk through your space, and that new competitor down the street makes your location look ancient. 

Welcome to remodel territory — where you tear down walls instead of just painting them.

A remodel rebuilds your space from the bones up. Walls come down, layouts get reconfigured, and everything from fixtures to HVAC gets upgraded. While the investment hurts more than a refresh, the payoff potential is often worth it.  

Why It Sticks Out (How a Remodel Differs)

Remodels transform spaces instead of just touching them up. Customers walk into your “new” location and barely recognize the place. Walls disappear to improve flow. Outdated facades get modernized. Technology integration happens everywhere — new POS systems, pickup areas, self-checkout stations that didn’t exist when you first opened.

The timeline and budget reflect the scope. While refreshes happen in days, remodels shut you down for weeks or force phased construction. Most brands tackle remodels every seven to 10 years because the disruption and cost demand careful timing.

The performance numbers, though, justify the pain. Well-executed remodels drive 43-44% sales growth from new customers and 7-10% increases from existing ones. Return visits jump 16% post-remodel. Those gains stick around long enough for most retailers to recoup their investment within two to three years.  

When It’s Necessary

Remodels happen when incremental fixes can’t solve fundamental problems. Your facility hasn’t seen major updates in over a decade. Corporate rolled out new prototype designs, and your locations look like museum pieces. Customer traffic and sales keep declining despite your best refresh efforts.

Technology integration often forces the decision. Adding curbside pickup, expanding digital ordering capabilities, or accommodating new product categories requires space reconfiguration that a refresh can’t handle.

Competitive pressure accelerates timelines — newer concepts with better layouts steal customers who expect modern experiences. Look at the data: One-third of customers abandon brands after a single bad in-store experience. In contrast, customers who experience superior service spend 140% more. Some remodels generate sales increases up to 50% when strategic redesigns address real operational bottlenecks, and even conservative estimates show meaningful increases in revenue.

Only plan a remodel, though, when your space fundamentally limits your business potential.  

Interior Buildouts: When Your New Location Is Just Four Walls and a Dream

You walk into your “new” space for the first time and immediately question your decision-making. Concrete floors, bare walls, a single light bulb dangling from the ceiling, and somewhere in the distance, the sound of your grand opening date getting closer.

Interior buildouts transform empty boxes into functioning locations. Everything you see in your finished stores — from the floors to the fixtures — gets built from zero. No existing customer flow to preserve, no operational constraints to work around, just you, your brand standards, and a whole lot of construction dust.

Why It Sticks Out (How an Interior Buildout Differs)

Starting with a blank slate sounds liberating until you realize it means coordinating every single trade from electrical to flooring. Your typical retail buildout involves installing interior walls, running utilities, building custom features, and making thousands of decisions about finishes that will define how customers experience your brand.

The timeline pressure is relentless. Grand opening dates get announced before construction even starts, so your six- to 12-week interior build window becomes sacred. Miss that deadline, and you’re explaining to corporate why the marketing campaign launched for a store that doesn’t exist yet.

Each location brings unique surprises too, so your construction team needs to adapt while maintaining brand consistency, regardless of what they’re starting with. Multisite operators, though, know the real challenge comes from managing multiple buildouts simultaneously — different cities, different permit processes, different contractor availability.  

When It’s Necessary

Buildouts become inevitable when you lease unfinished space — new developments, empty shells, or gutted locations that need complete interior construction before opening day. But the real challenge emerges during rapid expansion, when you’re suddenly coordinating multiple projects across different markets.

Scaling amplifies every complexity. Each new location brings its own permit office, building codes, and contractor pool. Construction costs that average $155 per square foot nationally can jump above $200 in expensive markets, making budget control critical. Meanwhile, you’re juggling conflicting material deliveries, varying contractor availability, and different municipal interpretations of the same codes.

This coordination nightmare intensifies with space conversions — turning warehouses into retail or banks into restaurants requires the same ground-up approach, but with the added complexity of working around existing infrastructure as the clock ticks.

Yet this chaos has an upside: Buildouts offer a rare opportunity for perfect brand consistency. Unlike renovations that force compromises, you’re installing every element to current standards from scratch. The key is executing that vision across multiple locations while staying ahead of the moving parts.

Vanilla/Gray Shell Conversions: When Your Landlord Gives You the Bare Minimum

You thought interior buildouts were challenging? Meet their cousin: shell conversions. These projects take the blank canvas concept and strip away even more. Your landlord hands you keys to what’s essentially a concrete cave with some pipes sticking out of the walls.

Gray shells are the ultimate minimalist approach — four walls, concrete floors, and utility rough-ins that may or may not be where you need them. Vanilla shells add basic drywall and ceiling tiles, which feel luxurious by comparison. Either way, you’re building absolutely everything from the ground up, including some infrastructure most buildouts take for granted.

Why It Sticks Out (How Vanilla/Gray Shell Conversions Differ)

Shell conversions force you to build the basics that other projects assume already exist. Need interior walls? Build them. Want flooring that isn’t concrete? Install it. Looking for actual restrooms instead of rough plumbing? Get ready to construct everything.

Gray shells hand you the absolute minimum — think concrete box with utility connections. You’re building walls, installing flooring systems, creating ceilings, and adding lighting beyond bare bulbs. Vanilla shells give you finished drywall and basic lighting, but you still need flooring, fixtures, millwork, and every element that creates the customer experience.

The project management complexity multiplies because you’re coordinating more trades over longer timelines. Foundation work might reveal drainage issues. Utility connections rarely land exactly where your prototype demands. HVAC systems need extensive distribution work beyond basic connections.

But shell conversions offer one major advantage: total design freedom. Your brand consistency starts from a true blank slate.

When It’s Necessary

Shell conversions become unavoidable when you’re chasing growth in competitive markets. Prime locations rarely come finished, and landlords know they can deliver bare concrete boxes because tenants will take them anyway. When you find that perfect corner spot, you’re not negotiating the condition — you’re just grateful to get it before your competitor does.

Franchise expansion makes this even more common since developers keep costs down by delivering the absolute minimum. You get gray shells with exposed ceilings and concrete floors, then somehow need to transform them into spaces that match your exact brand standards. The math works because shell rents are lower, but you’re trading higher construction complexity for that rent savings.

The real necessity hits during rapid expansion phases. You can’t afford to wait months for landlords to finish spaces when you’re trying to open ten locations this quarter. Shell conversions let you control the timeline and ensure every detail matches your current brand prototype, but the construction scope is massive, and the coordination nightmare is real.

How BrandPoint Services Delivers Tailored, Turnkey Solutions (Across All Scopes)

Multisite operators face a simple choice: Oversee dozens of contractors who interpret your brand standards creatively, or work with a team that built their entire business around delivering consistent results at scale. At BrandPoint Services, we handle everything from quick refreshes to complex shell conversions, adapt our approach to fit your operational needs, and put maintaining brand consistency at the forefront.

• One Team Handles Everything: We manage every trade from electrical to flooring under one contract, eliminating the vendor coordination nightmare. When issues arise on-site, our team resolves them directly instead of forcing you to referee between different contractors.
• Coast-to-Coast Coverage: Our licensing across all 50 states plus Canada means one contract covers your entire rollout. Expanding into new markets doesn’t require hunting for local contractors or dealing with compliance headaches in unfamiliar jurisdictions.
• Local Execution, National Standards: Our vetted network of thousands of tradespeople delivers local market knowledge while strictly following your brand standards. Whether we’re working in a rural town or big city, every location receives identical attention to detail.
• Transparent Project Intelligence: Our field teams use mobile apps to capture geo-stamped photos and real-time progress updates that feed live dashboards. You monitor every project from anywhere without chasing weekly emails or wondering about site status.
• Industry-Specific Expertise: Twenty years of serving retailers, restaurants, banks, and healthcare providers taught us that cookie-cutter approaches fail. We phase restaurant remodels to keep kitchens operational, schedule retail work overnight to avoid disrupting shoppers, and customize every project to protect your business operations.

Your Locations Don’t Have to Look Like Random Experiments

You know the difference between a refresh and a remodel now. You understand when buildouts make sense and why shell conversions give you the cleanest start. The real challenge comes when you try to execute these projects across multiple locations while keeping your sanity intact. Contractors disappear mid-project. Permits take forever. Costs spiral beyond recognition. Meanwhile, your grand opening dates don’t move and corporate keeps asking for updates you don’t have.

We’ve spent decades watching facilities teams get burned by the same problems over and over. Different contractors in different cities all claiming they understand your brand standards. Project managers who vanish when things get complicated. Local crews who think your specs are suggestions rather than requirements. BrandPoint Services exists because we got tired of seeing good operators struggle with preventable disasters. We handle everything under one contract, maintain the same standards whether we’re working in rural Kansas or downtown Seattle, and give you real-time updates instead of making you chase status reports.

Ready to make your next rollout painless? Contact BrandPoint Services today and let’s talk about how we can help.