Jimmy John's has opened a new sandwich shop at 20701 N. Scottsdale Road in Scottsdale, and the local owners aren't stopping there. The restaurant is locally owned and operated by brothers Brandt Bacus and Jared Bacus, and the chain is now hunting for additional franchise operators to expand its footprint across Greater Phoenix.
A Local Launch With Bigger Ambitions
According to WhatNow, the Scottsdale opening is part of a broader push by Jimmy John's, which operates under the Inspire Brands family of restaurants, to grow its presence in the region. The company is seeking qualified franchise candidates in cities including Queen Creek, Goodyear, Glendale and Maricopa, the outlet reported. Jimmy John's pitches multi-unit operators on what it calls a mature system paired with a flexible delivery model designed to tailor service to each market.
John Dawson, Inspire Brands' President of U.S. Development, framed the Valley as fertile ground for new locations. “We want experienced franchisees who are ready to build multi-unit portfolios in the market,” Dawson said, according to WhatNow's report, which also described him as seeing room for Jimmy John's to grow across the region.
What's Behind the Counter
Jimmy John's franchise materials describe a brand built around speed: sandwiches are made ready-to-order in 30 seconds, according to the Inspire Brands franchise website. The company's freestanding locations are designed for drive-thru service with seating for 20 to 24 people, the site notes, and that smaller-format approach is pitched to franchisees as a way to access more locations with lower build costs and faster openings. Prospective franchisees are directed to the current Jimmy John's Franchise Disclosure Document, which the company's site lists as issued March 26, 2026.
The chain's scale depends on which account you read. WhatNow reported that Jimmy John's, founded in 1983, operates more than 2,800 restaurants across 44 states and generates $2.7 billion in systemwide sales. The Inspire Brands franchise site, meanwhile, puts the figure at more than 2,600 restaurants across four global markets, while a separate report from InMaricopa on a different store opening cited 2,748 stores in 45 states and territories. The discrepancies likely reflect different publication dates and counting methods rather than a single settled total.
Why Phoenix, Why Now
The timing lines up with a Valley restaurant scene that's been running hot. Metro Phoenix's population grew by nearly 85,000 people between 2023 and 2024, with international migration contributing almost 49,000 of those newcomers alongside roughly 14,500 natural changes and 21,000 domestic transplants, per Axios Phoenix. That growth has coincided with a tight restaurant real estate market: the metro Phoenix restaurant vacancy rate sat at just 4.4% at the end of the first quarter of 2025, with only about 145,000 square feet of the Valley's nearly 3.3 million square feet of restaurant inventory available for lease, according to Western Retail Advisors. The same report noted Chili's had posted a 31% same-store sales increase in its fiscal second-quarter 2025 results, a sign of how competitive the chain-restaurant landscape has become.
Jimmy John's expansion push isn't limited to Scottsdale. A Jimmy John's location in Maricopa previously held a grand opening at the Sonoran Creek Marketplace, owned by Thomas Stassi, who also owns the Casa Grande Jimmy John's location, InMaricopa reported at the time. With Maricopa among the cities WhatNow named as a target for new franchise candidates, the Scottsdale debut looks like one piece of a larger regional buildout rather than a standalone opening.
