In today’s episode I catch up with Greg Flynn, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Flynn Group and Flynn Properties, for the first time since my interview with him in November 2018 on my Napa Valley Inside Out podcast. Flynn Group is the largest franchisee operator in the world and Flynn Properties invests in commercial real estate, hotels and luxury resorts.

We talk about how their restaurants navigated around the Pandemic and then the onset of inflation in 2022; the buying spree he has been on since we last spoke; the buying opportunities he sees in commercial real estate in San Francisco; his first acquisition in the space in 5 years since selling all his all his office buildings prior to COVID; potential options for repurposing office buildings that will ultimately not be relet, his views on remote work and his ideas on revitalizing and cleaning up the city of San Francisco.

We discuss his impressive expansion into chain hotels starting in 2019 adding 114 hotels to Flynn Properties real estate portfolio, and his excitement and plans for his acquisition of The Huntington Hotel on Nob Hill in San Francisco. We get a tease for what’s to come and confirmation that the beloved Big Four restaurant will essentially remain the Big Four, and the inside scoop of this fabulous acquisition which speaks to Greg’s discipline – ‘the importance of timing when acquiring assets’.

We touch on ai and discuss the origin and evolution of Flynn Group; its expansion into Planet Fitness; and fast food restaurants in Australia and New Zealand. We get insight into how Greg goes about placing bets on new markets; the differences in Labor laws, his thoughts and facts on tipping, and the possibility of expanding their restaurants throughout the world.

Greg Flynn – A+ for Leadership, Timing and elevating every business he touches.