Tucson Serves Up Growth as ‘Best Place to Open QSR’ 2016

The best place to open a QSR in 2016 is in Tucson Arizona. From numerous winners of the Best of Tucson to the newest, hippest Downtown eatery, Tucson offers the very best in a wide range of epicurean adventures, and  room for growth in quick-service restaurant (QSR) expansion, according to the market research firm NPD Group.

NPD Group ranked Tucson as the best medium-sized market to open a QSR right now, with an 8 percent forecast growth through 2020 and more than 1,000 QSR in the area right now. The market research firm predicts the top large, medium, and small U.S. markets for quick-service restaurant expansion.

For the fourth consecutive year, the QSR Growth 40 leveraged data from the NPD Group to come up with the top 40 ranked markets.

Rankings use a proprietary NPD Score, which measures market opportunity by balancing quick-service restaurant density in a market and the difference between traffic growth and population growth. Using this methodology, some familiar large cities—Minneapolis, Miami, and Washington, D.C., for example—landed in the top tier, while many medium- and small-sized markets surprised.

According to the market research group, Phoenix is only eighth best big US cities to open a QSR. They predict QSR will grow by 5 percent in the Phoenix metro area over the next five years, with more than 5,000 in the area right now.

Phoenix, fell behind better contenders like Minneapolis Washington D.C. and Miami. While Tucson moved up from the third to first place from 2015.

Tucson’s growth potential has not gone without the notice of Phoenix restaurants like Welcome Diner that took over the former Caffin Diner, Nook Kitchen on Congress and Pizzeria Bianco, all of whom have opened or in the process of opening Tucson locations.

As well as some pretty great Tucson originals such as Mr. Baja Fish, Guadalajara Grill and Home Plate Sports Pub.