Chief Development Officer

Crunch Fitness - CR Holdings • Tampa, FL

1d

About The Position

CR Fitness Holdings is seeking an experienced, strategic Chief Development Officer to lead continued expansion of its Crunch Fitness portfolio. The CDO provides executive leadership across real estate, site selection, lease negotiations, construction, design, development, and delivery of new clubs. The role develops and executes a scalable growth strategy, ensuring projects are delivered on time, within budget, and in accordance with CR Fitness and Crunch Fitness brand standards.

As a member of the executive leadership team, the CDO partners with the CEO and leaders across Operations, Finance, Legal, and other functions to identify market opportunities, build the development pipeline, optimize capital investment, and bring new clubs from initial market identification through opening. The role provides executive oversight of the Real Estate and Construction functions, manages development and capital expenditure budgets, and builds the processes and teams needed to support continued multi-market growth. Regular travel to current and future markets is required.

Requirements

• At least 10 years of progressive leadership experience in real estate development, construction, or multi-unit development, including significant senior-level leadership experience.
• Proven experience leading aggressive development and expansion for a multi-unit retail, fitness, restaurant, hospitality, or other consumer-facing organization.
• Demonstrated success managing a high-volume pipeline of new locations from market identification through opening.
• Strong commercial real estate background, including site selection, market analysis, LOI and lease negotiations, and deal economics.
• Extensive understanding of construction management, development timelines, permitting, design, budgeting, and capital planning.
• Proven experience managing significant development and capital expenditure budgets.
• Strong financial acumen and ability to evaluate project economics, ROI, risk, and investment decisions.
• Demonstrated ability to build and lead high-performing Real Estate and Construction teams.
• Strong negotiation, communication, and executive presentation skills.
• Ability to manage multiple markets, projects, and priorities simultaneously in a fast-paced growth environment.
• Ability to travel regularly to current and future markets.

Nice To Haves

• Bachelor's degree in Real Estate, Construction Management, Business, Finance, Engineering, or a related field preferred.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute the long-term development strategy in alignment with company growth objectives.
• Lead the development pipeline across existing and emerging markets, including annual and multi-year plans, budgets, timelines, priorities, and performance metrics.
• Provide executive oversight and leadership to the Real Estate and Construction functions and build scalable processes and infrastructure.
• Advise the CEO and executive leadership on development opportunities, risks, capital requirements, and market expansion.
• Lead market planning, real estate strategy, market analysis, site selection, trade-area evaluation, and deal pipeline development.
• Direct negotiations of letters of intent, leases, amendments, renewals, and other real estate agreements with internal and external legal resources.
• Evaluate proposed sites based on demographics, accessibility, visibility, competition, economics, projected performance, and long-term market potential.
• Build relationships with landlords, developers, brokers, municipalities, and other real estate partners; present development recommendations for executive approval.
• Oversee new club construction, renovations, relocations, expansions, and major capital projects.
• Lead construction planning, budgeting, scheduling, design coordination, permitting, and execution; ensure projects meet timelines, budgets, quality expectations, and brand standards.
• Partner with architects, general contractors, engineers, vendors, consultants, and internal stakeholders throughout development.
• Identify and resolve risks that could affect costs, schedules, or club opening dates; improve construction processes and vendor relationships.
• Develop and manage annual development and capital expenditure budgets; partner with Finance to assess project economics, returns, costs, and feasibility.
• Monitor costs against approved budgets, pursue cost savings and improved return on investment, and maintain visibility into pipeline status, openings, capital needs, construction progress, and risks.
• Provide development reporting and forecasts to executive leadership.
• Partner with Operations to transition projects from development and construction into presale and club opening.
• Collaborate with Finance, Legal, Marketing, IT, HR, Recruiting, and other departments to prepare new locations for successful openings.
• Establish accountability, communication, and project-management standards across development functions.
• Recruit, develop, and lead a high-performing Real Estate and Construction organization.

Benefits

• Competitive base salary plus bonus opportunity.
• Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance.
• 401(k) with match.
• PTO.
• Free CR Fitness membership and discounted personal training sessions.
• Team-oriented work environment with significant career growth opportunities in a rapidly expanding company.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive
• Education Level: No Education Listed