Port of Subs centralizes development across
205+ active projects with Smartsheet
With Smartsheet Control Center and Koetke Consulting, the QSR franchisor builds the operational foundation to scale store development nationally with transparency, cost control, and speed.
Nick Skuse
SVP of Development
Port of Subs
"What we're doing with Smartsheet is not just creating a system that I can manage from, but that everybody can manage from. We're all better if everybody becomes empowered by the information"
Port of Subs has built its reputation on freshly sliced sandwiches and a franchisee community that knows the regional markets it serves. As the brand accelerates into national expansion, the development organization led by SVP Nick Skuse carries an enormous responsibility: shepherding every new build, remodel, transfer, and store closing across a portfolio of 205+ active projects at any given time.
Each of those projects passes through a long lifecycle covering sales, real estate, construction, permitting, bidding, equipment procurement, and the handoff to operations. Each involves general contractors, subcontractors, equipment vendors, regional developers, and franchisees. Until recently, Nick was tracking the whole thing across a tangle of spreadsheets and ad hoc Smartsheet use that the volume had clearly outgrown.
The result was a development team operating in firefighting mode at exactly the moment the brand needed to be leading proactively. For a franchisor, that gap isn't just inefficient. It's a missed responsibility to the franchisees and regional developers who depend on the home office to set the schedule, anticipate the next move, and protect the path forward.
"You're in complete reactionary mode. You cannot be effective in a REACT mode. You have to be scheduled, you have to be planned, it has to be anticipated. As the franchisor, that is really our responsibility on behalf of our franchisees and our regional developers: to provide that guidance, rather than just whatever happens that day."
Schedule Templates to System Architecture
Nick understood schedule management. With years of construction and development experience, he had already built schedule templates in Smartsheet for new builds, transfers, and renewals. The platform itself was the right choice. Unlike traditional PM software, Smartsheet could include every stakeholder in the process: licensed users and unlicensed collaborators, internal team members and external franchisees, all working from the same source of truth.
What was missing was the system architecture to tie it all together. Nick knew the platform was capable of more than his templates were demanding of it, and he didn't want to spend the next year discovering its limits in fix-it mode. He needed a system designed for scale on day one, and he needed it built quickly. He brought in Koetke Consulting, a Smartsheet Platinum Partner with deep experience designing portfolio solutions for real estate and multi-site operators.
One system from sales to operations
Koetke Consulting designed and implemented a Smartsheet Control Center portfolio solution covering the full Port of Subs development lifecycle. A central portfolio view shows every active project at a glance. From there, Nick or any stakeholder can click into a specific store and access a custom dashboard that surfaces the project schedule, status, decision points, and the complete financial picture from initial test fit drawings through general contractor quotes to final invoiced cost.
The shift was structural, not incremental. Information that used to live in inboxes and personal files now lives in a system that every department touches, regardless of who holds a Smartsheet license. The dashboards aren't reporting tools sitting on top of the work. They are the work, and they are the place where regional developers, franchisees, and home office teams all show up to manage their piece of the process together.
Cost transparency that protects margins
The cost visibility was the first piece to deliver measurable impact. Quick-service restaurant operators face relentless pressure on every input: general contracting, labor, equipment, shipping, freight. For a development team managing 205+ projects, even small unchecked price creep across hundreds of equipment line items adds up quickly.
With the new system, Nick can audit any project at any level, from a portfolio rollup all the way down to a specific piece of equipment, almost instantly. When something looks off in a vendor quote, the data is right there on the dashboard for both sides to see. The conversation with a vendor or manufacturer becomes a factual one, grounded in the same numbers everyone is looking at. Margins that used to erode through the cracks of disconnected systems are now visible at the point they matter.
A foundation built for growth
Port of Subs is in expansion mode. New markets, more locations, deeper regional penetration. Nick's challenge is the one every fast-growing development team faces: how do you scale the work without scaling the headcount?
The new system is the answer. By replacing manual coordination with a structured workflow that pulls all departments into the same view, Port of Subs can run a larger portfolio with the same lean team and bring on additional people only when the volume truly demands it.
The implementation also revealed something Nick didn't expect. Once the construction lifecycle was captured cleanly, the integration opportunities with adjacent departments became obvious. Real estate, sales, and operations all touch the development pipeline at different stages, and the same system that solved Nick's immediate problem now provides the connective tissue to bring the rest of the organization in. That's the mark of a system working as designed. It solves the problem you brought to it and shows you what's possible next.
A collaborative build, not an off-the-shelf install
Nick is direct about why the engagement worked. Off-the-shelf solutions don't fit operators with a custom development lifecycle, multi-department coordination needs, and franchisee dynamics. The right outcome required a partner who would listen first, ask strategic questions, and design a solution shaped around the actual work rather than a generic template. That experience shapes the advice he'd give any peer evaluating a similar build.
"Do your homework. Where a lot of people fall short is they think a potential system is just going to be the easy button. Every company works a little bit different. Every need is a little bit different. I have a solution that works for us, but that's only because of the collaborative effort that Paul and I have put into building it."
Want to go deeper on the solution?
See how Koetke Consulting executes portfolio-wide store refreshes on time and on budget across an entire footprint.