restaurant real estate

Why Ghost Kitchens Failed: The $1 Billion Real Estate Lesson Nobody Saw Coming

In September 2019, RXR Realty, which had $18.8 billion in assets, made what looked like one of the smartest bets in commercial real estate at the time: a $40 million investment in Kitchen United, a ghost kitchen operator filling vacant retail space with delivery-only restaurants. Four years later, Kitchen United closed every single location and sold off all of its assets.