First Watch to get new HQ

MANATEE COUNTY — First Watch, the fast-growing breakfast-brunch-lunch chain, is getting a new, and bigger, corporate headquarters.

The company will stay in the east Manatee County area. It will move about a mile away, to a Benderson Development corporate office park just west of the University Parkway exit of Interstate 75. Benderson is working with First Watch on a build-to-suit project for a 10,500-sqaure-foot space, First Watch Chief Marketing Officer Chris Tomasso told the Business Review. The company, which operates about 100 restaurants in 13 states, currently leases a 7,500-square-foot headquarters in Lakewood Ranch, east of Interstate 75.

“Our five-year growth plan is pretty aggressive,” says Tomasso. “This is about room for growth.”