Marco’s Pizza opens Orlando operations center to train franchisees

Marco’s Pizza was betting more than $1 million that a mock store in downtown Orlando could improve the way its real stores run. The new Operations Center of Excellence at 222 South Orange Avenue was designed as a corporate office, training destination and operations hub, with construction underway and an opening expected in fall 2026.

The 14,030-square-foot facility was built to hold about 50 corporate team members and to bring franchise support closer to a growth market where the chain already has a sizable footprint. Inside, Marco’s planned a training kitchen designed to resemble an actual store, along with space for discovery days and Marco’s University programming for franchisees and general managers. The company also said the center would host franchisees from around the world and bring together franchise operators, corporate leadership and supply chain partners for ongoing operational refinement.

For restaurant workers, the point is not the real estate. It is whether a centralized training site can cut down on the mistakes that make a shift feel chaotic: inconsistent prep, weak manager readiness, poor handoff between back and front of house, and standards that vary from one franchise to the next. In a pizza system where speed, labor scheduling and order accuracy matter every hour of the day, a training kitchen that mimics a working store can be the difference between a smooth dinner rush and a night of comped orders, burned-out cooks and frustrated customers.

Marco’s is trying to scale quickly enough that training has become a labor issue, not just an operations issue. The chain said its store count increased by 25 units in 2025 to 1,184 U.S. locations, and it is projecting 71 franchised U.S. openings in 2026. Separately, the company has said it plans to surpass 80 new store openings this year after opening more than 60 in 2025. That pace raises the stakes for onboarding new managers and keeping labor standards steady across a bigger system.

The Orlando Economic Partnership helped with local incentives, expedited permitting, public relations and connections to workforce, utility and government partners. For Marco’s, the center extends a headquarters that still sits in Toledo, Ohio, where the brand was founded in 1978 by Pasquale “Pat” Giammarco in Oregon, Ohio, just outside the city. The company said it has more than 1,200 stores across 34 states, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas and Mexico, and that its leadership team brings more than two centuries of collective experience from brands including Burger King, Taco Bell, KFC and Domino’s Pizza. The Orlando center now becomes the place where that growth story gets tested against the daily realities of restaurant work.