How to find upcoming Starbucks locations?

[Michelle St. Claire]

I heard Brandon Turner mention in a podcast that discovering where a Starbucks is going to open is a great strategy to identify up and coming neighborhoods. Does anyone know how to find a list of upcoming Starbucks stores? I haven't had luck through 'Googling".

[Seth Nadreau]

Look up your local Starbucks in the county property appraiser's website. What name is the property under? 

Starbucks is mostly buying/building their real estate now rather than renting it and often use different trade names in different states. (Something like SBUX Ent. of Florida, for example)

Run a name search through the same property appraiser's site and you can see the land they own and where they may build.

If you are in an area where they still rent buildings, simply watch for new construction pockets. Starbucks is switching to an all drive-thru policy. Real easy to spot during construction... especially if the Chipotle sign goes up first on the other side of the building. ;-)