Skiptown’s first franchisees sign a Pineville lease, taking the Charlotte dog-care brand into its own backyard

The first franchisees at Skiptown have signed a lease at 10301 Feldfarm Lane in Charlotte’s Pineville area, with the location on track to open in early 2027. It is the first of two planned under a franchise agreement signed earlier this year, according to the company’s announcement.

The new locations will be owned and operated by Chris Tkatch and Bo Fender, two Charlotte-based business professionals who first came to Skiptown as members before becoming franchise owners. Tkatch started his first business at twelve as a landscaper and brings a background in sales, project management and finance.

A Charlotte brand franchising in Charlotte

The detail that makes this interesting is geographic. The flagship is in Charlotte, and the brand has spent the past two years expanding into Denver and Atlanta. Its first franchisees are opening in its home market instead of a new one, which is an unusual sequence and a reasonable signal of confidence in the local demand.

For anyone unfamiliar, Skiptown runs dog daycare, overnight boarding, walking, bathing and grooming out of a single building, with a bar attached where owners drink while their dogs play. The South End flagship on Winona Street turned the model into a Charlotte fixture. The company describes itself as tech-enabled, which in practice means the booking, the check-in and the day’s photo updates all run through an app.

The numbers behind it

Skiptown reported 23 percent year-over-year revenue growth system wide, and the lease announcement described the brand as coming off a record-breaking quarter. It signed a five-unit franchise agreement for Colorado in June, with the first of those in the Denver metro area.

The wider context is a pet care industry the company puts at $150 billion. Consumer research has repeatedly found pet spending holds up when other household budgets tighten, which is the quality that makes the category attractive to franchise investors in an uncertain economy.

What it means for Pineville and south Charlotte

Feldfarm Lane sits in the Pineville area on the southern edge of the county, in a part of the metro that has added housing quickly and has comparatively few full-service dog care options. Most of what exists is either grooming alone or boarding alone. A building doing daycare, boarding, grooming and walking under one roof is a different proposition for a household where both adults work in Uptown.

There is also a second location planned under the same agreement, though the company has not named a site for it. Two Skiptowns operated by the same local owners would give south Charlotte coverage the brand has not had.

Franchising a business built on trust

The obvious question about franchising any pet care brand is whether the standard travels. A dog daycare lives or dies on whether the staff know the animals and whether owners believe the place is safe, and neither of those is guaranteed by a brand manual.

The counter-argument in this case is that both franchisees were customers first. Tkatch and Fender used Skiptown as members before they bought into it, which at least means they know what the experience is supposed to feel like from the other side of the counter. Whether that survives contact with a payroll is the thing to watch in 2027.

Our read: the local angle is the story here. Plenty of Charlotte brands have franchised out of the region and quietly stopped being Charlotte brands. Skiptown’s first franchisees opening fifteen miles from the flagship is a different kind of expansion, and it will be easy to judge whether the standard held because the original is close enough to compare against.

Opening timing

Early 2027 is the stated target, which means construction and fit-out through next year. Dog care buildings need more than a standard retail conversion: drainage, sound separation, outdoor run space and air handling all have to be built in instead of added later, and that work takes time.

We will update when an opening date is set. The location is not yet in our directory, because it is not yet open, and we do not list businesses before they are trading.

Know about an opening we should cover? Send us the details.