Chipotle vs Starbucks: Which NNN Investment Wins?

Chipotle and Starbucks are both widely listed tenants in fast casual and coffee net lease, and the comparison is unusual: Starbucks carries agency ratings and reports billions of dollars of long-term debt, while Chipotle has no agency rating in our ratings database and reported no outstanding borrowings. Starbucks Corporation carries investment grade ratings of BBB+/Baa1 (S&P / Moody’s ratings on its senior unsecured debt). For Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc., our ratings database shows no S&P, Moody’s or Fitch rating (Ratings checked October 8, 2026), and its 2025 Form 10-K and June 30, 2026 Form 10-Q disclose no credit rating and report no outstanding borrowings under its credit facility; its 2025 revenue was $11.9 billion. The absence of a rating is not a judgment on its credit. In the listings we track, Chipotle asks a live median cap rate of 5.00%, versus 5.75% for Starbucks.

This comparison applies the framework from our investment grade guide to a matchup where the rating column tells you the least: credit substance first, then lease structure, then the real estate.

Chipotle vs Starbucks: Head-to-Head Comparison

Ratings per our tenant ratings database; Ratings checked October 8, 2026 (Starbucks) and Ratings checked October 8, 2026 (Chipotle). Store counts and revenue from the companies’ most recent Form 10-K filings. Median asking cap rates, cap rate counts, average remaining terms, prices and last-observed dates are live values from the active listings InvestmentGrade.com tracks; a few cap rates are calculated from a listing’s stated price and income rather than stated in the listing. Original lease terms and rent increases are counts in the same listings as of October 8, 2026, among listings that state them; an original lease term is not the term remaining. Asking cap rates are not closing cap rates.

Credit: The Letters vs the Balance Sheet

Starbucks is an investment grade rated company working through a turnaround under CEO Brian Niccol. It is rated BBB+/Baa1 (S&P / Moody’s), which our ratings database classifies as investment grade. Fiscal 2025 revenue was $37.2 billion, and in that year Starbucks closed 620 US company-operated stores while opening 509, part of a restructuring that also took impairment and lease-exit charges, according to its 10-K; in September 2026 it announced about 250 more North American closures. For landlords, that is a reminder that a corporate lease does not prevent a store closure; whether rent continues after a closure depends on the lease terms, such as any early termination or go-dark rights, and on applicable law. The full profile is on the Starbucks credit rating and cap rate page.

Chipotle is a major tenant with no S&P, Moody’s or Fitch rating in our ratings database (Ratings checked October 8, 2026), and its 2025 Form 10-K and June 30, 2026 Form 10-Q disclose no credit rating. It cannot formally be called investment grade, and disciplined underwriting treats unrated as its own category rather than assuming a shadow rating. What can be said: Chipotle reported no outstanding borrowings under its credit facility at December 31, 2025 and June 30, 2026, $11.9 billion of 2025 revenue, and 3,938 US restaurants, and its 2025 Form 10-K says it owns and operates its restaurants in the U.S. and Canada. Its 2025 comparable restaurant sales fell 1.7%; management first guided 2026 comparable sales to about flat, then in July 2026 raised its outlook to low single digit growth after second-quarter comparable sales rose 2.2%. Details are on the Chipotle credit rating and cap rate page, and both tenants can be benchmarked in our credit tenant ratings database.

Cap Rates: Live Medians and Possible Reasons for the Difference

Live asking cap rates for Chipotle, Starbucks and comparable tenants:

Active listings InvestmentGrade.com tracks with an asking cap rate (stated in the listing, or computed from its stated income and price when no rate is stated), listings last observed October 19, 2026. Asking cap rates are not closed-sale cap rates. The middle half is the range from the 25th to the 75th percentile of listings. The 10-year Treasury yield is 5.24% as of October 1, 2026 (FRED series DGS10). Ratings are the agency ratings in our ratings database for the entity shown, which may be a parent company; the rating type (for example issuer, senior unsecured debt, long-term debt or revenue bond ratings) varies by company and is shown on each tenant page. A rating applies to a lease only if the rated entity signs or guarantees it, so confirm the tenant and any guarantor in the lease. n/a means no verified rating is on file.

Across the active listings we track, Chipotle asks a live median cap rate of 5.00%, while Starbucks asks 5.75%. Possible factors, which the listing data do not isolate, include longer original lease terms on new construction, no reported borrowings, and newer Chipotlane drive-through prototypes. The Starbucks listings also include more older and smaller sites: as of October 8, 2026, 13 of 115 Starbucks listings that state a year built were built before 2015, versus 5 of 88 Chipotle listings, and 29 of 120 Starbucks listings that state a building size are under 2,000 square feet, versus none of 90 Chipotle listings. These counts describe the listings; they do not show what buyers pay for or why.

The lack of a rating still matters for some buyers: lenders and institutional mandates that require a formal rating cannot count Chipotle the way they count Starbucks. That can limit part of the buyer pool at exit.

Lease Structure: Term Is the Main Difference

In the listings we track that state a rent schedule, both tenants most often show fixed rent increases of 10% every five years, so scheduled rent growth is often similar; confirm the schedule in each lease. The bigger difference is term. Among listings that state an original lease term, 28 of 42 Chipotle listings show 15 years and 40 of 64 Starbucks listings show 10 years (as of October 8, 2026). An original term is not committed rent remaining: compare each property’s remaining noncancelable term and renewal options, shown in the listing and confirmed in the lease (the table shows the live average remaining term). Where the remaining term is shorter, site quality (the corner, the drive-through stack, the morning traffic pattern) carries more of the investment case.

Both companies operate their own US stores (Starbucks also has licensed stores), so a franchisee is not usually the tenant. That does not by itself settle who owes the rent: confirm in each lease whether the parent or a subsidiary is the tenant and whether the parent guarantees it. Licensed Starbucks locations inside grocery stores or other retailers are operated by the licensee, so confirm which party is the tenant before relying on Starbucks credit.

The Bond-to-NNN Pivot

Starbucks has issued investment grade rated bonds, so income buyers can compare against a bond benchmark. The ICE BofA BBB US Corporate Index effective yield, a broad benchmark for Starbucks’ rating category rather than a quote on a Starbucks bond, was 6.19% on October 1, 2026 (FRED), against a median Starbucks asking cap rate of 5.75%, a spread of −44 bps, so the pre-tax case for owning Starbucks real estate rather than comparable bonds depends on where corporate yields stand. The case for the real estate rests on 1031 exchange eligibility, residual land value, scheduled rent increases, and building depreciation when the investor owns the building. The math is in Starbucks Bonds vs NNN Real Estate. Chipotle’s 2025 Form 10-K and June 30, 2026 Form 10-Q report no outstanding borrowings and show no bonds outstanding, so there is no Chipotle bond benchmark; a lease is one way to own income from a Chipotle property, backed by Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. only if it is the tenant or guarantor named in the lease.

Verdict: Which Tenant Wins?

On lease economics, Chipotle listings often offer the longer original term, from a company that reported no outstanding borrowings; compare its live median cap rate with Starbucks’ in the table. The cost is the unrated label, which can narrow the exit buyer pool to investors and lenders willing to underwrite the balance sheet directly, and the company’s low leverage is a choice rather than a lease covenant.

Starbucks offers agency ratings, which can matter for lender presentations and institutional mandates when Starbucks Corporation is the tenant or guarantor named in the lease. The tradeoff is a shorter original term and a company that is still closing coffeehouses that do not meet its performance expectations. Neither answer is wrong; they reward different kinds of diligence.