Mokas’ nine-store agreement spans Missouri counties and three Kansas cities

Mokas Coffee & Eatery announced a nine-restaurant development agreement with Cornerstone Hospitality August 26. The commitment covers Missouri’s Kansas City area and three Kansas markets outside the metro.

Brice Turner and Jeff Bennett lead Cornerstone. Six restaurants are planned across Clay and Jackson counties in Missouri, with one each in Derby, Garden City and Manhattan, Kansas. Site selection is underway, with a 2027 opening targeted as the group develops the full program. Mokas’ Cornerstone announcement

Turner founded Duty First Holdings after serving in the U.S. Army. Bennett brings construction and land-development experience, along with prior multi-unit franchise operations. The announcement does not identify their first Mokas site or promise all nine openings during 2027.

Mokas reports five corporate cafés and 15 locations under development. It provides no site-by-site pipeline reconciliation, so adding the agreement to that figure would risk counting planned restaurants twice.

The geographic split is material: Cornerstone is undertaking a regional development program across two states, rather than nine closely grouped Kansas City restaurants.

Another operator already holds a different territory#

Mokas’ September 23, 2025, release detailed first franchisee Christian Coleman’s plans. His six-unit agreement covered Johnson, Douglas and Shawnee counties in Kansas, including opportunities around Kansas City, Lawrence and Topeka. The Coleman development announcement

Coleman, founder and president of Midwest Restaurant Group, had worked in tennis-event hospitality, including VIP operations and sponsorships at the BNP Paribas Open. His business background also included an organic farm and a hemp-processing facility.

In the announcement, Coleman emphasized the combination of specialty coffee and an eatery. Mokas described a menu extending from drinks and pastries into breakfast and lunch wraps, sandwiches, soups and salads, with both drive-thru access and an indoor gathering space.

Those details explain the operating proposition behind the recruitment. A Mokas development agreement involves a food-and-beverage café, with more than a beverage pickup window to present to guests.

Coleman’s territory and agreement belong to a separate operator from Cornerstone. The earlier release targeted March 2026 for an initial Olathe opening, providing a dated plan against which subsequent site reporting can be read.

Olathe’s planning records identify a specific development project involving Coleman. On June 9, 2025, the city’s Planning Commission approved a revised preliminary development plan for Mokas with stipulations.

File PR25-0009 names Coleman and Midwest Restaurant Group as the applicant. It covers approximately 1.11 acres northeast of East 119th Street and South Ridgeview Road. That documents a planning step, without establishing when a restaurant opened. The city’s project record

Olathe shows why a target needs its own update#

The Kansas City Star’s June 24 report supplied that update. Reporter Emily Harter identified the planned Olathe location at 11814 S. Fellows Street and reported an expected summer or early-fall opening. The originally projected March date had moved. The Star’s original report

Coleman told the publication he planned six locations across his three counties by 2032. That gives his agreement a multi-year horizon, separate from the date attached to the first café.

That remained an opening forecast; the report did not establish a completed café or explain the revised schedule.