Gina Luari, who founded The Place 2 Be in Hartford in 2016 and now has restaurants in Hartford and West Hartford, has founded The Statement Group, she announced Monday.

“Having a restaurant group allows for scalability and better continuity in systems, human resources, operations, so on. You get to create a corporate team and put systems in place that oversee all of the units instead of just running all the units individually,” said Luari.

The announcement said Luari would be CEO, “Chopped” champion Xavier Santiago will be culinary director and Mo Major, also a winner on the Food Network competition show, will be assistant culinary director.

Luari has been working on opening New Haven and Springfield, Massachusetts, locations of The Place 2 Be — known for all-day brunch and cocktails — and has planned three other restaurant concepts, which are being partially funded by the city of Hartford’s Hart Lift Grants, which will help entrepreneurs fill vacant storefronts. The recipients of those grants were announced in February by Mayor Luke Bronin.

Luari’s granted restaurants are Charred, a brick-oven pizza place to be built in the old firehouse at 275 Pearl St.; Cantina, a Mexican/tapas restaurant at 900 Main St., where Dish used to be; and RAW at 280 Trumbull. Each of those proposals received a $150,000 Hart Lift grant, which must be matched 100%. Luari said she and the landlords are providing the funding match for each place.

Luari said Cantina is starting construction soon and she hopes to open by year’s end, Charred is still in development; and RAW is expected to open early this summer, perhaps June. The Springfield The Place 2 Be, inside the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, will open in a few weeks, and the location in New Haven is set to open in late summer.

The restaurant group is building offices at 57 Pratt St. in Hartford. The original Franklin Avenue location of The Place 2 Be opened Monday after a renovation. The Constitution Plaza location is under repair following a fire in March that Luari said caused $100,000 in damage to the interior of the restaurant.

Luari has spent her life in the restaurant business, starting out waiting tables at her parents’ restaurant, Town Line Diner in Rocky Hill.

Susan Dunne can be reached at sdunne@courant.com.