A customer walks to his car after eating a lunch at Bojangles' on Lee Highway in this 2008 file photo. Burgeoning interest from developers in Chattanooga's trendy North Shore is continuing to spill into nearby Red Bank as another eatery is on the drawing board.
A Bojangles restaurant is slated to go up on the south end of Dayton Boulevard as development flows over from successful North Chattanooga, officials and developers say.
"There's a lot of energy radiating out of downtown," said Matt McGauley, president of Fidelity Trust Co., which sold the restaurant tract for $410,000.
He said Bojangles' Restaurants Inc. of Charlotte, N.C., is slated to start work soon at the location, which is a return of the brand's chicken and biscuit fare to Red Bank. For many years, Bojangles had operated a restaurant on Dayton Boulevard near Ashland Terrace before shutting it down.
Red Bank Mayor John Roberts said the new eatery is more proof that business is coming back to the Chattanooga suburb.
"It's a good sign for the city," he said.
Over the past few years, new restaurants and other businesses have popped up in Red Bank's south end. Pratt Home Builders raised its new headquarters near Dayton Boulevard and Signal Mountain Road, and a Family Dollar Store was raised nearby as well.
A little further north, Chattanooga developer John Coffelt of HGH Construction Inc. is building 28 houses similar to those in the Jefferson Heights neighborhood on the Southside on a vacant tract off Memorial Drive.
"Red Bank has a lot of positive momentum. Traffic counts are increasing along Dayton Boulevard," said McGauley, adding that the area south of Memorial Drive is seeing the most interest.
The North Shore has undergone an array of new residential and retail development and more is underway and planned. A Publix store opened last year and is expected to continue to fuel the interest from developers.
McGauley said Bojangles has the needed building permits in hand for work at the site next to the Family Dollar store.
Bojangles has at least three restaurants in the Chattanooga area already, having finished an East Brainerd Road location about three years ago. The typical Bojangles outlet seats just over 50 people and employs between 30 and 50 workers.
The chain, founded in 1977 by Jack Fulk and Richard Thomas in Charlotte, N.C., now has more than 500 restaurants nationwide.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.