Flowood city officials and developers gathered along Lakeland Drive Wednesday to celebrate the groundbreaking of the latest edition to the Jackson-area dining scene.
The newest Chick-Fil-A will be the second one for Flowood, and it will be next to GI Associates at 2520 Lakeland Dr.
There will be a new building built, and it will be built on top of where Ruby Tuesday's stood for nearly 20 years. Ruby Tuesday's was torn down in the last two years.
According to Scott Lawhorne of Chick-Fil-A corporate, who will be the project manager, the goal for opening is late March of 2025.
"Don't hold me to that," he said. "That's if everything goes perfectly and weather doesn't stall everything."
Lawhorne also said he expects the traffic flow to make this Chick-Fil-A easy to get through as there will be a double line that can hold up to 85 cars at one time. He also said he expects groundwork to begin Monday and new asphalt on the property in as few as two weeks.
Chick-Fil-As around the metro area are some of the most popular fast-food restaurants, and they are filled to capacity from the moment they open until the time they close, except, of course, for Sundays.
The owner of this franchise is Ian Hodges, who is also the owner of the Downtown Jackson location in the Regions Building for the last seven years.
"This is an awesome opportunity," said Hodges, a 35 year old who has been with Chick-Fil-A for 13 years. "The City of Flowood has been amazing to deal with, and anything we have needed, they have found a way to make it work. There could not be a better group of people to work with."
Hodges also said the new CFA will be a new concept for the Jackson area with only one other concept like in in Mississippi. There will be a fully dedicated lane in the drive-through where guests can pick up orders placed on the Chick-Fil-A app.
"Oxford has the only other one like it, and I think I customers will really enjoy it," he said.
The CFA corporate office said the new store will be a jobs driver for the area.
"We are excited by the prospect of joining this neighborhood, where each locally owned and operated restaurant creates 80 – 120 jobs," Chick-Fil-A told the clarion Ledger in a statement. "We hope to have the opportunity to serve new guests delicious food in an environment of genuine hospitality."
Just last year, the Chick-Fil-A down the road in Flowood's Dogwood Festival closed for major renovations to make room for the onslaught of customers that come every day. That process took about six weeks, and it reopened in mid-October of 2023.
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There are 43 Chick-Fil-A's across Mississippi. The newest one in Flowood will be the 14th in the metro area.
Daniel Lang, the economic development director for Flowood, said he believes the new store will help drive even more development with surrounding commercial real estate.
"We already are in talks with people who could come in and be neighbors," Lang said specifically of the empty adjacent building that was a fast-casual seafood restaurant until it closed last year. "We feel like there are a lot of good things coming for this area."
It's part of a bevy of development going on in the city of just under 11,000 people in Rankin County.
Now, just across from Holiday Inn Express and at the intersection of Flowood Drive and Daughdrill Station, dirt has been turned for a new 93-room Fairfield Inn.
Not far down Lakeland, Mississippi's third Freddy's Frozen Custard and Steakburger recently opened and construction has recently begun on a major Pickleball development that could be the largest in the state.
Ross Reily can be reached by email at rreily@gannett.com or 601-573-2952. You can follow him on Twitter @GreenOkra1 .
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Groundbreaking for Jackson area's newest Chick-Fil-A. It will be unlike any other in metro
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