Chick-fil-a gets the OK for Clifton Park eatery
Planning Board action clears construction for chicken sandwich spot
Chick-fil-a is coming to town.
The popular chicken sandwich fast-food restaurant won approval from the town Planning Board to build at the former Pier 1 Imports site near Route 146.
The store would be at 304 Clifton Park Center Road. The existing building, which is 9,000 square feet, would be demolished and replaced with a 5,000-square foot Chickfil-a. The Times Union has previously reported that Chick-fil-a expected it would take six months to build the store once town approval was granted. The company could
not be reached Wednesday for immediate comment.
At Town Hall, workers said they were already excited about the restaurant, which has not yet broken ground.
Supervisor Phil Barrett said
he doesn’t expect it to cause significant traffic problems — except immediately after it opens.
“The property is adjacent to the Clifton Park Center Mall,
very close to the Northway exit, so yeah, it’s a busy area,” he said. “I’m sure in the very beginning there might be a little more traffic than usual. But no, I think the restaurant is one element of what has become a very successful area.”
Traffic concerns were the primary focus of the Planning Board review process. But Barrett noted that traffic means economic success.
“We’ve come a long way at Exit 9 from where we were in the ’90s when there were a plethora of empty buildings and storefronts,” he said. “We’re very proud of the success that has occurred. And we’re also going to be breaking ground on a new park in the Exit 9 area. So we believe it’s a great mix of elements that make Exit 9 a successful area.”
More recently, town officials have tried to attract nonretail businesses, to diversify the area. Zoning that allowed Chick-fil-a is part of that effort.
“The goal of the Town Center plan was to diversify the mix of uses within the Exit 9 area due to the continued growth of online shopping,” Barrett said. “We have been able to successfully diversify Exit 9 and still have a very strong retail base.”
The restaurant will be next to the Mobil gas station at the corner of Route 146 and Clifton Park Center Road. Once built, the location would be the popular fast-food chain’s first standalone restaurant in the Capital Region. Chick-fil-a operates a restaurant in Albany International Airport but it is behind the security checkpoint.
Another store is also being planned for Colonie. The Colonie location met with that town’s Planning Board last fall, but there’s been no movement on it since then.