Bojangles Wants Up to 25 Tampa Bay Locations, Is Recruiting Franchisees to Build Them

Bojangles, the North Carolina fried chicken and biscuits chain that returned to the Tampa Bay area last November after years away, is now looking to grow its local footprint to as many as 25 restaurants over the next seven to eight years — and it's turning to franchisees to make that happen.

The company currently operates two Tampa Bay locations, both company-owned: one at 7930 U.S. Highway 19 N. in Pinellas Park, which opened Nov. 4, 2025, and one at 18626 State Road 54 in Lutz, which opened around the same time. Those two restaurants marked the brand's first Tampa Bay locations since it last operated in the region.

Brooks Speirs, Bojangles' vice president of franchise sales, said the company has spent the past 18 months evaluating real estate across the Tampa Bay market as it builds out its growth plan. The target now is 20 to 25 restaurants, and the company is actively recruiting franchise operators to get there — either hands-on owner-operators or better-capitalized groups that bring in an experienced operating partner to run day-to-day operations.

"Our best franchisees are all in and are focused on running Bojangles," Speirs said, adding that Tampa Bay is exactly the kind of market Bojangles targeted when it launched its current national expansion push roughly four years ago.

Notably, Bojangles is also open to selling its two existing company-owned Tampa Bay restaurants to a committed franchise operator, rather than only building new locations from scratch. Each franchisee commitment would run five to seven years as the buildout continues.

## What it costs to open one

Becoming a Bojangles franchisee in Tampa Bay isn't cheap. The company requires a minimum net worth of $2.5 million and at least $1 million in liquid capital per location. Building a freestanding restaurant runs an estimated $2.85 million to $3.95 million, on top of a $35,000 initial franchise fee and an ongoing 4% royalty on sales.

Bojangles is offering some incentives to offset those costs, including up to $300,000 in equipment reimbursement, and it's cutting franchise fees by 50% for veteran, women, and minority operators.

"Capital is critical because building restaurants is expensive," Speirs said.

## What the company is looking for in a site

Bojangles is targeting high-traffic, visible locations with adequate parking, and the company has a specific preference for real estate on the morning-commute side of the road. That's a deliberate choice tied to how Floridians already eat at Bojangles: about 30% of the chain's Florida sales happen before 11 a.m., reflecting its biscuit-and-breakfast-heavy menu alongside its fried chicken. Company data shows Florida breakfast sales climbing from roughly 20% of a new restaurant's business in its first year to about 30% by year two — still trailing breakfast's roughly 40% share of sales in the Carolinas, where the chain has operated far longer.

The company is also prioritizing sites near existing traffic generators — spots close to a Costco, a Super Target, or clusters of other quick-service restaurants, where a steady flow of drivers already passes by.

## A quiet return, now a bigger bet

Bojangles' initial Tampa Bay comeback was low-key by comparison to what's now planned. The Pinellas Park restaurant — a 2,414-square-foot building with a single-lane drive-thru, built on the site of a former Burger King on an outparcel of a retail plaza anchored by Ashley Furniture — opened to the public at 5:30 a.m. on Nov. 4, 2025, following a media-only "biscuit cutting" event the day before with city officials and company executives. It was, at the time, the nearest Bojangles to Pinellas County; the closest existing location was in Davenport, about 90 minutes away.

Pinellas Park City Manager Bart Diebold called the opening "both an honor and a major win for our community," saying the city was glad to see "a true Southern institution" choose Pinellas Park for its first location in the area.

Founded in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1977, Bojangles has built its brand around Southern-style fried chicken, made-from-scratch biscuits, and sweet tea. The chain has grown to 886 restaurants nationwide, including 283 company-owned locations, and posted systemwide sales of roughly $1.95 billion across 867 locations in 2025. The company has been backed by private equity since 2019, when Durational Capital Management and The Jordan Company acquired it for roughly $594 million. Bojangles has said it wants to eventually surpass 1,000 restaurants nationally, with Texas, Nevada, New York, New Jersey and Ohio also among its target growth markets.

Bojangles isn't the only Southern-style chicken chain chasing growth in Pinellas County. Raising Cane's has been expanding aggressively in the area, with locations already open in Clearwater and St. Petersburg and another planned for Largo.

## What's next

Bojangles has not announced specific new Tampa Bay sites, opening dates, or signed franchisees beyond its two existing restaurants. The company's public search for operators suggests the pace of new openings will depend on how quickly it signs franchise agreements — including a possible sale of the Lutz and Pinellas Park locations to a franchise partner — rather than a fixed rollout schedule. For now, those two restaurants remain the only Bojangles locations in the Tampa Bay area, and the company's own timeline points to a buildout stretching through the early 2030s if it reaches its 20-to-25-restaurant goal.