Another Chick-fil-A is planned for the Bradenton area. Here are details on location

James A. Jones Jr.
·2 min read

It seems Chick-fil-A can’t get enough Bradenton.

Five months after opening its fourth restaurant in Manatee County, the Atlanta-based chicken restaurant has plans to build a fifth in the Bradenton area.

The location? The Bayshore Gardens Shopping Center at 6010 14th St. W., according to paperwork filed with Manatee County Development Services.

The restaurant would be constructed where a now-closed Duff’s Buffet stands. The buffet closed in 2020 during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Neighbors include Sonic Drive-In, Taco Bell, and anchors Publix, Target and TJ Maxx.

The Bayshore Gardens Shopping Center was built in 1992. Publix Super Markets Inc. bought the 19.5-acre shopping center for $42 million in 2016.

Chick-fil-A didn’t respond to a request for information on its planned Bayshore Gardens restaurant.

“Chick-fil-A opens a limited number of restaurants each year. While we receive hundreds of suggestions from customers on where they would like to see a new Chick-fil-A restaurant, the real estate team at Chick-fil-A, Inc. is responsible for selecting all new locations based on corporate goals for expansion in specifically targeted markets and other relevant business factors,” the company says on its website.

After a two-year wait, the Chick-fil-A at 4311 Manatee Avenue West, opened in May. James A. Jones Jr./jajones1@bradenton.com
After a two-year wait, the Chick-fil-A at 4311 Manatee Avenue West, opened in May. James A. Jones Jr./jajones1@bradenton.com

Other locations in Bradenton area

▪ Bradenton’s newest Chick-fil-A opened in May at 4311 Manatee Ave. W.

▪ The oldest Chick-fil-A in Manatee County, the one at 5206 73rd Lane East in the Creekwood Crossing shopping center, opened in 2001. But it wasn’t the first. That honor went to the one that opened in 1977 in the food court of the now defunct DeSoto Square.

▪ The Chick-fil-A at 4573 14th St. W. opened in 2013 and the one at 5489 University Parkway opened in 2020.

▪ Nathan Hoeksema, a Bradenton Christian School graduate, started working at Chick-fil-A in 1993 and now owns the 14th Street West and Manatee Avenue West franchises.

A new Chick-fil-A may be coming to this property at 6010 14th Street West in Bradenton where most recently it was Duff’s Original Buffet. Tiffany Tompkins/ttompkins@bradenton.com
A new Chick-fil-A may be coming to this property at 6010 14th Street West in Bradenton where most recently it was Duff’s Original Buffet. Tiffany Tompkins/ttompkins@bradenton.com

Chick-fil-A history

▪ In 1967, S. Truett Cathy founded and opened the first Chick-fil-A restaurant in Atlanta’s Greenbriar Shopping Center.

▪ There are now more than 2,600 Chick-fil-A restaurants in 47 states, Washington, D.C., Canada and Puerto Rico.