The Capital Region’s Next Chick-fil-A Gets the Go-Ahead
If you live in the Capital Region and wanted some Chick-fil-A, you would either have to drive to the closest location, which is in Chicopee, Massachusetts... or you would have go to Albany International Airport, buy a plane ticket, go through TSA screening, and then you could patronize the only Chick-fil-A in the area at the airport concourse. I'm sure there were people willing to - and did - both.
But soon you won't have to. The Albany Business Review broke the news Tuesday night that the town of Clifton Park planning board gave the green light for the first standalone Chick-fil-A in the area. No body scan, metal detector or pat-down required.
Chick-fil-A restaurants have long been rumored to come to the Capital Region ever since its location at Albany Airport opened in 2018. The Clifton Park restaurant will be located on Clifton Country Road at the former Pier 1 Imports, which closed all of its stores in 2020.
The still-standing, but vacant, Pier 1 building will be demolished and the site will be redeveloped. Photos submitted in the proposal before the Clifton Park Planning Board show renderings of what the newly developed site will look like.
To accommodate the heavy traffic that will almost certainly increase drastically in the area, Chick-fil-A will offer three drive thru lanes. Construction is expected to take about six months, so a fall opening is planned - likely October or November.
Another Chick-fil-A location has also been pitched for Route 7 in Latham at the site of the Brick House Tavern, but the Business Review says it is only in the application stage.