Bojangles wants to build 20 to 25 new restaurants across Tampa Bay over the next seven to eight years, transforming a market where it currently operates just two corporate-owned stores into a major regional presence. The chicken chain says it's even open to selling or franchising those first two locations to the right operator who commits to expanding further.
Brooks Speirs, Bojangles' vice president of franchise sales, told Tampa Bay Business and Wealth that capital is critical because building restaurants is expensive, and that Tampa is exactly the kind of market Bojangles targeted when it launched its national expansion roughly four years ago. He said the company's best franchisees stay focused on actually running their restaurants rather than treating the brand as a passive investment.
Corporate Willing To Sell Its Own Tampa Bay Stores
According to the outlet's report, Bojangles would consider handing over its Pinellas Park and Lutz locations to an operator willing to commit to opening additional restaurants over the next five to seven years. The company's real estate team has spent the past 18 months evaluating sites across the Tampa Bay region, and executives have already met with several prospective franchise groups.
Bojangles first returned to Tampa Bay on November 4, 2025, opening at 7930 U.S. Highway 19 North in Pinellas Park inside a converted 2,414-square-foot former Burger King building, according to St Pete Rising. The opening marked the chain's comeback to a region it had left decades earlier. Bojangles also opened a second corporate-owned store at 18626 State Road 54 in Lutz by late last year, giving it a foothold in both Pinellas and Pasco counties.
Breakfast Numbers And Site Criteria Behind The Push
The chain is chasing visible, high-traffic sites with easy parking and access, favoring spots on the morning-commute side of the road and locations near major retailers like Costco and Super Target or existing quick-service clusters, per the same report. Breakfast already accounts for roughly 30% of Bojangles' Florida sales before 11 a.m., and breakfast sales in Florida and Texas have grown from about 20% in a store's first year to roughly 30% in its second — still trailing the roughly 40% breakfast share the chain sees back in the Carolinas. Bojangles is leaning on that breakfast growth to compete across breakfast, lunch and dinner as it pushes into new territory.
Newer restaurants also reflect a menu shift away from bone-in chicken toward tenders and chicken sandwiches, paired with streamlined kitchen layouts meant to ease staffing pressure. Some expansion-market stores include "Biscuit Theaters," glass-walled kitchens that let customers watch the chain's 49-step biscuit-making process unfold, according to Tasting Table.
What It Costs To Land A Franchise
Multi-unit operators looking to build Bojangles restaurants in Tampa Bay need a minimum net worth of $2.5 million and $1 million in liquid capital per location, with total build-out costs for a traditional freestanding restaurant running between $2.85 million and $3.95 million, according to Bojangles. On top of that, franchisees pay a $35,000 initial franchise fee and an ongoing 4% royalty.
To sweeten the pitch for experienced operators, the company offers a $300,000 equipment reimbursement program and 50% franchise fee reductions for veterans, women and minority operators, per PeerSense. Bojangles says it's ultimately looking for either a hands-on franchisee or a well-capitalized group willing to hire an operating partner to run the Tampa Bay stores day to day.
Private Equity Backing And A Push Past 1,000 Stores
Bojangles has been privately held since 2019, when private equity firms Durational Capital Management and The Jordan Company bought the chain for about $594 million, according to GlobeNewswire. The chain had been concentrated in the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia for nearly five decades before it began pushing into new states. Bojangles currently owns 283 of its 886 total restaurants outright, with franchisees running the rest.
In 2025, the company generated roughly $1.95 billion in U.S. systemwide sales across 867 locations, according to Restaurant Business Magazine. Corporate has said it wants to surpass 1,000 locations nationwide in the next few years, targeting new markets that include Texas, Nevada, New York, New Jersey and Ohio, per USA Today.
Hoodline has tracked that expansion across the country this year, from a Brooklyn comeback to new store openings in San Antonio, Oklahoma City, McKinney, Las Vegas and Phoenix. The Tampa Bay push fits that same pattern of aggressive, multi-market growth playing out nationwide.
Racing Raising Cane's For Tampa Bay Real Estate
Whoever ends up building out Bojangles' Tampa Bay footprint will be competing for prime drive-thru corners against Raising Cane's, which has aggressively expanded across Pinellas County with locations in Clearwater and St. Petersburg. The rival chicken chain filed plans in May 2025 to redevelop a former Red Lobster site in Largo, according to St Pete Rising.
Corporate says it's simply looking for the right operator to build out the Tampa Bay market, and in the meantime, it continues to test new products and technology inside its two corporate-owned restaurants before handing those tools off to franchisees. Whether that turns out to be one well-capitalized developer or several smaller groups splitting the territory remains to be seen.
