The long-dark Frisch's Big Boy at 1330 Columbus Ave. in Lebanon is set to be torn down, with Chick-fil-A moving in to replace the shuttered diner. The Lebanon Planning Commission has passed a construction application that calls for demolishing the existing building on the property to make way for the new restaurant.
The application was submitted by Woolpert, an engineering and surveying firm based in Beavercreek, Ohio, according to WKRC Local 12. The site formerly housed a Frisch's Big Boy that shuttered in October 2024 amid a wave of foreclosure actions against the brand, the station reports. A rendering included with the planning application shows what the new Chick-fil-A is expected to look like once construction is complete.
A Chain Gutted by Debt
The Lebanon closure was part of a much larger financial collapse. Cincinnati CityBeat reported that landlord NNN REIT LP filed eviction notices against Frisch's Restaurants Inc. across Southwest Ohio after the chain fell more than $4.5 million behind on rent, issuing dozens of three-day notices to vacate once earlier default notices went unanswered.
The roots of that debt trace back nearly a decade. Private equity firm NRD Capital bought Frisch's for $175 million in 2015, then executed a $74 million sale-leaseback deal with NNN REIT covering more than 70 store properties, according to 91.7 WVXU. Those long-term lease obligations eventually outpaced store revenue, destabilizing the regional chain over the following nine years.
The toll has been steep. Wikipedia's corporate history, based on public filings, shows the number of operating Frisch's Big Boy restaurants fell from 120 locations in 2015 to just 31 across Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana by early 2025 — roughly a two-thirds contraction tied directly to the late-2024 mass evictions. Frisch's executives Don Short and Cheryl White later acquired the remaining open stores and brand development rights from NRD Capital in an effort to keep the surviving business operational, WHIO TV reported, after landlord settlement talks failed to halt the court evictions.
Developers Circling Dark Frisch's Sites
Lebanon's teardown fits a pattern playing out across the Tri-State. Hoodline previously reported that Lexington investor snaps up 11 Frisch's sites, with developer Lee Greer spending more than $17.2 million through Olowalu Land Company LLC to acquire 11 shuttered Frisch's properties for redevelopment.
Other operators have found different uses for the emptied buildings rather than demolishing them outright. LINK nky reported that Skyline Chili relocated its historic Covington, Kentucky parlor into a converted former Frisch's Big Boy building at Fifth and Philadelphia streets, adding drive-thru service and a 1950s retro diner design. In Moraine, the planning commission took the demolition route instead, approving the razing of a vacant Frisch's on South Dixie Drive to make way for a new Wawa convenience store and gas station, according to WHIO TV, after that site sat empty for two years.
What a New Chick-fil-A Could Mean Locally
Standalone Chick-fil-A locations typically create approximately 120 full- and part-time jobs and are run day-to-day by local independent franchised owners rather than passive investors, according to the company's own announcements. The Lebanon property itself is sizable, encompassing a 5,319-square-foot restaurant building on a 1.49-acre lot that last sold in August 2015 for $3.1 million, per Compass property records.
The location sits directly across the street from the Lebanon Kroger Marketplace along a heavily traveled stretch of Columbus Avenue that already hosts multiple national fast-food brands and major grocery retail, per commercial directory data from SinglePlatform. Specific details on the construction timeline and any traffic mitigation plans for the new restaurant have not yet been released.
