Gresham's long-awaited Raising Cane's has a firm move-in date. The chicken finger chain will open its doors at 20 NW Burnside Road on September 22, 2026, bringing a ground-up restaurant with a drive-thru and outdoor seating to a stretch of road near Gresham High School and Downtown Gresham.
The opening date was confirmed as part of a broader roundup of Raising Cane's national expansion published by KOIN, which reported the chain has now grown to more than 950 locations across 44 states, the District of Columbia, and Guam. The Gresham restaurant sits on the former site of a JR Furniture store inside the Gresham Square Shopping Center, a 124,938-square-foot retail center built in 1968 on nearly nine acres along Burnside Road, according to LoopNet. The new build totals 3,706 square feet, as reported by The Outlook.
A Chicken Chain On the Move Across Oregon
Gresham is just one stop on a much bigger map. Raising Cane's has outlined plans to open as many as 15 restaurants across the greater Portland and Eugene metro areas, working with Portland-based Urban Works Real Estate to scout signalized corner sites with heavy traffic visibility, per the Hillsboro News-Times. That regional push also includes a restaurant in development at 2720 Gateway Street in Springfield, Oregon, marking the chain's entry into Lane County, according to Raising Cane's own location listings.
Suburban growth is unfolding elsewhere in the metro area too. Municipal officials in Hillsboro received a land-use application in November 2025 for a drive-thru Raising Cane's at the Sunset Esplanade shopping center, aiming to fill a vacant site left when Shari's Cafe & Pies abruptly closed all its Oregon locations in October 2024, the Hillsboro News-Times reported. It's a similar story of chains backfilling shuttered diner space that Hoodline has tracked in Gresham before, where a former Shari's location became a beignet shop earlier this summer.
Why Gresham, and Why Now
City officials say Gresham has become an attractive target for national food brands. The city's Economic Development team has pointed to a retail domino effect tied to local demographics that has drawn Dave's Hot Chicken, Raising Cane's, and Trader Joe's to the area, according to the City of Gresham. That local pull sits alongside a national industry trend: fast-food chicken chains posted nearly 9% annual sales growth in 2024, dramatically outpacing burger chains' 1.4% growth rate, and the category reached $63.7 billion in U.S. revenue in 2025, per research from InnoWave Studio. Drive-thru lanes are central to that growth, with more than 70% of fast-food chicken sales nationwide now moving through drive-thru channels and mobile ordering penetration topping 50% in major metro areas, according to Econ Market Research.
Oregon has had just one Raising Cane's for years, tucked inside downtown Portland's Pioneer Place mall since the chain's 2019 debut in the state without a drive-thru, the Hillsboro News-Times noted. The Gresham location marks a shift toward the suburban, car-centric format the chain has favored more recently. KOIN's reporting also notes Raising Cane's has said population density weighs heavily on its decisions about where and when to expand into new markets.
Traffic Watch as Opening Day Nears
Opening-day crowds have caused real headaches at past Raising Cane's launches in the region. When the chain opened its first Washington State store in Vancouver in July 2024, bringing roughly 150 jobs, it generated multi-block traffic queues that required law enforcement traffic control, according to KGW-TV. Whether Gresham's double-lane drive-thru near Gresham High School and Downtown Gresham will see similar congestion on September 22 remains to be seen, but it's a scenario Hoodline has watched unfold at other new Cane's sites in the Northwest, including a recent Lynnwood opening that snarled traffic.
Beyond Oregon, Raising Cane's expansion calendar is packed for September. The chain is set to open locations in Westminster, Colorado on September 14; in Saginaw, Michigan and Cleveland, Tennessee on September 8; and in Nashville, Tennessee on September 21, per KOIN's reporting. Local officials in Colonie, New York and West Manchester Township, Pennsylvania have also approved plans for future Raising Cane's restaurants, though the company has not announced opening dates for those sites. Residents of Maine, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming are still waiting for their first taste of the chain's signature Cane's sauce, and Raising Cane's has not yet released opening dates for planned locations in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portsmouth, or Wausau. A company representative has said the chain hopes to open new locations in Rohnert Park and Napa, California, next year.
The chain, which first opened in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1996, has built its national growth on a menu built around chicken fingers, crinkle-cut fries, and its house sauce. For Gresham, the September 22 opening caps a buildout that began on the bones of a shuttered furniture store and lands the chain squarely in a corridor the city has actively worked to fill with national retail and dining brands.
