The second Raising Cane's planned for San Jose has grown beyond its original pitch, with city planning documents now describing a 4,000-square-foot restaurant at 1030 and 1040 Blossom Hill Road in South San Jose that would require tearing down the 19,000-square-foot retail building currently leased to La-Z-Boy.
The updated size marks a 1,000-square-foot increase over the chain's earlier proposal for the site, according to city planning documents cited by The Mercury News. The project would replace the existing box store, and the restaurant is expected to feature indoor seating, an attached outdoor patio, a pick-up window section and dual drive-thru lanes. A development timeline for the project is not immediately known, the outlet reports.
The La-Z-Boy site sits just down the road from where NBC Bay Area first reported Raising Cane's was eyeing a second San Jose restaurant at 1030 Blossom Hill Road. That outlet noted the proposed location would have two drive-thru lines but would be smaller than the chain's first San Jose restaurant, which opened in April at Evergreen Place. The newer planning documents now put the Blossom Hill Road project's footprint well beyond that earlier description.
City Planners Point to Job Gains
San Jose city planning staff said the restaurant would increase jobs for residents across skill and education levels, per the planning documents referenced by The Mercury News. Staff also said the project includes a revenue-generating use and increases the ratio of jobs to employed residents in the area.
Those employment arguments are a common part of the city's review process for retail and restaurant projects that replace existing commercial buildings, and they appear alongside the physical details of the Raising Cane's plan in the documents the newspaper examined.
Late-Night Hours Spelled Out in Filing
The planning documents describe extended operating hours for the new location, stating that the project proposes late-night operation from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 a.m., seven days a week. That schedule would make the Blossom Hill Road restaurant one of the later-closing fast-food options in that stretch of South San Jose, assuming the proposal moves forward as currently outlined.
No word yet on when demolition of the La-Z-Boy building might begin or when construction could get underway, since the project's development timeline remains unclear. For now, the furniture store continues operating at the Blossom Hill Road address while the chicken-finger chain's bigger-than-expected plans work their way through city review.
