{"id":19424,"date":"2025-10-24T20:00:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T20:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/19424\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T20:00:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T20:00:08","slug":"raising-canes-chicken-fingers-plans-fort-myers-expansion-hospitality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/19424\/","title":{"rendered":"Raising Cane\u2019s Chicken Fingers Plans Fort Myers Expansion | Hospitality"},"content":{"rendered":"

A site that was a vacant Lone Star Steakhouse for 17 years at Lee County\u2019s busiest noninterstate intersection, has been cleared and is planned to become Southwest Florida\u2019s first Raising Cane\u2019s Chicken Fingers restaurant.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A development order filed with Lee County names Raising Cane\u2019s as the forthcoming project at 13186 S. Cleveland Ave., near the northwest corner of U.S. 41 and Cypress Lake Drive, which has an average daily traffic count of about 122,000 vehicles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The site, owned by Benderson Development since 2010, lies adjacent to Blaze Pizza and the Cypress Trace shopping center, which is full of big-box stores, including Bealls Florida, Ross Dress for Less, pOpshelf and Burlington. Benderson paid $40.35 million for the shopping center in September 2024, purchasing it from Nuveen Real Estate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Future<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A cleared 1-acre lot near the corner of U.S. 41 and Cypress Lake Drive in south Fort Myers is the future site of Southwest Florida\u2019s first Raising Cane\u2019s Chicken Fingers restaurant.<\/p>\n

David Dorsey<\/p>\n

The building became a haven for the unhoused, with people camping underneath the 5,600-square-foot building\u2019s overhang. The walls often were spray painted with graffiti, and Lee County had issued Benderson Development with code violations over the years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

About a year ago, Benderson prevented the camping by installing chicken wire around the overhang, prior to the recent demolition. Benderson Development could not be reached for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The chicken tender chain, headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and founded in 1996, declined to comment on developing the site other than an emailed statement. It said: \u201cCurrently, we do not have any confirmed plans to open a restaurant in Fort Myers. However, we are actively exploring opportunities in the area.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Future<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The 1-acre property where the Lone Star Steakhouse once stood in south Fort Myers has been leveled as plans move forward for a Raising Cane\u2019s Chicken Fingers restaurant.<\/p>\n

David Dorsey<\/p>\n

The key word in Raising Cane\u2019s statement is \u201cconfirmed,\u201d as the permits have yet to be approved by Lee County.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a fee pending payment and the application cannot be accepted for review until the applicant provides a title certification or title opinion meeting requirements of [the Lee County Land Development Codes],\u201d Lee County\u2019s communications department wrote in an email.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the 1-acre site is perfect for the chicken concept, said Jim Shiebler, a senior vice president with CBRE, which was not involved with this deal. Shiebler is familiar with Raising Cane\u2019s and where the company likes to place its restaurants.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Cane's<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A Raising Cane\u2019s Chicken Fingers meal includes fried chicken fingers, crinkle-cut fries, coleslaw, Texas toast and the restaurant\u2019s signature Cane\u2019s sauce.<\/p>\n

Raising Cane\u2019s<\/p>\n

\u201cConcepts like Raising Cane\u2019s, location is of paramount importance,\u201d Shiebler said. \u201cAnd this spot, is unprecedented. It is literally the crosshairs of Lee County.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The high-traffic count and proximity of multiple shopping centers make the location a prime spot for Raising Cane\u2019s to enter the market, Shiebler said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis particular corner is unprecedented, where you have four different monster shopping centers on each of the four corners,\u201d Shiebler said. \u201cThat includes multiple big boxes Costco, SuperTarget and Fresh Market grocer. Multiple premier apparel outlet stores. You have 115 retailers with two-plus dozen restaurants. And you also have multiple entertainment and experiential venues and numerous hotels within the area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Raising<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Raising Cane\u2019s restaurants feature a bright, casual dining atmosphere focused on the chain\u2019s signature chicken fingers, crinkle-cut fries and Texas toast.<\/p>\n

Raising Cane\u2019s<\/p>\n

\u201cThe property also holds a signalized intersection and multiple access points.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s the concept itself. Raising Cane\u2019s reported opening 118 new restaurants in 2024, bringing the total number of locations, as of August 2025, to 879 in 43 states.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are 24 Raising Cane\u2019s in Florida, with three more officially coming soon, two in the Orlando area and one in Miami.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cChicken is the hot concept,\u201d Shiebler said. \u201cThis property, ironically enough and suitably, is just six parcels north of the Chick-Fil-A, which is king. Raising Cane\u2019s is definitely coming on strong.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A site that was a vacant Lone Star Steakhouse for 17 years at Lee County\u2019s busiest noninterstate intersection,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,15830],"class_list":["post-19424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-raising-cane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}