{"id":129348,"date":"2026-02-10T22:21:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T22:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/129348\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T22:21:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T22:21:07","slug":"chicken-shop-chain-zaxbys-to-open-first-nyc-location-on-upper-east-side-commercial-observer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/129348\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicken Shop Chain Zaxby\u2019s to Open First NYC Location on Upper East Side \u2013 Commercial Observer"},"content":{"rendered":"

America\u2019s chicken joints are certainly on the rise<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Zaxby\u2019s, a fast-casual chicken chain operating primarily in the Southern U.S., will open its first New York City location on Manhattan\u2019s Upper East Side this summer, Commercial Observer has learned.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO: Capital Improvements That Don\u2019t Have to Break the Bank<\/a><\/p>\n

The chicken shop has signed a 10-year lease for 3,600 square feet on the ground floor and lower level of 1267 First Avenue in Lenox Hill, according to landlord broker Isa Realty Group<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The five-story residential and retail building between East 68th and East 69th streets is owned by Debar Realty<\/a>, property records show<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are really excited to be in New York City and look forward to opening this summer,\u201d a spokesperson for Zaxby\u2019s said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Ripco Real Estate<\/a>\u2019s Sam Martorella and Andrew Mandell brokered the deal for the tenant, while Isa Realty Group\u2019s Joseph Isa and Louis Franco represented the landlord.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis marks a major milestone for Zaxby\u2019s entering Manhattan for the first time,\u201d Franco said in a statement. \u201cThe corridor benefits from consistent foot traffic driven by the surrounding hospitals and dense residential base, and Upper East Side retail demand is especially strong right now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Martorella did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The asking rent was unclear, but a report from CBRE<\/a> found retail rents on the Upper East Side averaged $227 per square foot during the fourth quarter of 2025.<\/p>\n

The deal comes as part of Zaxby\u2019s broader expansion strategy. In December, the chain opened its first-ever New Jersey location<\/a> in Magnolia in a deal that represented the chicken shop\u2019s debut in the Northeast. This month, the chain opened its 1,000th outpost in the U.S. amid plans to open at least 60 locations in 2026, according to the trade website Nation\u2019s Restaurant News<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Zaxby\u2019s expansion also comes during somewhat of a renaissance for chicken joints around the U.S., with popular brands such as Chick-fil-A, KFC, Raising Cane\u2019s, Wingstop and Dave\u2019s Hot Chicken opening hundreds of locations across the country in recent years. By the end of 2024, KFC operated the most U.S. locations of any brand, with 3,669 spots, Commercial Observer recently reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"America\u2019s chicken joints are certainly on the rise. Zaxby\u2019s, a fast-casual chicken chain operating primarily in the Southern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[55684,3624,55685,2361,55686,9,56,63,65,64,55683,55687],"class_list":["post-129348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-andrew-mandell","tag-channel","tag-joseph-isa","tag-leases","tag-louis-franco","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-retail-1267-first-avenue","tag-sam-martorella"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}