Chick-fil-A planning new downtown restaurant

Fast-casual restaurant chain Chick-fil-A plans to open in a long-vacant downtown retail space at 10 E. Washington St.

The space has not had a permanent tenant since the menswear store Jos. A. Bank closed its store there in August 2017.

According to plans filed with the city, Chick-fil-A will occupy just more than 6,100 square feet on two floors of the building: a 3,703-square-foot ground-floor space that will contain both a kitchen and dining area, and a 2,471-square-foot cellar space that will contain a second kitchen as well as office and storage space.

“We’re very excited about it. It’s big news for East Washington Street,” said real estate broker Andrew Demaree of Veritas Realty, who represented building owner Uptown Realty Investors II LLC in the lease negotiations.

Construction plans for the project were filed on Monday, though Demaree said Chick-fil-A actually signed the lease for the spot last year. The site will require extensive renovation, he said.

It’s unclear at this point exactly when the Washington Street store will open, and what will happen to Chick-fil-A’s nearby Circle Centre mall restaurant. Also unclear are the chain’s plans for the second kitchen at the new site.

IBJ did not receive responses to email and phone messages left with multiple Chick-fil-A representatives Wednesday afternoon.

Based in Atlanta, Chick-fil-A has more than 2,700 restaurants in 47 states plus the District of Columbia. It has 16 Indianapolis-area locations, including eight in Indianapolis, two each in Greenwood and Noblesville and one each in Avon, Carmel, Plainfield and Whitestown.

In other news this week:

— The Exchange Whiskey Bar, a speakeasy-style establishment, opened Wednesday in the historic Hammond Block building at 301 Massachusetts Ave. This is the second location for The Exchange, which started in South Bend in 2013. Both are owned by Indianapolis-based Prime Hospitality Group, whose other operations include seven franchised Ruth’s Chris Steak House restaurants. IBJ first reported on The Exchange in July.

— Dave & Buster’s new Greenwood Park Mall location will be opening a little later than previously expected. Last week, we reported that the restaurant/entertainment chain’s Greenwood site would open on Nov. 2, but the company now says the opening date will be Nov. 16. The 34,500-square-foot spot, which is filling the mall’s former J.C. Penney Home Store space, had planned to open earlier this year but was delayed because of the pandemic.