(Seguin) — It’s been a full year since the city of Seguin and the Seguin Economic Development Corporation (SEDC) announced one of the community’s most anticipated projects — the arrival and construction of Chick-fil-A.
Today, the long-awaited restaurant is taking shape along the I-10 frontage road, right next door to Bill Miller Bar-B-Q.
For years, residents have been vocal about landing a Chick-fil-A in Seguin. Now, with construction visibly underway, that dream is inching closer to reality.
That’s according to SEDC Executive Director Josh Schneuker who says the project remains on track and continues to move through “its development timeline.”
“We knew that once they started construction and that construction started I believe kind of early to middle part of May — that they’d be able to get that restaurant up pretty quickly here so the building itself – if you drive out there right now, you can see the shape that it is starting to take there and it is looking like we are going to be able to get that restaurant opened up here later this fall,” said Schneuker.
Meanwhile, plans for another chicken chain in Seguin have hit a roadblock.
The SEDC confirmed that Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) has decided not to move forward with its Seguin location along Highway 46.
“The KFC deal actually fell apart. So, there are sometimes where property owner – in this case – property owner was a developer. They start working on negotiations with a retailer and user and they can be pretty deep in the weeds on the project and it can appear that it is going to get over the finish line but sometimes things come up last minute that kind of impacted the deal that are outside the city’s and EDC’s control and that was one of the deals that wasn’t able to get over the finish line. It doesn’t mean that KFC will never be in the Seguin area. I’m sure that they are looking at the other opportunities just like a lot of the other retailers that aren’t’ in our market right now. But there are just things that come up as these deals are being put together that again, sometimes they just fall apart. They will eventually come back to life but right now, it’s going to be a Chick-fil-A show once they get up and running over there,” said Schneuker.
Although the news is disappointing, SEDC officials say they are confident that the city will be announcing new plans for fast-food and restaurant chains in the very near future.