Construction fencing surrounds the two properties set to become the next Raising Cane’s Chicken Finger restaurant locations for South Jersey; Washington Township and Glassboro. This is ahead of demolition of the existing buildings on the lots.
If you are unfamiliar with Raising Cane’s, they are a popular Chicken Tender quick-serve restaurant who recently entered the South Jersey marketplace with locations in Deptford, Cherry Hill, Marlton, and Burlington.
For Washington Township, Raising Cane’s was approved back in July 2023 to be developed at a closed Pep Boys property on the Black Horse Pike (at Ganttown Road).
In Glassboro, Raising Cane’s was approved in January 2024, for the intersection of Delsea Drive & Donald Barger Blvd. The lot was previously a Rite Aid pharmacy.
For both projects, while we’re looking at opening dates in the first half of 2025 (more on that below), the Raising Cane’s website is already listing several career positions for both locations!
For Turnersville they list positions for Assistant General Manager, Restaurant Leader, Hourly Restaurant Manager.
For Glassboro they list positions for General Manager and Restaurant Leader/Manager.
In North Jersey they are planning on a location in Fairfield (The first in New York Metro?), and another in Central New Jersey… Hamilton. No other Jersey area locations appear to be in their close radar at this time.
Raising Cane’s – Are They Still Coming To…?
Readers have been asking about these projects as it feels like it’s been a long while since I first reported on them… which always leads to someone starting rumors about the status.
First thing to keep in mind is with sites like 42Freeway, we are now hearing about most projects much earlier in the planning stages than ever before.. so when projects take their normal time to get approved… it just feels really long. Compare that to just a few years ago we mostly didn’t know about things coming until the dirt started getting turned at the property!
Additionally both locations are on State and County roadways, which can add additional delays to the final approval.
When a business is being developed on a New Jersey State or County roadway, those two associated entities have a say in the development approval. Well, it’s not necessarily a “yes or no, can this be built”… but more so just about how traffic from the new project will be accessing the roadways.
This typically includes very well defined site plans and researched traffic flow patterns within the project limits.
This is likely why Raising Cane’s targeted Burlington, Cherry Hill and Deptford earlier in their development plans, as none of those locations have direct access onto a state or county highway… and did not need that those extra approvals.
A prime example of this is the Glassboro Raising Cane’s project, where during the Gloucester County evaluation the county requested an additional 10 foot easement running the entire length of the property along Donald Barger Blvd, in anticipation of future intersection widening efforts.
This information was presented by the Courier Post in early January who were able to attend the meeting. I unfortunately was unable to make it.
But you could start to understand with a scenario like this how this County request would require significant amounts of meetings, design work, and legal documents before the final approval is given.
Raising Cane’s Washington Township
In January of 2023 I broke the news of the plans to develop the Raising Cane’s Chicken Finger restaurant at the former pep boys location on the Black Horse Pike.
July of that same year the project was approved by the Washington Township planning board.
This Turnsersville area property is a slightly unique set up in that it doesn’t actually sit at the corner of the intersection, but fronts onto the Black Horse Pike and has a side access road which connects the Ganntown Road.
The site plan I acquired last year shows the Raising Cane’s being developed closer to the Black Horse Pike roadway frontage, with the drive-thru area further back.
The property features significant parking and three full drive-thru lanes (two with overhead canopies), as well as a fourth pass through lane.
The tentative expected opening for Washington Township Raising Cane’s is set for the First Quarter of 2025. It’s still very early in the development cycle though… they haven’t even demolish the Pep Boys yet… so it’s tough to pinpoint it better than that.
Raising Cane’s Glassboro
In March of 2023 I was the first reported on plans on a Glassboro location for raising canes.
The location is a busy intersection corner of Delsea Dr. and Donald Barger Blvd where a closed Rite Aid currently sits. This is directly next to Wendy’s.
The beginning of this article covered basically the additional approval aspects of this particular location, related to the county requesting an additional right of way in case they need to widen Donald Barger Blvd. in the future.
The project was first expected to be reviewed in October of 2023 but that was delayed until early January of this year, when it was approved by Glassborol
For this project I have not seen the site plan.
While both Turnersville and Glassboro appear to be sitting at the same stage of development with fencing around the properties, it is my understanding that Glassboro will be running several months later than Turnersville and has a tentative opening target month of April 2025.
A portion of that date may simply be the Raising Cane’s team spacing out the openings to ensure that they have enough time to hire and train staff for the locations. As we saw with Deptford it was basically done for several months before they opened it.
