More Zaxby’s chicken locations for the metro; The Limited shutters locations

Georgia-based chicken chain Zaxby’s has opened two locations and more are coming.

▪ Licensee BEC Group owns the new location at 9500 W. 135th St. in Overland Park, which opened on Jan. 2, and it plans an early April opening for a Zaxby’s at 12203 S. Strang Line Road in Olathe.

The group said it also is in negotiations to open in the BluHawk development at 159th Street and Antioch Road in Overland Park in early 2018. BluHawk officials declined to comment.

BEC Group plans to have a dozen locations in Johnson County in the next six years.

▪ Another group, Organized Chickenz, opened the first area Zaxby’s, at 2035 N. 109th St. in Kansas City, Kan., across from the Legends Outlets Kansas City, in April 2016. It plans to open a Lawrence restaurant in mid-February at 4661 Bauer Farm Drive. It also has a site under contract in the Leavenworth/Lansing area and plans to have a second location in Lawrence as well as one other location, yet to be determined, under its agreement.

▪ Another licensee opened a location at 10430 N.E. Cookingham Drive in the Northland on Jan. 2.

“We plan on doing quite a few, we haven’t put a number on it, but all in the Northland — Platte and Clay counties,” said Jonathan Barton, a partner in JTJ Ventures LLC with Josh Chapman.

Zaxby’s, based in Athens, Ga., offers prepared-at-order chicken fingers, wings and sandwiches, along with sides like coleslaw, chicken salad, side salad, a basket of celery, crinkle fries and Texas toast. Appetizers include Tater Chips, spicy fried mushrooms and fried white cheddar bites. Customers also can select from several sauces.

The Limited’s liquidations

After more than 50 years of operations, The Limited is shuttering its brick-and-mortar locations.

Locally, the women’s clothing and accessories chain closed its Oak Park Mall and Zona Rosa stores at the end of the year.

The Town Center Plaza store in Leawood had an “Everything Must Go” sale with items up to 75 percent off. However, in late December a district manager said the Leawood store was having a “blowout sale” and that it would remain open and soon have new merchandise.

But on Friday the chain said it would close all of its locations by Jan. 9. It plans to continue to operate online.

The company recently listed about 100 stores having an “inventory blowout” and newspapers are reporting store closings in other markets.

According to the company’s website, The Limited was founded in 1963 in Columbus, Ohio, and went public in 1969. It had about 250 retail stores.

This story was originally published January 6, 2017 at 7:19 PM with the headline "More Zaxby’s chicken locations for the metro; The Limited shutters locations."