By admin 
A wildly popular chicken sandwich chain is developing a new store in a busy area of northeast Columbia.
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Chick-fil-A, which has locations across South Carolina and the U.S., is building a new restaurant in the 4600 block of Hard Scrabble Road in Columbia, at the corner of Hard Scrabble and Rice Meadow Way. There is a banner at the site saying Chick-fil-A is “coming soon” and the Chick-fil-A project was noted in an April Facebook post from commercial real estate firm NAI Earle Furman, as well as various other real estate postings.
An opening date for the restaurant has not been publicly announced. Construction was well underway at the site when a reporter rode by Monday evening.
The new Chick-fil-A will be across the street from a busy shopping center that’s anchored by a Publix grocery store, and just a short distance down the road from a Guthrie’s restaurant that opened last December. Rice Creek Elementary School and Ridge View High School are located a short distance to the north of where the restaurant will be.
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There are more than 3,400 Chick-fil-A locations in the United States, per data website ScrapeHero. The company has continued to make moves in the Midlands, opening new units and renovating existing locations.
For instance, the Lexington location at Saluda Pointe reopened in 2025 after being closed while it expanded its drive-thru capacity. The company’s location inside the Columbiana Centre mall also was extensively remodeled in 2025. A new Chick-fil-A opened in August 2025 at the Gateway 737 development on Gadsden Street next to the Colonial Life Arena. And the company opened a new store at 425 Bush River Road in 2025, replacing an older unit that was just down the road.
And, most recently, the Chick-fil-A on Harden Street in Columbia’s famed Five Points temporarily closed to make way for $1 million in renovations.
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