Playing Chicken in Boston: Raising Cane’s v. Landlord

The street-level outlet of a well-known restaurant chain on a high-profile street in Boston’s Back Bay is in a legal dispute with its landlord, the Boston Globe reports.  Here are highlights from Globe business columnist Shirley Leung’s report on the fracas:

“Raising Cane’s on Boylston is in a space that previously housed The Forum Bar & Restaurant, which was heavily damaged in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. That restaurant, which reopened four months later, became a symbol of the city’s resilience only to shutter in 2015, blaming it on the landlord’s rent hike.”

It wasn’t until April 2023 that Raising Cane’s moved into the spot. But now, the building’s landlord is suing to get Raising Cane’s ejected, alleging the building’s upper floors “smell like chicken fingers.” For its part, the chain alleges that it’s being booted because the landlord wants to bring in a Panda Express, which would require Raising Cane’s to waive its exclusive rights to sell deboned chicken in the building.

Since it’s refusing to do so, the landlord (who did not respond to Leung’s request for comment) is invoking a clause about “offensive odors” that allows for a termination of the lease.

“This could go back and forth for years … who has more to lose?” Stephen Clark, Chief Executive of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association told Leung. “It all comes to negotiating the best deal for yourself.”

Meantime, the publicity around the dispute has turned into yet another black eye for the city’s business environment, Leung writes. “In terms of Boston’s competitiveness, it’s always something. The high cost of rent, the lengthy process for new construction, the thicket of red tape to open up a restaurant, the availability of liquor licenses, the millionaires tax…”