People camping outside of the Lawrence Chick-fil-A at 27th and Iowa streets in advance of the store's opening. Courtesy: Chick-fil-A.

The next time I’m driving down south Iowa Street, I think there is a good chance that I’ll replace my seat cushion with a nest of straw and start sprouting feathers. Yes, that’s my way of telling you there is another chicken restaurant coming to south Iowa, and it is one that folks have been clamoring for.

Popeyes is listed as a tenant on a plan for a remodeled shopping center near 25th and Iowa streets. The site is the Tower Plaza shopping center just south of the Applebee’s on Iowa Street. That shopping center includes First Watch, Papa Murphy’s and several other smaller businesses. The center previously included the Lawrence Workforce Center, but it recently moved to the new Peaslee Tech vocational education building near 31st and Haskell. That ended up being an important move for chicken lovers and drug stores that sell cholesterol medicine. Plans call for a portion of the shopping center that housed the workforce center to be demolished to make way for a standalone Popeyes building with a drive-thru. So, the restaurant will be right near the corner of 26th and Iowa streets.

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If you are not familiar with the Popeyes restaurant chain, you apparently have already have had feathers grow over your eyelids and shield your view of the world. It is one of the larger chicken chains in the country, and it produces what it calls Louisiana-style chicken. I think that it means its breading has more Cajun spices than traditional chicken. The restaurant also has some southern seafood on its menu, including fried shrimp, po’boy sandwiches and Cajun fish. It also has all your traditional sides like cole slaw, mashed potatoes, biscuits, plus the Louisiana staple of red beans and rice.

Popeyes is just one change that is coming to the shopping center. The entire facade of the existing strip center retail building is set to change. The center was built in 1993.

“We’re just going to make it look new again,” Gonsher said.

The plans also show a new standalone restaurant building north of the Applebee’s building. That would put it close to 25th and Iowa streets. Gonsher said it was too early to discuss tenant information about that building, but I’ve heard it is a national restaurant chain that has moved into the Kansas City area but hasn’t yet come to Lawrence. The plans submitted to City Hall don’t include a drive-thru, so it appears to be more of a sit-down restaurant. It is not a huge one, though. Plans show the restaurant at about 2,400 square feet, which is a little smaller than the Popeyes restaurant is slated to be. So, I’ll put on my Sherlock Holmes bib and do a little restaurant detective work this fall. (The man wore expensive clothes. Trust me, he had a bib.)

Gonsher confirmed what nearly everyone else in the commercial real estate market has been telling me: south Iowa Street is getting a lot of interest from companies looking to locate in Lawrence right now.

“It is clearly where all the nationals want to be,” Gonsher said. “It is a ton of traffic and great visibility. It is clearly the dominant retail corridor in the market, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.”

As for the chicken explosion on south Iowa Street, let me bring you up to speed. Buffalo Wild Wings already has opened near 27th and Iowa. Raising Cane’s, a chicken finger restaurant, is slated for a spot at 2435 Iowa St. in the location that used to house Emprise Bank in front of Bigg’s BBQ.

Then there is Chick-fil-A. As we previously reported, that restaurant opened today at its 27th and Iowa location in front of Dick’s Sporting Goods.. In case you are wondering, people indeed did camp out in the restaurant’s parking lot to be among the first 100 people in line when the store opened this morning. The first 100 received a voucher for one free Chick-fil-A meal per week for a year.