Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen plans to place 20 or more of its newly designed restaurants in Indianapolis. Until recently, the 40-year-old Atlanta-based chain had a handful of franchisee-run stores in the area, but they closed. In December last year, the chain opened a company-owned store in a former Wendy’s location. “The store is doing extremely well,” said Ralph Bower, Popeyes’ U.S. president, and he has authorized company attorney and real estate agents to negotiate on prime retail sites in the Indianapolis metro area. The chain hopes to start building restaurants on at least half of them later this year. Popeyes new restaurant design of 2,500 square feet costs $800,000 to build and features seating for 48, with one prototype holding as many as 80 seats. Bower also said Popeyes may use Indianapolis to test new store designs, products, and operational ideas.
