Is Chick-fil-A Really Coming to Dartmouth?
It started a few weeks ago, as we began hearing rumors that Chick-fil-A is opening a new location right here on the SouthCoast. Although some people mentioned hearing it may be coming to Fairhaven, New Bedford or Wareham, most of the rumors suggested the new location would be at the Dartmouth Mall.
We here are Fun 107 are pretty well connected, so we started utilizing those connections to find out if indeed any of these rumors were true. We called those inside town government. We called our contact at the Dartmouth Mall. We called everyone we could think of that might have some inside information, and although many had heard the same rumors, nobody could confirm them.
And of course, we also reached out to Chick-fil-A's corporate offices, because who else would know better?
I heard back almost immediately from one of their spokespeople, who began researching into the rumors for me by contacting Chick-fil-A's real estate team. She even offered to find out for me that, if not Dartmouth, where else in the local area there may be plans for a new Chick-fil-A.
The verdict? Chick-fil-A is NOT coming to Dartmouth, at least there are no current plans for a Dartmouth location. In fact, Chick-fil-A is not currently planning any locations here in our area, which means that for the time being, the closest locations are Seekonk, Plymouth, and Hyannis.
That's still a bit of a drive for most folks in the New Bedford area, but considering how much development is happening in our area (as well as the impending arrival of South Coast Rail), it's got to only be a matter of time before Chick-fil-A sets up shop a little closer to us.