By Michael Hutchins, Herald Democrat

Sherman could soon be the home of two Chick-fil-A locations. The Sherman City Council agreed to a Chapter 380 incentive agreement with Chick-fil-A, Inc. Monday that will offer sales tax rebates to the fast-food chain for a new location in south Sherman.

This will represent the third Chick-fil-A location in the Sherman-Denison market following locations in the Sherman Town Center and another location in Denison along FM 120.

“Chick-fil-A in Sherman is a massive source of sales tax revenue for the city and certainly the amount of business that they generate through that one facility seems to suggest that they are more than ready to support a second location in Sherman,” Sherman Community and Support Services Manager Nate Strauch said, noting that the new location would be owned by the same franchisee as the Sherman Town Center location.

The new location would be built in the Sherman Crossroads Development near the intersection of U.S. Highway 75 and FM 1417. Strauch said the city has been in touch with the company about opening a second location for a long time and have been negotiating on incentives.

However, he noted that the city likely needs a new location due to the constant traffic at its existing Sherman restaurant. The Town Center location has been remodeled and improved multiple times over the years, including a renovation last summer, improvements to its traffic flow in 2018 and another renovation in 2016. Another location was opened in Denison a few years ago.

Under the incentive program, the city will offer the company a rebate of 50 percent of the city’s portion of sales tax revenues for a two-year period. Strauch could not confirm the amount of sales tax the restaurant is expected to generate as this information is often confidential.

The incentive will make use of the city’s retail recruitment program, which was adopted in 2019. In the five years since it’s adoption, the program has been largely under utilized, Strauch said.

“It has only been used a handful of times, which is one of the reasons why when we redid our downtown incentives last year, we specifically mentioned to council that if the downtown incentives prove to be really successful, we could use that as kind of a blueprint for how to expand retail incentives to other parts of the city,” he said.

City documents show that the new restaurant, which is expected to open in late 2025, is expected to create 30 full-time equivalent positions and represent $3 million of investment.