Thursday March 28th, 2024 9:48PM

White County leaders meet with new Chick-fil-A owners

By Dean Dyer WRWH Radio

CLEVELAND - The owner/operators of the new Chick-fil-A in Cleveland used the terms "excited" and "very excited" over and over again to describe their opportunity to open a franchise in Cleveland as they met with local community leaders Friday. 

Mitch Ralston, president of United Community Bank in Cleveland, set up the meeting. UCB is the lending agency for the Cleveland project.

Chris and Brittany Liberatore said when they started looking where to relocate they wanted to center on a small town.  

"This is going to be very exciting," said Chris Liberatore said, "We are looking forward to working with the schools and others in the community. My wife and I have been looking at coming to this community since last year  and we are unbelievably excited to get the opportunity to move here and to start our lives here to raise our kids and family and open up a business to hopefully have a positive impact with everybody else."

It could be August or September before the facility opens and Liberatore said since the lot where the store will be located is very large for a regular size Chick-fil-A, they will be building a completely different type facility which will include a big playground and large parking lot. 

He said the Cleveland store will be known as the "Cabbage Patch Chick-fil-A", because it is being built on the property of the original Cabbage Patch Kids. The operating hours will be 6:30 a.m. until 10 p.m.

Ralston told the crowd, "One of the things I’m excited about they are coming into the downtown area, when everybody is worried what’s going to happen to downtown, what’s going to happen with the bypass going around, what’s going with all of this kinda stuff  and they are coming in to really solidify, I think, a lot of things in the community and it’s going to be a great place and they are going to raise the standard I think. It’s all about iron sharpens iron and they are coming in to help us raise some of the standards that we have which are top notch."

Liberatore said, the meeting they had Friday was very unusual, and doesn't happen everywhere a store is opened.

The Liberatores, who have a young daughter, already have purchased a home in Clarkesville and look forward to moving to the area in a couple of months.

Another Chick-fil-A is also under construction in Blairsville. Chris Liberatore’s brother will be the owner/operator of that store.

  • Associated Categories: Business News, Local/State News, AP Business
  • Associated Tags: Chick-fil-A, Chris Liberatore, Cleveland, Cabbage Patch Chick-fil-A
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