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Norwich – The Commission on the City Plan Tuesday unanimously approved plans for a new Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen chicken restaurant to move into the former Friendly's Restaurant at 620 W. Main St. adjacent to Marcus Plaza shopping center.

An Edison, N.J.-based developer has leased the vacant former restaurant from Simon Konover Development Corp., which purchased it 10 months after Friendly's closed under bankruptcy in 2013. Konover also owns Marcus Plaza.

Ed Baksh, project manager for Norwich Chicken LLC, said last week the Norwich restaurant would be the fourth Popeyes restaurant in Connecticut owned by New Jersey based Parikh Network, a firm owned by brothers Amish and Ashish Parikh that runs about 95 Popeyes throughout the Northeast and northern Midwest. The company’s other Connecticut locations are in New Britain, Manchester and Hamden.

The only other Popeyes in the region is on Colman Street in New London, owned by a different franchise.

Project attorney William Sweeney said he also represents Konover, and the company had obtained approval several years ago for a new restaurant pad in the front of the plaza parking lot. But Friendly's at the time had lease rights to block a new restaurant. With Konover now owning both buildings, Sweeney said the second restaurant plan might come to fruition.

-- Claire Bessette