The only Perkins Restaurant & Bakery in south Lee County is closing April 13, and the question now is what’s going to take its place.

The restaurant sits in the Shoppes of Grande Oak next to McDonald’s at the northeast corner of Ben Hill Griffin Parkway and Corkscrew Road in Estero.

The restaurant will start closing in the late afternoon starting March 31 and close for good April 13, according to employees.

The franchise owner, JDK Management, based in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, didn’t return several phone messages last week. The company’s website states it owns more than Perkins restaurants in the Northeast.

Fort Myers Retail 2 LLC owns the building and land where Perkins sits. Andrew McConville, of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, is listed as the manager on property records. He didn’t return phone messages over several months. The LLC purchased the 2.06-acre property for $1.57 million on Jan. 16, 2020, according to Lee County Property Appraiser and clerk of court records.

Chick-fil-A signed a ground lease with Fort Myers Retail 2 LLC on March 5, 2024, according to clerk of court records. A ground lease allows the tenant to construct a building on the property and make other improvements. The lease is for 15 years, with the tenant able to extend it for 10 consecutive five-year periods. No rent amounts were mentioned in the document.

Chick-fil-A’s public relations department didn’t respond to requests for comment.

An architect for Chick-fil-A showed a rendering of a building to Estero’s Planning Department in 2024, Estero Community Development Director Mary Gibbs said. She told Planning, Zoning & Design Board members at its March meeting that the department said no to the design. A second rendering was closer to Estero’s standards, she said.

Chick-fil-A has not filed for any applications since showing the rendering, she said.

Fort Myers Retail 2 turned over a small portion of the property to the village Feb. 18. The easement is going to be used to make sidewalk improvements, Gibbs said.