A franchisee for a restaurant chain founded by NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal has signed a lease for a downtown State College location.
Fast casual chain Big Chicken plans to open at 448 E. College Ave., on the ground floor of oLiv Hetzel, Kandy Weader, the commercial real estate agent for the building, wrote in a Facebook post on Monday. The 12-story mixed-use high-rise owned by student housing developer Core Spaces (which also owns oLiv Highlands on Pugh Street) opened in 2024, and the restaurant is its first announced commercial tenant.
Big Chicken’s State College location is expected to open by the start of Penn State’s fall 2025 semester, Weader wrote in an email.
The company said in a news release in October 2023 that it would be expanding its presence in Pennsylvania under franchisees Harsimrat, Shubreet, Samarjit and Pukhraj Sidhu, with State College one of the first locations for development.
Big Chicken’s menu “fuses O’Neal’s home-cooked childhood favorites with today’s trending flavors,” according to the company. It offers a variety of crispy or grilled fried chicken sandwiches, tenders and wings with a choice of sauces, as well as a salad and kids meals. Sides include mac and cheese, fries and jalapeño slaw. For something sweet, it has shakes and sundaes.
The restaurants typically offer dine-in, takeout and local delivery.
“We are super excited to bring more BIG flavor, BIG food and BIG fun to the people of Pennsylvania,” Harsimrat Sidhu said in a news release in 2023. “We fell in love with the Big Chicken flavor profile and the variety of menu items they offer. Big Chicken really felt like a family to us.”
The Sidhu family has a background in the convenience store, retail and hospitality industries in Pennsylvania, according to the news release, and Shubreet Sidhu is a Penn State alumna.
Big Chicken currently has locations in Pennsylvania at the Comcast Center in Philadelphia and the Pocono Premium Outlets in Tannersville. The Sidhus are also eyeing locations in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Lehigh Valley areas, according to the 2023 release.
O’Neal founded the Big Chicken chain in 2018 in Las Vegas with JRS Hospitality and Authentic Brands Group. It has expanded nationwide since the launch of a franchising program in 2021.
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