---
title: "Shaquille O’Neal-Owned Big Chicken Inks Lease for Third Restaurant in Florida"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/bbd14413-a202-43df-a4c1-1768657089cc
source: "Franchising.com"
original_url: https://www.franchising.com/news/20230725_shaquille_onealowned_big_chicken_inks_lease_for_third_restaurant_in_florida.html
category: "Chicken"
industry: "Restaurants"
segment: "Chicken"
topics: ["Development & multi-unit"]
published: 2023-07-25T12:00:00.000Z
modified: 2026-10-31T20:32:31.611Z
image: https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1497366216548-37526070297c?w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop
---

# Shaquille O’Neal-Owned Big Chicken Inks Lease for Third Restaurant in Florida

**TL;DR:** Big Chicken, owned by Shaquille O'Neal, has signed a lease for its third restaurant in Florida, located in Melbourne. The new location is expected to open in early 2025.

*originally published in Franchising.com on 2023-07-25. [Read the original](https://www.franchising.com/news/20230725_shaquille_onealowned_big_chicken_inks_lease_for_third_restaurant_in_florida.html).*

## Story

Big Chicken announced today the signed lease of its newest location in Melbourne, Florida.

Big Chicken in Melbourne will be the third location to open in Florida for DMD Chicken, a branch of accomplished Florida commercial hospitality development company DMD Ventures. Located at the southeast corner of North Wickham Road and Pineda Causeway in Crossroads Village, the restaurant is planned to open in early 2025.

“We’ve been focused on finding the best real estate across Central and South Florida to open Big Chicken and are thrilled to announce our next restaurant location in Melbourne,” said Fred Burgess, principal, co-founder and co-CEO of DMD Ventures. “We’ve certainly felt the excitement building for Big Chicken in Orlando and Doral, where we’ve signed our first two leases.”

Alongside Burgess, the DMD Chicken leadership team includes co-CEO Jack Flechner and Chief Operating Officer Kurt Petterle.

Big Chicken currently has locations open in Las Vegas (Paradise Road and Tropicana Ave.); Los Angeles (Glendale and Valencia); Seattle; Houston; Gilbert, Arizona; and in the Dayton, Ohio region, as well as in metro-New York’s UBS Arena, The Moody Center in Austin, ASU’s Mullett Arena, Palm Springs’ Acrisure Arena, St. Louis’s Busch Stadium, Kansas City International Airport and on three Carnival Cruise ships.

## Entities

- Franchising.com (publication)
- Restaurants (sector)
- unit expansion (topic)
- Florida (location)
- Big Chicken (company)
- Shaquille O'Neal (person)
- Melbourne (location)
- Carnival Cruise (company)
- florida market (topic)
- restaurant leasing (topic)

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Originally reported by Franchising.com (https://www.franchising.com/news/20230725_shaquille_onealowned_big_chicken_inks_lease_for_third_restaurant_in_florida.html). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/bbd14413-a202-43df-a4c1-1768657089cc).